U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry argues the case for U.S. intervention
in Syria, saying that any strike would be a "limited, targeted effort"
to degrade the regime's chemical weapons.
FULL STORY
- Senate haring: 5 things to know
- Kerry: Syria is 'humanity's red line'
- CNN poll: U.S. allies wary of bombing
- Israel tests missile in Mediterranean
- Latest developments | What next?
September 4, 2013 -- Updated 0058 GMT (0858 HKT)
A Free Syrian Army fighter takes
cover as he watches forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad near
Hanano barracks in Aleppo on Tuesday, September 3. The United States,
along with NATO and several other countries, blames al-Assad's regime
for a chemical weapons attack that's believed to have killed more than
1,000 people -- including more than 400 children. Tensions in Syria
began to flare in March 2011 and escalated into an ongoing civil war.
Click through to view the most compelling images taken since the start
of the conflict:
HIDE CAPTION
Syrian civil war in photos
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: A revised bill limits the authorization to 60 days, sources say
- Kerry, Hagel face tough questions on Syria
- Kerry says Syria intelligence has been "scrubbed and re-scrubbed"
- U.N. chief urges countries to "avoid further militarization of the conflict" in Syria
Secretary of State John
Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee as the Obama administration lobbied Congress
to authorize military action against Syria. From the outset, Kerry
addressed the shadow of claims offered in the buildup to the 2003
invasion of Iraq, reassuring committee members that the intelligence
linking Syrian government forces to the August 21 attack was solid.
"We are especially
sensitive, Chuck and I, to never again asking any member of Congress to
take a vote on faulty intelligence," said Kerry, who like Hagel, voted
as a senator to authorize the Iraq invasion. "And that is why our
intelligence community has scrubbed and re-scrubbed the evidence. We
have declassified unprecedented amounts of information, and we ask the
American people and the rest of the world to judge that information."
Kerry said that
intelligence includes the trajectory of the rockets used to deliver the
gas, Syrian military instructions to troops to don gas masks and
concerns by top Syrian officials that U.N. inspectors would discover
evidence of the attack.
"Not one rocket landed in
regime-controlled territory -- not one," Kerry said. "All of them
landed in opposition-controlled or contested territory."
Kerry said Obama isn't
asking the United States to go to war -- just "to degrade and deter" the
capacity of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to launch another chemical
attack. But he and Hagel faced tough questions from senators concerned
that giving the administration the green light to attack Syria would
draw the United States into that country's civil war, now 2 1/2 years
old.
"Americans are
understandably weary after the fiasco in Iraq and over a decade of war,"
said Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico. "How can this administration make a
guarantee that our military actions will be limited? How can we
guarantee that one surgical strike will have any impact other than to
tighten the vise grip that Assad has on his power, or allow rebels
allied with al Qaeda to gain a stronger foothold in Syria?"
Kerry said the
administration has no intention of sending American ground troops to
Syria "with respect to the civil war." But he opposed any effort to put a
ban on deploying ground forces into a congressional resolution
authorizing military action, leaving open the possibility that U.S.
troops may have to seize chemical weapons "in the event Syria imploded"
or if extremist groups were poised to obtain them.
Foreign Relations
Chairman Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey, urged Congress to support the
proposed strikes. But he said he and the committee's ranking Republican,
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, would rewrite the administration's draft
resolution to address some of the concerns expressed during the hearing.
Later, he released a statement saying he and Corker successfully negotiated the text of that bill.
"Together we have
pursued a course of action that gives the President the authority he
needs to deploy force in response to the Assad regime's criminal use of
chemical weapons against the Syrian people, while assuring that the
authorization is narrow and focused, limited in time, and assures that
the Armed Forces of the United States will not be deployed for combat
operations in Syria," he said.
"With this agreement, we are one step closer to granting the President the authority to act in our national security interest."
According to multiple
Democratic sources, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will take up
the revised authorization bill Wednesday. The bill limits the
authorization to 60 days, with an option for an additional 30-day
deadline, and makes clear there would be no boots on the ground, the
sources said.
Hagel: Risks of action, risks of inaction
Hagel said any military
action "would be limited in duration and scope," and won't be aimed at
settling the Syrian civil war by force. He testified that the
administration's proposal would not authorize strikes outside Syria,
against any other government or against non-state groups.
"There are always risks
in taking action, but there are also risks with inaction," he said. "The
Assad regime, under increasing pressure by the Syrian opposition, could
feel empowered to carry out even more devastating chemical weapons
attacks. Chemical weapons make no distinction between combatants and
innocent civilians, and inflict the worst kind of indiscriminate
suffering, as we have recently seen."
And Kerry warned that a
failure to act would undermine American alliances, encourage other U.S.
adversaries like Iran and North Korea and encourage al-Assad to use
chemical weapons again.
U.S. officials have said
the August 21 attack left more than 1,400 dead, and Obama said Tuesday
that more than 400 of those were children. Syria denies government
troops were behind the attack, arguing that they were the victims of a
rebel chemical attack.
Syria's U.N. ambassador,
Bashar al-Jaafari, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that the allegations
of poison gas use by his government "are false and unfounded." Al-Assad
told the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday that an attack on his
country risks a regional war.
Administration officials
and Obama himself have said the president has the authority to conduct
military strikes even without congressional approval. But asked what the
administration would do if Congress refused to authorize military
action, Kerry said, "We're not contemplating that, because it's too
dire."
The session was
interrupted early on by a member of the anti-war group Code Pink, who
shouted "The American people do not want this" as she was dragged out of
the room by police.
Kerry first became
famous decades ago as a former Navy officer testifying against the war
in Vietnam in front of the same committee. He responded to the protest
by saying that "Congress will represent the American people, and I think
we all can respect those who have a different point of view."
Weapons inspectors from
the United Nations are analyzing samples taken from the scene last week,
but their results aren't expected to assign blame. The United States
and its allies say the rebels have no capability to carry out a
large-scale chemical weapons attack, however.
House leaders line up behind Obama
Earlier Tuesday, the
leaders of both parties in the House of Representatives emerged from a
White House meeting earlier Tuesday to support Obama's call for American
strikes.
House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters the use of poison gas was "a barbarous
act" to which only the United States is capable of responding. House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, added that Washington must
respond to actions "outside the circle of civilized human behavior."
But in a written
statement later, Boehner said it is up to Obama "to make his case to the
American people and their elected representatives" -- including
securing support from individual members.
"All votes authorizing
the use of military force are conscience votes for members, and passage
will require direct, continuous engagement from the White House," the
speaker said.
No vote is scheduled
before Congress returns from its summer recess on Monday. Kerry defended
the delay to seek congressional authorization, saying the move gives
the United States time to make its case while adding pressure on
al-Assad.
"This is working," Kerry
said. "There are defections taking place. There's great uncertainty in
Syria. We are building support, a greater understanding, and I would far
rather be playing our hand than his at this point in time."
Most of the focus of
administration lobbying has been on the House. In the Senate, a
Democratic source familiar with Majority Leader Harry Reid's thinking
told CNN that Reid is confident any authorization measure will pass his
chamber. The source said it is likely 60 votes will be needed to
overcome a filibuster, and Reid thinks the votes are there.
U.N. chief calls for end to Security Council 'stalemate'
The United Nations has
said more than 100,000 people -- including many civilians -- have been
killed in Syria since a popular uprising spiraled into a civil war in
2011. Syrian opposition activists reported another 107 dead on Monday,
mostly in Damascus and its suburbs.
New U.N. figures Tuesday point to the staggering impact the war has had on the nation.
The number of Syrians
who have fled their war-ravaged country has risen above 2 million, the
U.N. refugee agency reported, an increase of nearly 1.8 million people
over the past 12 months.
But at the United
Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Security Council members to
await test results on the samples collected by U.N. inspectors.
"We should avoid further
militarization of the conflict and revitalize the search for a
political settlement," Ban said. "I take note of the argument for action
to prevent further uses of chemical weapons. At the same time, we must
consider the impact of any punitive measure on efforts to prevent
further bloodshed and facilitate a political resolution of the conflict.
The turmoil in Syria and across the region serves nobody."
He urged member states
to work through the Security Council, where Syrian allies Russia and
China are expected to block any call for military action.
"The Security Council
has a duty to move beyond the current stalemate and show leadership,"
Ban said. "This is a larger issue than the conflict in Syria. This is
about our collective responsibility to humankind."
And al-Jaafari, the Syrian envoy, told CNN that all Syrians will be victims "of any escalation of the situation."
"We don't need wars. We need peaceful settlement of conflicts according to the charter of the United Nations," he said.
During Tuesday's
hearing, Udall questioned whether the United States should be doing more
to pressure Russia and China rather than going around the Security
Council. Kerry said the Russians refused to sign off even on a
resolution condemning a chemical attack that didn't assign blame.
"That doesn't mean we should turn our backs and say there's nothing we can do," Udall said.
But Kerry responded that
if the Security Council is being blocked, "That doesn't mean we should
turn our backs and say there's nothing we can do."
U.N. inspectors await test results
U.N. weapons inspectors
left Syria on Saturday with samples that will help determine whether
chemical weapons were used in the August 21 attack. Those samples will
all be at laboratories by Wednesday and will be tested "strictly
according to internationally recognized standards," Ban told reporters
at U.N. headquarters.
Those tests could take
up to three weeks -- and even then, those tests will only determine
whether a gas attack took place, not who was behind it.
"If confirmed, the use
of chemical weapons by anyone, under any circumstances, will be a
serious violation of international law and an outrageous war crime," Ban
said.
Kerry said Sunday that
hat blood and hair samples taken from medics at the scene of the alleged
attack point to the nerve agent sarin. The samples reached U.S. hands
"through an appropriate chain of custody, from east Damascus, from first
responders," he said.
But David Kay, the
former head of the U.S. weapons hunt in Iraq, said the "shadowing
effect" of that war makes the U.N. inspectors' jobs more difficult.
"Remember, these results
will be analyzed and re-analyzed around the world," said Kay, the
former U.N. weapons inspector who ultimately determined Iraq had
dismantled the chemical, nuclear and biological weapons programs used to
justify the American-led invasion in 2003. "So as an inspector, you
want to get it right rather than necessarily get it quick"
Kay told CNN the
question has been settled for the Obama administration "and for many
Americans, including myself. But that's not enough, because of Iraq."
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