Defense Secretary Hagel: Syria used chemical weapons
The United States Department of Defense says they suspect Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on a “small scale” in that country’s ongoing civil war. - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the claim Thursday while speaking in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, adding that the American intelligence community has determined “with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin." US President Barack Obama said previously that the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be a "red line" that could trigger US reaction if crossed.
Naharnet/AFP: Ban Renews Call for Syria to Allow Chemical Arms Probe
Russia Today: US lacks evidence in accusing Syria of using chemical weapons - Video
The Guardian: US says Syria "may have used" sarin gas in chemical weapons
New York Times: White House: U.S. Intelligence Has 'Varying Degrees of Confidence' That Assad Used Chemical Weapons
Tony Cartalucci: US Unveils Iraq WMD "Curveball-Style" Lies Vs. Syria - As NATO terror front collapses in Syria, US attempts to justify intervention by drumming up familiar WMD lies. The last two weeks have seen a series of victories for the Syrian Army across Syria. It appears that 2 full companies of so-called "Free Syrian Army" fighters have been annihilated near Damascus, while government forces have restored order in parts of Homs and along the previously porous Lebanese-Syrian border. Time has run out for the West, and it appears that they are desperately seeking any excuse to rescue their failing proxy war. When urgent, but otherwise unjustified military intervention is needed, a "humanitarian" pretext is usually invented - as it was in Libya. Failing that, as the West has already clearly done in Syria, an even more tenuous narrative has been resurrected from its well-earned grave.
Bill Van Auken: Washington’s threat to invade Syria - Charges by the White House and US secretaries of state and defense Thursday that Syrian government forces used chemical weapons have brought Washington to the brink of another war in the Middle East. One decade after the Bush administration invoked the infamous pretext of “weapons of mass destruction” to launch a war of aggression against Iraq, the Obama administration is preparing to follow the same route to launch its own war for regime change in Syria. Today, just as a decade ago, these claims are employed purely as a pretext for aggressive war in pursuit of US geo-strategic interests in the Middle East.