More (strong) indications that a military strike is imminent [View all]

[cali]

Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other top aides to President Obama scheduled conference calls for Saturday afternoon with members of the United States Senate, where there was deep skepticism in both parties about the prospect of American involvement in another war in the Middle East, even the limited cruise missile strike under consideration.

The back-to-back calls to the Democratic and Republican conferences were arranged to fulfill Mr. Obama’s promise to consult with Congress as he contemplates military action, but there was no sign that the White House planned to seek a Congressional vote authorizing the use of force. In addition to Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hagel, both former senators, Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, and Susan E. Rice, the president’s national security adviser, will participate.

The calls come just hours after United Nations weapons inspectors left Syria for Lebanon early Saturday morning, in effect clearing the way for a strike. American officials had made clear they would hold off using force until the inspectors departed safely but had no intention of waiting until they had delivered a formal report on the use of chemical weapons, citing their own intelligence conclusions that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack, which killed more than 1,400 people in the eastern suburbs of the capital, Damascus.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/world/middleeast/syria.html?_r=0