President Barack Obama forcefully defended his response to Syria's civil war, denying his administration had been "bystanders" while President Bashar al-Assad massacres his people. He also warned that the U.S. cannot "rush to judgment" regarding the apparent use of chemical weapons against forces seeking the strongman's ouster while suggesting that confirmation might trigger an escalation of the U.S. role in the conflict.
"We don?t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them, we don?t have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened," Obama told reporters during a hastily announced question-and-answer session in the White House briefing room. "I?ve got to make sure I?ve got the facts."
"If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence? confirming the U.S. intelligence community's preliminary finding that Assad likely used the deadly nerve agent sarin, then America may find it hard to rally support from the international community and even some partners in the region who support Assad's ouster. So "it?s important for us to do this in a prudent way," Obama said.
But the president repeated that the use of chemical weapons would be a game-changer "because what that portends is potentially even more devastating attacks on civilians, and it raises the strong possibility that those chemical weapons can fall into the wrong hands,."
"By game changer I mean that we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us," said Obama, who has sent aid to Syria's opposition and neighboring countries like Turkey and Jordan but thus far resisted calls to arm the rebels or attack Assad's forces directly.
Obama said there is "a spectrum of options" that are "on the shelf right now" but might be used because using chemical weapons would represent "an escalation, in our view, of the threat."
Obama laughed off a question about whether the defeat of a bipartisan bill to enhance background checks of would-be gun buyers and other legislative struggles meant he lacked the political ?juice? to advance his second-term agenda.
?If you put it that way,? the president said with a chuckle, ?maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly.?
Obama said he was ?confident? that bipartisan efforts to overhaul America?s immigration policy would result in a bill that passes the Senate and House and ?gets on my desk.?
But he had harsh words for the ?dysfunctional? Congress and critics who suggest that his job is to get lawmakers to ?behave.?
?That?s their job,? he said sternly.
Obama denied claims by some Republicans that the Boston Marathon bombings indicated an intelligence failure. He said investigators had worked in ?exemplary? fashion to track down the perpetrators of the bombing and to determine what provoked two Russian-born brothers, Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, to detonate the two devices that killed 3 and injured hundreds.
Obama said the FBI had worked in concert with Russian officials to identify and question Tamerlan Tsarnaev but had determined nothing had indicted he would carry out an attack. He said US and Russian officials were still cooperating in the investigation.
Obama said Tamerlan Tsarnaev?s apparent embrace of radical Islam indicated a growing concern about ?self-radicalized individuals? living in the United States and unconnected to any terror networks.
?Was there something that happened that triggered radicalization?? Obama asked. ?Are there additional things that could have been done in the interim?"
Obama said DNI James Clapper was reviewing what happened to see if there were additional protocols to put in place to detect a potential attack.
And the president vowed to revisit one of the most high-profile promises from his history-making 2008 campaign: Closing the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility.
"I'm going to go back at this," he said with evident passion. "It needs to be closed.
"It's critical for us to understand that Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe," it's "expensive," it's "inefficient," it "hurts us in terms of our international standing," and it's "a recruitment tool for extremists," Obama said in his most forceful remarks on the issue in years. "I'm going to re-engage with Congress to try to make the case that this is not something that's in the best interests of the American people."
Obama said American could not be in the business of holding roughly 100 detainees in a "no man's land in perpetuity" without trying them. "That is contrary to who we are." But he acknowledged that "it's a hard case to make" to the public.
Asked whether his administration would continue to force-feed hunger-strikers at the facility, Obama replied: "I don't want these individuals to die."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-hold-press-conference-10-15-m-125455500.html
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