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Foreign Policy is reporting this story which I first picked up from RIA Novosti:

Secret State Dept. Cable Says Syria Used Chemical Weapons
15 January 2013
United States diplomats in Turkey conducted a previously undisclosed, intensive investigation into claims that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons, and made what an Obama administration official who reviewed the cable called a "compelling case" that Assad's military forces had used a deadly form of poison gas.

The cable, signed by the U.S. consul general in Istanbul, Scott Frederic Kilner, and sent to State Department headquarters in Washington last week, outlined the results of the consulate's investigation into reports from inside Syria that chemical weapons had been used in the city of Homs on Dec. 23. More...

This article then goes on to provide a great amount of detail about the investigation and the conclusions about what was used "Agent 15, known also by its NATO code BZ, which is a CX-level incapacitating agent that is controlled under schedule 2 of the Chemical Weapons Convention."

"It was a chemical weapon, we are sure of that, because tear gas can't cause the death of five people," said Dr. Nashwan Abu Abdo, a neurologist who spoke with The Cable from an undisclosed location inside of Homs.

This report indicates that Bashar al-Assad was definitely listening to the "fine print" when Barack Obama warned him that "a whole bunch" of chemical weapons was his "red-line" back on 20 August 2012. See: UPDATED: #Obama "green lights" #Assad's slaughter in #Syria. So far, he has only used them in small amounts.

This RIA Novosti report was the first one i saw:

Washington Dismisses Report on Chemical Attack in Syria
07:19 16/01/2013
WASHINGTON, January 15 (RIA Novosti) – The White House downplayed on Tuesday media speculations that chemical weapons had been used by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime against the Syrian rebels.

According to a recent report in the Foreign Policy magazine, a secret American investigation revealed that Assad forces used a poisonous gas against the rebels in Homs on December 23, 2012.

"The reporting we have seen from media sources regarding alleged chemical weapons incidents in Syria has not been consistent with what we believe to be true about the Syrian chemical weapons program," White House National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.

The official reiterated, though, that Assad’s government would be still held responsible for any potential chemical attack against the Syrian opposition forces or failure to ensure security of its stockpile of chemical weapons. More...

I first reported on this chemical attack here at the Daily Kos on the day it happened 23 December 2012:
BREAKING: Chemical weapons use reported in #Syria, Has Obama's red-line has been crossed?

When I did, some of the comments were:

43% of his diaries are "BREAKING" - (6+ / 0-)

does he 'cry wolf!', much? ;-)

by Sharon Wraight on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 10:34:51 AM PST

consistency (3+ / 0-)

is not Clay's strong point. Neither is accountability. I'm still waiting for confirmation on that coup....

by Fire bad tree pretty on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 01:50:41 PM PST

Pro-war hysteria creating diary (2+ / 0-)

Referring to chemical weapons as pre-text for intervention/war. Same old story of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Lots of BS. Is BS HRable?

-8.50, -7.38

by Blue Wind on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 12:56:41 PM PST

Clay doesn't want American boots on the ground... (3+ / 0-)

just their bombs.

by Claudius Bombarnac on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 02:30:37 PM PST

This has been predicted by some, that the terrorist proxy fighters will be supplied with chemical weapons, probably from lIbya, use them and blame it on the Assad regime thereby giving the US/NATO war machine the "red line" they need to launch a Libya style assault.

by BigAlinWashSt on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 10:42:32 AM PST

I think we've seen enough false flags by now (3+ / 0-)

to know that they will continue to be used to paint the Assad "regime" in an evil light; which beyond terror, is their purpose if that wasn't bloody obvious enough by now.
...
by protectspice on Sun Dec 23, 2012 at 11:11:11 AM PST

People are dying on the ground in Syria. We know the number 60,000 now. But this is how a chemical weapons attack looks in Kossack Comment Land.

Here is another report saying Obama has grown soft on the revolution. Of course I disagree, I maintain that he has been more of a friend to Assad than to the Syrian people all along. See, for example Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad

Now has this analysis piece:

Magical realism
Michael Weiss
January 9, 2013
According to Arab diplomatic sources consulted by the London-based Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Russia has successfully exploited US fears of extremist infiltration of the Syrian opposition and so Washington is more committed than ever to ensuring the continuity of the very state institutions responsible for wrecking Syria in the first place: the mukhabarat and the military. The idea of even halfheartedly supporting this Arab revolution is over, whatever State Department posturing to the contrary; the “bartering phase” has thus begun.

There’s a good chance that this claim, or some variation of it, is accurate. In the diplomatic arena, all signs point to the West’s quiet efforts to try and lower the temperature of the Syrian opposition down from revolution to reform and to deprive it of long-promised and longer-needed material assistance. More...

Click here for a list of my other diaries on Syria