Presiden Amerika Syarikat,
Barack Obama (kiri) telah bertemu dengan kakitangan Keselamatan Negara di
Pejabat Oval dalam gambar White House ini diambil pada 8 Mac, 2012 dan
diperolehi pada 13 Jun 2013. (U.S. President Barack Obama (L) meets with
National Security staff in the Oval Office in this White House photograph taken
on March 8, 2012 and obtained on June 13, 2013. (Reuters/Pete Souza – think IN
pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
MaliaJYy - White House: Bukti terhadap
Assad yang tidak ‘Melampaui keraguan munasabah’ tetapi ‘logik test’ white House berkata ia tidak mempunyai bukti “tidak dapat disangkal” bahawa Presiden Syria
Bashar Assad di belakang serangan gas Ogos di pinggir bandar Damsyik, tetapi
bahawa “ujian logik yang kukuh tanpa mengira perisikan” mencadangkan kerajaan
yang bertanggungjawab.
“Kami telah melihat bukti video
hasil dari orang-orang yang serangan,” White House Ketua Turus Dennis McDonough
memberitahu CNN, bercakap mengenai pelbagai klip yang menunjukkan mangsa
serangan sarin yang disyaki di pinggir bandar Damsyik pada 21 Ogos.
“Semua yang membawa kepada
ujian yang biasa-rasa agak kuat tanpa mengira perisikan yang mencadangkan
bahawa rejim yang dijalankan ini. Sekarang kita mempunyai gambar atau adakah
kita mempunyai bukti yang tidak dapat disangkal luar keraguan yang munasabah?
Ini bukan satu mahkamah undang-undang dan kecerdasan tidak berfungsi cara itu, “katanya.
McDonough membuat penampilan
pada terkemuka ‘talk show’ Amerika Syarikat dalam usaha untuk mendapatkan
sokongan untuk tindakan ketenteraan yang dicadangkan terhadap Syria hadapan
undi kongres minggu depan di mana kebanyakan ahli parlimen seolah-olah
bertentangan dengan serangan yang diketuai.
Dalam temu bual dengan NBC,
Ketua Turus menegaskan bahawa “tiada siapa yang ‘rebutting’ perisikan; tiada
siapa yang ragu-ragu perisikan.”
Amerika Syarikat berkata ia
telah dipintas perbualan yang melibatkan pegawai-pegawai Syria di mana mereka
mengambil tanggungjawab untuk serangan itu. Walau bagaimanapun, Washington
tidak membuat perbualan awam.
Pentadbiran Obama juga telah
merujuk kepada satelit dan risikan isyarat, serta komunikasi tentera, sebagai
bukti bahawa rejim telah bersedia untuk menggunakan gas beracun hanya beberapa
hari sebelum serangan yang dikatakan telah berlaku.
Namun pentadbiran telah enggan
untuk membenarkan orang ramai melihat bukti yang didakwa menghubungkan Assad
kepada jenayah itu - walaupun jumlah yang cukup imej satelit telah dibebaskan
lebih awal oleh Amerika Syarikat untuk menunjukkan akibat serangan oleh tentera
rejim Syria.
White House: Evidence against
Assad not ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ but passes ‘common-sense test’ The White
House says it has no “irrefutable” evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad
was behind the August gas attack in a Damascus suburb, but that a “strong
common-sense test irrespective of the intelligence” suggests the government is
responsible.
"We've seen the video
proof of the outcome of those attacks,” White House Chief of Staff Dennis
McDonough told CNN, speaking of the multiple clips which show victims of the
suspected sarin attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21.
“All of that leads to a quite
strong common-sense test irrespective of the intelligence that suggests that
the regime carried this out. Now do we have a picture or do we have irrefutable
beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence? This is not a court of law and intelligence
does not work that way,” he said.
McDonough made appearances on
leading US talk shows in an effort to garner support for proposed military
action against Syria ahead next week’s congressional vote in which most
lawmakers seem to be opposed to a US-led strike.
In an interview with NBC, the
Chief of Staff stressed that“nobody is rebutting the intelligence; nobody
doubts the intelligence.”
The US says it has intercepted
conversations involving Syrian officials during which they take responsibility
for the attack. However, Washington has not made the conversations public.
The Obama administration has
also referred to its satellite and signals intelligence, as well as military
communications, as proof that the regime was preparing to use poisonous gas
just days before the alleged attack took place.
Yet the administration has
refused to let the public see the evidence allegedly connecting Assad to the
crime - even though ample amounts of satellite imagery was released earlier by
the US in order to demonstrate the consequences of the attacks by the Syrian
regime’s military.
Mayat kanak-kanak dibungkus
dalam selubung sebagai pemberontak Syria mendakwa mereka terbunuh dalam
serangan gas beracun oleh tentera pro-kerajaan di timur Ghouta, di pinggir
Damsyik pada 21 Ogos, 2013 (Bodies of children wrapped in shrouds as Syrian rebels
claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in
eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, 2013.(AFP Photo/Shaam
News Network – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Pakar-pakar mempersoalkan bukti Amerika Syarikat
Dengan bukti di tangan,
pakar-pakar yang berjuang untuk bersetuju mengenai apa yang sebenarnya berlaku
dan enggan untuk meletakkan menyalahkan.
Ia adalah sukar untuk
menjelaskan mengapa Assad akan menggunakan senjata kimia ke atas rakyatnya
sendiri ketika tenteranya telah lakukan dengan baik di atas darat - terutama
sejak pemerhati PBB adalah berdekatan pada masa serangan itu - bekas pegawai
tentera British Charles Heyman memberitahu AP .
“Kita tidak boleh mendapatkan
kepala kita di sekitar ini - mengapa mana-mana komander akan bersetuju untuk ‘rocketing’
di pinggir bandar Damsyik dengan senjata kimia hanya keuntungan yang sangat
jangka pendek taktikal untuk apa yang bencana jangka panjang,”katanya. Heyman
suntingan ‘Angkatan Tentera UK, ‘ kajian dwi-tahunan berwibawa angkatan tentera
British.
Jumlah angka kematian yang
dikeluarkan oleh Amerika Syarikat juga telah dipersoalkan. Pentadbiran Obama
berkata 1,429 orang telah mati di 12 lokasi kebanyakannya timur Damsyik. Dan
walaupun nombor yang rapat sepadan dengan angka-angka daripada Gabungan disokong
Barat Kebangsaan Syria, hanya 395 nama-nama mangsa yang dikeluarkan oleh
organisasi atas permintaan.
Balai Cerap Syria yang
berpangkalan di UK untuk Hak Asasi Manusia berkata bahawa ia dikira mangsa dengan
nama dan jumlah semasa adalah pada 502. Organisasi mempersoalkan bilangan Amerika
Syarikat dan meminta pentadbiran untuk mendapatkan maklumat mengenai apa yang
angka kematian yang lebih tinggi adalah berdasarkan.
Pada masa yang sama, akhbar
Bild am Sonntag melaporkan bahawa perisikan Jerman mempunyai bukti bahawa
Bashar Assad mungkin tidak secara peribadi di sebalik serangan kimia. Dia juga
disekat permintaan daripada komander tentera untuk menggunakan senjata kimia,
media outlet Jerman melaporkan, memetik tidak dikenali, sumber keselamatan
negara peringkat tinggi.
Laporan ini adalah berdasarkan
penemuan daripada panggilan telefon dipintas oleh pengawasan German dikerahkan
di luar pantai Syria dan dikendalikan oleh perkhidmatan perisikan BND negara.
Presiden Syria dirinya tidak
disangka-sangka muncul untuk menyatakan kesnya kepada audience (penonton) Amerika
Syarikat dalam satu temu bual untuk CBS, yang dijadual akan disiarkan pada hari
Isnin.
“Tiada bukti yang saya gunakan
senjata kimia terhadap orang-orang saya sendiri,” beliau dilaporkan sebagai
berkata.
Amerika Syarikat telah menolak
komen Assad.
“Ia tidak memeranjatkan kita
bahawa seseorang yang akan membunuh beribu-ribu orangnya sendiri, termasuk
beratus-ratus kanak-kanak dengan gas racun, juga akan dibuat mengenainya,”
Timbalan jurucakap di Majlis Keselamatan Negara, Bernadette Meehan, memberitahu
NBC News.
Setiausaha Negara Amerika
Syarikat, John Kerry juga menolak kenyataan Assad, mengatakan pada hari Ahad
bahawa “bukti yang bercakap untuk dirinya sendiri.” Komen itu dibuat semasa
mesyuarat dengan Presiden Palestin Mahmoud Abbas mengenai 29 Julai semula
rundingan damai Israel- Palestin, Reuters melaporkan.
Experts question US evidence
With the evidence at hand,
experts are struggling to agree on what really happened and are reluctant to
place blame.
It is hard to explain why Assad
would use chemical weapons on his own people at a time when his troops were
doing so well on the ground - especially since UN observers were nearby at the
time of the attack – former British military officer Charles Heyman told AP.
"We can't get our heads
around this - why would any commander agree to rocketing a suburb of Damascus
with chemical weapons for only a very short-term tactical gain for what is a
long-term disaster," he said. Heyman edits ‘The Armed Forces of the UK,’
an authoritative bi-annual review of British forces.
The death toll numbers released
by the US were also questioned. The Obama administration said that 1,429 people
have died in 12 locations mostly east of Damascus. And although that number
closely corresponds with figures from the Western-backed Syrian National
Coalition, only 395 names of victims were released by the organization upon
request.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights said that it counted victims by name and the current total is
at 502. The organization questioned the US numbers and asked the administration
for information regarding what the higher death toll figure is based on.
At the same time, Bild am
Sonntag newspaper reported that German intelligence has evidence that Bashar
Assad may not be personally behind the chemical attack. He even blocked
requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons, the German media
outlet reported, citing unidentified, high-level national security sources.
The report is based on findings
from phone calls intercepted by German surveillance deployed off the Syrian
coast and run by the country’s BND intelligence service.
The Syrian president himself
unexpectedly emerged to state his case to a US audience during an interview to
CBS, which is scheduled to be aired on Monday.
“There has been no evidence
that I used chemical weapons against my own people,” he was reported as saying.
The US has dismissed Assad’s
comments.
"It doesn't surprise us
that someone who would kill thousands of his own people, including hundreds of
children with poison gas, would also lie about it," deputy spokesperson at
the National Security Council, Bernadette Meehan, told NBC News.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry also dismissed Assad’s statements, saying on Sunday that "the
evidence speaks for itself.” The comment was made during a meeting with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas regarding the July 29 resumption of
Israel-Palestine peace talks, Reuters reported.
Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin. (AFP Photo/Alexander Nemenov – think IN pictures @1WORLDCommunity)
Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin,
sekutu Assad yang paling berkuasa, yang menggunakan sidang kemuncak G20 di St
Petersburg untuk menuduh pemberontak menganjurkan serangan.
Putin menegaskan bahawa
menetapkan duluan tindakan ketenteraan di luar satu resolusi Majlis Keselamatan
PBB akan bermakna bahawa negara-negara di DUNIA yang lebih kecil tidak lagi
boleh berasa selamat terhadap kepentingan orang-orang yang lebih kuat.
Pada akhir sidang kemuncak itu,
hanya 12 daripada negara-negara G20 menyokong kedudukan Washington mengenai
campur tangan tentera.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Assad’s most powerful ally, used the G20 summit in St. Petersburg to
accuse the rebels of staging the attack.
Putin stressed that setting
precedents of military action outside a UN Security Council resolution would
mean that the world’s smaller countries can no longer feel safe against the
interests of more powerful ones.
At the end of the summit,
only 12 of the G20 countries supported Washington’s position regarding a
military intervention.