Following statements made by Secretary of State John Kerry, the White House released a government assessment on the Syrian governments use of chemical weapons. The assessment comes as promised by Kerry and White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, both of whom assured the American people that the United States would publicly release an intelligence report concerning the alleged August 21 chemical weapons strike in the suburbs of Syria’s capital city Damascus.

The report, available in full here and below, outlines President Obama’s stance that his administration has “high confidence” that Syria did in fact employ the use of an unidentified nerve agent thought to be Sarin nerve gas. It does, as Kerry warned, leave out a number of sources on the grounds of protection.

Speaking from the White House President Obama attested that no decision will be made today. He and Kerry are currently maintaining that “no boots” will touch down in Syria, meaning there will be no sending in of troops to the war zone though some stance must be taken.

According to Kerry’s address today, here’s what the United States government currently knows:

• “Assad’s regime has the largest chemical weapons program in the Middle East
• The regime has used those weapons multiple times this year
• The regime was specifically determined to rid the Damascus suburbs of the opposition
• The regime’s chemical weapons personnel was on the ground in the area making preparations
• Where the rockets were launched from, and at what time, and where the landed and when
• Rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and went only to opposition contested neighborhoods
• At least 1,429 Syrians were killed in the attack, including 426 children
• For four days the neighborhood was shelled to destroy evidence at a rate 4x higher than it was in previous days”

Kerry, in an attempt to burgeon the United States’s position that it will not be sending in American troops to combat the Syrian oppression, said that we can only achieve “resolve through negotiation. There is no ultimate military solution. It has to be political. We are deeply committed to getting there.”

U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government’s Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013.