New intelligence is enough to suggest that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is considering using chemical weapons in the country's conflict, which seriously concerns the United States, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday. "Without commenting on the specific intelligence that we have with regards to these chemical weapons, I think there is no question that we remain very concerned, very concerned that as the opposition advances, in particular on Damascus, that the regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons," Panetta told reporters during a news conference at the Pentagon. "There will be consequences if the Assad regime makes a terrible mistake by using these chemical weapons on their own people. I'm not going to speculate or comment on what those potential consequences would be, but I think it's fair enough to say that their use of those weapons would cross a red line for us," Panetta said.
