U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government 's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21 , 2013 was a report published by the United States Government on the Ghouta chemical attack on August 21 , 2013 . The 4-page summary document and map was publicly released on August 30 . A 12-page classified summary was made available for members of Congress . The report declared that " the United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21 , 2013 . We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack . " Intelligence reports are normally released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and labelled an " Intelligence Assessment . " This report was described as a " Government Assessment " and the unclassified version was released by the White House Press Secretary . One former intelligence official told Inter Press Service that the description as a " Government " rather than an " Intelligence " assessment " means that this is not an intelligence community document " ; another said that the White House had apparently " decided on a position and cherry-picked the intelligence to fit it " . A 29 August article from the Associated Press describes an unreleased report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that outlined the evidence against Syria that included " a few key caveats — including acknowledging that the U.S. intelligence community no longer has the certainty it did six months ago of where the regime 's chemical weapons are stored , nor does it have proof Assad ordered chemical weapons use . " A major element of the evidence , as reported by news media prior to the report 's publication , was an intercepted telephone call between a Syrian Ministry of Defence official and a chemical weapons unit commander in which the former demanded answers for the attacks . According to some reports , this phone intercept was provided to the U.S. by Israeli Intelligence Corps Unit 8200
Ghouta chemical attack
Ghouta chemical attack
U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013