Some intercepted communications by German intelligence shows that President Assad did not personally order the chemical attack that killed 1500 people, and that he has refused to grant permission to his area commanders to use gas over the last few months. Guardian: The intelligence findings were based on phone calls intercepted by a German surveillance ship operated by the BND, the German intelligence service, and deployed off the Syrian coast, Bild am Sonntag said. The intercepted communications suggested Assad, who is accused of war crimes by the west, including foreign secretary William Hague, was not himself involved in last month's attack or in other instances when government forces have allegedly used chemical weapons. Assad sought to exonerate himself from the August attack in which hundreds died. "There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people," he said in an interview with CBS. But the intercepts tended to add weight to the claims of...(Read Full Post)