Charlie Rose scores big interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that will air on Monday. According to Charlie Rose:

[Assad] denied that he had anything to do with the attack. He denied that he knew there was a chemical attack, notwithstanding what has been said and notwithstanding the videotape. He said there’s not enough evidence to make a conclusive judgment. He would not say even, even though I read him the lead paragraph of the New York Times today in the story about their chemical weapons supply. And he said I cannot confirm or deny that we do have them. He did however say that if in fact we do have them and I am not going to say yes or no, they are in centralized control and no one else has access to them.

He suggested as he has before that perhaps the rebels had something to do with it, he made some reference to Aleppo. The most important thing he said there has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people and that there is no evidence of that. And if in fact the administration had evidence of that they should show that evidence and make their case. I then obviously repeated the fact that Secretary Kerry is in the process of making the case and that in fact that information is being shown to members of congress as they begin to come back to Washington and consider an authorization for the President to make a military strike.

He said that he did not necessarily know whether there was going to be a military strike. He said that they were obviously as prepared as they could be for a strike.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.