Jay Carney led the daily White House briefing. Topics included the “fiscal cliff” and the civil war in Syria. Of recent detection by the intelligence community of Syrian movement of chemical weapons, Mr. Carney said tbe Obama administration had “increased concern” over Syria’s use of chemical weapons and that U.S. officials were “closely monitoring” the situation. Other issues included the “fiscal cliff,” the automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled for January 2013 if Congress does not reach a budget agreement before then, and Middle East peace.