WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. ambassador to Syria said on Wednesday there is no evidence so far to back reports that chemical weapons were used in Syria on Tuesday, but the United States has a large team investigating the issue.

“So far, we have no evidence to substantiate the reports that chemical weapons were used yesterday. But I want to underline that we are looking very carefully at these reports,” Robert Ford, who was recalled from Damascus in February 2012, told a hearing of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A former Defense Department counsel said he is a skeptic when it comes to a proposed “drone court,” but greater government openness about its decision-making on targeted killings of terrorism suspects overseas would help alleviate public suspicions about those operations.

“The problem is that the American public is suspicious of executive power shrouded in secrecy,” Jeh Johnson said in a speech prepared for delivery on Monday at a conference at Fordham Law School in New York.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, who vastly expanded U.S. drone strikes against terrorism suspects overseas under the cloak of secrecy, is now openly seeking to influence global guidelines for their use as China and other countries pursue their own drone programs.

The United States was the first to use unmanned aircraft fitted with missiles to kill militant suspects in the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group representing black law enforcement executives urged the White House not to choose retired official David O’Connor as the new Secret Service director because “nothing will change” in the agency’s culture or treatment of minorities, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, or NOBLE, recommended that President Barack Obama select Deputy Director Alvin T. Smith.