(CNN) -- Men sprawled on a tile floor, shirtless and convulsing. Children, too, seemingly unable to control their shaking and flailing. Panic and screams in the background.
These are some of the hard-to-stomach images that the Obama administration has shown a select group of senators in closed-door briefings to make the case that a limited military attack on Syria is justified.
CNN was the first to obtain the 13 different videos seen by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee that depict the gruesome scene of an chemical weapons attack in Syria on August 21. The administration told senators that their authenticity was verified by the intelligence community.
The attack, allegedly carried out by Syrian forces under President Bashar al-Assad, has touched off the most critical foreign policy question since the uprising began in 2011: Is a military response merited?
The videos capture a moment of panic, as those who are standing try to feed water to those who appear incapacitated. Prayers are repeated.
Many of the videos were previously posted on YouTube, but this collection of footage is significant because the intelligence community has given it a stamp of authenticity.
The footage could be vital in the administration's quest to convince Congress and the American public that the U.S. must launch punitive strikes against Syria, former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson said.
"That video will sensitize the American people that this isn't just an intervention, that this is a military strike to stop that type of atrocity," the former congressman told CNN.
While the videos are hard to watch, they do not prove who is responsible for the attack, nor do they provide an answer for whether military strikes are the correct course.
A convoy of inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prepares to cross into Syria at the Lebanese border crossing point of Masnaa on Tuesday, October 1. Inspectors from the Netherlands-based watchdog arrived in Syria to begin their complex mission of finding, dismantling and ultimately destroying Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.
Photos: Suspected chemical attack in Syria
President Barack Obama favors limited intervention, and his administration has been working nonstop to convince allies in Europe and lawmakers back home for support.
Hours after CNN obtained and broadcast portions of the videos, the Senate Intelligence Committee posted them on its website for public viewing.
An aide to Dianne Feinstein, the committee's chairwoman, said it's expected the video will be played Monday at a briefing for all House members. Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and National Security Adviser Susan Rice will be among those representing the Obama administration at that hearing and one Wednesday for senators, according to the White House.
Based on her attendance at closed-door briefings, Feinstein has decided to vote in favor of the measure to intervene militarily in Syria, defying the wishes of many of her constituents.
"What's coming in is overwhelmingly negative," Feinstein said Thursday about the feedback from voters. "There's no question about that. But you see, then they don't know what I know."
The availability of these videos obtained by CNN means that anyone can see at least part of the administration's evidence and come to their own conclusions.
One video shows a room with enough children to fill a classroom, but they are arranged on the ground, the bright colors of their shirts -- red, yellow, green, purple, blue -- contrasting the paleness of their dead bodies. There were dead adults placed in this space, too. The video captures at least six rows of adults with no less than four bodies each.
Sheets and blankets cover some of the bodies.
In another video, a man uses a manual resuscitator on a toddler, who appears motionless. Another man comes with a bottled water and the men together try to rinse the small boy's face. It looks like the boy's chest moves, but his arms remain pinned to his side like a soldier at attention.
CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of the videos. But officials have a number of reasons as to why they believe they are authentic.
The videos were shot from multiple angles, providing overlap, not just in what could be seen but what could be heard, the administration officials told the senators.
CNN's Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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The U.N. Security Council votes to approve a resolution that will require Syria to give up its chemical weapons during a meeting on Friday, September 27. The vote came after assertions by the United States and other Western nations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in an August 21 attack outside Damascus that U.S. officials estimate killed 1,400 people.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world community was imposing a binding obligation on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to get rid of its chemical weapons stockpile.
A man mourns over the bodies of those killed in a suspected chemical weapon attack in a suburb of Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday, August 21. Syrian rebels said poisonous gas rained down from rockets, but authorities have denied the allegations that they used chemical weapons and accused the opposition of staging the attacks. U.S. officials, however, said there were "strong indications" that there was a chemical weapons attack by the government.
People attend to the victims of the attack on August 21 in Damascus. British intelligence said at least 350 people died, while rebel leaders have put the death toll at more than 1,300.
Constricted pupils was listed as a symptom in victims of the alleged attack on August 21.
Victims of the attack are laid in the back of a truck in the Hamoria area of Damascus on August 21.
A young survivor takes shelter in a mosque in the Duma neighborhood of Damascus on August 21.
Victims are buried in a suburb of Damascus on August 21.
People search for the dead to collect samples to check for chemical weapon use in the Zamalka area of Syria on Thursday, August 22.
A group of young Salafists chants and waves black flags during a protest against the Egyptian and Syria regimes in the southern Gaza Strip on August 22.
A young woman holds a Syrian revolution flag and a candle during a protest of President Bashar al-Assad in front of the U.N. headquarters in Gaza City on Friday, August 23. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon intends to conduct a "thorough, impartial and prompt investigation" into the alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.
Pigeons' bodies litter the ground in the Damascus suburbs of Arbeen on Saturday, August 24.
Syrian soldiers are deployed in the Jobar neighborhood of Damascus on August 24.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks with the Russian newspaper Izvestia in Damascus, Syria, on Monday, August 26. He told the newspaper that Western accusations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons are an insult to common sense.
Representatives of Arab countries discuss Syria at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, on Tuesday, August 27. President al-Assad vowed to defend his country against any outside attack. "The threats of launching an aggression against Syria will increase its commitments," and "Syria will defend itself against any aggression," he said, according to Syrian state TV.
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