Thread: US closes Syrian embassy as diplomacy collapses

by BRADLEY KLAPPER and ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY | Associated Press – 1 hr 30 mins ago

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. closed its Syrian embassy and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus Monday in a dramatic new Western push to get President Bashar Assad to leave power as diplomatic efforts to resolve one of the deadliest conflicts of the Arab Spring collapsed.

The moves by the U.S. and Britain were a clear message that Western powers no longer see the point of engaging with Assad as they turn their attention to bolstering Syria's disparate and largely disorganized opposition to form a credible alternative to the current government.

"This is a doomed regime as well as a murdering regime," British Foreign Secretary William Hague told lawmakers as he recalled his country's ambassador from Syria for consultations on the escalating violence in the country.

"There is no way it can recover its credibility internationally," Hague said.

President Barack Obama said the Syrian leader's departure is only a matter of time, even as the Damascus regime intensified its assault on a revolt that has raged for nearly 11 months.

"The deteriorating security situation that led to the suspension of our diplomatic operations makes clear once more the dangerous path Assad has chosen and the regime's inability to fully control Syria," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

Robert Ford, the American ambassador, and 17 other U.S. officials left Syria and were expected to travel back to the United States. Ford informed Syrian authorities of the decision to leave earlier in the day, State Department officials said.

Even as the U.S. stepped up pressure on Assad to quit, Obama said a negotiated solution in Syria is possible and it should not be resolved by foreign military intervention.

There are fears that international intervention, akin to the NATO intervention that helped topple Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, could make the already combustible conflict in Syria even worse.

Syria is a highly unpredictable country, in part because of its web of allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah and close ally Iran.

The country also has multiple sectarian divisions, which the uprising has laid bare. Most of Syria's 22 million people are Sunni Muslim, but Assad and the ruling elite belong to the minority Alawite sect — something that has bred seething resentments.

The most serious violence Monday was reported in Homs, a city so battered that some opposition members have started calling it "the capital of the Syrian revolution." Several neighborhoods in the city, such as Baba Amr, are under the control of rebels.

Using tanks and machine guns, regime forces shelled a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas, killing a reported 40 people on the third day of a relentless assault on Homs, activists said. More than a dozen others were reported killed elsewhere.

Activists also reported a military offensive using tanks and armored vehicles in the mountain town of Zabadani, west of the capital Damascus.

The Homs offensive began Saturday, the same day Syria's allies in Russia and China vetoed a Western- and Arab-backed resolution aimed at trying to end the crackdown on dissent. That day, military forces killed up to 200 people in Homs — the highest death toll reported for a single day in the uprising — according to several activist groups.

There was no way to independently confirm the toll, and the Syrian regime denied it. The government says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform the authoritarian regime.

Syria has blocked access to trouble spots in the country and prevented independent reporting, making it nearly impossible to verify accounts from either side as the conflict spirals out of control and turns increasingly bloody.

The violence has reinforced opposition fears that Assad will unleash even greater firepower to crush dissent now that protection from China and Russia against any U.N.-sanctioned action appears assured.

After the U.N. veto, the commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army, Col. Riad al-Asaad, said "there is no other road" except military action to topple Assad.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice says China and Russia are running the risk of suffering the same sort of international isolation as Assad because of their veto.

Moscow and Beijing "will come to regret" their votes, Rice told "CBS This Morning."

With diplomacy at an impasse, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite and rally against Assad's regime, previewing the possible formation of a group of like-minded nations to coordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition. Speaking in Bulgaria, she said the world had a duty to halt the violence and see Assad out of power. She called the U.N. setback a "travesty."

The contact group is likely to be similar, but not identical, to the one established last year for Libya, which oversaw the international help for Gadhafi's opponents. It also coordinated NATO military operations to protect Libyan civilians, something that is not envisioned in Syria.

As part of what was clearly a concerted Western effort, the Italian Foreign Ministry also said it summoned Syria's ambassador in Rome to express "the strongest condemnation and the indignation of the Italian government over the unacceptable acts of violence perpetrated by the regime of Damascus against the civilian population."

Already, more than 5,400 people have been killed since the uprising began in March, the U.N. said in January. Hundreds more are believe to have been killed since then, but the U.N. says the chaos in the country has made it impossible to cross-check the figures.

Syria has seen one of the bloodiest crackdowns since the wave of Arab uprisings began more than a year ago. Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds. Libya's toll is unknown and likely higher than Syria's, but the conflict differed there: Early on it became an outright civil war between two armed sides.

Syria, in contrast, has developed into a murderous grind — although many fear it is swiftly developing into a civil war. Though internationally isolated, Assad appears to have a firm grip on power with the loyalty of most of the armed forces, which in the past months have moved from city to city to put down uprisings.

In each place, however, protests have resumed and now army defectors and others are taking up arms to fight back, adding to the bloodshed.

The Obama administration has long called on Assad to leave power, and officials insist his regime's demise is inevitable.

But just over a year ago, the administration had sought to engage Damascus and sent Ford to the country in the hopes of prying away Iran's main ally in the Arab world and gaining a more willing partner in American efforts to forge stability in Lebanon and peace among Israel and its Arab neighbors. Syria had gone years without an American ambassador after the Bush administration broke ties over Syria's alleged role in the 2005 assassination of politician Rafik Hariri in neighboring Lebanon, and it remains on a U.S. "state sponsor of terrorism" list.

Assad largely shrugged off U.S. attempts to pull his nation away from its alliances with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. And as protests escalated in Syria, Ford took on an increasingly high-profile role defending the rights of Syrian protesters. Threats led the U.S. to pull him out of the country in October, but he returned in December to what officials described as an important job monitoring abuses and developments on the ground.

On Monday, Obama defended his administration's actions during the 11-month uprising against Assad's regime. "We have been relentless in sending a message that it is time for Assad to go," Obama said during an interview with NBC. "This is not going to be a matter of if, it's going to be a matter of when."

http://news.yahoo.com/us-closes-syri...182725609.html

Russia pushes Syria reforms as bloodshed mounts
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY | Associated Press – 5 hrs ago

BEIRUT (AP) — Days after blocking a U.S.-backed peace plan at the U.N., senior Russian officials pushed for reforms Tuesday during an emergency meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, promoting a settlement to end the uprising without removing him from power. Thousands of flag-waving government supporters cheered the Russians in the Syrian capital of Damascus, while to the north, Assad's forces pounded the opposition city of Homs — underscoring the sharp divisions propelling the country toward civil war. The violence has led to the most severe international isolation in more than four decades of Assad family rule, with country after country calling home their envoys.

France, Italy, Spain and Belgium pulled their ambassadors from Damascus, as did six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia. Germany, whose envoy left the country this month, said he would not be replaced. The moves came a day after the U.S. closed its embassy in Syria and Britain recalled its ambassador.

Turkey, once a strong Assad supporter and now one of his most vocal critics, added its voice to the international condemnation, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying his country cannot remain silent about massacres in Syria. He said Turkey would "launch a new initiative with countries that stand by the Syrian people instead of the regime." His comments reflect a growing movement by the U.S., Europe and countries in the region to organize a coalition of nations to back Syria's opposition, though what kind of support remains unclear. Over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite and rally against Assad's regime.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration suggested it might provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, but did not specify how or to whom.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov flew into Damascus on Tuesday, accompanied by his foreign security chief, to try to boost a plan that would keep Assad in power, even though many prominent members of the opposition reject that entirely. "It's clear that efforts to stop the violence should be accompanied by the beginning of dialogue among the political forces," Lavrov said, according to the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass. "Today we received confirmation of the readiness of the president of Syria for this work."

The visit was also a sign that Moscow wanted to get a firsthand assessment of the situation on the ground in Syria — and the raucous welcome the diplomats received from thousands of regime supporters appeared aimed at showing that Assadas grip is firm, at least in Damascus. Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times, and Moscow remains a major arms supplier to Damascus even as Assad unleashes his forces to crush not only peaceful protesters, but army defectors who are fighting the regime.

The U.N. estimates the government crackdown has killed more than 5,400 people since March, making Syria's conflict one of the deadliest of the Arab Spring. Hundreds more are believed to have died since the U.N. released that figure in January, but the chaos in the country has made it impossible for the world body to update its figures.

Tuesday's visit by Lavrov and intelligence chief Mikhail Fradkov was evidence that Russia does not want to be seen as giving Assad a free hand to crush his opponents in the wake of Saturday's veto at the U.N. Security Council.

Both Russia and China blocked a Western- and Arab-backed resolution supporting calls for Assad to hand over some powers as a way to defuse the 11-month-old crisis.

Russia has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change. Russia and China also used their veto powers in October to block an attempt to condemn the violence in Syria.

On Tuesday, Moscow delivered its own message to Syria, calling on all sides to hold a meaningful dialogue. "Necessary reforms must be implemented in order to address legitimate demands of the people striving for a better life," Lavrov told Assad, according to ITAR-Tass."

Assad replied that Syria is determined to hold a national dialogue with the opposition and independent figures, saying his government was "ready to cooperate with any effort that boosts stability in Syria," according to the Syrian state news agency SANA.

Repeated efforts by the Arab League and Russia to broker talks have been rejected by the Syrian opposition, which refuses any negotiations while the crackdown continues. The opposition has also said Assad's proposed reforms, including a new constitution and eventual multiparty elections, are aimed at keeping his hold on power.

In Tuesday's talks, Assad told Lavrov that Russia's position has played "a key role in saving our motherland," according to ITAR-Tass.

As Lavrov's convoy snaked its way along Damascus' Mazzeh Boulevard, it was greeted by a sea of Assad supporters cheering the vetoes at the U.N. "Thank you Russia and China," read one banner that had photos of Assad and the Russian president. Many stood in the rain carrying Syrian flags as well as the red, blue and white Russian banner. "I am here to thank Russia for its stand in the face of the world conspiracy against Syria," said Manya Abbad, 45. "I wish the Arabs adopted similar stances."

The Assad regime says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilize the country are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform the authoritarian regime. But in the flashpoints of the conflict, witnesses, residents and human rights workers say Assad's forces are shelling and firing indiscriminately. On Tuesday, the troops renewed their assault on one of the main centers of the opposition, the city of Homs, with activists saying tanks were closing in on a restive neighborhood.

Despite the assault, members of the rebel Free Syrian Army pledged to protect the besieged Baba Amr neighborhood. "We are just here to respond and defend the local residents from Assad's army snipers," said one fighter, according to Associated Press television footage.

Shielded in the corridors of a deserted building once occupied by Assad's forces, the rebels moved carefully from one position to another overlooking suspected sniper hide outs.

At a makeshift medical clinic, the dead were wrapped in white sheets and piled on a pickup truck outside. Doctors appeared overwhelmed by the number of wounded and the severity of their injuries. "Can someone help, please!" wailed a man kneeling by a wounded relative on the floor, "Someone come and see him!"

Activists said at least 15 people were killed in violence around the country Tuesday. Homs was the site of the deadliest assault of the uprising on Saturday, when activists reported more than 200 people were killed in an overnight bombardment hours before the U.N. vote. The government denied the deaths. Syria has blocked access to trouble spots and prevented most independent reporting, making it nearly impossible to verify accounts from either side.

In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was not considering arming opposition groups in Syria, despite calls from some U.S. lawmakers to consider such an option. Carney said current deliberations inside the administration were focused on how the U.S. could provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and ratchet up pressure on the Syrian government.

U.S. senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman urged the U.S. to explore the prospect of arming opposition forces. "It's an option that now should be on the table," McCain said.

McCain conceded the situation in Syria was more complicated than in Libya, where opponents of Moammar Gadhafi quickly gained control of an eastern city, but he insisted it was necessary. "I feel very strongly that what's happening in Syria is exactly what we got into Libya to stop Gadhafi from doing," said Lieberman. "The question is what do you do. One of the things is giving support to the Syrian Free Army."

http://news.yahoo.com/russia-pushes-...205109547.html

..West offers words, only, as Syria killing rages
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Angus MacSwan | Reuters – 5 hrs ago..

..AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government artillery barrages killed dozens of civilians in Homs on Thursday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad, bolstered by Russian support, ignored appeals from world leaders to halt the carnage.

The United Nations secretary-general condemned the "appalling brutality" of the operation to stamp out the revolt against Assad, and Turkey's ambassador to the European Union warned of a slide into civil war that could inflame the region.

Diplomats from Western and Arab powers, lining up meetings that could mean some decisions soon, condemned Assad in strong language. But having ruled out military intervention, they were struggling to find a way to convince him to step down.

Syria's powerful ally Russia, meanwhile, said no one should interfere in the country's affairs.

In Homs, witnesses said makeshift hospitals were overflowing in besieged opposition areas with the dead and wounded from nearly a week of government bombardments and sniper fire.

Medical supplies and food were running out and, in the streets, some of the wounded had bled to death as it was too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group in Homs, put the death toll on Thursday alone as high as 110 by nightfall, though it remains impossible to verify such accounts:

"This number includes three families whose bodies were dug up from under the rubble of their homes, bodies brought to field hospitals and people who died their from their wounds today," the group said in a statement sent to Reuters.

A Syrian doctor, struggling to treat the wounded at a field clinic in a mosque, delivered an emotional plea via YouTube video. Standing next to a bloody body on a table, the man, named only as Mohammed, said to the camera, and to the outside world:

"We appeal to the international community to help us transport the wounded. We wait for them here to die in mosques. I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organizations to stop the rockets from being fired on us."

U.S. PONDERS AID

Concern was growing in foreign capitals over the plight of civilians.

The United States said it was considering ways to get food and medicine to them - a move that would deepen international involvement in a conflict which has wide geopolitical dimensions and has caused divisions between world powers.

"I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighborhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come," U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said after briefing the Security Council in New York on Wednesday.

Neighboring Turkey, which once saw Assad as an ally but now wants him out, has said it can no longer stand by and watch. It wants to host an international meeting to agree ways to end the killing and provide aid.

Foreign ministers of the Arab League, which the U.N.'s Ban said was planning to revive an observer mission it suspended last month, are due to meet in Cairo on Sunday.

A senior League official said they would discuss a proposal to send a joint U.N.-Arab mission to Syria.

In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich reiterated that Kremlin view that though the bloodshed was regrettable, a solution was a matter for Syria.

"There is an internal conflict, the word revolution is not being used - it is a not a revolutionary situation, believe me," he said.

Russia and China, which let the United Nations support the air campaign that helped oust Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, provoked strong condemnation from the United States, European powers and Arab governments when they vetoed a resolution in the Security Council last week that called on Assad to step down.

Moscow, for whom Syria is a buyer of arms and host to a Soviet-era naval base, wants to counter U.S. influence and maintain its traditional role in the Middle East.

For both Russia and China, Syria is also a test case for efforts to resist international encroachment on sovereign governments' freedom to deal with rebels as they see fit.

Lukashevich's comments followed remarks on Wednesday from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who drew clear lines on a foreign role in the crisis.

"Help them, advise them, limit, for instance, their ability to use weapons but not interfere under any circumstances," Putin said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday night and said that despite their differences, it was necessary to maintain pressure on Assad's government to end the repression.

In Brussels, Turkey's ambassador to the European Union told Reuters that because the opposition was fragmented and Assad still had support from Syria's middle class, the unrest could descend into full-scale civil war.

Turkey, Syria's largest neighbor, is also concerned that sanctions being imposed on Damascus by the EU and the United States will not succeed in forcing Assad from power, while Iran and Russia provide him with support.

"What we are seeing is horrendous. The result will probably be bloody, and unfortunately the Russians are backing him," Selim Yenel said.

"The regime is not just a person, or one family. It's a big group of people and ... they want to hold on to power. That's why we are fearing it is going to turn into a civil war, and this civil war could turn into a regional conflict."

HOMS UNDER FIRE

The Syrian Human Rights Organisation (Sawasiah) said this week's assault on Homs had killed at least 300 civilians and wounded 1,000, not counting Thursday's toll. International officials have estimated the overall death count in Syria since last March at more than 5,000.

There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, who have placed tight restrictions on access to the country and it was not possible to verify the reports of local activists.

The bombardments on Thursday morning hit mainly Sunni Muslim neighborhoods that have been the focus of attacks by the government forces led largely by members of Assad's Alawite religious minority. Such sectarian divisions have come to the surface as killings have increased on either side.

The main street in Baba Amro was strewn with rubble and at least one house was destroyed, according to YouTube footage broadcast by activists from the district who said troops had used anti-aircraft cannon to demolish the building.

The video showed a youth putting two bodies wrapped in blankets in a truck. What appeared to be body parts were shown inside the house.

Hussein Nader, an activist in Baba Amro, told Reuters: "Silence reigns for four to five minutes, then another barrage of tank fire or rockets or mortar rounds comes in."

"Whole houses have come down and we do not know how many more have been killed. They are not advancing and it seems that they are content by continuing to shell Baba Amro until every inhabitant is killed."

In a publication documenting conditions in Homs this week, New York-based Human Rights Watch spoke of possible war crimes:

"This brutal assault on residential neighborhoods shows the Syrian authorities' contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs," said Anna Neistat of HRW. "Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them."

BENGHAZI? OR SARAJEVO?

The uprising against the Assad family's 42-year dynastic rule has evolved from civilian demonstrations to armed insurgency over the past few months. The Assad government contends it is fighting foreign-backed "armed terrorists".

Syria's position at the heart of the Middle East, allied to Iran and home to a volatile religious and ethnic mix, means Assad's international opponents have ruled out the kind of military action they took against Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.

Some commentators compared Homs to Benghazi, the Libyan city saved by NATO strikes from advancing columns of Gaddafi's troops. Others, grimly, remembered Sarajevo, the Balkan city left to bleed for years while world powers bickered.

In London, a Times editorial said that a conflict in Syria would be longer, messier, more difficult militarily and more complex than Libya. But, it said: "Western governments cannot forever limit their involvement to declarations of impotent fury by foreign ministers. Eventually they must do more."

"If the calls to help the rebels end even with the provision of arms, a threshold will have been crossed into a conflict. The West will have taken sides."

(Additional reporting by Justyna Pawlak, Luke Baker and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut and Ayman Samir in Cairo; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Beirut; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-homs-bo...014614676.html

Hillary Clinton appeals for all Syrians to abandon Assad
By MATTHEW LEE | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago..

..RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Syrians in the military and business who still support President Bashar Assad should turn against him, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday.

"The longer you support the regime's campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor. If you refuse, however, to prop up the regime or take part in attacks on your fellow citizens, your countrymen and women will hail you as heroes," Clinton said at a news conference in Morocco as she conveyed a message to those holdouts backers of the embattled leader.

Syria's authoritarian government held a referendum on a new constitution Sunday, but the opposition deemed it an empty gesture and the West dismissed the vote as a "sham."

Activists estimate close to 7,500 people have been killed in the 11 months since Assad's crackdown on dissent began.

"Assad would have the Syrian people believe that it is only terrorists and extremists standing against the regime. But that is wrong," Clinton said. "So many Syrians are suffering under this relentless shelling. All Syrians should be working together to seek a better future."

Clinton was among the international officials who discussed the crisis during a conference Friday in Tunisia. They are trying to develop a united strategy to push Assad from power and they began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after his government falls.

She said in the Moroccan capital that "we're appealing to members of the Syrian army to put the people of their country first before a family or a political party. And we are pushing hard for a plan that would lead to a political transition."

Earlier Sunday, Clinton was asked if the participants in the conference shouldn't be doing more.

"I am incredibly sympathetic to the calls that somebody do something," she told CBS News. "But it is also important to stop and ask what that is and who is going to do it and how capable anybody is of doing it."

Asked about continued U.S. reluctance to provide weapons to the Syrian rebels, Clinton responded: "What are we going to arm them with? ... We're not going to bring tanks over the borders of Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. That's not going to happen. So maybe at best you can smuggle in, you know, automatic weapons. Maybe some other weapons that you could get in. To whom? Where do you go?"

comments

WTH ??? The Secertary of State is inciting civil war in another country ??

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Wow, how is any world leader supposed to rely on the U.S. Clinton and Obama were all in favor of Assad when Obama first took office. Go look up their comments and actions.

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hundreds of thousands of Sudanese Christians being slaughtered for more than a decade now, Coptic Christians being killed in recently "liberated" Egypt..where's the secretary's tough rhetoric for these atosities

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Where does Clinton get off telling the people of Syria to go against their government. What would we do if some foreign dignitary told us to overthrow our government? Seriously! Is that how easy it would be to get rid of Obama? Just turn against him? And you call yourself our secretary of state? You're as crazy as your boss.

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The more Clinton or any U.S. official speaks against Assad, the stronger the support from his people will be. The U.S. admin still has no clue of the anti-U.S. prevailing atmosphere in the Middle-East. If Clinton really wants Assad gone, she would better stay quiet and let his people do the job.

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Obama will apologize to Syria in ... 5 ... 4... 3 ... 2 ...

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"The longer you support the regime's campaign of violence against your brothers and sisters, the more it will stain your honor. "

Hillary knows all about stains...

11,000 fled Syria in past 24 hours, total now 408,000: UNHCR
Reuters – 5 hrs ago.

GENEVA (Reuters) - About 11,000 Syrian refugees have fled to three neighboring countries in the past 24 hours, the largest exodus in "quite some time", the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

The latest exodus into Turkey (9,000), Lebanon (1,000) and Jordan (1,000) brings to 408,000 the total number of Syrian refugees registered or being assisted in the region, Panos Moumtzis of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.

"It just indicates a significant crisis, the continuation of the conflict," Moumtzis told a news briefing in Geneva after aid agencies held a Syria Humanitarian Forum. "In Turkey, we know from most refugees that they come from Aleppo or Idlib or northern areas. That has been the trend so far."

http://news.yahoo.com/11-000-fled-sy...130654174.html

Syria’s chemical weapons now ready for attack
1:41 AM 12/06/2012

The Syrian military is ready to attack its own citizens with chemical weapons as soon as Syrian President Bashar Assad gives the word, according to NBC News.

U.S. officials announced Wednesday that the Syrian military has loaded aerial bombs with precursor chemicals for sarin, a lethal nerve gas. The bombs have not yet been loaded onto Syrian fighter-bombers, the officials emphasized, and Assad has not given the order to use the ordinance.

But if Assad orders the military to deploy the chemical weapons, one U.S. official told NBC News, “there’s little the outside world can do to stop it.”

Sarin is the same toxic chemical that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s military used in 1988. Hussein’s sarin attack against the Kurdish town of Halabja killed 5,oo0 people.

According to reports, Syrian forces have 60 days to use the weapons before the chemical mixture expires.

The sudden development comes as Syrian rebels announced they would focus on disrupting the government’s infrastructure and begin a new phase in the country’s ongoing civil war, which has cost billions in damage and led at least 1.2 million Syrians to flee their homes.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Wednesday at NATO headquarters that Assad would cross a “red line” if he decided to use chemical weapons. President Barack Obama has also said it would be “totally unacceptable” for Assad to deploy the deadly ordinance.

U.S. officials first discovered this summer that Syria was storing banned chemical agents.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/06/sy...#ixzz2EHAOhfDc

http://www.bigbigforums.com/news-inf...out-wmd-2.html





PHOTO: A few of the over 5,000 victims of Saddam Hussein's 1998 sarin gas attack on the city of Halabja, Iraq.
"Did Bush really 'lie' about Saddam's WMD?

Almost 10 years later, some still say 'Bush lied' about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. First, Saddam used sarin gas, which is WMD, on his own people. Second, review several quotes below by Democrats on WMD. After reviewing both then share your comments below.

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line."

--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program."

--President Bill Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face."

--Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983."

--Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."

Letter to President Clinton, signed by:
-- Democratic Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others, Oct. 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process."

-Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."

-- Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999

"There is no doubt that ... Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies."

Letter to President Bush, Signed by:
-- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), and others, Dec 5, 2001

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandate of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and th! e means of delivering them."

-- Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country."

-- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power."

-- Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction."

-- Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons..."

-- Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force -- if necessary -- to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security."

-- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years ... We also should remember we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction."

-- Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do"

-- Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."

-- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction."

-- Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real..."

-- Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003

No Happy New Year for Syria as death toll mounts now at 46,068
There was no holiday or respite for Syrian civilians as the government of President Bashar al-Assad continues to pound rebels and unarmed people alike throughout the Christmas season. There was clearly no Happy New Year, as many experts think the situation here will only get even worse in 2013.
NEWS CONSORTIUM ~ 1/2/2013

LOS ANGELES, CA - Of all people killed in the civil war, 85 percent of them, 39,520 human lives died in 2012. According to the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 6,548 men, women and children lost their lives in 2011, representing 14 percent of the total 46,068 deaths.

United Nations Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says that the year of 2013 could bode even worse. "Do not expect just 25,000 people to die next year -- maybe 100,000 will die," he told reporters Sunday in Cairo. "The pace is increasing."

At least 136 people were found dead last week, the opposition Local Coordination Committees said. Syria's government has severely restricted access to the country.

Clashes and shelling raged in eight Syrian provinces, in the early hours of 2013, the Observatory reported. The heaviest fighting befell the flashpoints of Damascus and its suburbs, as well as Aleppo.

An Observatory official said the international airport in Aleppo was closed after an explosion on Sunday. Rami Abdulrahman said the group was still trying to determine whether there were casualties and what caused the explosion.

In Syria, holidays follow the Western calendar which typically celebrates the New Year. January 1 is a national holiday.

In Damascus, a Christian Mass marked the day at the Mariamite Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Syria's SANA state news agency reported. Syrians at a refugee camp in Turkey have one unified wish for 2013 -- the fall of the Assad government and an end to the war.

"Bashar al-Assad made us refugees," one refugee says. "He killed two of my children. They destroyed our homes."

http://www.catholic.org/internationa...y.php?id=49155

Start of something big? Russia pulls a hundred citizens from Syria.

Though the Kremlin said the move was 'absolutely not an evacuation,' some wonder if it preludes the withdrawal of the tens of thousands of Russians living in war-torn Syria.
By Fred Weir | Christian Science Monitor – 4 hrs ago.

Russia began a small-scale evacuation of about 100 of its citizens from Syria Tuesday, in what experts warn could at any moment develop into a huge air-and-sealift of the up-to-40,000 Russians and their dependents believed to be in the war-torn country.

Russian media reported that officials from the Russian Embassy in Beirut safely escorted three busloads of Russians, mainly women and children, out of Syria on Tuesday. Two planes sent to Lebanon by Russia's Ministry of Emergency Services will airlift about 100 people to Moscow, reports say.

The evacuation is being characterized as a limited operation aimed at bringing out a few people who have requested it. Without offering any further explanation, Russian official sources say the numbers of Russian citizens requesting repatriation has actually fallen, from about 1,000 last October to less than 100 in December.

But under the guise of ongoing war games in the eastern Mediterranean, the Russian Navy has, since last summer, maintained a squadron of warships. That squadron includes several huge amphibious assault vessels capable of carrying thousands of people, within a few hours sailing time of the Russian Naval supply facility in Tartus, Syria.

Earlier this month the fleets were rotated, and another squadron with at least five big troop transports was sent out to the region.

"This is absolutely not an evacuation; simply two flights from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry will bring to Moscow everyone who wishes to go," the independent Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed official in the Russian Embassy in Damascus as saying of Tuesday's airlift.

"First of all, these are the people whose homes have been destroyed and who live in 'conflict hotbeds.' About a hundred people," an embassy source told Interfax on Tuesday.

LOOKING FOR SIGNS

The move is being closely read by Western experts for signs that Moscow's long-standing position of support for Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad might be wavering, or that the Russian government anticipates his imminent downfall.

Experts say that, until we see those big transport ships moving in toward Tartus, we shouldn't assume any change in Russia's stance.

"The Russian authorities have already evacuated part of their diplomatic staff. Moscow is getting ready for a possible worsening of the situation and is taking preventive steps," says Vladimir Sotnikov, expert with the Center for International Security at the official Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow.

Experts say Russia has already closed its consulate in Syria's embattled main commercial center, Aleppo, and most Russian companies working in the country have long since withdrawn their own personnel.

"I don't see any change in the Russian position; Moscow has maintained the same stance for the past year and a half.... Assad still has some time, his army is still beating off opposition attacks, although the country is in full scale civil war," Mr. Sotnikov adds.

WHO IS LEFT?

It's not known exactly how many Russians there are in Syria, but according to the Russian weekly Argumenti i Fakhti, the number is probably at least 40,000.

According to the paper, they include some of the tens of thousands of Syrian students who have studied in Russia since close relations between the two countries began in 1970, who have acquired Russian passports. Thousands of those students have married Russian women over the years and brought them to Syria; no one has an estimate for the number of children, who would also be eligible for evacuation.

Some members of Syria's Christian minority, which enjoys close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, may also be Russian passport holders, experts say.

While most big countries, including China, have already pulled their citizens out of Syria, Russia has been slow to take action, some experts say.

"Even in the foreign ministry they do not know how many Russians are now in Syria," says Vladimir Sazhin, an analyst with the official Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.

"Many of them are not registered with the Russian Embassy. Along with their children and other family members we may be looking at several tens of thousands," he says.

"We are seeing only the first stage of evacuation today, and it is happening very late. It is a sign that Russia is losing confidence in the situation being resolved any time in the near future.... But we had to start taking people out of that slaughterhouse much sooner," Mr. Sazhin adds.


http://news.yahoo.com/start-somethin...155610519.html

February 08, 2013

Syria, Libya, And The Unwinnable War On Unintended Consequences

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/mai...sequences.html

March 5, 2013
TRANSCRIPT: Secretary of State John Kerry Reveals New Details on U.S. Involvement in Syria Conflict in Fox News Interview

In an interview conducted Tuesday by Fox News correspondent James Rosen, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke about efforts he’s spearheading since taking over the post from Hillary Clinton. In the interview, Kerry became the first U.S. official to confirm on the record that the U.S. is training military forces off-site in the Syria conflict. He also disclosed on the record for the first time his visit to a Benghazi survivor at Walter Reed, saying he doesn’t know why survivors haven’t yet been heard from.

Read the full transcript below, and catch the video of the interview on Fox News Channel:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JAMES ROSEN: Mr. Secretary, thank you for this honor.

SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY: Delighted to be with you.

ROSEN: I know it’s early in your tenure, but I wonder if your experience to date, and particularly your exposure to me, has led you to the conclusion that this is the best job you’ve ever had.

KERRY: [Laughter] No answer needed.

ROSEN: All right, very good. Let’s start with Syria –

KERRY: Actually, we’ve had fun. I’ve enjoyed, honestly. Good fun.

ROSEN: Thank you. Me, as well, sir. On Syria: The U.S. has begun off-site training for some forces in that conflict. What is your hope for how that will contribute to a speedier exit for Mr. Assad, and do you see that role possibly expanding in the future?

KERRY: Well, I think what President Obama is hoping is to build on what has already happened. The president put in place sanctions and that helps to strip some of President Assad’s ability to fuel his war machine. Then the president worked with Secretary Clinton to identify the opposition, to figure out exactly who we’re dealing with, is it safe to help them, where are they going. And their voice has come together –

ROSEN: I understand that; I’ve followed it closely. But my time is limited –

KERRY: – so what – I’m just trying to lead up here. So now the president has ratcheted up, through the meeting in Rome – which we brought about, inviting countries to come, in order to send the signal that we are determined to change President Assad’s calculation. That’s really what you’re asking.

ROSEN: And the training, is what I – the off-site training.

KERRY: Well, it’s one part of it. It’s one part of it. But other nations are doing other things. There are a lot of nations working at this. And so I think President Assad needs to read the tea leaves correctly, which is: Rome signified a restatement of unity; a conviction that no nation is going to stand by while he slaughters his people with SCUD missiles, and his jets dropping bombs. And, and we’ve ratcheted up yet another level with the hope of convincing him and his allies that the time has come to really negotiate with the transitional government that was created in the Geneva Communique.

ROSEN: Who’s doing the training?

KERRY: Uh – I’d, I’d – look. Who’s training whom, or what is happening –

ROSEN: That’s what I’m asking you about, though.

KERRY: Well, that’s not important, who’s doing training. What’s important is – there are a lot of countries doing training, the answer is.

ROSEN: Including the U.S.?

KERRY: There are a lot of countries doing training. What is important is that President Assad needs to understand the re-focus of commitment in order to get him to change his current calculation, and in order to hopefully get his allies to advise him: “You need to go to the table and negotiate a peaceful resolution.”

ROSEN: Two quick questions on Benghazi, sir, if you would. First: Why have we not heard from any of the Benghazi survivors?

KERRY: [Pause] Well, I – I mean, I can’t tell you the answer to that. I can tell you that I have visited with one of the survivors at Bethesda hospital, who is a remarkably courageous person, who is doing very, very well. And I’ve called his wife and talked to her.

ROSEN: Will we hear from them?

KERRY: I can’t tell you – I don’t know what the circumstances are of any requests to talk to them or not. But let me just say about Benghazi: Benghazi was a tragedy that I felt as a senator and I feel even more now as secretary. And I’m just finish –

ROSEN: They’re already wrapping me here, so I’ve got to be very quick; I’m so sorry.

KERRY: Oh, I’m sorry. But let me just say: the key here is that we are implementing the lessons that we learned from Benghazi, and that’s the key.

ROSEN: President Obama vowed that the perpetrators of those attacks would be brought to justice. As you know, any law enforcement or counter-terrorism officer would tell you: the longer the passage of time after the given event, the less likely it is that you will bring the perpetrators to justice. It’s been six months. Will we see justice brought to those perpetrators, and isn’t the passage of time making that more and more unlikely?

KERRY: James, I hope we will. And I know the president is committed to try to do so. And I have personally talked to the FBI director to get a brief on exactly where we stand in that process.

ROSEN: What did he tell you?

KERRY: He told me – literally on the eve of his departure to go to Tripoli, in order to talk with people – that they are doing everything they can within the FBI to conduct their investigation and to lay the groundwork in order to be able to bring justice. That effort continues –

ROSEN: We’re six months – we’re six months out.

KERRY: Justice sometimes takes a while when you operate by high standards and when you need the levels of evidence that we do. But we are working at it and we will continue to work at it.

ROSEN: We are almost ten years to the day since the launching of the Iraq War. Do you still regard that as a mistake?

KERRY: I believe that getting our troops out of Iraq, which is what the president did, was the right thing to do. And if you talk to almost anyone here in the region, as I have in the last days, turning – turning the region upside down in the way that that did has created serious security challenges fort people throughout this region. Now, I think the president made the right choice to get out of there. I think we can be proud of what we achieved. I think our troops did an absolutely stunning job, an extraordinary job. I think they –

ROSEN: And President Bush? Does he deserve any credit for that?

KERRY: I think they – he deserves credit for what the troops did when they went in. There’s a different issue, obviously, about the choice of it. But our troops were extraordinary. Our military always performs remarkably. And they have given the Iraqis the unique opportunity to have a democracy that hopefully can work. It’s up to them to make it work, and we’re still struggling with that.

ROSEN: Two last questions. You’ve been very generous, sir; I appreciate it. You made reference in Germany the other day – somewhat derisively, to
my ear – to what you called “the so-called domino theory.” Hasn’t history – not only, perhaps, in Southeast Asia, but in the former Soviet bloc, and even in the Arab Spring – validated the essential concept that undergirds the domino theory?

KERRY: No. The domino theory as it applied, James, to Southeast Asia, was that every single country was gonna fall. And obviously, every single country did not fall.

ROSEN: They all turned democratic, almost, right?

KERRY: That wasn’t the domino theory. The domino theory was they were all going to turn communist. And –

ROSEN: The domino theory is that – that a pivotal change in one country can spark like changes throughout a region. Right?

KERRY: No, no – but the domino theory as I applied it, and as we talked about it, you know, those of us [chuckles] in that generation of Vietnam, it referred specifically to Vietnam, and to Lyndon Johnson’s speeches, and to the notion that if we didn’t take our stand in Vietnam –

ROSEN: I understand.

KERRY: – all the rest of that region would become communist. Now, you’ll notice that that didn’t happen, even as we left Vietnam. That doesn’t mean – and let me emphasize this – that doesn’t mean that in parts of the world, one country falling to something may not mean that others are [not also] at risk. And we obviously have risks, with Iranian influence in this region. We have huge risks with violent extremism. We need to be very careful about that – in Mali, in the Magreb. So I was referring back to 1960; I’m not referring to today.

ROSEN: I’m out of time.

KERRY: Yes.

ROSEN: So I gather you will not indulge one further question, on personal stuff.

KERRY: It’s not up to me, it’s up to schedule here [gestures towards aides seated on the sidelines; their laughter audible]. But I’m always happy to talk with you! [laughs]

ROSEN: Powerless! All right. Very good.

KERRY: [Laughs]

ROSEN: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I appreciate your time.

KERRY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/03/05...one-interview/