Senators Push For Military Aid For Syrian Rebels

[Purveyor]

Source: REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators, including some of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats, pushed the White House on Thursday to shift its policy and provide lethal military assistance to rebels waging a civil war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

It is time for Washington to do more to oust Assad and end a two-year conflict in which more than 70,000 people have been killed and millions displaced, they said at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Sentiment is growing in the United States and internationally that more should be done in Syria.

"Shouldn't we do something to prevent this massive slaughter that's going on?" Senator John McCain asked during a heated exchange that ended with the Arizona Republican walking out of the hearing. He did so while Elizabeth Jones, the acting assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs was replying to one of his questions.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/senators-push-military-aid-syrian-rebels-223600627.html

[Purveyor]

1. Related: Syrian Rebels Pledge Loyalty To al-Qaeda

BEIRUT — A Syrian rebel group's pledge of allegiance to al-Qaeda's replacement for Osama bin Laden suggests that the terrorist group's influence is not waning and that it may take a greater role in the Western-backed fight to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The pledge of allegiance by Syrian Jabhat al Nusra Front chief Abou Mohamad al-Joulani to al-Qaeda leader Sheik Ayman al-Zawahri was coupled with an announcement by the al-Qaeda affiliate in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq, that it would work with al Nusra as well.

Lebanese Sheik Omar Bakri, a Salafist who says states must be governed by Muslim religious law, says al-Qaeda has assisted al Nusra for some time.

"They provided them early on with technical, military and financial support , especially when it came to setting up networks of foreign jihadis who were brought into Syria," Bakri says. "There will certainly be greater coordination between the two groups."

MORE...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/11/syria-al-qaeda-connection/2075323/

[blm]

2. Gee, John, why don't you go there and sort out which rebels will be armed and which will

be bombed?

[frylock]

3. what could possibly go wrong?

[Arctic Dave]

4. He doesn't care about anyone except his cronies in the MIC.

What a piece of shit. Fuck mccain.

[leveymg]

5. Some day, there will be a war crimes museum with John McCain's name on it.

It will stand alone in the charred wasteland of what used to be America.