Purveyor
Purveyor's JournalSyrian Rebel Leader: We Won't Share U.S. Arms With Extremists
Originally published on Sun May 5, 2013 9:01 am
The Obama administration says it's considering providing arms to rebels fighting to bring down Syrian President Bashar Assad if the U.S. can confirm his forces did in fact use the debilitating nerve gas sarin in recent attacks. Coupled with news that Israel reportedly launched an airstrike at a target in Syria to prevent a shipment of missiles from reaching Hezbollah, these events could represent a game changer in the conflict-ravaged nation.
The 'Moderate' Opposition
The so-called Free Syrian Army is not a traditional army, but instead made up of many small battalions and brigades that have come together to fight Assad's regime. According to Brig. Gen. Salim Idris, the rebel group's chief of staff, it doesn't operate like a traditional fighting force.
"I don't like to say that we are working just like a regular army because the majority of the forces are civilians," Idris tells NPR's Kelly McEvers.
Idris would likely manage any military assistance the U.S. decides to provide. The U.S. and its allies believe he represents the so-called "moderate" fighters — those who want to topple the president and install a democratic government.
A senior Obama administration official told NPR the weapons the U.S. would most likely provide are shoulder-fired missiles, which could take down aircraft. That would be a good start, Idris says, but it would not be enough.
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http://www.krwg.org/post/syrian-rebel-leader-we-wont-share-us-arms-extremists
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Receives Profile in Courage Award
Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords received the 2013 Profile in Courage award at the John F. Kennedy Library on Sunday in recognition of the political, personal, and physical courage she has demonstrated in her fearless public advocacy for policy reforms aimed at reducing gun violence.
Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting when a lone gunman opened fire as she met with constituents in a Tucson, Ariz., shopping mall, and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, have been lobbying for more gun control legislation.
This year, on the second anniversary of the January shooting, the couple started Americans for Responsible Gun Ownership, an organization that "supports the right to bear arms and responsible public policy on guns and gun ownership."
Caroline Kennedy, President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, presented the award to Giffords.
Kennedy took a moment to salute the first responders and the citizens of Boston. Referring to the Boston Marathon bombings last month, Kennedy said, "All Americans have been inspired by the countless acts of selfless bravery and compassion we saw during the violence that struck this city on Patriots Day."
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/giffords-receives-profile-courage-award-19114229#.UYbosKJOZIA
Reported Israeli Airstrikes In Syria Could Accelerate U.S. Decision Process
By Karen DeYoung, Sunday, May 5, 5:46 PM
Israel’s reported airstrikes in Syria — and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government — are likely to accelerate decision-making within the United States, where the Obama administration was already moving toward a sharp escalation of U.S. involvement in the two-year-old crisis.
Senior officials said the deployment of U.S. troops to Syria remains unlikely, but they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the supply of weapons to the Syrian rebels to the use of U.S. aircraft and missiles to ground President Bashar al-Assad’s air power by destroying planes, runways and missile sites inside Syria.
Neither Israeli nor U.S. officials confirmed an attack Sunday morning that reportedly hit a weapons shipment in Syria — including sophisticated missiles and air defense equipment — about to be transferred to Lebanon-based Hezbollah.
But President Obama, in an interview broadcast just hours later on Sunday, said Israel is justified in preventing the provision of weapons to Hezbollah.
“We coordinate very closely with the Israelis, recognizing that .?.?. they are very close to Syria, they’re very close to Lebanon,” Obama said in the interview, recorded Saturday with the Spanish-language Telemundo, after an earlier Israeli attack reported late Friday.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/reported-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria-could-accelerate-us-decision-making/2013/05/05/72c6eafc-b5c2-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
Pyongyang Says No To Invite U.S. Diplomats Over Detained American
PYONGYANG, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Sunday that it has no intention to invite U.S. diplomats over the issue of an American citizen who was sentenced 15 years of compulsory labor by the country's Supreme Court on Tuesday.
It is total silly speculation of talking about (Pyongyang taking) the detainee Pae's issue as a "political bargain stake," an unnamed spokesman for the foreign ministry was quoted by the official news agency KCNA as saying.
He stressed that Pae's hostile acts showed again that as long as the United States does not stop its "hostile policy," some Americans' illegal activities against the DPRK would not be exterminated.
--CLIP
"We urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," said State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell, whose statement came after the Supreme Court of the DPRK rendered the verdict earlier in the day.
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http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/05/c_132360575.htm
Israeli Strikes In Syria Could Put More Pressure On Obama: McCain
By Deborah Charles and Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel's air strikes on Syria could add pressure on the Obama administration to intervene in Syria, a key Republican said on Sunday, but the U.S. government faces tough questions on how it can help without adding to the conflict.
Hours after Israeli jets bombed Syria on Sunday for the second time in 48 hours, several top U.S. lawmakers voiced concern over the cascading uncertainty in the Middle East where a civil war has been raging in Syria for more than two years.
Republican Senator John McCain said the latest Israeli air strikes, described by a Western source as attacks on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah, will just put more pressure on the administration to act although President Barack Obama has said he has no plans to send ground troops to Syria.
"We need to have a game-changing action, and that is no American boots on the ground, establish a safe zone and to protect it and to supply weapons to the right people in Syria who are fighting, obviously, for the things we believe," McCain said on "Fox News Sunday."
"Every day that goes by, Hezbollah increases their influence and the radical jihadists flow into Syria and the situation becomes more and more tenuous," he said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/israeli-strikes-syria-could-put-more-pressure-obama-182824804.html
This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun
Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.
Now he has.
Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year-old University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,” pictured in its initial form above. He’s agreed to let me document the process of the gun’s creation, so long as I don’t publish details of its mechanics or its testing until it’s been proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense Distributed’s online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org.
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Technically, Defense Distributed’s gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.
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http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/03/this-is-the-worlds-first-entirely-3d-printed-gun-photos/
Authorization for Use of Military Force: A Blank Check For War Without End
By Michael Shank, The Guardian
Sunday, May 5, 2013 9:20 EDT
A handful of Democratic and Republican senators are considering a rewrite of 60 of the most consequential words to ever pass through Congress. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed after the attacks of 11 September 2001, and provides the legal cornerstone for the so-called US “war on terror”. Only one brave Congress member opposed it. It allows the US government to wage war at anytime, any place and on anyone deemed a threat to national security – with remarkably little evidence needed.
The consequential nature of these words is self-evident: the AUMF opened the doors to the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya; attacks on Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Mali; the new drone bases in Niger and Djibouti; and the killing of American citizens, notably Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old noncombatant son. It is what now emboldens the hawks on the warpath to Syria, Iran and North Korea.
Rather than doubling down on war policy, as some senators are inclined to do, Congress should repeal the 2001 law. This “blank check” approach to warfare has to stop. And while the rewrite is being framed by members of both chambers (Senators John McCain and Bob Corker, Representative Buck McKeon and others) as an act of congressional oversight, it is doubtful that these hawks will curb any military authority. They have only ever called for more wars, not fewer. That means more Libyas, Yemens and al-Awlaki‘s.
It is time for members of Congress who truly care about rule of law, oversight and the financial security of this country to speak up. Why? Because, first and foremost, the AUMF continues to contravene congressional oversight. For example, when the Obama administration sent 100 “military advisors” to Uganda in the name of counterterrorism in 2011, Congress received a simple note from President Obama. No oversight.
More recently, after unilaterally negotiating a “status of forces” agreement with Niger, the administration sent a note to Congress saying that it was sending 100 troops to the country. This week, we sent troops to Mali. Again, no oversight.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/05/authorization-for-use-of-military-force-a-blank-check-for-war-without-end/
Fox News Shuts Down Dem Rep.: Talk of Republican Benghazi Hypocrisy Is ‘Getting Off Track’
Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday told Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) that he was “getting off track” when he suggested that Republicans were hypocrites for continuing to attack President Barack Obama’s administration over last year’s attacks in Benghazi after pressuring the State Department to cut funding for security personnel by voting to cut embassy funding.
During a discussion to promote upcoming testimony by whistleblowers who Republicans say will tell the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that the Obama administration intimidated them into not speaking out about the attacks in Benghazi, Lynch pointed out that Fox News had not made Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) answer for his vote to cut security funding.
“We’re talking about — including my colleague, Mr. Chaffetz — when Secretary [Hillary] Clinton and the State Department asked for additional funding for embassy security, they all voted no,” Lynch said.
“No, no, no,” Chaffetz grumbled.
“We’re getting a little bit off the track,” Wallace interrupted.
“They’ve already admitted this on CNN,” Lynch added.
MORE WITH VIDEO OF SEGMENT...
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/05/fox-news-shuts-down-dem-rep-talk-of-republican-benghazi-hypocrisy-is-getting-off-track/
Egypt Condemns Israeli Airstrikes Against Syria
CAIRO May 5, 2013 (AP)
Egypt's president condemned on Sunday Israel's airstrikes against Syria, calling them a violation of international law and warning they complicate the country's ongoing civil war.
--CLIP
"Egypt condemns the Israeli aggression as it violates international principles and laws, and would further complicate the situation, in addition to threatening the security and stability in the region," the statement from President Mohammed Morsi's office said.
The statement said Egypt "strongly objects" to the bloodshed in Syria and what it said was the regime's use of its military against its people. But it also rejects the violation of Syrian sovereignty and "exploiting its internal crisis under whatever pretext."
Egypt's Morsi last year launched a regional bid to find a peaceful end to Syria's civil war, but little came of it.
Also on Sunday, the Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby warned against the serious repercussion of the Israeli attacks on Syria and called on the U.N. Security Council to "immediately move to stop the Israeli aggressions on Syria."
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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypt-condemns-israeli-airstrikes-syria-19112307#.UYaCtqJOZIA
Syria's Army Is Not Quite What Israelis Have Been Led To Believe
For nearly four decades, generations of IDF fighters have been training in the Golan Heights to push back a Syrian attack. For 39 years, since the end of the Yom Kippur War, the Israeli-Syrian front has remained calm. Now, in the space of four months, three air-strikes around Damascus have been ascribed to Israel, and the Syrian cannons which supposedly target Israeli bases and villages in the Golan are silent.
Where are the masses of artillery, the ballistic missiles, armored divisions and commando battalions? Every foot-soldier in the Golani Brigade learns to recite the details of the Syrian order-of-forces in enemy-recognition lessons and reservists acquaint themselves with their positions for the day it comes.
Of course, the last two years of civil war has significantly degraded the Syrian Army - but to the extent that it has lost any capability of responding, even symbolically, to the Zionist enemy's bombardment of their capital city?
So far there has been no response to the two strikes that occurred over the weekend, just as there was no response to the bombing in January. While as a precaution, an Iron Dome battery has been deployed to the north, it seems that Israel is not expecting retaliation. How else could one explain Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's sticking to his plan of spending five days this week on a working visit to China?
The question of why the Syrians have not responded joins another query that has been being asked for many months now, actually for nearly two years: How come, despite tens of thousands of desertions and armed uprisings throughout the country, reinforced by thousands of Jihadist fighters from around the world, entire units of the Syrian Army are still intact and fighting to keep Assad's regime in place? Israeli intelligence officers who confidently announced in 2011 that Assad had only a few weeks left have, long ago, given up predicting his downfall.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/syria-s-army-is-not-quite-what-israelis-have-been-led-to-believe.premium-1.519318/syria-s-army-is-not-quite-what-israelis-have-been-led-to-believe.premium-1.519318
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