DEVELOPMENTS
United States:A Marine Corps spokesman says the Marines' recruiting website was tampered with and redirected temporarily, but no information was put at risk. Capt. Eric Flanagan wouldn't say who was responsible for the hacking, but the site was redirected to a message from the Syrian Electronic Army, a hacker group that's claimed responsibility for disrupting the New York Times website, Twitter and other media sites the group sees as sympathetic to Syria's rebels. The message to the Marine Corps was a plea for Americans to fight alongside the Syrian army and not aid the rebels.
Syria: President Bashar Assad said military strikes against his country would risk triggering a regional war. He said the Middle East is a "powder keg" and no one can say what will transpire if the West takes military action against Syria. He warned "the whole world will lose control of the situation. Chaos and extremism will spread. The risk of a regional war exists."
France: A French intelligence report estimated that the Syrian regime launched the alleged Aug. 21 attack involving a "massive use of chemical agents" and could carry out similar strikes in the future. The government, on its website, published a nine-page intelligence synopsis about Syria's chemical weapons program that found at least 281 deaths could be attributed to the attack in rebel-held areas outside Damascus.
Russia: The Russian news agency Interfax said President Vladimir Putin hopes to send a delegation of lawmakers to the U.S. to discuss the situation with members of Congress. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said "there was nothing specific" in the evidence the U.S. showed Moscow to blame the Syrian regime for the alleged chemical weapons attack
Turkey: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's chief adviser brushed aside fears that a U.S. strike against Syria could provoke Damascus to attack Turkey. Yalcin Akdogan told the Turkish daily newspaper Aksam that an attack on Turkey "would be madness and suicide" because Turkey is a member of NATO.
China: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said his country urged the U.S. not to take unilateral action against Syria. He said Washington briefed Beijing about the matter and that China is concerned about chemical weapons use but that the country opposes the U.S. acting alone.
United Nations: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon planned to brief the Security Council's 10 non-permanent members on the Syria crisis this morning. Angela Kane, high representative for disarmament affairs, planned a briefing today for member states that requested the investigation of alleged chemical weapons attacks.
— Associated Press
President Barack Obama worked Monday to persuade skeptical lawmakers to endorse a U.S. military intervention in civil war-wracked Syria, winning conditional support from two leading Senate foreign policy hawks even as he encountered resistance from members of his own party after two days of a determined push to sell the plan.
Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Obama still needs to make a strong case for attacking the regime of President Bashar Assad, but they toned down past criticism that the president’s plan was too weak to change the course of the fighting in Syria in favor of the opposition.
“We have to make it clear that a vote against this would be catastrophic in its consequences,” now and in future international crises, McCain told reporters outside the White House following an hourlong private meeting that he and Graham had with Obama.
But the outcome of any vote remained in doubt amid continued skepticism in a war-weary Congress. Several Democrats in a conference call with administration officials pushed back against military action, questioning both the intelligence about a chemical attack last month outside Damascus and the value of an intervention to U.S. interests, according to aides on the call. Others demanded narrower authorization than that requested by the administration.
“The White House has put forward a proposed bill authorizing the use of force that, as drafted, is far too broad and open ended, and could be used to justify everything from a limited cruise missile strike to a no fly zone and the introduction of American ground troops,” said Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House intelligence committee.
The president announced over the weekend that he’ll seek approval for military strikes against the Assad regime to respond to an attack in the Damascus suburbs last month that the U.S. says included sarin gas and killed more than 1,400 civilians.
That decision sets the stage for the biggest foreign policy vote in Congress since the Iraq war. A vote could come once lawmakers return from summer break, which is scheduled to end Sept. 9.
Before then, Obama must sell the idea to a nation scarred by more than a decade of war.
After changing course and deciding to seek congressional approval for military action, Obama is confronted with one of his most difficult foreign policy tests and faces a Congress divided over an unavoidably tough vote-of-conscience on overseas conflict rather than the more customary partisan fights over domestic policy.
“My impression is that a lot of people are up for grabs,” McCain said.
Obama was trying to find a middle ground that would attract a majority in the House and the Senate — a difficult task complicated further because Obama is leaving for a three-day trip to Europe tonight, visiting Stockholm, Sweden and then attending an economic summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The visit is all the more significant because Russia has sided with the Syrian regime. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Monday the information the U.S. showed Moscow to prove the Syrian regime was behind the chemical attack was “absolutely unconvincing.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to testify publicly today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Earlier in the day, other members of the administration’s national security and intelligence teams are scheduled to hold a classified, closed-door briefing for all members of Congress. A similar session was held Sunday, and more will be held Thursday and Friday.
Kerry will also testify Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Kerry and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper will hold a classified briefing Wednesday with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Following their White House meeting, McCain and Graham, who often speak in unison on foreign policy matters, said they were more inclined to back Obama’s call for military action against Syria if it helps destroy the regime’s missile launching capabilities and if the U.S. commits to provide more assistance to Syrian opposition forces.
“A degrading strike limited in scope could have a beneficial effect to the battlefield momentum,” Graham said. “There will never be a political settlement in Syria as long as Assad is winning.”
McCain said: “Now we are talking about ways of approaching this issue in a way that could be effective. We’ve got to see more, but at least they are talking about some options that I think could work. “
About the Author
