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John Kerry Refused To Rule Out Boots On The Ground In Syria, And Then Said He Was 'Thinking Out Loud'

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John Kerry Chuck Hagel

In a rather perplexing contrast with the Obama administration's message on military intervention in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry refused to rule out the possibility of putting "boots on the ground" in Syria in response to a theoretical escalation of the conflict.

"I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be on the table," Kerry said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday. 

Kerry's answer came in response to a question from Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee. After hearing Kerry's response, Menendez said that Congress may have to "work on language that makes it clear" the mission of military intervention in Syria in an authorization of military force. 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican member on the committee, challenged Kerry on the premise later, at which point Kerry tried to walk back his earlier statement. 

"Let's shut that door," Kerry said, saying he was "thinking out loud" about a "hypothetical" situation.

Part of the Obama administration's justification for its military intervention has been that it will have a limited and narrow scope, and that there was no chance of any troop deployment that would lead to a long occupation similar to the cases of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"So the key point that I want to emphasize to the American people:  The military plan that has been developed by the joint chiefs and that I believe is appropriate is proportional," President Barack Obama said Tuesday before a meeting with members of Congress.

"It is limited. It does not involve bootsontheground. This is not Iraq and this is not Afghanistan."

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Hillary Clinton Comes Out In Support Of Obama's Plan In Syria

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Hillary Clinton

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is backing President Barack Obama's call for limited military strikes in Syria. 

"Secretary Clinton supports the President’s effort to enlist the Congress in pursuing a strong and targeted response to the Assad regime’s horrific use of chemical weapons," a Clinton aide said in an email. The aide's comments were first reported by Politico's Maggie Haberman

The comments served as the Clinton camp's first on the developments in Syria, after she had been roundly criticized for not offering any comment on the situation recently. 

As Secretary of State, Clinton advocated diplomatic efforts to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from office. And she also pushed a plan, along with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, to arm and train Syrian rebels. That proposal was scuttled by the White House last year.

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Russia Warns Citizens About Traveling To America Or Allied Countries

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AP120618149377

The Russian government has issued an odd travel warning to its citizens — beware of the United States. 

Travel warnings typically warn citizens of war, disease, other unrest. This announcement from the Russian Foreign Ministry warns against U.S. extradition law. 

“Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.”

The announcement goes on to assert that people wanted by the United States who travel to countries with extradition treaties with the U.S. are kidnapped with shaky evidence and tilted toward conviction. 

It's a bit of an endzone dance for Russia, which offered asylum to the fugitive NSA-contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden, despite U.S. pleas for extradition

After Russia welcomed Snowden, the U.S. cancelled planned meetings between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The move is reminiscent of how the Assad regime in Syria issued a travel warning against Turkey when there were protests earlier this summer. More than 300,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey from the violence in their home country.  

SEE ALSO: Did WikiLeaks Sell Out Snowden To The Russians?

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John McCain Caught Playing iPhone Poker During Syria Hearing — And 'Worst Of All,' He Lost

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John McCain poker photo

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) quickly tried to diffuse a controversy that popped up after a Washington Post photographer captured a shot of him playing poker on his iPhone during a Senate hearing on Syria Tuesday.

Shortly before 6 p.m. ET, the WaPo posted evidence of McCain's fooling around during the hearing, which was shot by photographer Melina Mara. 

It quickly gained traction on Twitter. And within minutes, the Drudge Report splashed the photograph with an unflattering headline: "MCCAIN PLAYS POKER DURING WAR HEARING."

McCain joked that the worst part of the story is that he lost:

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's hearing on Syria did last more than three hours, adjourning just after 6 p.m. on Tuesday. McCain has signaled that he supports President Barack Obama's plan for military action in Syria, arguing that it would be "catastrophic" if a vote in Congress fails to pass. 

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New Senate Resolution On Syria Lays Out Two Important Ground Rules

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John Kerry Menendez Hagel

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reached a deal late Tuesday on a new resolution that would authorize force in a U.S. mission in Syria — with some limits.

The resolution is much more narrow than the broad draft resolution the White House sent to Congress on Saturday. According to Senate aides familiar with the resolution's text, it limits military action to a 60-day period with a potential 30-day extension, if President Barack Obama comes to Congress with a request for an extension.

It also specifies that no troops may be deployed in the mission.

"The resolution creates a limited and clear mission all directly related to Assad’s weapons of mass destruction, places strict time limits on the mission, and specifies that there be no ground troops," a Senate aide told Business Insider.

The committee is expected to begin debate on the resolution on Wednesday. After it is marked up and if it passes through the committee, as expected, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will likely schedule a vote for early next week.

"We will have to see as it works its way through the Senate," an aide said on chances of full Senate passage.

The condition to bar any "boots on the ground" in Syria comes after Secretary of State John Kerry awkwardly refused to rule out such a possibility during a committee hearing Tuesday— and then furiously spent time trying to walk back on his statement throughout the rest of the hearing.

Here's the full text:

Syria Joint Resolution

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In A Rare Interview, Putin Warns Obama Against Solo Attack On Syria

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assad putin syria russiaNOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (AP)— President Vladimir Putin warned the West against taking one-sided action in Syria but also said Russia "doesn't exclude" supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes if it is proved that Damascus used poison gas on its own people.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press and Russia's state Channel 1 television, Putin said Moscow has provided some components of the S-300 air defense missile system to Syria but has frozen further shipments. He suggested that Russia may sell the potent missile systems elsewhere if Western nations attack Syria without U.N. Security Council backing.

The interview Tuesday night at Putin's country residence outside the Russian capital was the only one he granted prior to the summit of G-20 nations in St. Petersburg, which opens Thursday. The summit was supposed to concentrate on the global economy but now looks likely to be dominated by the international crisis over allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in the country's civil war.

Putin said he felt sorry that President Barack Obama canceled a one-on-one meeting in Moscow that was supposed to have happened before the summit. But he expressed hope the two would have serious discussions about Syria and other issues in St. Petersburg.

"President Obama hasn't been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia. And your humble servant hasn't been elected by the people of Russia to be pleasant to someone either," he said of their relationship.

"We work, we argue about some issues. We are human. Sometimes one of us gets vexed. But I would like to repeat once again that global mutual interests form a good basis for finding a joint solution to our problems," Putin said.

He also denied that Russia has anti-gay policies — an issue that has threatened to embarrass the country as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February.

The Russian leader, a year into his third term as president, appeared to go out of his way to be conciliatory amid a growing chill in U.S.-Russian relations. The two countries have sparred over Syria, the Edward Snowden affair, Russia's treatment of its opposition and the diminishing scope in Russia for civil society groups that receive funding from the West.

Putin said it was "ludicrous" that the government of President Bashar Assad — a staunch ally of Russia — would use chemical weapons at a time when it was holding sway against the rebels.

"From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces, the regular armed forces, which are on the offensive today and in some areas have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off, that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons while realizing quite well that it could serve as a pretext for applying sanctions against them, including the use of force," he said.

The Obama administration says 1,429 people died in the Aug. 21 attack in a Damascus suburb. Casualty estimates by other groups are far lower, and Assad's government blames the episode on rebels trying to overthrow him. A U.N. inspection team is awaiting lab results on tissue and soil samples it collected while in Syria before completing a report.

"If there are data that the chemical weapons have been used, and used specifically by the regular army, this evidence should be submitted to the U.N. Security Council," added Putin, a former officer in the Soviet KGB. "And it ought to be convincing. It shouldn't be based on some rumors and information obtained by special services through some kind of eavesdropping, some conversations and things like that."

He noted that even in the U.S., "there are experts who believe that the evidence presented by the administration doesn't look convincing, and they don't exclude the possibility that the opposition conducted a premeditated provocative action trying to give their sponsors a pretext for military intervention."

He compared the evidence presented by Washington to false data used by the Bush administration about weapons of mass destruction to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

"All these arguments turned out to be untenable, but they were used to launch a military action, which many in the U.S. called a mistake. Did we forget about that?" Putin said.

He said he "doesn't exclude" backing the use of force against Syria at the United Nations if there is objective evidence proving that Assad's regime used chemical weapons against its people. But he strongly warned Washington against launching military action without U.N. approval, saying it would represent an aggression.

Putin reinforced his demand that before taking action, Obama needed approval from the U.N. Security Council. Russia can veto resolutions in the council and has protected Syria from punitive actions there before.

Asked what kind of evidence on chemical weapons use would convince Russia, Putin said "it should be a deep and specific probe containing evidence that would be obvious and prove beyond doubt who did it and what means were used."

Putin said it was "too early" to talk about what Russia would do if the U.S. attacked Syria.

"We have our ideas about what we will do and how we will do it in case the situation develops toward the use of force or otherwise," he said. "We have our plans."

Putin called the S-300 air defense missile system "a very efficient weapon" and said that Russia had a contract for its delivery of the S-300s to Syria. "We have supplied some of the components, but the delivery hasn't been completed. We have suspended it for now," he said.

"But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world," he said.

The statement could be a veiled threat to revive a contract for the delivery of the S-300s to Iran, which Russia canceled a few years ago under strong U.S. and Israeli pressure.

Putin praised Obama as a frank and constructive negotiating partner and denied reports that he had taken personal offense at remarks by Obama comparing Putin's body language to that of a slouching, bored student. Putin said appearances can be deceiving.

Putin also accused U.S. intelligence agencies of bungling efforts to apprehend Snowden, the National Security Agency leader, who is wanted in the U.S. on espionage charges. He said the United States could have allowed Snowden to go to a country where his security would not be guaranteed or intercepted him along the way, but instead pressured other countries not to accept him or even to allow a plane carrying him to cross their airspace. Russia has granted him temporary asylum.

Putin also gave the first official confirmation that Snowden had been in touch with Russian officials in Hong Kong before flying to Moscow on June 23, but said he only learned that Snowden was on the flight two hours before it arrived. Putin once again denied that Russia's security services are working with Snowden, whose stay in Russia has been shrouded in secrecy.

On another topic, he denied at length charges that Russia has anti-gay policies, indicating that Obama was welcome to meet with gay and lesbian activists in Russia during his visit. He even said he might meet with a similar group himself if there is interest from the gay community in Russia.

Putin rejected the criticism of a Russian law banning gay propaganda that prompted some activists to call for the boycott of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, arguing that it wouldn't infringe on the rights of gays.

He also said that athletes and activists would not be punished if they raise rainbow flags or paint their fingernails in rainbow colors at the Feb. 7-23 Olympics.

But he clearly has no intention of allowing a gay pride parade or other such actions: Last month, Putin signed a decree banning all demonstrations and rallies in Sochi throughout the Winter Games.

As for the body language between Putin and Obama that some have said suggested a difficult working relationship, the Russian president urged everyone to avoid jumping to conclusions.

"There are some gestures, of course, that you can only interpret one way, but no one has ever seen those kinds of gestures directed by Obama at me or by me at Obama, and I hope that never happens," he said.

"Everything else is fantasy."

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Associated Press writer Laura Mills in Moscow contributed to this report.

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Vladimir Putin: Russian Officials Were In Contact With Snowden Before Flight To Moscow

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obama putinRussian officials were in touch with Edward Snowden before the US intelligence leaker flew to Moscow from Hong Kong, President Vladimir Putin has revealed.

In the first official confirmation of what some - particularly in Washington - have long suspected, Mr. Putin said Russian officials had been in contact with Snowden while he was on the run in Hong Kong in June. But the Russian leader said he had not been aware that the US fugitive was on the June 23 flight to Moscow until two hours before his plane landed.

Speaking to Russian state television and the Associated Press ahead of the G-20 summit on Thursday, Mr Putin also accused American intelligence agencies of bungling efforts to apprehend Snowden, who is wanted in the US on espionage charges. He said the United States could have allowed Snowden to go to a country where his security would not be guaranteed or intercepted him along the way, but instead pressured other countries not to accept him or even to allow a plane carrying him to cross their airspace. Russia has granted him temporary asylum.

"Representatives of the American special services - and I hope they won't be angry - but they could have been more professional, and the diplomats as well," he said. "After they found out that he was flying to us, and that he was flying as a transit passenger, there was pressure from all sides - from the Americans, from the Europeans - instead of just letting him go to a country where they could operate easily."

Mr. Putin once again denied that Russia's security services are working with Snowden, whose stay in Russia has been shrouded in secrecy.

The affair reopened old wounds in the US-Russia relationship and prompted terse exchanges between the White House and the Kremlin, President Barack Obama accusing Mr Putin of a "Cold war mentality". Mr Putin told the state channel he felt sorry that President Barack Obama had cancelled a one-on-one meeting in Moscow that was supposed to have taken place before the G-20 summit in St Petersburg.

But he expressed hope the two would have serious discussions about Syria and other issues at the summit.

"President Obama hasn't been elected by the American people in order to be pleasant to Russia. And your humble servant hasn't been elected by the people of Russia to be pleasant to someone either," he said of their relationship.

Edited by Hannah Strange

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Putin: Snowden Is A 'Strange Guy' Who Is In For A Tough Life

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Edward Snowden

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who received asylum in Russia, is a "strange guy" who condemned himself to a difficult fate.

"You know, I sometimes thought about him, he is a strange guy," ex-KGB spy Putin said in an interview with state-run Channel One television.

"How is he going to build his life? In effect, he condemned himself to a rather difficult life. I do not have the faintest idea about what he will do next," Putin said.

The case has intensified strains between Russia and the United States and prompted US President Barack Obama to cancel a visit to Moscow for a bilateral summit ahead of the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg this week.

"Well, it's clear we will not give him up, he can feel safe here. But what's next?" Putin said, suggesting that Washington, which wants to put him on trial, may in time reconsider its stance.

"And maybe some compromises will be found in this case."

But asked what would he do with the leaker were he a Russian national, Putin said he would do everything to make sure he is "held responsible in strict accordance with Russian law."

Putin said while US special services consider Snowden a traitor "he is someone with a completely different frame of mind and considers himself to be a fighter for human rights."

Before receiving temporary asylum Snowden spent over a month marooned in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport where he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.

In the interview, Putin revealed for the first time that he had known about Snowden's request to receive asylum in Russia while he was still in Hong Kong and told him via his aides that he was welcome to arrive in Russia as long as he stopped his leaks.

"He was told about it," Putin said of Snowden, adding he did not agree to his conditions. "And he left, just left, and that's it," he said, referring to the Russian diplomatic mission in Hong Kong which he said Snowden had contacted.

"Then he started flying to Latin America on a plane. I was told that Mr Snowden was flying to us two hours before the plane's landing."

Putin's revelation comes after he repeatedly stressed that Snowden had turned up in Russia uninvited.

The Russian strongman insisted that Russia did not receive any information from Snowden, reiterating that the country could not extradite him simply because Moscow and Washington did not have an extradition treaty even though Russia proposed concluding such an agreement.

"And what should we do after it?

"Hand him over there? Then conclude the agreement with us. If you do not want to, fine," Putin said, adding Washington should not then insist that Russia extradite Snowden when the United States refuses to expel Russian "bandits."

Snowden's pro-Kremlin lawyer Anatoly Kucherena said for his part that the 30-year-old, who was previously based in Hawaii, was gradually adjusting to his new life in Russia.

"Right now everything is absolutely fine," he told popular daily Moskovsky Komsomolets.

Kucherena declined to release any specifics or say where Snowden was staying, noting only that the American was in touch with his family as he awaited his a visit by his father.

He was enjoying his new-found freedom, even if he "practically" had no money, Kucherena said.

"He likes to travel, he makes trips, he is getting himself acquainted" with Russia.

No sightings of Snowden have been reported since he left the airport last month.

Kucherena said Snowden likes reading the works of classic Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and his Russian language skills were improving.

"He reacts, understands some things," he said. "One cannot say that he has mastered the language but he will devote a lot of time to it."

"But already he can say words such as "tyazhko, tyazhko" (it's tough, it's tough) and "stakan" (a glass)."

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Obama Sets A New 'Red Line' On Syria — This Time For Congress

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Barack Obama syria sweden

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that there was plenty of credibility on the line over the world's response in Syria — of Congress and of the international community as a whole.

"My credibility is not on the line," Obama said during a joint press conference in Sweden, where he spoke after a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. "International credibility is on the line."

His remarks came as Congress is in the midst of debating a resolution that would authorize limited U.S. military force in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his own people on Aug. 21. 

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will begin markup and debate Wednesday on a compromise resolution that authorizes military action for a 60-day period, while specifically barring any ground troops from being deployed in Syria.

Obama expressed confidence that Congress would pass a resolution because their credibility was on the line. He also said that Congress had a responsibility to uphold an international "red line"— a reference to a comment he famously made last August, when he said that the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would "change [his] calculus" on U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war.

On Wednesday, he said that the "red line" applied to all parties involved — because "98%" of countries, he said, signed on to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which banned the production, stockpiling, preparation, and use of chemical weapons. Congress, he said, also set a "red line" when it ratified the treaty, as well as when it passed the Syria Accountability Act in 2003. 

"So, when I said in a press conference that my calculus about what's happening in Syria would be altered by the use of chemical weapons — which the overwhelming consensus of humanity says is wrong — that wasn't something I just kind of made up," Obama said. "I didn't pluck it out of thin air. There's a reason for it."

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Inside The Shipyard Where The Navy's Massive $14 Billion Aircraft Carrier Is Being Built [PHOTOS]

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Newport News Shipbuilding Huntington Ingalls Norfolk Virginia 51

When Newport News shipyard built its first boat, the Dorothy, on Virginia's James River in 1890, it was the beginning of an American legacy.

Not long after the Dorothy's launch, Newport News Shipbuilding became renowned for the quality of its ships and the size of its yard, the largest in the world during the early 20th century.

It's a different world in the shipyard; everything is on a scale that's tough to wrap your head around, even the length of its employees' tenure. It's not uncommon for Newport News workers to retire from the company with more than 50 years of service. This is the shipyard where the world's most expensive ship is being built after all. 

The company's human resource officer and corporate VP, Bill Ermatinger, told Business Insider that he has fifth-generation employees today following in the footsteps of their great-great-great-grandfathers.

The following photos offer a glimpse inside this  unique shipbuilding facility with a grand history, and the long relationship with those who defend this country on the seas.

Newport News is located next to the Naval Station at Norfolk, Va., the largest naval base in the U.S. This is no coincidence.



The Newport News, Va., shipyard is home to more than 22,000 employees, massive work spaces, and some of the largest equipment of its kind in the world.



The shipyard hosts the largest crane of its type in the Western Hemisphere.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

PHOTO: Airbus Proves Its Huge New Warplane Doesn't Need A Paved Runway

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Airbus delivered the first A400M Atlas to the French Air Force in August, but it's still busy running trials to prove just how much the huge new warplane can do.

The Military branch of the European plane manufacturer recently spent a week in Ablitas, in northern Spain, testing the A400M's ability to land on gravel runways. That's key for a plane that will be used in emergency and military situations.

Part of the reason the plane has propellers, rather than jet engines, is that props stand up better to debris kicked up on takeoffs and landings. Airbus says "damage to the aircraft exterior from stones and dust was minimal and within expectations," and the runway was still usable "after repeated operations."

In a release, head of testing Eric Isorce said "We are extremely please with the results of these tests."

Here's a photo of the A400M touching down on rough ground:

airbus a400m landing runway test

SEE ALSO: Unbelievable Photos Of The French Army's Monstrous New Warplane

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West Faces 'Sisyphean Task' To Stop Online Recruitment Of Terrorists

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PARIS (Reuters) - "I am French," explains the young man in the YouTube video carrying a Kalashnikov and wearing a kufiya cotton headdress as he sits in front of a waving black-and-white flag of al Qaeda.

"Oh my Muslim brothers in France, Europe and in the whole world, Jihad in Syria is obligatory," says the fair-skinned youth with sandy hair, wispy beard and southern French accent, imploring viewers to join him and his younger brother in Syria.

"There are many Muslims in the world and we need you."

Although the United States and its European allies support rebels fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, they consider some rebel groups to be dangerous terrorist organizations linked to al Qaeda.

Officials in Western countries say they are worried about the threat from their own nationals going abroad to fight in Syria and one day returning to carry out attacks at home.

"There is a key factor in the Syria war now: the number of French nationals who are fighting there. It is a problem of national security," a senior French diplomat told Reuters.

Radicals heading toSyria are learning about the war online from social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and user forums. Security experts say that makes it harder than ever to disrupt the networks that might lure them in.

"The Islamist radicalization going on today isn't with preachers anymore, acting within mosques, but individuals who are using the Internet as a means of propaganda," said sociologist Samir Amghar, author of the book "Militant Islam in Europe."

As the West considers strikes on Syriato punish Assad's government for suspected chemical weapons attacks, as many as 600 Europeans have already joined the rebellion against him, according to the European Union, which in May recommended better tracking of social media to spot foreign fighters.

A much smaller number of Americans are also believed to be fighting. A Muslim convert from Michigan was the first U.S. woman believed to have been killed alongside the rebels in May.

Computer experts and police say onlinerecruitment is particularly difficult to disrupt because of the dizzying volume of material, time lags in capturing digital evidence, the difficulty of cross-border cooperation and the uncertainty of securing convictions in countries that safeguard free speech.

"I describe it as a Sisyphean task," said Shiraz Maher of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College, London. "You try and pull it down and it will come back in one form or another."

"How do you begin to challenge this? It's just practically impossible to do, it's out there in such quantity."

"VISIT SYRIA!"

Syria has now eclipsed conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Mali to dominate web discussion by Islamists. Some 40 different rebel factions are uploading status reports from the ground in Syria in real time, said senior analyst Laith Alkhouri of security consultancy Flashpoint Global Partners.

Just a few keystrokes can uncover Germans, Italians, Belgians, British, Americans, even Australians - Muslim-born or recently converted - on social networking sites encouraging their countrymen to leave their homes and take up arms in Syria.

"Oh brothers! You don't need someone to take you by the hand to get there. A bit of resourcefulness and you're off!" wrote "Erwan" in a June 23 posting on French radical Islamist forum Ansar Al Haqq. He included links showing the easiest way toSyria from Turkey.

Authorities sometimes choose to shut or sabotage the sites of groups they identify as terrorists, as the United States and Britain did in corrupting online issues of al Qaeda's "Inspire" English-language magazine.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said in June that police had removed over 5,700 pieces of online terrorism content since 2011. Yet that is only a fraction of the estimated 50,000 extremist sites globally, according to the University of Arizona's Dark Web Project, which collects and analyses data from global jihadist forums.

While governments and major social networking sites quickly take down material deemed clearly offensive, such as videos of prisoners being beheaded, most content is less clear cut.

Authorities seeking to curb what they consider to be dangerous material on the Web have to make fine distinctions between political speech that is protected in most Western countries, and incitement to violence which is banned.

Sociologist Amghar said many of the sites are promoting an ideology, rather than calling for violence.

"The objective of many of these sites is not to incite individuals to commit attacks but rather to keep the idea ofJihad in the forefront of people's minds," he said. "The hard part to gauge with precision is what's the impact."

In a sign of the difficulty of stamping out extremism on the Internet, both France and Germany abandoned movesto block such content in the past two years.

The West's opposition to Assad muddies the issue further. It means any Westerners fighting against the government - and anyone on the internet urging them to do so - are ostensibly on the same side as Western authorities.

France's top anti-terrorism judge, Marc Trevidic, foresees challenges in prosecuting return Westerners who return home, given the difficulty of tracking their movements in Syria and proving they joined groups, such as the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, that Western states consider terrorists. A recruiting video may fall short of proof needed for conviction.

"We consider that wanting to fight Jihad is being a terrorist. But things aren't so simple," Trevidic told an anti-terrorism parliamentary committee in February.

France has opened five formal Syria-related terrorism investigations but no cases have yet been decided by a judge, according to a justice ministry source.

Across the Atlantic, a U.S. citizen, Eric Harroun, was indicted in June by a federal grand jury for allegedly fighting alongside the al-Nusra Front. He can be been seen in online videos posing with weapons and boasting of successful attacks.

"THANK YOU, YOUTUBE"

There are benefits to leaving extremist online material in place, security experts say.

"It's an excellent tool for intelligence," said criminologist Alain Bauer, a former security advisor to French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy. "Western intelligence agencies should give Facebook, YouTube and these other sites a medal."

Eighty percent of terrorism cases before French courts rely exclusively on evidence from the Internet, according toa May 24 parliamentary report on terrorism.

"There's a sense of 'disrupt the flow' when they can, and also a sense of 'leave it be, let's monitor'," said Maher.

When authorities do try to take material off the Web, they are often too late to be effective. It may take months before YouTube responds to a government request to remove an offending video. In the interim, hundreds of copies may have been made and reposted, fuelled by buzz about the video on Twitter.

A system in which users flag inappropriate content is faster, but given that 72 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute, it's not fast enough to keep such content offline.

"It takes five minutes to upload a one-hour video but it might take five months to get YouTube to be aware of this video," said Flashpoint's Alkhouri.

A spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube, said the company responds quickly after users flag content forbidden under policy guidelines, such as incitement to violence.

Given the flood of volume, Western police agencies need smarter tools allowing them to pinpoint and analyze the most dangerous content, a capability most don't have, said Hsinchun Chen, who runs Dark Web at the University of Arizona.

"The analogy is drinking water from the fire hydrant, the content just keeps coming through and how do you monitor that?"

Chen's Dark Web portal relies on multilingual data mining and content analysis to gather and sift through terrorist web content. He said a similar systematic method of collection is currently used only by Israel and one U.S. security agency.

"(Intelligence agencies) are experts in investigations but most of them are not experts in computer science. They don't have the resources or the will or the capability to collect large amounts of information on a systematic basis," Chen said. "They should have it, and it's available."

That also raises privacy issues, which have come to the fore in the United States since former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency collects huge amounts of data from phone calls and internet traffic.

In its May report, France's parliamentary commission recommended strengthening the technical means and automation of Internet surveillance. It added that high-level engineers were "impossible to recruit."

URGENT OR LONG-TERM THREAT

Fighting online extremist content requires a cross-border response as websites may appear in one country but be hosted in another. But information-sharing can be slow and the sensitive nature of terrorism cases adds further delays.

"As soon as you talk about terrorism and national security there are other rules of the game," said Troels Oerting, head of the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol, which helps countries monitor the Web. "National security is very national, it's not very international."

One such example is Malika el Aroud, a Belgian-Moroccan convicted in 2007 by Switzerland for operating a website that recruited militant Islamist fighters to Afghanistan, only to launch a similar site across the border in Belgium. A Belgian court ultimately sentenced her to prison in 2010.

Police are likely to devote more effort to immediate local threats than hypothetical future threats, like those that might be posed by returned fighters from Syria.

"If I'm an intelligence officer in Paris and my primary concern is to make sure nothing happens on the Metro, I'm not immediately concerned by the guy saying, 'Go toSyria,'" said radicalization expert Maher.

"The urgent threat is the guy sitting in a Parisian suburb building a bomb," he said. "You have to balance resources between that threat and the important more slow-moving threat that will germinate and come to fruition in years to come."

(Additional Reporting By Mark Hosenball in Washington; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Liberals Aren't Buying Obama And Kerry's Arguments For Action In Syria

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The Progressive Change Campaign Committee is coming out against military action in Syria, and it plans to pressure on-the-fence Democrats in Congress to oppose it, as well.

The PCCC, which has a membership of nearly 1 million people, is sending a memo to Democratic representatives and senators with the results of a survey that shows its members overwhelmingly oppose intervening in Syria. The poll also shows that its members aren't buying President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry's justifications for intervening.

Here are some of the findings highlighted in the memo, for which the PCCC received more than 57,000 responses:

  • 52% say they don't believe Obama and Kerry when they say certain things are true in Syria as justification for military action. Only 48% agree with them.
  • By 73% to 18%, respondents oppose U.S. military action in Syria.

  • Only 14% favor unilateral U.S. military action. Among those open to a coalition effort, 55% say the United Nations “must” approve the action to go forward.

  • 81% believe that an initially-limited bombing campaign would lead to deeper involvement.

  • 80% say, regardless of the U.S.'s goal, narrow bombings will not achieve it.

  • Most respondents believe something should be done about Syria — only 11% say to do nothing. 38% say we need a diplomatic strategy involving the UN and other nations. 19% say pursue war crime charges in The Hague. 19% favor humanitarian aid. Only 11% prefer air attacks as the solution.

The survey and pressure come as Congress is in the midst of debating a resolution that would authorize limited U.S. military force in response to alleged chemical weapons attacks by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his own people on Aug. 21. 

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will begin markup and debate Wednesday on a compromise resolution that authorizes military action for a 60-day period, while specifically barring any ground troops from being deployed in Syria.

The PCCC said its members would make "thousands" of calls to members of Congress in the coming days, as well as participate in local events.

"You now face a decision that involves life and death," Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founders, said in a statement. 

"This decision also involves billions of dollars. And it will send a signal to your constituents and the world about our nation’s morals and our ability to make strategic, goal-oriented decisions. ... Your progressive base stands firmly against military action in Syria."

Green and the PCCC had come out in support of Obama's decision to seek Congressional authorization on Saturday, calling it an "important precedent for all future presidents."

The full PCCC memo and survey results, with charts, are embedded below:

Syria Memo PCCC

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Chelsea Manning Releases Application For Presidential Pardon

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Army Private Chelsea Manning, formerly known as Bradley Manning, has formally asked for a Presidential pardon.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison after orchestrating the largest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Today BradleyManning.org released Manning's application for a presidential pardon, as well as a letter from Manning's lawyer and a letter from Amnesty International.

In the application Manning writes that the decisions she made "made in 2010 were made out of a concern for my country and the world that we live in," before comparing the actions of the U.S. government in the days after the 9/11 attacks to McCarthyism and Japanese-American internment camps.

Manning concludes that if her request for a pardon fails, she will serve her "time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in free society."

The application is embedded below:

Pardon Request

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SENATE PANEL APPROVES LIMITED MILITARY STRIKE ON SYRIA

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The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution that authorizes President Barack Obama to use limited military force in Syria by a 10-7 vote on Wednesday. 

The resolution will now head to the full Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid will likely schedule a vote for early next week.

Voting "yes" on the resolution were Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer (Calif.), Ben Cardin (Md.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Chris Coons (Del.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Bob Menendez (N.J.) and Tim Kaine (Va.); as well as Republicans Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), and John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Voting "no" were Democrats Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.); as well as Republicans James Risch (Idaho), Ron Johnson (Wisc.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), and big names Rand Paul (Ky.) and Marco Rubio (Fla.).

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) voted present.

The panel's passage came the day after Menendez, its chair, and Corker, its ranking Republican, agreed to a compromise resolution that narrowed the White House's proposed guidelines. The compromise resolution limits military action to 60 days — with a potential 30-day extension. It also barred the deployment of ground troops in Syria.

However, McCain's vote was only assured after he and Coons introduced an amendment that broadened the objective of the U.S. mission to "change the momentum on the battlefield in Syria."

The amendment added specifies that the U.S.'s strategy should aim to degrade the Assad regime's capabilities to use chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, while at the same time upgrading the "lethal and non-lethal capabilities" of "vetted" groups within the Syrian opposition.

The White House commended the Senate panel's vote in a statement from Press Secretary Jay Carney. 

"We commend the Senate for moving swiftly and for working across party lines on behalf of our national security," Carney said. "... The military action authorized in the resolution would uphold America's national security interests by degrading Assad's chemical weapons capability and deterring the future use of these weapons, even as we pursue a broader strategy of strengthening the opposition to hasten a political transition in Syria.

"We will continue to work with Congress to build on this bipartisan support for a military response that is narrowly tailored to enforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons, and sufficient to protect the national security interests of the United States of America."

SEE ALSO: Liberals Aren't Buying Obama And Kerry's Arguments For Action In Syria

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Meanwhile, Al Qaeda Distributes Back-To-School Materials In Syria

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As the U.S. mulls strikes, Al Qaeda is concerned kids have the right materials for school.

, a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow at Middle East Forum, Student at Oxford University tweeted this image this morning, which reportedly shows a couple school kids holding an "Islamic State of Iraq" backpack in Syria:

Islamic state of iraq backpack

The Islamic State of Iraq has been pouring over the Syrian border for some time now in an attempt to bolster Jabhat al-Nusra and topple the Bashar Al-Assad regime. They're best known for fighting the U.S. Marines in Iraq's western-most Al-Anbar province during the Iraq War.

In attempt to rebrand themselves, they've even begun handing out Teletubbies and toys.

Their soft-side approach in Syria mimics that of a letter written by the head of Al Qaeda in the Arabic Peninsula in 2012, Nasser al-Wahishi. The letter — sent to Qaeda's leaders and a copy of which Associated Press reporters found in Mali — encouraged water works and electricity projects, rather than Islamic summary maimings.

It even gave advice on how to best conduct trash pick-ups.

“Try to win them over through the conveniences of life, it will make them sympathize with us and make them feel that their fate is tied to ours,” wrote Wahishi.

From the Associated Press report about the Mali letter:

After its failure in Iraq, say experts who were shown the correspondence, the terror network realized that it is not enough to win territory: They must also learn to govern it if they hope to hold it.

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Newest Snowden Leak Details CIA's PR Strategy For The Drone War

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reaper4.JPG The latest in the Snowden leak saga comes from the Washington Post about the NSA spying on Al Qaeda and the CIA's use of drones.

In it, there's a portion tucked at the end which shows the battle of branding of drone tech and operations.

From Washington Post:

Analysts also questioned whether they were losing the rhetorical battle in the media, the courts and even among “citizens with legitimate social agendas.” One 2010 report predicted that drone operations “could be brought under increased scrutiny, perceived to be illegitimate, openly resisted or undermined.”

In response, intelligence agencies floated their own ideas to influence public perceptions.

“Strikes connote a first attack, which leaves the victim unable to respond. Other phrases employed to evoke an emotional response include ‘Kill List,’ ‘Hit Squads,’ ‘Robot Warfare,’ or ‘Aerial Assassins.’

Instead, the report advised referring to “lethal UAV operations.” It also suggested “elevating the conversation” to more-abstract issues, such as the “Inherent Right of Self-Defense” and “Pre-emptive and Preventive Military Action.”

The CIA isn't the only one in the drone branding game either. Apparently it considered the new approaches in response to an Al-Qaeda push to make the U.S. look bad over drone strikes.

Even Bill "Sweet" Tart — an Air Force drone pilot who "always watches for the kids"— attempted to rebrand drones as "Remotely Piloted Aircraft"in his exclusive interview with Huffington Post. His preference was more one of pride, however.

It goes without mentioning that all the three letter organizations have public affairs wings which carefully craft public image. Nonetheless, this approach to phrasing smacks more of Republican branding guru Frank Luntz than of an agency charged with protecting America and at times killing to do it. It also suggests that the CIA is more concerned with manipulating public opinion than in responding to often valid concerns.

After controversy surrounding of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, the attention to political will is not surprising.

Former government intelligence analyst turned freelance reporter Joshua Foust summed  up the importance of political will to Business Insider months ago when he said, "The outcry over extraordinary rendition — which was how President Bush went about capturing and interrogating a lot of these suspected individuals — was incredibly unpopular … abroad [and] in the U.S. Frankly, killing people polls better, and it polls strongly across the aisle."

Foust was talking about the use of drone strikes as opposed to capture, a preference of the executive office he said was fueled by the growing sense of outrage over Gitmo and indefinite detention.

One way or another, the Post covered an internal debate which highlights the hardest truth of war: how to explain its necessity to the people.

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Al Qaeda Warns Its Syria Affiliates: Drop The Cell Phones, Bombs Are Coming

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Bashar Al Assad isn't the only one making moves based on the probability of U.S. bombs, Al Qaeda is in the mix too.

The extremist militant group figures that they will also be targets of a torrent of U.S. cruise missiles.

Mark Stout, Senior Editor at War on the Rocks, writes:

Today, however, more and more jihadists are taking the United States’ military capabilities very seriously and this new view probably extends to other NATO militaries, as well.  Certainly, there is little scoffing these days at the effectiveness of modern airpower or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

A few days ago when American strikes on Syria seemed imminent, Fatah al-Islam, among other groups, warned its members to be ready for the possibility that the strikes would be on jihadist targets as well as Assad regime targets.

The modern military's ability to efficiently find targets has Al Qaeda leaders spooked, as Liz Sly of The Washington Post noted last week when she quoted an all-hands memo sent out to affiliates in Syria:

“Start changing your locations, and use safe houses, and don’t move around in obvious convoys. Take away mobile phones from the troops, and send them away from the leadership. America destroyed jihadi bases in a very short period of time in Afghanistan and Iraq, and killed a large number of them, because they weren’t prepared. So don’t fall in the trap of laziness.”

Among many ways the military locks on targets — human intelligence, boots on the ground with laser targeting systems — satellite and cell phone signals have been of great consequence.

Cruise missiles operate with a combination of four targeting systems, one of which is GPS, another which matches the contour of the landscape, and still yet another that stores GPS location and satellite images of the target.

All told, they are a deadly accurate weapon — and Obama has a few hundred parked off the coast of Syria.

SEE ALSO: 20 Reasons why the Tomahawk should have Assad awake at night

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Obama's Decision To Wait On Syria Reportedly Shocked US Forces

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Those tasked with executing the strike on Bashar al Assad's regime in Syria were reportedly shocked when U.S. President Barack Obama announced Saturday that he wanted to seek Congressional approval first, according to Chris Lawrence with CNN

"The tempo went from 'go-go-go' to nothing," an unnamed defense official told CNN. "We were standing multiple watches. Everyone was pretty sure it was going to happen."

With U.S. destroyers and submarines moored off the coast of Syria, battle stations manned, and fingers on the trigger of hundreds of Tomahawk cruise missiles, Obama reportedly changed his mind Friday evening on executing the strike on his own authority, after a conversation with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said as early as Aug. 27 that the U.S. military was "ready to go" to strike Syria if ordered, in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians on Aug. 21.

But after a proposed UN Security Council Resolution failed to make it pass Russia, and a British measure authorizing force died in the House of Commons, the president decided to seek an authorization of military force from Congress.

The authorization cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today by a vote of 10 to 7, with one abstention. 

It is expected to be subject to a full vote from the House and Senate as early as next week.

SEE ALSO: These Two Maps Show Just How Much Western Power Is Surrounding Syria Right Now

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How A US Attack On Assad Can Hurt His Regime With Being A Surprise

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Bashar AssadWASHINGTON (Reuters) - It would hardly be a surprise to Syrian President Bashar al-Assador his military if American missiles start hitting Syria soon.

With weeks to prepare for an attack, Assad might benefit in some ways from the delay in any strike caused by President Barack Obama's decision to seek approval from a divided U.S. Congress.

U.S. officials and defense experts say Assad's forces cannot take enough targets out of reach to blunt the U.S. military mission, especially since it is billed as having very limited objectives.

Obama is calling for a limited military strike in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians blamed by the United States on Assad's forces.

Fixed targets, for example, cannot be protected no matter how much time elapses. "A building can't be moved, nor hid," one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Other fixed targets could include airfields, although not any storage facilities with chemical weapons in them.

Defense analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said if successful, hitting fixed targets would eliminate key assets to Assad that "can't easily be replaced, like command and control facilities, major headquarters."

"These are lasting targets," Cordesman said.

It is still unclear when any U.S. attack on Syria will happen but Assad already has had ample time to try to get ready. U.S. officials have been openly discussing the possibility of hitting Syria since shortly after the August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus.

Even if Congress approves military action, a final vote would be unlikely before the middle of next week.

A second U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the delay added "complexities" to the planning efforts.

"It may change target sets," the official said. "We'll continue to refine our targeting options to conditions on the ground."

Assad has already moved some military equipment and personnel to civilian areas and put soldiers whose loyalty to Assad is in doubt in military sites as human shields against any Western strikes, the Istanbul-based Syrian opposition has said.

It cited movement of rockets, Scud missiles and launches, as well as soldiers to locations including schools, university dormitories and government buildings inside cities.

That could complicate the ability of the United States to reach some targets.

COLLATERAL DAMAGE

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged publicly to Congress that Obama has ordered the military to develop plans that keep a lid on collateral damage - civilian deaths and damage to civilian infrastructure.

"Though they are in fact moving resources around - and in some cases placing prisoners and others in places that they believe we might target - at this point our intelligence is keeping up with that movement," Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, told lawmakers on Wednesday.

WAIT FOR MONTH?

The question of whether losing the element of surprise makes a difference militarily became a bone of contention in the debate over congressional backing for Obama's attack plan.

Senator John McCain, one of the Republicans who has pushed hardest for military action in Syria, said this week he was "astounded" when Obama said the military had advised him that an attack would still be effective in a month's time.

"When you tell the enemy you are going to attack, they are obviously going to disperse and make it harder," McCain said in Congress on Tuesday.

"It's ridiculous to think that it's not wise from a pure military standpoint not to warn the enemy that you're gonna attack," McCain said.

The Obama administration says the planned attack is designed to strike a particular balance - being strong enough to deter Assad from using chemical weapons in the future while also degrading his ability to do so.

But the Obama administration has said any attack would not be designed to topple Assador necessarily shift the momentum in Syria's civil war to the detriment of government forces.

U.S. objectives include targets directly linked to the Syrian military's ability to use chemical weapons, as well as missiles and rockets that can deliver them, Dempsey said.

Air defenses that could be used to protect chemical weapons sites are also potential targets, Dempsey said.

"That target package is still being refined as I sit here with you," Dempsey told lawmakers.

Despite the stated objective of deterring Assad, the U.S. military cannot guarantee its strikes will prevent Assad from using chemical weapons in the future.

Even the objective to degrade - a military term that means "diminish" - his capabilities is vague. There has been no clear, public objective offered by the United States on how much it must damage Assad's capabilities.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)

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