Senate panel approves weapons for Syrian rebels

May 21, 2013 @ 2:24 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Senate panel voted on Tuesday to provide weapons to rebels battling the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, the first time lawmakers have endorsed the aggressive U.S. military step of arming the opposition in the 2-year-old civil war.

With a degree of trepidation, the Foreign Relations Committee voted 15-3 for a bill that would provide lethal assistance and military training to vetted rebel groups, and would slap sanctions on anyone who sells oil or transfers arms to the Assad regime such as Iran and Russia. The measure also establishes a $250 million fund to aid in the transition if and when Assad falls.

An intense committee debate over the bill underscored congressional fears about greater U.S. military involvement in a Mideast war after more than a decade of American combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also exposed divisions within the Republican Party about U.S. foreign policy that will remain well into the 2016 GOP presidential nomination fight.

The fate of the bill is uncertain, with opposition among several senators and far less enthusiasm in the House for stepped-up U.S. military action. The legislation does send a strong message as the Obama administration mulls its next step.

After some 90 minutes of discussion _ and rejection of several amendments to undercut the measure, a bipartisan argument for increased U.S. action in Syria swayed lawmakers.

"The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the committee chairman. "Vital U.S. interests are at stake including the stability of the Middle East, loose chemical weapons, and the danger that Syria becomes a safe haven for extremists. The United States must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free and democratic Syria."

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the panel's top Republican, implicitly criticized the Obama administration as he joined Menendez in embracing the measure.

"Much of the policy on Syria has been done on an ad hoc basis," Corker said. "This bill lays out a strategy."

The United Nations estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced after two years of fighting between Assad forces and rebels. The Obama administration has provided millions of dollars in humanitarian assistance but has been wary of calls to arm the rebels or launch military strikes despite recent evidence that Assad has used chemical weapons on his people.

The administration is mulling its next step as Secretary of State John Kerry pursues a diplomatic solution.

Opposing the legislation were Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a potential presidential candidate in 2016, and Democratic Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Chris Murphy of Connecticut.

Udall questioned whether the United States would know what rebel groups it was arming as it introduced more lethal weapons into a chaotic situation while Murphy argued that the U.S. hasn't learned from history.

"We have failed over and over again in our attempts to pull the strings of Middle Eastern politics," he said.

Paul said the U.S. is war weary and reluctant to get involved in a murky conflict with so many factions. He said there is no assurance that the weapons would end up in the hands of "liberty-loving, Jeffersonian-type of democrats."

"It's impossible to know who are friends are," he said.

His arguments put him at odds with another potential White House candidate _ Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who backed the legislation and insisted that it was critical to help groups battling the well-armed, pro-Assad forces and radical jihadists.

The committee turned back two amendments sponsored by Paul, one saying the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force does not allow intervention in Syria and another that barred weapons to Syria.

Paul pointed out the irony that one of the most effective rebel groups fighting Assad is Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaida-affiliated group. The goal of the legislation is to ensure that the rebel groups meet a certain criteria with no links to terrorism.

The panel also rejected a Udall amendment that would have limited the weapons to .50-caliber arms and smaller. The senator warned that heavier weapons could end up in the hands of U.S. enemies.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a fierce proponent of aggressive U.S. military might against Syria, pointed out that Assad's forces have used helicopter gunships, tanks, Scud missiles and heavy artillery.

"The senator wants to use shotguns against Scud missiles," McCain said derisively.

Udall said Saudi Arabia and Qatar are providing weapons to the opposition forces. The United States, he said, "could turn over the weapons we're talking about and next day they end up in the hands of al-Qaida."

On Wednesday, Kerry will meet with 10 of America's closest Arab and European allies in Jordan. Officials said the gathering has two aims: to change Assad's calculation, only fortified by his recent military successes, that he can win the war militarily, and to persuade both the government and the opposition to attend peace talks next month in Geneva.

____

Associated Press writer Bradley Klapper in Muscat, Oman, contributed to this report.


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (36)


  • Add A Comment

  • CH wrote...
    here we go again - WMD . . . .
    December 3, 2012 5:03 pm
    republicans will find some thing wrong with the 4 sure.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    What will your Dear Leader do?
    December 4, 2012 5:39 am
    Nothing! Not a thing other than threats! And America's enemies know this.

    Parrots, remember you voted for this and you got it!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cigarfan wrote...
    @Lord Ha ha!
    May 2, 2013 2:37 pm
    Do you ever go beyond comments that are no deeper than a bird bath? Why don't you spend your time discussing the subject at hand in detail?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CldWtrSrf wrote...
    Good to see it's me is still a War Monger just like
    December 4, 2012 6:49 am
    Obama is. Syria ISN'T fighting a Civil War dummy. They are fighting off Al Qaeda that Obama and the United States are FUNDING and ARMING!! So, America is using the very same Terrorist that they created and used against the Russians, in Bosnia, in Libya then airlifted to Turkey to use in Syria, all the while telling us that we have to give up our RIGHTS so that they can "keep us safe" from those dirty Al Qaeda that actually work for the Pentagon/CIA/U.S. Government. SICKENING!!!! And all you "Good 'Ol Boys" eat it up just like the Obama drones do because it's "their" guy doing it now instead that evil Bush. What a Shed of TOOLS you all are. Wake up and get your heads out of the sand, especially you It's me, CH and longway are lost causes, don't be as moronic as they are.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • wsualumn wrote...
    CldWtrSrf
    January 10, 2013 10:12 pm
    Do you happen to be Alex Jones? You are claiming that we are in "cahoots" with Al Qaeda? So why did we allow them to crash planes into the Twin Towers? You are telling other to get their heads out of the sand and not be moronic? For some strange reason, paranoid is entering my mind when it comes to you.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Maybe we should send in some Iraqi Kurds to investigate
    March 19, 2013 7:24 pm
    They know a thing or two about WMD's
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    What a frighin mess
    March 19, 2013 9:16 pm
    And Obama is so weak that he actualky thinks Al Qaeda is on the run...HAHAHAhA . Anybody remember the Spring of Democracy? I wonder what label the morons on the Left will come up with this year? I ave a feeling we're headed back into another Summer of Jihad....wonder if the Muslim Brotherhood will come to the rescue with ll the new fighter jets and $250 million in aid we tax Anerican Tax Payers just friiggin handed them.... And Obama closes the White House. Anybody????Good God, this country is being run by EF ing IDIOTS!!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    CldWtrSrf, you want to know what the difference is between Bush and Obama?
    March 20, 2013 10:08 am
    I only ask you this because apparently now Bush is on the table for discussion, since you compared him to Obama. The rest of the time, we're not allowed by you right-wingers to bring up that sorry recent history, are we. You'd all rather sweep it under the rug.

    But I digress. So what's the difference?

    Obama doesn't make stuff up to start a war.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    Funny you should say that XCOP, because it's the ten year anniversary of the Iraq war.
    March 21, 2013 12:00 pm
    And as it happens, there's plenty of information to be found on how they cooked the intel.

    For example, here's a 5 minute video of a CIA WMD analyst talking about just that. She has just now gone public with this, I'm guessing because she saw what was done to her colleague Valerie Plame by Cheney and Scooter Libby:

    http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/ex-cia-analyst%3A-i-tried-to-make-iraq-war-intelligence-less-bogus/5148f0702b8c2a28e200014c

    In particular, Cheney visited the Pentagon to cherry pick raw intel to try to justify the war. Normally, your supposed to shape policy around the facts. But with the Bush WH, it was the other way around. But I guess those at the CIA who speak out are just CoolAid drinkers too?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Looks like Barry is involving us in ANOTHER war.
    March 25, 2013 1:53 pm
    It's Owebama's fault.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Brian Oblivion wrote...
    The entire population of the middle east
    March 25, 2013 2:09 pm
    save Israel is not worth one drop of American blood. I'm very conservative but totally against any invasion of foreign lands by us. That includes Viet Nam, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afcrapistan, Libya, Syria and the rest of Mordor. By the way, CONGRESS voted to invade Iraq, and this neocon nation building crap has to end. It's like trying to put makeup on a pig - doesn't help, and annoys the pig.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Fantastic.
    April 10, 2013 7:58 am
    Send more of my money to Arabs that hate us. Good job.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }