Lawmakers Applaud Obama Seeking Congressional Authorization on Syria - ABC News

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are applauding President Obama’s decision to seek congressional authorization on a potential military strike against Syria.
“Today the President advised me that he will seek an authorization for the use of force from the Congress prior to initiating any combat operations against Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons. The President’s role as commander-in-chief is always strengthened when he enjoys the expressed support of the Congress,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement. 
  
“Under the Constitution, the responsibility to declare war lies with Congress. We are glad the president is seeking authorization for any military action in Syria in response to serious, substantive questions being raised. In consultation with the president, we expect the House to consider a measure the week of September 9th. This provides the president time to make his case to Congress and the American people,” the House Republican leadership, including House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., wrote in a joint statement.

“President Obama is right that the debate and authorization by Congress for action will make our country and the response in Syria stronger,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.....................

LINK: Lawmakers Applaud Obama Seeking Congressional Authorization on Syria - ABC News

Nightly News: Doctors offer first-hand description of Syrian civilians’ injuries

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LINK: Nightly News: Doctors offer first-hand description of Syrian civilians’ injuries

TODAY: Rebels: ‘Napalm-like’ attack on Syrian school

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LINK: TODAY: Rebels: ‘Napalm-like’ attack on Syrian school

BRITISH LION MEOWS, BUT EAGLE STILL FLYING: After UK opts out, US readies solo action against Syria | The Times of Israel

President Barack Obama, August 2013 (photo credit: White House, Flickr)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday prepared for the possibility of launching unilateral American military action against Syria within days as Britain opted out in a stunning vote by Parliament. Facing skepticism at home, too, the administration shared intelligence with lawmakers aimed at convincing them the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its people and must be punished................ 
 
FULL ARTICLE HERE: After UK opts out, US readies solo action against Syria | The Times of Israel

Inside Gaddafi’s Harem: The Story of a Girl’s Abduction - The Daily Beast

At the age of 15 Soraya was kidnapped to become Libyan dictator Gaddafi’s sex slave. This is her story, in an exclusive excerpt from a new book by French reporter Annick Cojean that details the brutal horrors of Gaddafi’s sex obsession with teens.

At the age of 15 Soraya was spotted by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi when he visited her school. She was quickly abducted from her home in Sirte by his bodyguards and made his sex slave, joining many other girls who had been taken over the years. In this excerpt from Gaddafi’s Harem she first encounters the Colonel and learns about her new life.

John Redman/AP

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Inside Gaddafi’s Harem: The Story of a Girl’s Abduction - The Daily Beast

Keane: U.S. Should Take Out Assad’s Air Power, His ‘Most Vulnerable Military Capability’ | Washington Free Beacon

LINK: Keane: U.S. Should Take Out Assad’s Air Power, His ‘Most Vulnerable Military Capability’ | Washington Free Beacon

Experts to Obama: Here Is What to Do in Syria

by Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard

August 27, 2013 7:09 AM

A big group of foreign policy experts, from across the ideological spectrum, is calling on President Obama to impose "meaningful consequences on the Assad regime" for their use of chemical weapons................
 
Here's the full letter and list of signatorie who have signed thus far:

Dear Mr. President:

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has once again violated your red line, using chemical weapons to kill as many as 1,400 people in the suburbs of Damascus.  You have said that large-scale use of chemical weapons in Syria would implicate “core national interests,” including “making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies [and] our bases in the region.”  The world—including Iran, North Korea, and other potential aggressors who seek or possess weapons of mass of destruction—is now watching to see how you respond.

We urge you to respond decisively by imposing meaningful consequences on the Assad regime.  At a minimum, the United States, along with willing allies and partners, should use standoff weapons and airpower to target the Syrian dictatorship’s military units that were involved in the recent large-scale use of chemical weapons.  It should also provide vetted moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition with the military support required to identify and strike regime units armed with chemical weapons.

Moreover, the United States and other willing nations should consider direct military strikes against the pillars of the Assad regime.  The objectives should be not only to ensure that Assad’s chemical weapons no longer threaten America, our allies in the region or the Syrian people, but also to deter or destroy the Assad regime’s airpower and other conventional military means of committing atrocities against civilian non-combatants.  At the same time, the United States should accelerate efforts to vet, train, and arm moderate elements of Syria’s armed opposition, with the goal of empowering them to prevail against both the Assad regime and the growing presence of Al Qaeda-affiliated and other extremist rebel factions in the country.

Left unanswered, the Assad regime’s mounting attacks with chemical weapons will show the world that America’s red lines are only empty threats.  It is a dangerous and destabilizing message that will surely come to haunt us—one that will certainly embolden Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons capability despite your repeated warnings that doing so is unacceptable.  It is therefore time for the United States to take meaningful and decisive actions to stem the Assad regime’s relentless aggression, and help shape and influence the foundations for the post-Assad Syria that you have said is inevitable.

Sincerely,

Ammar Abdulhamid

Elliott Abrams

Dr. Fouad Ajami

Dr. Michael Auslin

Gary Bauer

Paul Berman

Max Boot

Ellen Bork

Ambassador L. Paul Bremer

Matthew R. J. Brodsky

Dr. Eliot A. Cohen

Senator Norm Coleman

Ambassador William Courtney

Seth Cropsey

James S. Denton

Paula A. DeSutter

Larry Diamond

Dr. Paula J. Dobriansky

Thomas Donnelly

Dr. Michael Doran

Mark Dubowitz

Dr. Colin Dueck

Dr. Nicholas Eberstadt

Ambassador Eric S. Edelman

Reuel Marc Gerecht

Abe Greenwald

Christopher J. Griffin

John P. Hannah

Bruce Pitcairn Jackson

Ash Jain

Dr. Kenneth Jensen

Allison Johnson

Dr. Robert G. Joseph

Dr. Robert Kagan

Lawrence F. Kaplan

Jamie Kirchick

Irina Krasovskaya

Dr. William Kristol

Bernard-Henri Levy

Dr. Robert J. Lieber

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman

Tod Lindberg

Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken

Dr. Michael Makovsky

Ann Marlowe

Dr. Clifford D. May

Dr. Alan Mendoza

Dr. Joshua Muravchik

Governor Tim Pawlenty

Martin Peretz

Danielle Pletka

Dr. David Pollock

Arch Puddington

Karl Rove

Randy Scheunemann

Dan Senor

Ambassador John Shattuck

Lee Smith

Henry D. Sokolski

James Traub

Ambassador Mark D. Wallace

Michael Weiss

Leon Wieseltier

Khawla Yusuf

Robert Zarate

Dr. Radwan Ziadeh 

LINK: Experts to Obama: Here Is What to Do in Syria

Ann Curry – NBC Exclusive: Interview with Syrian doctor on front lines of suspected chemical attack

By Ann Curry

Today, a Syrian doctor who treated hundreds of people in Wednesday's attack on the outskirts of Damascus, told us area hospitals have counted 10,220 people affected, and of those 1,466 people died.

We have independently verified the identity of the doctor, but are honoring his request not to publish his name, nor the hospital where he works, because he fears that would endanger the safety of his loved ones.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

Even our interview, shot via Skype, does not show his face, though it does reveal his trauma over what he has seen:

Syrian doctor: "To kill 1,466 persons at 3 am?  What is it? The symptoms belong to chemical weapons." Ann: "What were their symptoms?"
Doctor: "Confusion, coma, convulsion."
Ann: "Are you saying children were the first to be affected in this attack?"
Doctor: "Yes. They have small bodies. This is the reason the percentage of children is higher." (continued)

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Ann Curry – NBC News – Reporting Our World

▶ Exclusive: One million children are now refugees from Syria - YouTube

In an exclusive interview with NBC News, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said the war in Syria has reached a "shameful milestone," as now one million children have become refugees, 75 percent of them under the age of 11.

LINK: ▶ Exclusive: One million children are now refugees from Syria - YouTube

Israeli PM Netanyahu: Syria chemical attack a ‘grievous crime’ | The Times of Israel

Syrian citizens trying to identify dead bodies, after an alleged poisonous gas attack fired by regime forces, according to activists in Syria, Wednesday, August 21, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Local Committee of Arbeen)

The alleged use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians on Wednesday “proves yet again that we cannot permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday..........
FULL ARTICLE HERE: Netanyahu: Syria chemical attack a ‘grievous crime’ | The Times of Israel

‫اVICTIMS OF THE ASSAD REGIME'S AUGUST 21, 2013 GAS ATTACK - YouTube

What victims, including children, look like after a chemical attack of probably Sarin gas, doctors say. Horror scenario compliments of the Assad regime, aided and abetted by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, among others.  



LINK:
‫الغوطة الشرقية مجزرة مروعة راحة ضحيتها مئات القتلى بالغازات الكيماوية‬‎ - YouTube

Former defense minister calls Syrian war 'holocaust' | The Times of Israel

MK Binyamin Ben Eliezer, July 21, 2010. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Amid reports of a devastating chemical weapons offensive in Syria, Labor Party MK and former defense minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on Wednesday called the ongoing civil war there “a holocaust” and accused the international community of indifference to the Syrian people’s suffering..............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Former defense minister calls Syrian war 'holocaust' | The Times of Israel

Syrian activists: 640 killed in chemical attack on Ghouta region - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

 

Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region. (Reuters)

Al Arabiya 

At least 640 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria’s Ghouta region, activists at the Syrian Revolution General Commission told Al Arabiya on Wednesday morning, as hundreds were also reported wounded.

The activists at the Syrian Revolutionary Command Council said regime fighter planes were flying over the area after the bombardment, accusing the forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical agents.
The attack was on rebel-held areas of eastern Damascus.

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Syrian activists: 640 killed in chemical attack on Ghouta region - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Horror of North Korean Prison Camps Exposed at U.N. Panel Hearing | Washington Free Beacon

Shin Dong-hyuk, a former North Korean defector, attends a public hearing at Yonsei university in Seoul, Aug. 20, 2013. 

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

BY: Reuters
August 20, 2013 3:52 pm

By Ju-min Park and Michelle Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – Public executions and torture are daily occurrences in North Korea’s prisons, according to dramatic testimony from former inmates at a U.N. Commission of Inquiry that opened in South Korea’s capital on Tuesday.

This is the first time that the North’s human rights record has been examined by an expert panel, although the North, now ruled by a third generation of the founding Kim family, denies that it abuses human rights. It refuses to recognize the commission and has denied access to investigators.

Harrowing accounts from defectors now living in South Korea related how guards chopped off a man’s finger, forced inmates to eat frogs and a mother to kill her own baby......

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Horror of North Korean Prison Camps Exposed at U.N. Panel Hearing | Washington Free Beacon

WISER.ORG POST ON UN Peace Day 2013: Focus on Peace for the DR Congo

Our eighth annual Sept 21st UN Peace Day for Hampton Roads takes place this year at Virginia-Wesleyan College in Norfolk. We have combined forces with the One Love Festival who are also holding their annual event on Sept 21. UN Peace Day itself will run from 2:30 to 5:00 PM in Boyd Hall on the campus, with plenty of parking. Our theme this year is Peace for the DR Congo, which is the most devastated and blood-stained country in Africa, with, by most experts' counts, over 5 million war-related deaths and countless crimes, especially rape, in the last 15 years. Recently, however, there has been movement internationally and nationally to bring an end to the carnage. We want to help energize this movement. We will be providing a forum to discuss current events in the Congo as well as how to engender real peace and progress. Our speakers, participants and supporters include missionaries and Congolese spokespersons. This will be an educational and cultural event about the DR Congo, and, with your help, an inspirational event.

Speakers thus far include Rev. Carey Chirico of the Virginia Episcopalian Diocese ministry, Women-to-Women (http://www.thediocese.net/ Ministries/MissionTeams/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo/) established between the women of the Diocese of Virginia and the Mothers’ Union of the Diocese of Bukavu in South Kivu province. Also speaking will be one of two speakers from Friends of the Congo, either Maurice Carney, their executive director or their spokesperson, Kambale Musavuli.


From Old Dominion University we have the well-known lecturer in political science and history, Ambassador (Ret.) Bismarck Myrick, U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Lesotho (1995-1998) and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Liberia (1999-2002), as well as head of the U.S. Diplomatic Missions as Consul General to Durban, South Africa (1990-1993) and Consul General to Cape Town, South Africa (1993-1995). He is also a retired U.S. Army Officer and a member of the U.S. Army Hall of Fame.

Also speaking are a Congolese woman residing in Northern Virginia, Faith Liwanga, who has set up her own NGO, MICAH-elle Foundation (http://micahellefoundation.org/), as well as the Mwamini Thambwe Mwamba Diggs, authoress of the “Untold Story of the Women and Children of the Democratic of Congo."

Our sixth speaker is visual artist Kathy Klein, who recently visited Bukavu with Carey Chirico. She raises money for the women of the Congo in war-torn areas through her Art for Hope Project. Her website is http://kathykleinstudio.com/ .


To keep our event international as well, the Taiko Drummers of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Global Buddhist Network in Virginia Beach will be performing again this year at UN Peace Day. They were a big hit last year and create huge amounts of positive, joyful energy with their drumming. Also performing will be world music instrumentalist Charles Clarke. Other performers will be announced later.

For more info go to our website: http://unpeacedayhr.org/

 
Also check out our Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/378478985607430/. Let us know if you are going and spread the word. Thanks!

Event: UN Peace Day 2013: Focus on Peace for the DR Congo

CHALLENGING REGIME PROPAGANDA: SNC opposition chief reassures minorities in post-Assad Syria - Alarabiya.net English

 

Jarba said minorities would be the “main fabric” of Syria following the removal of Assad. (Photo courtesy: al-Hayat)

 

Al Arabiya

Syrian National Coalition (SNC) chief Ahmad Jarba on Sunday sent comforting messages to ethnic minorities, saying they would be the “main fabric” of the country following the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

“When the regime collapses, Syria’s minorities will be part of the main fabric of Syria and part of the main components that make up the country,” Jarba told pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

“The regime plays the card of making minorities in the country panic. They are made to believe that the opposition is a group of extremists who want to hijack the country and kill others.”

Among other minorities, Jarba said Turkmen representatives and Alawites were part of the coalition, although not as many Alawites are involved as Jarba would hope for.

“Before the revolution, an opposition member who is not Alawite would be imprisoned for five years while the opposition member who is an Alawite would be imprisoned for ten years - that is double. And now, (the regime) executes any Alawite defector it finds....................

FULL ARTICLE HERE: SNC opposition chief reassures minorities in post-Assad Syria - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

Hariri: Hezbollah dragging Lebanon into war | The Times of Israel

Saad Hariri (photo credit: US State Department)

BEIRUT (AP) — One of Lebanon’s most powerful Sunni politicians accused the leader of the Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday of dragging the country further into neighboring Syria’s civil war............

FULL ARTICLE HERE: Hariri: Hezbollah dragging Lebanon into war | The Times of Israel

▶ JEREMY GILLEY VISITS THE DR CONGO: Peace One Day Update - 16th August - YouTube

LINK: ▶ Peace One Day Update - 16th August - YouTube

LATEST REVISION OF UN PEACE DAY 2013 FLYER FOR HAMPTON ROADS, VIRGINIA

The urgency of addressing mental health for Syrian refugees - CSMonitor.com

Children pretend to be carrying a coffin, as they play along a street in Raqqa province, eastern Syria, Aug. 12. Op-ed contributor Curt Goering writes: Syrian parents 'are desperately worried about their children' who have experienced horrors and are showing signs of psychological distress. Fortunately, 'mental health services can provide a ray of hope amidst the barbarities of conflict.'

Nour Fourat/Reuters

When Secretary of State John Kerry visited a vast camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan last month, refugees implored him to take action to stop the killing in their homeland. Their desperate pleas made news around the world, and illustrated the intense mental anguish that has accompanied physical atrocities in Syria’s civil war.....
FULL ARTICLE HERE:
The urgency of addressing mental health for Syrian refugees - CSMonitor.com

Fighting intensifies in northern Syria - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

 

LINK: Fighting intensifies in northern Syria - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

VERY INTERESTING! The French African Connection - Special series - Al Jazeera English

ARTICLE/VIDEO LINK: The French African Connection - Special series - Al Jazeera English

DEJA VU with MUGABE: Zimbabwe prime minister calls vote a 'sham' - Africa - Al Jazeera English

Morgan Tsvangirai accuses Mugabe of rigging election and warns fraudulent results could plunge country into crisis.

    

FULL ARTICLE W/VIDEO HERE: Zimbabwe prime minister calls vote a 'sham' - Africa - Al Jazeera English