Obama Approves Air Surveillance of ISIS in Syria

By MARK LANDLER and HELENE COOPERAUG. 25, 2014

The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized surveillance flights over Syria, a precursor to potential airstrikes there, but a mounting concern for the White House is how to target the Sunni extremists without helping President Bashar al-Assad.

Defense officials said Monday evening that the Pentagon was sending in manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Syria, using a combination of aircraft, including drones and possibly U2 spy planes. Mr. Obama approved the flights over the weekend, a senior administration official said.

The flights are a significant step toward direct American military action in Syria, an intervention that could alter the battlefield in the nation’s three-year civil war.

An American-Led Coalition Can Defeat ISIS

U.S. air power and special forces are essential, but so is a political and economic strategy. It's also time to give Qatar an ultimatum.

By JACK KEANE And DANIELLE PLETKA

Aug. 24, 2014 6:27 p.m. ET

The Wall Street Journal

Two months ago we laid out a plan on these pages to bring Iraq back from the abyss of terrorist domination, turn the tide in the Syria conflict, and crush the advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The need for such a plan is now more urgent as ISIS has since advanced dramatically, the Iraqi army and Kurdish militia initially performed poorly, and the terror group has threatened to kill more Americans as it did James Foley last week.

The Red Line and the Rat Line

London Review of Books

Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels

In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.​ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous.

Refueling row delays Syrian peace envoys' plane in Greece

BEIRUT/ATHENS Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:40am EST

(Reuters) - A Syrian government delegation heading to peace talks in Switzerland was held up for hours in Athens on Tuesday when a Greek firm refused to refuel their plane, citing an EU trade embargo.

The incident was the latest in a series of delays and diplomatic spats in the lead-up to talks due to start on Wednesday between President Bashar al-Assad's government and opposition figures to end their three-year conflict.

The Syria deal

Russian reading

Sep 14th 2013, 22:46 by J.P.P. | WASHINGTON, D.C

AMERICA and Russia have an agreement on removing or destroying Syria’s extensive collection of chemical weapons. The headline points are that Bashar Assad’s regime must submit a full inventory within a week. Should his government find that deadline too exacting, Vladimir Putin’s former colleagues in the SVR, the successor organisation to the KGB, can probably help out. Then the weapons must be destroyed or removed by mid-2014. If Syria fails to comply with these terms it will face a chapter seven resolution in the UN Security Council which, for those who have not looked at their copy of the organisation’s charter since 2003, is the one that covers the use of force. Compliance will be in the eye of the beholder.

Exclusive: Saudi offers Russia deal to scale back Assad support - sources

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Amena Bakr

AMMAN/DOHA | Wed Aug 7, 2013 5:04pm BST

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday.

The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria's devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, they said.

Syrian children speak of beatings, burnings, electric shocks

(Reuters) - Khalid, 15, said he was hung by his arms from the ceiling of his own school building in Syria and beaten senseless. Wael said he saw a 6-year-old starved and beaten to death, "tortured more than anyone else in the room".