The Syrian Conflict Thread

McCain plays poker game at Syria debate

Washington - Perhaps he was thinking about doubling down in the Middle East?

Senator John McCain, a longtime advocate for forceful military intervention in Syria, was caught playing poker on his smartphone on Tuesday as top administration officials testified at one of the most pivotal congressional hearings of the year.

McCain is hardly the only US lawmaker ever to seek a diversion from what can be hours of legislative debate on Capitol Hill.

But the photographic evidence of McCain making poker bets on his iPhone during the hearing itself offered a startling counterweight to the seriousness in Washington as senators debated whether to sign on to President Barack Obama's plan to bomb Syria for chemical weapons use.

"Scandal!" McCain tweeted sarcastically after an alert Washington Post photographer posted the photo that rapidly made the rounds on Twitter.

"Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!" he quipped.

McCain, the Republican presidential nominee who was dealt a tough hand and lost the White House race to Obama in 2008, addressed his gaffe afterward.

"As much as I like to always listen in rapt attention constantly [to] remarks of my colleagues over a three-and-a-half-hour period, occasionally I get a little bored and so I resorted" to poker, a flushed but chuckling McCain told CNN.

"But the worst thing about it is I lost thousands of dollars in this game," he said, clarifying that it was "fake" money.
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:erm:
 
LOL i don't blame him. He will vote for it, so anything said is actually rather pointless to him. It is a long boring process if your mind is made up and you do not need to be convinced.

Sandman syria as it is will look like a place of luxury shortly. I can only compare what is coming to WW2 and two of the most horrific men, WW3 started long ago. I will give you an example of what is going to come. Assad falls, 2.5 million christians are slaughtered.

Listen to kerry and listen to the US. When it goes wrong don't act shocked and don't be alarmed that kerry is more worried that al nusra getting chemical weapons. He said assad won't use chemical weapons again but al nusra worries him. Listen to kerry and the US because they are so successful and plan extremely well and they have never been bogged down for decades or sucked into wars because they made a huge mistake.

No need to panic the US are on top of it.
 
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Maybe McCain is setting an example - everyone should mind their own business and allow the lunatics squabble over religion
 
grantza said:
nothing to do with syria - just take a look at the list of threads created by you as listed on your profile
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I don't understand your point. So what if I love the US? I also have no interest in looking up what you have posted on your profile. Thank you for taking of your time to look at mine.
 
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OrbitalDawn said:
Didn't you say they'll never support the strike...? Now it' an about turn...
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Nope i don't recall saying that at all, i do recall there was no support or very little support for a strike without congress. I said obama won't strike without congress. I know the strike will happen and have said it will happen but only after congress approves.
There is always a chance they vote no but i doubt it, then again the UK was a shock. It's a process to keep people on your side instead of making enemies.

I never spoke about congress voting yes or no that i can recall, i was absolutely shocked when the UK voted no so i don't see why i would be any less shocked if the answer is no, i spoke about obama needing to go to congress even though some say he didn't need to some say he did. I don't know if he had to or not but in terms of his political career, it makes sense to act like he gives a shyte what congress say. Moving forward he would not want to alienate people
 
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AfricanTech said:
Yes it can, much worse.

100 000 dead will seem like chump change if there is a full scale war in that region.
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Putin has said this: I think everyone knows kerry lied but anyhow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized remarks made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Congressional debate, saying Kerry “lied” by claiming there was no Al-Qaeda militants fighting in Syria and that the military strike against President Assad will not boost the terrorist network’s presence in the region.

“Well, he [Kerry] lies. And he knows that he lies. This is sad,” Putin remarked as he spoke to human rights activists on Wednesday, saying that the Al-Nusra Front terrorist organization, which pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda, has been at the forefront of the rebel groups fighting Assad’s forces, and that the US is well aware of that.
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So we know the lying just like iraq has begun.

kerry knows by weakening assad al nusra will become stronger and take control, then they have chemical weapons and US boots on the ground will be needed.

6th warship (amphibious) is on the scene as well awaiting command, 800 navy seals can be deployed implying boots is on the cards but we know it is. I am certain we are looking at a full scale war as soon as congress gives the green light. They need the US to take out a few hundred targets and it's game on. i don't think we will see US boots on the ground, their tomahawks are needed, 3000 tomahawks can do a large amount of damage.
 
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Vladimir Putin under growing pressure

Vladimir Putin is to be confronted at the G20 summit of world leaders in St Petersburg this week with an array of western intelligence including damning new French evidence directly linking Syrian government forces with a massive and co-ordinated chemical attack on 21 August that led to hundreds of civilian deaths.

The Russian president will also be urged to show a new diplomatic flexibility and come closer to accepting that the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, has to stand aside.

A nine-page declassified French intelligence report was released on Monday which claimed to show Assad forces had launched an attack on Damascus suburbs held by opposition units using a combination of conventional weapons and "the massive use of chemical weapons".
The report follows similar documents from British and American intelligence.
The Nato secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen also insisted that "personally I am convinced, not only that a chemical attack has taken place … but I am also convinced that the Syrian regime is responsible."

The French intelligence includes satellite imagery showing the attacks coming from government-controlled areas to the east and west of Damascus and targeting rebel-held zones. The report said Assad's forces had since bombed the areas to wipe out evidence.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/02/vladimir-putin-syria
 
grantza said:
Vladimir Putin is to be confronted at the G20 summit of world leaders in St Petersburg this week with an array of western intelligence including damning new French evidence directly linking Syrian government forces with a massive and co-ordinated chemical attack on 21 August that led to hundreds of civilian deaths.

The Russian president will also be urged to show a new diplomatic flexibility and come closer to accepting that the Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad, has to stand aside.

A nine-page declassified French intelligence report was released on Monday which claimed to show Assad forces had launched an attack on Damascus suburbs held by opposition units using a combination of conventional weapons and "the massive use of chemical weapons".
The report follows similar documents from British and American intelligence.
The Nato secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen also insisted that "personally I am convinced, not only that a chemical attack has taken place … but I am also convinced that the Syrian regime is responsible."

The French intelligence includes satellite imagery showing the attacks coming from government-controlled areas to the east and west of Damascus and targeting rebel-held zones. The report said Assad's forces had since bombed the areas to wipe out evidence.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/02/vladimir-putin-syria
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Waiting for Killa's obvious debunk while crying foul spinning and spreading more BS.
 
So why did the UK vote no, why does obama not really have that much international support, are the french documents proof? Send it to the UN.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/O...s+tougher+test+House+holds/8866001/story.html

Read what putin says, so the US are giving the american public no information, the UN has no information and they are expecting the american public, russia and many arab countries to trust them?

If they have such damning evidence present it to the UN?
 
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Killa will enjoy this

If what happened in Damascus was a provocation, authored by Putin and intended to display American weakness to the world—the next question then becomes, why? Or, to put a finer point on things, what purpose, apart from the obvious pleasure of making Obama look like a sissy, was worth the risk of being held responsible—even partially responsible—for killing more than 1,000 people with weapons whose names are bywords for horror and whose use is a heinous crime under international law.

A worthy prize is not hard to find. While Obama was making his calculations about staying out of Syria—calculations that appear in retrospect to have been both reasonable and false—Putin was making his own calculations about the power vacuum that Obama had left behind in the Middle East. His first conclusion from studying that vacuum appears to have been that Obama wasn’t serious about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear bomb—since that would mean involvement in another shooting war in the region. His second conclusion was that the best way to make that conclusion obvious was by crossing Obama’s “red line” in Syria—in response to which the U.S. president would probably do nothing, or next to nothing. What made the “red line” a perfect target for a provocation was that the line was never serious; it was a fig-leaf for excusing American inaction in a bloody civil war while keeping alive the president’s stated commitment to keep Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
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http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/143492/samuels-syria-vladimir-putin
 
Very possible alan, i would not put it past putin to try make them look weak and foolish, i have even gone as far as thinking obama is secretly anti israel and knows al nusra will infiltrate israel and he may be hoping they get the chemical weapons with medium range capability. He knows an attack on syria will more than likely result in a possible strike on israel. Obama has been helping the rebels/al nusra, be it directly or indirectly via qatar and saudia arabia, there is no doubt al nusra changed syria and turned it into a highly contested civil war.

What makes me think the US are involved and why i rule out anyone but the rebels/al nusra is obama claimed sand was undeniable evidence in june, turkey caught al nusra with sarin gas, they only found a small amount but it is a fact al nusra were caught with sarin gas so what makes everyone think that was the only sarin gas they had? Al nusra are extreme enough to do this sort of thing, more so than assad and putin, kerry said last night the worst element al nusra.
 
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Russia releases key findings on chemical attack near Aleppo indicating similarity with rebel-made weapons

Probes from Khan al-Assal show chemicals used in the March 19 attack did not belong to standard Syrian army ammunition, and that the shell carrying the substance was similar to those made by a rebel fighter group, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

A statement released by the ministry on Wednesday particularly drew attention to the “massive stove-piping of various information aimed at placing the responsibility for the alleged chemical weapons use in Syria on Damascus, even though the results of the UN investigation have not yet been revealed.”

By such means “the way is being paved for military action” against Damascus, the ministry pointed out.

But the samples taken at the site of the March 19 attack and analyzed by Russian experts indicate that a projectile carrying the deadly nerve agent sarin was most likely fired at Khan al-Assal by the rebels, the ministry statement suggests, outlining the 100-page report handed over to the UN by Russia.

The key points of the report have been given as follows:

• the shell used in the incident “does not belong to the standard ammunition of the Syrian army and was crudely according to type and parameters of the rocket-propelled unguided missiles manufactured in the north of Syria by the so-called Bashair al-Nasr brigade”;

• RDX, which is also known as hexogen or cyclonite, was used as the bursting charge for the shell, and it is “not used in standard chemical munitions”;

• soil and shell samples contain “the non-industrially synthesized nerve agent sarin and diisopropylfluorophosphate,” which was “used by Western states for producing chemical weapons during World War II.”
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http://rt.com/news/chemical-aleppo-findings-russia-417/
 
Kerry: Arab countries offered to pay for invasion

Secretary of State John Kerry said at Wednesday’s hearing that Arab counties have offered to pay for the entirety of unseating President Bashar al-Assad if the United States took the lead militarily.

“With respect to Arab counties offering to bear costs and to assess, the answer is profoundly yes,” Kerry said. “They have. That offer is on the table.”

Asked by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) about how much those countries would contribute, Kerry said they have offered to pay for all of a full invasion.

“In fact, some of them have said that if the United States is prepared to go do the whole thing the way we’ve done it previously in other places, they’ll carry that cost,” Kerry said. “That’s how dedicated they are at this. That’s not in the cards, and nobody’s talking about it, but they’re talking in serious ways about getting this done.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...updates/#e68f139f-e012-476c-876e-2467ba30e5e3
 
Tell me alan what would be the best way to show russia and china for what people think they are? Undeniable proof that is provided to the UN, you may get a veto from both countries but internationally they are now supporting a regime that used chemical weapons. Bam russia and china owned internationally.

Nope they keep their undeniable proof secret from everyone, remember they had proof that saddam had trucks and posed a threat to the world. The UN never bought into it. What made me rule most of my conspiracy theories is kerry. His first speech and the session last, he blatantly lied about al nusra and many other things. So let's look at what we have thus far from the people with undeniable evidence, absolutely nothing. Lying again live for everyone to see is all we have. How can anyone trust people(us government in general, not just obama obviously) who have been proven time and again not to be trusted.

My anti israel obama could be a traitor conspiracy is still going strong, he has left israel, abandoned them i could say. Assad was no threat to israel. Suddenly he must go, israel seem very trusting that the egypian army are actually fighting rebels in sinai. Look this is total conspiracy but seems more plausible than putin gassing people when he can so easily be pwned internationally.

Tell me alan in an area sounded by people who hate each other, what is the common enemy amoung all these groups and the most hated because they are occupying arab land according to these groups. Israel. Who is surrounded by people who hate them? israel. We know in iraq the common enemy was targeted(US) they left and then they started killing each other. Common enemy and most hated country in the region is surrounded by extremists and they have the egypian army in the sinai. I dunno i would be very careful and worried if i was israel.
 
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