163 people killed in Syria today, according to a local activist committee. The fact that one of them was a Michigan woman has turned heads at the State Department; according to both AP and John McCain, the regime has recently gained the upper hand in the two-year-old conflict, which has claimed roughly 80,000 lives so far. source
Why it didn’t go down: ”The White House stalled the proposal because of lingering questions about which rebels could be trusted with the arms, whether the transfers would make a difference in the campaign to remove Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and whether the weapons would add to the suffering,” according to the WSJ’s sources. The proposal’s existence was made public yesterday for the first time at John Brennan’s Senate confirmation hearing. source [paywall]
NBC News is reporting that the Syrian military has loaded precursor chemicals for the deadly nerve agent sarin into aerial bombs, and is now awaiting instructions from President Bashar al-Assad. Sources say that the bombs, if deployed, would be used against anti-Assad forces in the country, but added they haven’t yet been loaded onto planes. Meanwhile, a US official confirms that several countries have given Assad “informal” offers of asylum (h/t TPM)
The Daily Telegraph has acquired photos of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad with his family, taken five to seven years ago, when he was perceived as a different type of leader than people see him now. “Unseen by the photographer, and by most visitors to Syria,” writes reporter Nick Meo, “were the torture chambers, tanks and chemical weapons that the family relied on to maintain their brutal rule.” It’s unlikely Assad’s family life looks anything like this these days. (photo by Camera Press)
The Free Syrian Army carried out this attack in retaliation for the massacres committed by the regime and because of the international silence. We promised that we are going to hit the regime in its most sensitive axis. This was necessary for us.COL. MALIK KURDI, deputy commander of the Free Syrian Army, which claimed responsibility for an attack in Damascus that killed Syria’s defense and deputy defense ministers. (via the Washington Post)
Intentions unclear: Analysts are divided as to why this is happening. The most obvious reason would be that the government intends to use the weapons—which include sarin gas and cyanide—against rebel fighters in the country; however, this could increase global antipathy toward the Assad regime and inadvertently advance Western efforts to force President Assad’s ouster. So, some postulate, perhaps the regime is moving the weapons in order to prevent them from falling into rebel hands? Yet another school of thought holds that the transfer is simply an attempt to avoid Western attempts to track the weapons. Regardless of the motivation, this is scary, significant stuff.
When a military performs exercises along the border of a neighboring country, it’s often interpreted as a chest-beating projection of nationalist might; this is especially true when the exercise in question is called “lighting bolt.” The goal is to improve coordination between military and civilian forces during wartime which, while not the most overtly threatening action, still serves as a reminder of the country’s military potency. Relations between the two countries have been steadily deteriorating; last week, The Guardian reported that Turkey will respond to Syria’s violent crackdown on protesters with sanctions, a move that France, Germany, Portugal and Britain all opted against.
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