Senator Bob Corker, of Tennessee, welcomes Kerry now, but says he’s “disappointed” in the administration for “not explicitly seeking the authorization from Congress”. “I think that’s a huge mistake.”
He criticizes the Obama administration for its “calls for cooperation” from Congress, saying that in classified and unclassified meetings it should be more clear about its plans and permission, although he concedes plans are being “[made] up as we go”.
Menendez talks a bit about Isis, saying “it promotes genocide against anyone who promotes its warped version of Islam … it enslaves women and children, it has seized US military equipment … it’s pumping oil to fund its brutal tactics … it is recruiting disciples in its unholy war at a frightening pace.”
He takes a shot at Turkey, saying “whether by fear or policy” it has refused to assert greater control over the flow of fighters and weapons across its border with Syria.
“We would be fools not to take this threat seriously … Air [and targeted] strikes fall under the president’s power … [But] I am personally not comfortable with the 2003 theory of AUMF, which relies on a thin theory that Isil is associated with al-Qaida.”
“I support the president’s strategy and his sense of urgency, and I commend you … but let’s not however, make the 9/11 mistake of rushing into an AUMF and authorizing the use of force … used for indefninite duration, and used from south Asia to teh Persian Gulf …”
He says there are three questions that the US must answer: “What will it ultimately take to degrade and destroy Isil, how does this fight end, and what end state do we seek in the region?”
“We need to get it right, and not just do it fast.” He stresses the fear that Isis could eventually be capable of an attack of the scope of September 11.
The Senate committee on foreign relations has begun a hearing with Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the US strategy against Isis.
Senator Robert Menendez, the chairman, has opened the hearing by stressing the importance of Sunni partners in the Middle East. He says the US must work with the Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqi military, and that it should work to help the Syrian opposition – and prepare it for a Syria without Bashar al-Assad.
“What I expect to hear today are specifics … budget, the role our coalition partners are expected to play … we must be clear-eyed.”
“We are living in 2014 – this is not 2003. … I want to hear what success looks like in Iraq and Syria.”
Dan Roberts, the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, is in the Senate – where he’s been joined by CodePink protesters, the same anti-war group that interrupted testimony by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel yesterday.
Dan notes that they were asked to sit down after chanting “No more war!” (they sat).
Tangled regional conflicts and limitations of the coalition complicate the offensive against Isis, which has spurred longstanding rivals into tacit cooperation – or at least into staying out of each others’ ways as competing factions turn put the militants in their crosshairs. Foremost among those issues is the Syrian civil war.
Two issues among many stand out to complicate action against Isis in Syria, where it has most of its forces and maintains its headquarters, according to US intelligence.
First, Bashar al-Assad’s government, which western countries oppose, is also fighting Isis; the US has vowed not to cooperate with Assad but also plans to strike in Syria, which has air defenses and strong allies in Russia and Iran, who continue to arm and support the regime. Issues of sovereignty, and the US’s aborted mission against Assad last year, make strikes on his positions fraught, though they would also bring rebels closer to the west.
The second problem is that of the fractious Syrian opposition, the “moderate” of which the US has pledged to arm, but who is fighting Assad and remains a complex, divisive set – with many Islamist-leaning militants.
Rebels would, in theory, have to be vetted before becoming “partners”, but more oversight of Turkey’s porous border and Saudi Arabia’s new training program would be necessary to try to limit the trickle of arms and fighters to more extreme opposition groups.
The House of Representatives will likely pass authorization, but many congressmen have doubts about the strategy of arming Syrian rebels, the Guardian’s (@RobertsDan) reports.
Though expected to pass with backing from both Republican and Democratic leaders, a number of congressmen remain concerned at whether the strategy will work, especially since these groups have hitherto primarily been fighting the Assad regime rather than Isis.
Moderate Democrats in the Senate, such as Pennsylvania senator Joe Manchin, also voiced their opposition to the authorisation on Sunday on the grounds that arms may end up in the wrong hands.
“I have not come to this decision easily and I know it comes with consequences,” said Manchin, who also called for the vote to be separated from the continuing budget resolution.
The Senate will press Secretary of State John Kerry to provide details of the anti-Isis coalition; information about its military practicalities, such as how respective countries will participate, remain piecemeal and mostly vague.
Three leading architects of the last Iraq war have made their case for deeper involvement in the Syrian civil war, in written testimony to the House of Representatives.
General David Petraeus was hailed for leading US forces and designing much of the so-called “surge” strategy that put thousands more Americans in Iraq; Ryan Crocker served as US ambassador to Iraq during those years, and recently called Isis “more formidable” than pre-9/11 al-Qaida; Jack Keane is a retired four-star general helped conceive the strategy and was an adviser to the Bush administration.
More pithily, the Guardian’s national security editor dubs them “surgeniks”.
Surgeniks Petraeus, Crocker & Keane, along with ex-amb to Syria Robert Ford, write to House urging approval of training for Syrian rebels.
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) September 17, 2014
Iraq’s prime minister Haider al-Abadi has called foreign troops “out of the question” in a conversation with the Associated Press, which has published the full interview.
Al-Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker who faces the enormous task of trying to hold Iraq together as a vast array of forces threaten to rip it apart, welcomed the emerging international effort, but stressed that he sees no need for other nations to send troops to help fight the Islamic State.
“Not only is it not necessary,” he said, “We don’t want them. We won’t allow them. Full stop.”
“The only contribution the American forces or the international coalition is going to help us with is from the sky,” al-Abadi said. “We are not giving any blank check to the international coalition to hit any target in Iraq.”
Abadi also struck out an independent policy with regard to the Syrian and Iranian governments – the latter of which has bolstered Baghdad’s limping military and coordinated Shia militias.
“We cannot afford to fight our neighbor, even if we disagree on many things,” al-Abadi said. “We don’t want to enter into problems with them. For us sovereignty of Syria is very important.”
“I actually find it puzzling that we hold a conference in Paris to help Iraq and to fight terrorism and here we are, it’s the biggest neighbor of Iraq - Iran - is excluded,” he said. “That puts me as a prime minister in Iraq in a very difficult position.”
You can read the full interview here.
Isis “draws an estimated $1m per day from black market oil sales, smuggling, robberies and ransom payments for hostages”, according to the testimony of Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Reuters reports:
The group used these tools as it drew recruits from more than 15,000 foreign fighters in Syria, who may return to their countries “battle-hardened, radicalized and determined to attack us”, Olsen, the top US counterterrorism official, said in prepared testimony.
“The rate of travelers into Syria exceeds the rate of travelers who went into Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any point in the last 10 years,” he said.
Olsen countered the narrative of a direct threat to the US from Isis or al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, however, saying “homegrown violent extremists remain the most likely immediate threat to the homeland.”
The US and UK do not pay ransoms, but a number of European governments have been implicated in paying for the freedom of nationals, which the New York Times documented at length. You can read the agency piece here.
Air strikes increased support for Isis and the group may try to take more hostages, FBI director James Comey told Congress, per Reuters.
Islamic State is “committed to instilling fear and attracting recruits” and to drawing public attention … said Comey.
“Isil’s widespread use of social media and growing online support intensified following the commencement of US air strikes in Iraq,” Comey said in prepared testimony.
Comey added that Isis “may continue to try to capture American hostages in an attempt to force the US government and people into making concessions that would only strengthen Isil and further its terrorist operations”.
You can read the full piece here.
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