July 10 , 2013
North America Congressional intelligence oversight committees are holding up a plan to send US weapons to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants , Both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees have expressed reservations behind closed doors at the effort by President Barack Obama ' s administration to support the insurgents by sending them military hardware . None of the military aid that the United States announced weeks ago has arrived in Syria . Democrats and Republicans on the committees worry that weapons could reach factions like the al Nusra Front , which is one of the most effective rebel groups but is also labeled by the United States as a front for al Qaeda in Iraq . Committee members also want to hear more about the administration ' s overall Syria policy , and about how it believes its arms plan will affect the situation on the ground , where Assad ' s forces have made recent gains . Funding that the administration advised the congressional committees it wanted to use to pay for arms deliveries to Assad ' s opponents has been temporarily frozen . Technically , the administration does not need specific congressional approval either through public legislation or some kind of legislative sanction process to move ahead with the weapons plan . The president already has legal authority to order such shipments . However , under tacit rules observed by the executive branch and Congress on intelligence matters , administrations will not move ahead with programs like weapons deliveries to the Syrian opposition if one or both of the congressional intelligence committees express serious objections .
The United States is considering pulling out all its troops from Afghanistan next year , amid tension between the President Barack Obama ' s administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai ' s government . Obama is committed to wrapping up US military involvement in Afghanistan by the end of 2014 , but the United States has been talking with officials in Afghanistan about keeping a small residual force there of perhaps 8,000 troops . US officials did not deny a report that Obama has become increasingly frustrated by his dealings with Karzai . Their relationship fell to new depths after last month ' s US move to open peace talks with the Taliban , which led Karzai to suspend talks on a security pact between the two allies . A June 27 videoconference between Obama and Karzai aimed at lowering tensions ended poorly . Senior Afghan figures close to Karzai were