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