BREAKING: Obama addresses the nation

Basically Obama reiterated that attacking Syria was in the interess of the US, but in them meantime is postponing action to allow diplomacy to take place – and (unspoken) undermine it in any way possible.

Obama: We know Assad regime is responsible for chemical attack

RT,

10 September, 2013

Addressing the nation, the US president has reiterated that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad government’s alleged use of chemical weapons with a limited military action.

Russia has proposed placing Syria’s chemical weapons under international monitoring and eventually destroying them if all parties agree to denounce military action. China and Iran have endorsed the idea, which has appeared to gain traction since it was first proposed Monday. Members of the UN Security Council have expressed doubt over how the chemical weapons could be safely moved out of an active war zone.

US lawmakers admitted their reluctance but pledged to examine the idea closely. Obama asked Congress to delay voting on whether to authorize a military strike in response to the proposal.

Obama’s comments Tuesday follow Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem’s admission that Syria would be open to turning over their chemical weapons to international control. Then, on Tuesday, Syria announced it would be willing to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention, revealing all details of the chemical program.

“We will open our storage sites, and cease production,” Muallem told Lebanon’s al-Maydeen TV. “We are ready to open these facilities to Russia, other countries and the United Nations. We intend to give up chemical weapons altogether.”

US Secretary of State John Kerry was joined at the Capitol building earlier in the day by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. The trio testified before the House Armed Services Committee and questioned on the Russian proposal, which Kerry said he regarded with a hesitant optimism while asking Congress to approve the military strike no matter what.

“But make no mistake about why this is now even on the table,” he said. “They say nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of a hanging.”

Hagel informed the committee that the earliest a strike against Syria could take place at this time is now in mid-October.

Obama wants to keep pressure on Syria as diplomatic option pursued

President Barack Obama and top national security officials urged Congress on Tuesday to keep the pressure on Syria over its chemical weapons arsenal while the United States explores a diplomatic alternative to military strikes.

Reuters,

10 September, 2013

A potential diplomatic breakthrough put the brakes on a vote in Congress over authorizing military force as lawmakers and the administration sought more time to assess Russia's proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control.

Obama has faced stiff resistance in Congress to any military action, and lawmakers on both sides of the issue were quick to seize on the Russian proposal as a possible way out despite skepticism about its eventual success.

A group of Republican and Democratic U.S. senators began drafting a modified resolution on the use of military force that would give the United Nations time to take control of Syria's chemical weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Congress the threat of military action still was critical to forcing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to bend on his chemical weapons.

"For this diplomatic option to have a chance of succeeding, the threat of a U.S. military action - the credible, real threat of U.S. military action - must continue," Hagel told the House Armed Services Committee.

The Senate has delayed a vote planned for Wednesday authorizing military force. Kerry said Obama might speak to congressional leaders on the "when and how" of an eventual vote.

"Nothing has changed with respect to our request for the Congress to take action," Kerry told the House hearing. "As to when and how, that's something the president may want to chat with the leadership about."

Obama met with Senate Democrats and Republicans at the Capitol in separate meetings on Tuesday ahead of a nationally televised address from the White House on Tuesday evening.

"What he wants is to check out the seriousness of the Syrian and the Russian willingness to get rid of those chemical weapons," said Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "He wants time to check it out."

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid would not predict when a Senate vote on Syria might occur. "The last 24 hours have had some remarkable changes in what people are talking about," Reid told reporters. "Let's see what else happens."

The Russian diplomatic initiative, which emerged after off-the-cuff remarks by Kerry on Monday alluding to such a deal, marked a sudden reversal following weeks in which the West appeared headed toward intervention in Syria's 2 1/2-year-old civil war.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell became the first of the four top party leaders in the Senate and House to definitively oppose the strikes, saying he would not support a resolution on military force because "a vital national security risk is clearly not in play."

'POTENTIALLY POSITIVE'

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican who announced last week he would support a strike, said the American people still did not support military action in Syria and Obama needed to make a stronger case.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed public opposition to military strikes remained high, with 62 percent of Americans saying the U.S. military should not intervene in Syria and just 18 percent backing intervention.

Obama has said military action is needed to hold Assad accountable for an August 21 poison gas attack that killed more than 1,000 civilians, including hundreds of children.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the president will claim credit for the potential diplomatic breakthrough in his speech. "We see this as potentially a positive development and we see this as a clear result of the pressure that has been put on Syria," Carney said on MSNBC of the Russian proposal.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the Russian proposal was a validation of Obama's efforts to take action against Syria. "I think this is a victory for President Obama if it is real," Pelosi told reporters.

At the House hearing, Kerry told lawmakers that Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed the approach last week during the G20 summit in Russia and Obama "directed us to try to continue to talk and see if it is possible."

Kerry will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss the Syrian chemical weapons proposal, U.S. officials said. Kerry told lawmakers he expected to get proposals from Lavrov on Tuesday on securing the chemical weapons.

The House hearing turned contentious at times. Kerry tangled with Republican Jeff Miller of Florida over whether the Senate delayed its Wednesday vote on the resolution to explore diplomacy or because the administration did not have the support to pass it.

Kerry accused Miller of wanting to play politics. "I'm not being political, Mr. Secretary," Miller said. "It's the truth. They don't have the votes. Read any newspaper in this country and you will find that out."

Kerry later shot back: "Look, do you want to play politics here or do you want to get a policy in place?"

The Senate's new bipartisan group working on a modified resolution included Democrats Robert Menendez, Carl Levin, Charles Schumer, Chris Coons and Robert Casey as well as Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte and Saxby Chambliss, aides said.

McCain said the resolution would be offered as an amendment to the authorization for military force and would set a timeline for Damascus to turn over chemical weapons or face action. He said he was willing to see if it worked.

"I am very skeptical, but I'm certainly willing to give it a chance," McCain told reporters.

Carney noted "there is ample reason to be skeptical" about Syria's intentions.

"We need to make sure beforehand that the Syrians are serious and will actually follow through on a commitment to give up a chemical weapons stockpile that they've been husbanding for decades against this international prohibition," he said.

Obama spoke by phone with French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron about the Russia proposal. But in a sign of how difficult the diplomatic path will be, an emergency closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Syria was canceled after Russia withdrew its request for the session.

Comments from Mike Ruppert - 

BARACK OBAMA'S speech was weak, utterly lacking in compelling (or even admissible) evidence and unconvincing, especially to the world.

He's looking for a way out and Russia appears to be in the driver's seat with respect to diplomacy. Barack the Bloody has openly vowed compliance with international law. He has committed himself to exploring and pursuing the diplomatic solution... which means he has backed down. He has lost inertia and initiative.

There will be no 9-11 false flag attacks. The situation is too tense, too tinder dry. My guess is that the Obama administration is hoping for this to die down in intensity so it can be swept under the rug and proclaimed a victory.

But what I foresee is a crushing and humiliating defeat for the U.S. at the UN when the inspection reports come in and as more and more evidence piles up that the Assad regime did not use the gas, that this was a false-flag perpetrated by U.S. and allies. The UN can, and probably will demand presentation of the thus-far missing evidence. John Kerry is about to have his head handed to him if that happens.

You can't yank the world around like this.

You can't yank people around like this.

We are not going though weeks and months of this.

And just maybe, seven billion of us are beginning to realize that we can put an end to this.

Si se puede!