More stuff on Syria

Andrew McCarthy writing at PJMedia:
... Thanks to Republican Senators Rand Paul (of Kentucky) and Mike Lee (of Utah), we might finally get on Syria what we were denied on Libya: a real debate among the American people’s representatives over congressional authorization of President Obama’s unilateral war-making in the Middle East.

The Washington Examiner reports that Senators Paul and Lee have joined with two counterparts, Democrats Chris Murphy (of Connecticut) and Tom Udall (of New Mexico), in offering legislation that would block direct or indirect aid for military or paramilitary operations in Syria. The bill, which is posted on Paul’s website, is called the “Protecting Americans from the Proliferation of Weapons to Terrorists Act of 2013.”.....

Josh Gerstein writing at Politico:
A former Army medic from Arizona was indicted  
Thursday for fighting in Syria in coordination with the Al-Nusra front, an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad's regime.

The indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va. charges Eric Harroun, 30, with conspiring to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction overseas. The weapons, according to the indictment (posted here), were rocket-propelled grenades and grenades. He faces up to life in prison if convicted...........

From GulfToday:
Syrian rebels have recently received new weapons that could “change the course of the battle” against the Syrian regime, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Friday.
The “Friends of Syria” group of countries that support the rebels was expected to announce in Doha on Saturday that it would arm the opposition, FSA spokesman Louay Muqdad said. “We’ve received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground.
“We have begun distributing them on the front lines, they will be in the hands of professional officers and FSA fighters,” he said......

From LATimes:
U.S. has secretly provided    arms training to Syria rebels since 2012. CIA agents and special operations troops have trained the rebels in anti-tank and antiaircraft weaponry in Jordan and Turkey.