The sound of war drums for WWIII .... September 8, 2013

From TheGuardian:
...Syria chemical weapons attack  not ordered by Assad, says German press.  Bild am Sonntag cites high-level German surveillance source suggesting Syrian president was not personally behind attacks. .......

From CorbettReport:
....Their evidence is     circumstantial and sketchy at best. It mainly relies on supposed telecommunications intercepted via Israeli Mossad’s sources which, I think, have to be called into question by their very nature as being not from a disinterested party in this.
The US government has no definitive proof linking the attack to Assad directly. In fact, the evidence shows this was not known by the upper ranks of the Syrian management. Some of the reported intercepts came from people on the ground trying to get in touch with the Ministry of Defence to find out what was happening, the Ministry of Defence had no idea what was going on based on those intercepts. That would suggest the attack was not ordered from the top, at the very least....

From OnPoint:
...Big Thinkers On Syria Morality And Strategy.  We invite big thinkers to wrestle with the moral and strategic implications of a military strike or pass in Syria.



From NYTimes:
.... With the World Watching,   Syria Amassed Nerve Gas.   Syria’s top leaders amassed one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons with help from the Soviet Union and Iran, as well as Western European suppliers and even a handful of American companies, according to American diplomatic cables and declassified intelligence records.......

From Mediaite:
.....Wallace Grills McDonough: If Obama Loses Syria Vote, ‘Doesn’t He Become Lame Duck the Next Day?’  On Fox News Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough defended President Barack Obama’s attempts to persuade a skeptical Congress to approve military intervention into the Syrian civil war, and host Chris Wallace asked him point blank if a failure to garner authorization would cripple Obama’s second term......

From ChicagoTribune:
....U.S. leaves door open to new U.N. vote on Syria. The United States left the door open on Sunday to seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution that could endorse punishing Syria for a chemical weapons attack last month and indicated Arab countries were seeking a tough response.....



From Guardian:
...American threats  widen fault lines among Syria's rebels.   When Barack Obama vowed to attack Bashar al-Assad, several thousand jihadists on the plains of northern Syria knew exactly what to do. Ever since, they have been hiding their big guns, evacuating bases, parking cars in cow sheds and spreading themselves thin among farms, factories and the communities that reluctantly host them.
"We have learned the lessons from Iraq," said Abu Ismail, a leader of the main jihadist group in the north-east of the country, known to some now as the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). "Iraq has made us better fighters."
While Syria's mainstream rebels are enthusiastically welcoming talk of an American attack as a chance to break the stalemate, the jihadist groups among them see things through a very different prism, in which my enemy's enemy is not necessarily my friend......

In 12 states he carried in 2008/2012 elections, not a single legislator now backs Obama on Syria: http://t.co/srKNREldyP @USATODAY survey
— Susan Page (@SusanPage) September 8, 2013

From WND:
......On the eve of a critical Capitol Hill discussion on Syria and two days before his address to the nation, President Obama has offered Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a way out of any U.S. bombing campaign..........

From PBS:
....Assad Tells PBS' Charlie Rose Syria   Prepared to Retaliate if Hit.   Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Charlie Rose on Sunday that he is preparing for a U.S. strike, and that Syria and some of their allies would retaliate if one occurs. I spoke with Rose, host of the PBS program that bears his name, as he was boarding his flight back to the United States after interviewing Assad in Damascus, Syria, Sunday morning. It is the first interview the Syrian president has given to an American network in nearly two years...........

From Buzzfeed:
..Cornel West: It’s “Grounds For Impeachment” If Obama Bombs Syria Without Congressional Approval
Smiley and West agree: A strike would be “dictatorial.”.........

From YahooNews:
....Madonna wades into Syria debate. Pop superstar Madonna has urged US officials not to take military action against Syria.....

From WSJ::
....Noonan: Why America Is Saying 'No' Syria and Obama: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man.   It is hard, if you've got a head and a heart, to come down against a strong U.S. response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its civilian population. This is especially so if you believe that humanity stands at a door that leads only to darkness. ....

From TheBlaze:
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham,     who has been a vocal supporter of striking Syria, appeared to imply that if the U.S. doesn’t take military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime a nuclear war may ensue.