Dem Floats Bill to Arm Syrian Rebels

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A top Senate Democrat nudged the Obama administration to provide weapons to the Syrian opposition, introducing a bill Monday that would explicitly allow the U.S. to provide arms, military training and non-lethal aid to the rebels. 

Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the legislation on the heels of U.S. intelligence claims that chemical weapons likely were used in the country. 

"The Assad regime has crossed a red line that forces us to consider all options," Menendez said in a written statement. "The greatest humanitarian crisis in the world is unfolding in and around Syria, and the U.S. must play a role in tipping the scales toward opposition groups and working to build a free Syria." 

President Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a "red line," but in light of the latest intelligence assessment he has urged caution - saying investigators don't yet know enough for the findings to warrant a specific U.S. response. 

The administration, though, has said it is considering arming the opposition. 

This is a step some lawmakers, like Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have been urging the U.S. to take for months. But amid claims that extremist elements have infiltrated parts of the anti-Assad forces, any effort to arm the groups would come with inherent risk that weapons could fall into the wrong hands. 

Menendez's office claimed his bill would require any group receiving arms to go through a "thorough vetting process." Without getting into detail, his office said those groups would have to "meet certain criteria on human-rights, terrorism, and non-proliferation." 

The bill also would create a $250 million fund to assist the country in a transition after the end of the Assad regime. The measure would give the U.S. government the power to sanction any individual who sells or transfers military equipment, weapons or oil to Assad. 

The legislation was introduced amid conflicting accounts over the investigation into chemical weapons use. 

Carla Del Ponte, a member of the U.N. commission looking into the alleged use of the nerve gas sarin in Syria, said Sunday that opposition forces - and not the Assad regime -- may have been the ones who used the weapons. According to Reuters, she told Swiss-Italian television there are "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof" of sarin gas being used. She said it was "on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities." 

But the White House and Pentagon sharply challenged the claim. 

"The commission has not reached any conclusive findings. The fact of the matter is that we are highly skeptical that the opposition has used chemical weapons," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday. 

He claimed it's most likely the Assad regime was behind any weapons use. 

The U.N. commission investigating the attacks also watered down Del Ponte's comments in a written statement Monday, as they came under increasing scrutiny. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic said it "wishes to clarify that it has not reached conclusive findings as to the use of chemical weapons in Syria by any parties to the conflict." 

Carney said the U.S. is still looking for conclusive evidence about chemical weapons use in Syria. He said there is no timeline for the investigation.
Secretary of State John Kerry was leaving for Moscow on Monday to discuss the situation in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

"We have consistently, in our conversations with the Russians and others, pointed clearly to Assad's behavior as proof that further support for the regime is not in the interest of the Syrian people or in the interest of the countries that have in the past supported Assad," Carney said. "We have been clear in the past about our disappointment with Russia over their opposition to resolutions at the Security Council with regards to this matter. But this is an ongoing conversation." 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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HOW'D THEY GET THAT? Syrian Rebels Appear to Have SEALs' Favorite Rifle

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  A British special forces member used the AS-50 to kill to Taliban fighters from more than a mile and a half away.

New YouTube video from the Syrian battlefield shows rebels firing what appears to be the same high-powered sniper rifle favored by U.S. Navy SEALs, leaving some experts wondering who the ragtag army of insurgents might train the guns on in the future.

The British-made AS-50, accurate from a distance of 20 football fields, is made for British Special Forces and has been used by Navy SEALs. The video shows Syrian rebels, who are aligned with Al Qaeda, firing guns that look like the AS-50 and shouting “Alahu akbar.” Even if the rifle is a cheap knock-off of the AS-50, it has raised questions about who is supplying such devastating hardware.

“The video, showing jihadist rebels of the 'Descendents of the Prophet Brigade' firing one of the world's most effective sniper rifles, should be cause for alarm," said David Reaboi, of the Washington-based Center for Security Policy. "We don't know who has been supplying this group (or the myriad others) with these weapons but, given the jihadist ideology of these groups, it's only a matter of time until they're turned on Americans or our allies and interests.”

The AS-50 set a reported world record when a member of the British Household Cavalry in Afghanistan’s Helmand province killed two members of the Taliban with successive bullets over a recorded distance of more than 1.5 miles, though the record is disputed.

The Free Syrian Army has been receiving weapons from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey - all close allies of the U.S. But the U.S. has repeatedly stated that it has sent no weapons to the opposition forces.

"... given the jihadist ideology of these groups, it's only a matter of time until they're turned on Americans or our allies and interests.”

- David Reaboi, Center for Security Policy

The U.S. State Department has acknowledged directly providing $385 million support to the Syrian people, including “emergency medical care and medical supplies, food aid, and winterization supplies like blankets and heaters for those affected by the crisis.” The site also reports that “over 4,000 major pieces of equipment have been provided, mostly to Damascus, Aleppo, and other areas with significant opposition presence, including communications and computer equipment, as well as generators.”

If the rebels were able to get AS-50s, experts say it could prove impossible to determine where and how many.

The sniper rifle, manufactured by Accuracy International – which sells arms to the Turkish and Saudi Arabian militaries - has a fearsome reputation. It has been used in various theaters of war in recent years by many elite forces, including both the SEALs and British Special Forces.

“I know from first-hand experience how revered the AI product is, even in the States, where traditionally U.S. producers are favored,” a British Army sniping instructor told Wired in 2011.

Call of Duty, a warfare game that in 2009 sold more than 7 million copies in just one day, seemingly endorsed the already lofty reputation of the AS-50 by featuring the weapon in one of its many urban combat simulations, giving the sniper rifle something of an iconic following amongst players of the record-breaking video feature.

The Free Syrian Army has recently made significant territorial gains against government forces in the two-year-old bloody civil war that in March saw its worst ever body count, with independent monitors determining at least 6,000 people were killed.

The AS-50 costs about $10,000, according to Reaboi. Even if the rebels are toting cheap knock-offs, the weapons could be around long after the war in Syria ends.

"We're unsure of how many they have," Reaboi said. "Equally troubling, of course, is the training ground of the Syrian civil war itself; like the conflict in the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan, we will be facing tested veteran jihadist fighters who don't just leave the war when the one battle is over. I'm afraid we or our allies will have to face them shortly, and with exceedingly lethal weapons."

Especially concerned is Israel, which shares an increasingly uneasy border with Syria in the Golan Heights.

With the Free Syrian Army increasingly dominated by more radical Jihadist elements such as the Al Qaeda-associated Al Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra), concern is growing that it won’t be too long before battle-hardened Islamist fighters as well as mercenaries from around the globe who have joined the fight against Assad, turn their attentions towards Israel. In their experienced hands even a far from easy-to-use weapon such as the AS-50 would be indeed be lethal.

Israel Defense Forces spokesman Capt. Eytan Buchman told FoxNews.com that the IDF is keeping a close eye on all forms of weaponry being used in the neighboring conflict.

“The Israeli security forces are very closely tracking developments inside of Syria in order to isolate and identify any potential threat to Israeli security” Buchman said.

Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who blogs at www.paulalster.com and can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster

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EXCLUSIVE: Syrian Suspected of 9/11 Ties Lives Freely in US

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  Daoud Chehazeh, left, and Eyad al Rababah

Free to do as he pleases, living out his days in the suburbs of northern New Jersey, a Syrian national who is a known associate of the 9/11 hijackers never has to worry about deportation by the U.S. government, according to an investigation by Fox Files.

With nearly 400,000 people waiting for U.S. citizenship, Daoud Chehazeh last November received political asylum for a third time after a series of bureaucratic screw ups at the federal level, according to a review of court documents and interviews with former federal and state investigators.

A special on the investigation, “He’s Here to Stay in the USA,” debuts Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News.

"It's a slap in the face to Americans, especially the victims of 9/11 and the families," said Jim Bush, who as a New Jersey state criminal investigator was part of the 9/11 investigation code-named PENTTBOMB. His partner in the investigation was Bob Bukowski, a now-retired FBI special agent.

"Three thousand people were murdered," Bukowski said. "(Chehazeh) was definitely part of that conspiracy. ... He facilitated the moves and protection up to the whole flight, basically, of Flight 77. Could we prove that in a court of law? No. But there are other remedies. Deport him. That's what should have been done in this case."

“This is an example of our national security policy gone mad,” Debra Burlingame, the co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, said. Fox Files’ findings and the connection between Chehazeh and the Flight 77 hijackers were especially disheartening because Burlingame’s brother, Charles, was the pilot of Flight 77, which was hijacked and slammed into the Pentagon.

“This is what comes of demilitarizing the 'War on Terror' and political correctness, treating enemies with the rights of ordinary people," she said. "We owe a person like this absolutely nothing. His confederates were summarily executed by drone. This is an utterly incoherent national security policy.”

Chehazeh arrived in the U.S. in July 2000 from Saudi Arabia and quickly settled into Paterson, N.J.'s Middle Eastern community. Paterson was the launching pad for the plot, where 11 of the 19 hijackers passed through before the attacks.

In Paterson, Chehazeh met up and lived with another key facilitator of the hijackers, a Jordanian named Eyad al Rababah. The significance of the Chehazeh-Rababah support network for the hijackers in Virginia and New Jersey was first reported by Fox News in May 2011. Law enforcement sources told Fox News that revelations Chehazeh was still living in the U.S. went to the most senior levels of the FBI.

Seven months before the attacks, Chehazeh, who had no job and no known source of income, suddenly decided to leave Paterson. Along with his roommate, Rababah, the two men moved to suburban Washington, D.C., and almost immediately made contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, who was the imam at the mosque in Falls Church, Va.

Fox Files' exclusive reporting showed al-Awlaki, killed in September 2011 by a CIA drone strike in Yemen, was a guest speaker at the Pentagon five months after the 2001 attacks and that there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence suggesting the cleric was an overlooked key player in the plot.

By April 2001, beside al-Awlaki, Chehazeh's new circle of friends and neighbors included future Flight 77 hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour, a pilot. Chehazeh made a point to tell Rababah, even though both men later admitted to investigators they were not religious men, to go to the mosque and ask Imam al-Awlaki for work.

"Al-Rababah returns home with two of the hijackers," Bush explained. "And that's the first time, that we know of, that Daoud Chehazeh met the hijackers."

Rababah got the hijackers an apartment in Virginia.  He helped them get settled.   And in May 2001, Rababah drove al-Hazmi, Hanjour and two of the newly arrived muscle hijackers to Connecticut and New Jersey. The 9/11 Commission Report said that within a few weeks seven of the hijackers were living in New Jersey in a one-room apartment.

Bukowski and Bush are still haunted by a piece of evidence.

"When (Chehazeh) was arrested, in his car we found booklets, flight information from (New Jersey's) Teterboro Airport, where we know Hani Hanjour, again the pilot, practiced out of,"  Bush said. Chehazeh "didn't know how the hell they got there."

Bukowski and Bush say they still believe there was an unknown relationship between al-Awlaki, Chehazeh and Rababah. At least five of the hijackers were tied to these men. And it is striking that the 9/11 Commission report makes no reference to Chehazeh.  

"Chehazeh was still being a little bit investigated at the time when we were interviewed by the 9/11 Commission.," Bukowski explained. "I guess they believe that Al-Rababah played, uh, was more of the leader, but we found out, no, he was more of the one that was just being told what to do."

For more than a decade, the U.S. government has spent more than half a million dollars trying to deport Chehazeh. Bush and Bukowski said Chehazeh knew how to play the system. While the FBI was on his trail after 9/11, the immigration judge was apparently in the dark about his hijacker connections. It is unknown who or what government agency dropped the ball.

In 2001, court documents show U.S. immigration judge Annie Garcy helped Chehazeh fill out his asylum application. She would eventually rule that he belonged to a social group of "people who are hopelessly in debt."

"I think it was unusual for a federal judge to grant him asylum based upon his being a member of a social group called hopeless debtors," said Andrew Napolitano, a superior court judge in New Jersey for eight years who now is a senior judicial analyst for Fox News. "The federal judge concluded that he would be tortured or killed in Syria."

Chehazeh was free to live in this country. But the case was reopened in 2007 when the FBI claimed Chehazeh was a danger to national security. Bukowski said the basis was "his connection to the hijackers."

In 2007, the Board of Immigration Appeals reopened Chehazeh's case. And this time, Chehazeh had high-powered pro bono attorneys from the New York City law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Fox Files contacted Chehazeh and his attorneys numerous times, but they declined to provide a written statement or otherwise comment.

For now it looks like Chehazeh is never leaving the United States. Last November, the Board of Immigration Appeals reversed its decision to reopen Chehazeh's case. And on Feb. 13, the case was officially closed and entered into court records of the United States District Court District of New Jersey.

Napolitano described the Chehazeh case as closed with “clarity and finality.”  

But others suspected of 9/11 connections faced very different outcomes. Rababah was deported to Jordan in 2003. And al-Awlaki was killed by drone in Yemen in 2011.

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Has Army vet aiding Syrian rebels become a jihadist?- Assad's forces hammer Homs neighborhood in Syria

He's a U.S.-trained soldier turned Muslim warrior who moves between America and countries where the winds of the Arab spring blow, fighting alongside jihadists and America-hating terrorists while celebrating his bloody exploits on YouTube videos.

Eric Harroun, 30, grew up in Phoenix before joining the U.S. Army in 2000. Although Harroun was never deployed during his three-year hitch, he has seen plenty of combat fighting with Syrian rebels and, more recently, Jabhat al-Nusra, a group the U.S. State Department classifies as an alias for Al Qaeda in Iraq.

“I was separated in a battle and most of my group was K.I.A. and Al-Nusra picked me up,” Harroun told FoxNews.com during one of several brief interviews conducted via Skype.

“I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."

- Eric Harroun, U.S.-born jihadist known as "The American"

Harroun, who said he is now in Turkey, shrugged off a question about fighting alongside Al Qaeda terrorists who have joined the Syrian rebellion, saying, "the U.S. plays both sides, too." He said the offshoot of the terror group behind the 9/11 attacks welcomed him.

“Getting into Al-Nusra is not rocket science," he said. "It just takes balls and brains.”

Harroun, known among Syrian rebels and loyalists alike as “The American,” has moved from one country to another, joining protesters in the takedown of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak before fighting alongside rebels attempting to depose Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. A prolific poster of online diatribes against the infidel, he's joined the threads of those calling for the deaths of Zionists.

His father, Darryl Harroun, told FoxNews.com that his son was discharged from the Army after he was seriously injured while riding in a pickup truck that hit a tree. He was left with full disability pay and a steel plate in his head, according to his father. 

"Now he has mood swings and what-not," said Darryl Harroun, who lives in Arizona and talks to his son by phone frequently. "He was already suffering from depression before that, and the accident just kind of multiplied it."

Darryl Harroun said his son is seen as an adventurer by friends and relatives, who call him "Arizona Jones." 

"He just loves that part of the world," said Darryl Harroun, who said his family has been in the U.S. for several generations and is not Muslim. "We scratch our heads and wonder what the hell he's doing. I told him, 'You're never going to change those people's minds over there.' But he says they treat him like a hero.

"I know one day I'm going to get a message from over there, telling me my son is dead," he said.

Darryl Harroun said he doesn't believe the U.S. -- much less his own son -- has any business in Middle Eastern affairs. But at least one family member seems to believe Harroun is fighting a noble battle.

"Keep fighting Eric!" Harroun's sister, Sarah Harroun, posted on Facebook this week. "The people of Syria and you are in my prayers."

Harroun's descent into Islamic fanaticism seems to have begun sometime after his discharge from the military. With seemingly no way to pursue his lifelong dream of being a soldier, he fell in with two Iraqi brothers, Maadh and Hayder Ibrahim, who he met while attending Pima Community College in Tucson, and began to identify himself as a Muslim, according to people who know him.

He became active on anti-Israeli message boards, posting virulent rants against Zionism as well as his own uploaded images and videos.

A spokesman with the Syrian rebel group known as the Amr ibn al-’Aas Brigade told FoxNews.com “The American” operated with the organization until a month ago. Harroun confirmed reports from the Amr ibn al-'As brigade that he had left Syria, and said he is currently in Istanbul.

Harroun is believed to have worked for a Phoenix-based mortgage company after leaving the military. Officials and co-workers there declined to discuss Harroun, whose online posts indicate he has traveled to and from the Middle East at least a half-dozen times over the last decade.

Army spokesman Ray Gall confirmed that Harroun served in the Army's 568th Engineer Company and was based at Fort Riley, Kansas, from October 2000 to May 2003, attaining the rank of Private First Class before his discharge. Gall declined to provide any details regarding Harroun's discharge.

In Syria, Harroun has become so well known that a pro-regime video was created claiming that “The American” is a “criminal from Miami.” A mugshot and rap sheet are provided as proof of Harroun’s criminal past, but the picture in the video does not resemble Harroun.

In recent months, Harroun has appeared in several online videos alongside Syrian rebels fighting in Damascus. Described in his Facebook profile as a Sunni Muslim, Harroun has posted in several threads claiming to have personally killed several Shabiha (supporters of the Assad regime), Syrian soldiers and an Iranian.

“I hate bad guys like Bashar [Assad]," Harroun told FoxNews.com. "I hate Iran, too. I am a freedom fighter."

In one video posted online, Harroun is seen on the Syrian battlefield, speeding toward a downed helicopter in a Jeep detailed with a Free Syrian Army emblem on its windshield. Harroun told FoxNews.com the video was shot at a place called Mansura in eastern Syria.

In the video, Harroun and a driver he addresses in Arabic as “The Chechen” ride toward the downed Syrian helicopter. 

“We smoked the mother f*****s, didn’t we?” Harroun tells the driver.

"Allah Akbar!” he exclaims.

The FSA is a conglomerate of militia-style groups and former Syrian military personnel, according to Rafael Green, a research fellow at the Middle East Media Research Institute. Green said the FSA cooperates with groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, and is not particular about who takes up its cause

For Harroun, who claims to have been arrested twice by Egyptian security forces in 2011 and traveled extensively in Lebanon and Turkey, the war in Syria seems to be an opportunity to kill in the name of a cause. He said Israel may be next on his agenda -- specifically the Palestinian territories -- citing “atrocities” that “Israel is doing to the Palestinians.

"Maybe Gaza is next for me, maybe [the] West Bank," said Harroun, whose Facebook wall bears the quote: “The only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.”

Greg Tepper is a freelance journalist based in Israel. Ilan Ben Zion (@ilanbenzion) is a reporter for the Times of Israel.

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