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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OPPOSITION SUPPORT: Members of Assad's Sect Form Group to Back Rebels

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  March 24, 2013: Syrian Alawites Mahmoud Maraie, second left, and Bassam al-Malek, second right, talk with other members of the Syrian Alawite sect who are opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad in Cairo, Egypt. Members of Assad's Alawite sect met in Cairo on Sunday in an attempt to distance themselves from the Damascus regime in its crack down on the Syrian revolution.AP

CAIRO –  Dozens of people from Syrian President Bashar Assad's own minority sect met in Cairo on Sunday to send an unusual message to their fellow Alawites back home: Join the opposition before it is too late.

The Alawites have long been seen as a backbone of the Assad regime, and a decision to support the rebel force in Syria is complicated by the fact that many see their own futures interlocked with Assad's survival.

The pressure on Alawites who dare oppose Assad comes not only from the regime, but also from within their own families. Nearly all of the 50 Alawites at the opposition conference have been arrested, abused or threatened for their political views. One participant said he received an email threatening his life if he attended the conference.

The Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, are a tiny sect, representing roughly 12 percent of Syria's population. Many live in towns and villages along the mountainous Mediterranean coast. Most have either rallied behind Assad or stayed quietly on the sidelines of the 2-year-old civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people.

The opposition meeting — the first of its kind for Alawite Syrians since the war began — reflects fears that they would fall victim to revenge killings and assassinations should Assad's regime fall. Some are particularly worried about the influx of foreign jihadist fighters into Syria who view Shiites as heretics.

Many minority Alawites see the war in Syria as a fight for survival against the Sunni majority. Alawites hold key posts in the army alongside some Sunnis and members of other groups that have been given top government and military positions to foster loyalty to the regime.

A statement by the Alawite opposition group said "the Syrian regime has no identity except that of tyranny."

"The Syrian regime lies when it says it protects minorities, particularly the Alawites ... in an attempt to portray to the world that it is fighting Islamic extremists and terrorism," the statement said.

Rita al-Suleiman, 29, said she had to flee Syria last year after her brother told her that he had been questioned in prison about her anti-regime activities in Homs.

"I was at first careful not to attend meetings, but then my family said they have nothing to do with me so I grew bolder," she said. "It's been very hard to leave them behind."

Like others at the conference, she said many Syrians are no longer afraid to voice their opinions, but that Alawites are under greater pressure from members of their own community not to speak out.

Bashar Aboud, 40, said his relatives warned his parents they would burn their house down if he continued defying the regime. The 40 year-old father of two, who now resides in Cairo after fleeing Syria during a 2001 crackdown on opposition figures, said his parents were forced to go on Syrian TV and disown him.

Those at the conference stressed that Alawites have long been and want to continue to be a part of the fabric of Syrian society.

"In the end we are all on the same boat and it's sinking," Aboud said, referring to Syria's precarious situation. "We are part of the team that is trying to save this boat."

One participant described the conferees as a real opposition movement that does not want to be separated from the homeland. He said he opposed dividing Syria along sectarian lines or the possibility of a breakaway enclave for Alawites as was the case under French mandate for a few years in the late 1930s.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals against his family in Syria.

Despite efforts by the participants to frame the conflict as a despotic regime against its people, signs of sectarian warfare are rife in Syria.

The army is being reinforced by pro-regime militias, packed with Alawites who have been accused of conducting massacres in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed.

The Syrian government claims gunmen driven by the agendas of foreign countries are responsible for the killings, but the United Nations and other witnesses have confirmed that at least some were carried out by pro-regime vigilante fighters.

Another Alawite participant at the conference said his two sons were forced out of work last year to serve in one of the national security branches, and were deployed to areas of heavy fighting, including the outskirts of Damascus.

He claimed that his sons, ages 28 and 30, had witnessed severe beatings and killings by the regime. The participant, a long-time opposition activist who wrote under the pseudo name Sami Saleh, said he and his two sons relied on Sunni fighters in the rebel Free Syrian Army to help them escape through Turkey.

He also spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal against relatives still in Syria.

Some three-fourths of Syrians are Sunni Muslims, but the country is also home to other Muslim groups, as well as Christians and ethnic communities of Kurds, Armenians and others. All coexisted with varying degrees of ease under Assad's regime, founded more than four decades ago by his father, Hafez, and inherited by Bashar in 2000.

The Alawite opposition conference was funded by rich businessmen from the sect, according to its organizer Bassam Youssef, who was detained for 11 years under Hafez for his communist activities against the ruling Baath Party.

A large green-striped Syrian rebel flag draped the speaker's podium and a banner in the back read: "We are all Syria. We are with a united Syria."

Several members of the main Sunni-led Syrian opposition coalition also attended the Alawite conference in solidarity. They too have struggled, coalescing around a unified voice. Its president, Mouaz al-Khatib, resigned Sunday citing frustration with the level of international support and constraints imposed by the body itself.

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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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