Secretary Ban Ki-moon said he was “extremely troubled about the risk of an all-out civil war (in Syria) and was concerned about the outbreak of related violence in Lebanon.”

He spoke as dozens of Syrians died in clashes – mostly in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib and the town of Homs – while two people were killed in Beirut in a spillover of Syrian bloodshed.

Sunday, at the NATO summit in Chicago, Secretary Anders Fogh Rasmussen said firmly that the alliance has “no intention” of taking military action against President Bashar Assad’s regime. But he said nothing about individual NATO members translating their concern about the escalating violence in Syria into military action. Above all, he did not explain why Syrian army heavy T-72 tanks have in recent days started bursting into flames on the open roads.

DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose the cause: The Syrian rebels have received their first “third generation” anti-tank weapons, 9K115-2 Metis-M and Kornet E. They are supplied by Saudi and Qatari intelligence agencies following a secret message from President Barack Obama advising them to up the military stake in the effort to oust Assad.

Saturday, May 19, President Obama said in a speech to the G-8 summit at Camp David that “Bashar al-Assad must leave power.” Listening to him were Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev whose government strongly opposes the bid to topple Assad and is helping him to weather the uprising against his rule.

Medvedev and Chinese leader Hu Jintao both kept silent after Obama spoke. Both would have had intelligence updates relayed to Camp David on the latest turn of events in Syria.

The supply of powerful anti-tank missiles to the Syrian rebels is intended to achieve two purposes:

CONTINUED at DEBKAfile.

Defense Secretary re-affirms Obama administration’s unconstitutional stance.

Following controversy over his assertion that seeking “international permission” from the UN to launch wars trumps the authority of Congress, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta re-affirmed this premise during recent testimony in which he again stated that Congress would play second fiddle to the international community.

Asked by Congressman Walter Jones, who has launched a resolution re-affirming the limits to Presidential power by making the launching of war without Congressional approval an impeachable offense, whether President Obama would seek authorization from Congress before attacking Iran or Syria, Panetta stopped short of answering in the affirmative.

“We will clearly work with Congress if it comes to the issue of the use of force,” said Panetta, backing away from comments made in March when he told a Senate Armed Services Committee, “Our goal would be to seek international permission. And we would come to the Congress and inform you and determine how best to approach this, whether or not we would want to get permission from the Congress.”

However, Panetta later told Congressman Randy Forbes during the House Armed Services Committee meeting, “The commander in chief has the authority to take action that involves the vital interests of this country,” adding that the President would have to “take steps” to get Congressional approval under the War Powers Act.

“Would the approval be required before you could take military action against Syria?” asked Forbes.

“The President could in fact deploy forces if he had to if our vital interests were at stake,” said Panetta.

“So you get the support of Congress after you began military operations?” asked Forbes.

“In that particular situation, yes,” said Panetta, re-affirming that Congressional authorization would not be needed.

CONTINUED at Prison Planet.

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria’s few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

News of the panel’s report came as Tehran and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency try narrow their differences on how to tackle concerns over Iran’s atomic program, and as Iran prepares for talks with the five permanent council members and Germany in Iraq next week.

The new report, submitted by a panel of sanctions-monitoring experts to the Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee, said the panel investigated three large illegal shipments of Iranian weapons over the past year.

CONTINUED at The Star.

Two suicide blasts ripped through the Syrian capital today, killing 55 people and leaving scenes of carnage in the streets in the deadliest bombing attack since the country’s uprising began 14 months ago, the Interior Ministry said.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said his peace plan could be the last chance to avoid civil war in Syria, where a truce has failed to end 14 months of bloodshed that monitors say has killed nearly 12,000 people.

Annan told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the priority in Syria was “to stop the killing” and expressed concern that torture, mass arrests and other human rights violations were intensifying.

Regime forces “continue to press against the population,” despite a putative truce that started on April 12, but attacks are more discreet because of the presence of UN military observers, diplomats quoted him as saying.

“The biggest priority, first of all we need to stop the killing,” Annan told reporters in Geneva, adding that his six-point peace plan is “the only remaining chance to stabilize the country.”

Annan briefed the council on his efforts to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement the plan, which he said was possibly “the last chance to avoid civil war.”

CONTINUED at Taipei Times.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations are meeting in Washington for discussions that include the continuing violence in Syria, nuclear talks with Iran, and North Korea’s missile launch plans.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the meeting is an opportunity to discuss the many global issues that require joint leadership from G8 nations. Topping the agenda: Syria.

“We are alarmed for the ongoing violence in Syria, and we are concerned about the problems facing special envoy Kofi Annan as he attempts to bring about a cease-fire and the end to violence,” said Secretary Clinton.

Within the G8, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom have called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down as part of a democratic transition to end the political violence, which has raged for 13 months. Russia has backed President Assad as he battles the opposition and continues to sell arms to Syria.

Secretary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet separately to discuss Syria after a video conference briefing by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Syrian troops shooting at Syrian refugees inside Turkey.

With Turkey set to host another round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program Saturday, Secretary Clinton says G8 foreign ministers believe it is an opportunity for Tehran to address seriously the international community’s concerns about its nuclear ambitions.

“We believe there is still time for diplomacy, but it is urgent that the Iranians come to the table to establish an environment conducive to achieving concrete results through a sustained process,” said Clinton.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful civilian purposes and is not designed to develop nuclear weapons.

It is a standoff similar to North Korea, where officials are readying the launch of a rocket which Pyongyang says will put a satellite in orbit.

“It violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” she said. “I think we all share a strong interest in stability on the Korean Peninsula, and we will be discussing how best to achieve that.”

Secretary Clinton says G8 foreign ministers will also discuss transnational issues including terrorism, piracy, food security, and support for democratic change in the Middle East and North Africa.

Those talks continue Thursday in preparation for next month’s G8 heads of state summit at Camp David.

Source: The Chosun Ilbo.

There is a video that could be loosely translated as “Terrorist Turkish border opening fire on the Syrian side” that pretty accurately sums up what’s going on at the ultra-volatile geopolitical hotspot of the moment.

The voice over says, “This is the Syria-Turkey border, and this is an operation of the Free Syrian Army [FSA] … The Gate [that would be the Syrian side of the border, housing the Gate checkpoint] is going to be seized.”

What this means is that Turkey is sheltering the FSA right on the border, only a few meters – and not kilometers – away from Syrian territory. Way beyond hosting a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) command and control center in Iskenderun for months now – a fact already reported by Asia Times Online – Turkey has now advanced right to the border, enabling a back-and-forth by heavily weaponized guerrillas/mercenaries to attack a sovereign state.

Imagine a similar scenario happening, say, at a Mexican-US border in Arizona or Texas.

This can be seen as a very peculiar Ankara interpretation of “safe havens” and “humanitarian corridors” as outlined by what can be seen as the prime blueprint for regime change in Syria: a report [2] by the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, authored by the usual cocktail of Israeli firsters and Qatar-affiliated Middle East “experts”.

So expect to see this movie generating countless sequels; the FSA attacking a Syrian border checkpoint, killing soldiers and then retreating under a hail of bullets, which will inevitably hit a nearby Syrian refugee camp.

The border escalation graphically illustrates the wider scenario: civil war.

CONTINUED at The Asia Times.

On April 10, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he will implement a peace plan in his war-torn country. The UN-supervised cease fire will mean that al-Assad will withdraw troops from cities around Syria and provide humanitarian aid. Many believe the anti-government rebels will not respond to the peace efforts due to outside influence on the rebel group. So will the efforts to stop the bloodshed work? Ahmad Fathi, a Middle Eastern expert, joins us with his take.

AS SYRIA’S President Bashar al-Assad formally accepted the UN-brokered ceasefire proposal, his troops continued to open fire on people across the country.

The actions fuelled opposition and international doubts about whether he would honour his commitment to the plan.

The special envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League, Kofi Annan, said he had received a positive response from the Syrian government and hoped ”to work with them to translate it into action”.

CONTINUED at Canberra Times.

Presidential hopeful Ron Paul has publically attacked the Obama administration’s abolishment of due process in a new editorial, calling the move a turning point in American history.

Responding to Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent justification for the extrajudicial killings of three American citizens on foreign soil, Republican Party candidate Ron Paul has penned a scathing op-ed condemning the White House for circumventing the US Constitution. Earlier this month Holder spoke at Chicago’s Northwestern Law School to discuss last year’s execution of alleged terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki and two other US-born clerics in Yemen, a decision he says the White House still defends despite criticism from citizens and lawmakers alike.

Although both US President Barack Obama and the CIA signed off on the airstrike that killed the American citizens, Washington has been relatively quiet on the matter until Holder spoke earlier this month.

After Attorney General Holder justified the assassination of Americans, a congressional inquiry revealed that Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wasn’t certain that the same laws could be applied to killing Americans on US soil. With the FBI and Oval Office both hiding behind vague verbiage to allow the assassination of their own citizens, Ron Paul is critiquing what he calls a complete disregard of the Constitution.

“It is particularly bizarre to hear the logic of the administration claiming the right to target its citizens according to some secret selection process, when we justified our attacks against Iraq and Libya because their leaders supposedly were targeting their own citizens,” writes Rep. Paul. “We also now plan a covert war against Syria for the same reason.”

The congressman adds in his explanation that he is all for justice brought on those that threaten America or its people, but that the US Department of Justice has — and should continue — to view these issues on a case-by-case basis. On the contrary, argues Paul, it seems as if the president puts himself above all other branches of the federal government, essentially eliminating the system of checks and balances constructed by America’s forefathers.

Holder, says Paul, “tells us that this is not a violation of the due process requirements of our Constitution because the President himself embodies ‘due process’ as he unilaterally determines who is to be targeted. As Holder said, ‘a careful and thorough executive branch review of the facts in a case amounts to “due process.”’ That means that the administration believes it is the President himself who is to be the judge, jury and executioner.”

“Our civilian court system, with the guarantee of real due process, judicial review, and a fair trial, is our strength, not a weakness,”writes Rep. Paul. “It is not an impediment to be sidestepped in the push for convictions or assassinations, but rather a process that guarantees that fundamental right to be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”

After the CIA ordered and executed a “targeted kill” on Awlaki and alleged al-Qaeda operative Samir Khan last year, Ron Paul responded the same day to condemn the assassinations. “Nobody knows if he ever killed anybody,” Paul said at time. “If the American people accept this blindly and casually…I think that’s sad.”

Now that the US has formally acknowledged that it stands by the killing months later, the congressman seems to be even more concerned with the turn America is taking, describing Holder’s explanation as something “history likely will record as a turning point.”

Source: RT.