George Wenschhof
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Obama to Meet with Christie Today - As was announced last week, President Barack Obama on Tuesday will travel to New Jersey where he will meet with Gov. Chris Christie (R), as well as families and business owners who were affected by Hurricane Sandy last fall.
Obama is expected to touch down in New Jersey at 11:05 a.m. ET, the White House said. He will deliver remarks at 1:30 p.m. ET in Asbury Park, N.J. TPM.com has more here.
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McCain Visits with Rebels in Syria - Sen. John McCain Monday became the highest-ranking U.S. official to enter Syria since the bloody civil war there began more than two years ago, The Daily Beast has learned.
McCain, one of the fiercest critics of the Obama administration’s Syria policy, made the unannounced visit across the Turkey-Syria border with Gen. Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army. He stayed in the country for several hours before returning to Turkey. Both in Syria and Turkey, McCain and Idris met with assembled leaders of Free Syrian Army units that traveled from around the country to see the U.S. senator. Inside those meetings, rebel leaders called on the United States to step up its support to the Syrian armed opposition and provide them with heavy weapons, a no-fly zone, and airstrikes on the Syrian regime and the forces of Hezbollah, which is increasingly active in Syria. The Daily Beast has more here.
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European Union to Allow Arms Embargo for Syrian Rebels to Lapse - The Obama administration’s go-slow policy on Syria came under renewed pressure Monday as European leaders opted to remove a legal hurdle that had blocked arms flows to rebel groups, while a top Republican critic swooped into Syria to dramatize what he says is the opposition’s urgent need for direct military aid.
The new support for Syria’s embattled opposition came amid high-level diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry huddled in the French capital with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to explore prospects for a peace conference that would bring together rebels and Syrian government officials. The Washington Post has more here.
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Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo Share a Parade - Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, the prohibitive 2016 Democratic front-runner and the New York governor believed to be interested in the White House, were in lockstep Monday for Memorial Day.
The pair marched together in a Westchester parade marking the day.
Aides to Cuomo declined to answer how they ended up together at the parade, although it’s one of the local events for Memorial Day in the New York county where both live. A Clinton aide said it was happenstance, and that she has traditionally marched in the parade. Politico.com has more here.
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The Sale of Drones Becoming The New Arms Race - On a sprawling complex just outside Pretoria, South Africa, a government-owned arms manufacturer is preparing to test an armed drone that it hopes to begin selling soon to governments around the world.
The company, Denel Dynamics, says the armed version of the Seeker 400, which will carry two laser-guided missiles, will enable so-called opportunistic targeting at a range of up to about 155 miles.
“These are not combat systems, they are foremost reconnaissance systems,” Sello Ntsihlele, executive manager of UAV systems for Denel, told NBC News. He added: “(But if) you speak to any general, show him the capability, he will tell you, ‘I want to have munitions."
The company’s move is but one signal that the era when only a small club of countries possessed weaponized drones is drawing to a close.
Critics say the coming proliferation of the lethal remote-controlled flying machines will forever change the face of counterterrorism operations and, eventually, warfare itself – and not for the better. MSNBC.com has more here.
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European Union to Allow Arms Embargo for Syrian Rebels to Lapse - The Obama administration’s go-slow policy on Syria came under renewed pressure Monday as European leaders opted to remove a legal hurdle that had blocked arms flows to rebel groups, while a top Republican critic swooped into Syria to dramatize what he says is the opposition’s urgent need for direct military aid.
The new support for Syria’s embattled opposition came amid high-level diplomatic efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry huddled in the French capital with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to explore prospects for a peace conference that would bring together rebels and Syrian government officials. The Washington Post has more here.
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Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo Share a Parade - Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo, the prohibitive 2016 Democratic front-runner and the New York governor believed to be interested in the White House, were in lockstep Monday for Memorial Day.
The pair marched together in a Westchester parade marking the day.
Aides to Cuomo declined to answer how they ended up together at the parade, although it’s one of the local events for Memorial Day in the New York county where both live. A Clinton aide said it was happenstance, and that she has traditionally marched in the parade. Politico.com has more here.
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The company, Denel Dynamics, says the armed version of the Seeker 400, which will carry two laser-guided missiles, will enable so-called opportunistic targeting at a range of up to about 155 miles.
“These are not combat systems, they are foremost reconnaissance systems,” Sello Ntsihlele, executive manager of UAV systems for Denel, told NBC News. He added: “(But if) you speak to any general, show him the capability, he will tell you, ‘I want to have munitions."
The company’s move is but one signal that the era when only a small club of countries possessed weaponized drones is drawing to a close.
Critics say the coming proliferation of the lethal remote-controlled flying machines will forever change the face of counterterrorism operations and, eventually, warfare itself – and not for the better. MSNBC.com has more here.
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Donations are appreciated - Click here to donate. Thank You!
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