SYRIA; Congressional Record Vol. 160, No. 78

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SYRIA

Mr. McCAIN. The Middle East today is engulfed in an escalating

regional conflict. The space for moderate politics in country after

country is collapsing, and a process of radicalization is increasingly

destabilizing the entire region. At the center of this growing conflict

stands Syria, where for over 3 years now the Syrian people have faced

an onslaught of unspeakable violence from President Bashar al-Assad and

his forces.

As of today more than 160,000 Syrians have been killed, over half of

the population is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3

million people have been driven from their homes in what the United

Nations has described \\\`\\\`as the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our

times.'' To give some sense for the scale of the growing refugee

crisis, there are now 1 million registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

That makes up one-fourth of the total population of the country. This

does not include the thousands who are living there unofficially and

unregistered. This is as if the entire population of Canada were

uprooted and became refugees in the United States of America--twice

over.

Without understanding the scale, it is hard to comprehend the stress

on resources and the escalating tensions that these refugees have

caused in neighboring countries. Can you imagine what we would do as

Americans if we were dealing with the entire population of Canada

living as refugees in our country? Inside Syria, they are confronted

with the inhumane cruelty of Mr. Assad and his forces every day.

We have seen evidence of this systematic abuse, torture, starvation,

and killing of approximately 100,000 detainees, in what clearly amounts

to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The United Nations has

detailed the further arrest, detention, torture, and sexual abuse of

thousands of children by government forces. Human Rights Watch has

documented how Syrian authorities have deliberately used explosives and

bulldozers to demolish entire neighborhoods for no military reason

whatsoever, just as a form of collective punishment of Syrian

civilians.

The United Nations has also documented the toll of the Syrian

government's air strike campaign, and, in particular, the regime's use

of crude cluster munitions that have become known as barrel bombs.

Their sole purpose is to maim, kill, and terrorize as many civilians as

possible when indiscriminately dropped on schools, bakeries, and

mosques.

Worse yet, evidence is piling up that Assad's forces have been

equipping these barrel bombs with chlorine gas. Just last week French

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that France has evidence of at

least 14 chlorine-based chemical attacks carried out by Syrian

Government forces since 2013, adding, \\\`\\\`The regime is still capable of

producing chemical weapons and is determined to use them.''

Around the same time, a senior Israeli defense official stated that

\\\`\\\`from the day that he signed the deal, Assad has used chemical weapons

over thirty times, and in every case citizens were killed.''

The State Department has further verified these reports, stating

there

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were \\\`\\\`indications'' of the use of chlorine--though it was quick to

point out that this is not one of the chemicals Syria was obliged to

surrender.

So it appears that we are faced with a situation in which the Assad

regime has agreed to give up certain chemical weapons after using them

to murder nearly 1,400 civilians last year, but it is also using other

chemicals--less lethal but nonetheless effective--to continue gassing

civilians to death, and the world does nothing about it. Why? Because

technically this is permitted under the chemical weapons agreement.

That is shameful and outrageous.

What is more, months after the deadline for removing all of its

chemical weapons stockpiles, the Syrian Government has yet to fulfill

its obligations under the treaty and is using its remaining stockpiles

to bargain over the terms of the original agreement in the hopes of

retaining its storage and production facilities.

As we are once again faced with images of men, women, and children

writhing on the ground and gasping for breath, Assad appears to be

disregarding some of his chemical weapons commitments and continuing to

commit mass atrocities. Again, redlines are tested and crossed, and the

United States of America and the world do nothing.

These are just some of the many reasons our Director of National

Intelligence referred to the Syria crisis as \\\`\\\`an apocalyptic

disaster.'' But this apocalyptic disaster in Syria is no longer just a

humanitarian tragedy for one country; it is a regional conflict and an

emerging national security threat to us all. No one should believe that

we will be immune to what is happening in Syria. None of us are.

For those of you who look at these far-away events and say what

Neville Chamberlain once told himself about a different problem from

Hell in an earlier time--that this is \\\`\\\`a quarrel in a far away country

between people of whom we know nothing''--don't think that events in

Syria won't have repercussions much closer to home. The terrorist

sanctuary that Al Qaeda and its associated forces now enjoy in Syria

and Iraq increasingly pose a direct threat to U.S. national security

and that of our closest allies and partners. Indeed, the Secretary of

Homeland Security, Mr. Jeh Johnson, has said, \\\`\\\`Syria is now a matter

of homeland security.'' The Director of National Intelligence, James

Clapper, has also repeatedly warned that Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists

in Syria now aspire to attack the homeland.

If the September 11 attacks should have taught us anything, it is

that global terrorists who occupy ungoverned spaces and seek to plot

and plan attacks against us can pose a direct threat to our national

security. That was Afghanistan on September 10, 2001, and that is what

top officials in this administration are now warning us Syria is

becoming today.

The latest U.S. intelligence estimates say that more than 100

Americans have traveled to fight in Syria alongside extremists, joining

some of the most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world today.

Earlier this month, FBI Director James Comey stated:

All of us with a memory of the '80s and '90s saw the line

drawn from Afghanistan to September 11. We see Syria as that,

but an order of magnitude worse in a couple of respects: Far

more people are going there, and far easier to travel to and

back from.

Already, senior intelligence officials believe that between 6 and 12

Americans who have gone to Syria to fight have now returned to America,

possibly with the intention to carry out attacks here. \\\`\\\`We know where

some are,'' stated one senior U.S. intelligence official. Some? But

what about the others? Does that reassure you?

The sheer scale of foreign fighters with Western passports traveling

to fight in Syria has our senior-most intelligence officers worrying

about how easy it would be for these people to slip through the cracks.

In March the Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew

Olsen, testified that the NSA simply does not have the ability to track

the thousands of jihadists now flocking to Syria. He testified:

This raises our concern that radicalized individuals with

extremist contacts and battlefield experience could return to

their home countries to commit violence on their own

initiative or participate in al Qaeda-directed plots aimed at

Western targets outside of Syria.

First indoctrinated, then trained and equipped, the foreign fighters

now joining groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, known

as ISIS--a group who proved too radical even for Al Qaeda's senior

leadership--presents a challenge that rises above a mere

counterterrorism problem. ISIS no longer exists in small, concentrated

cells, conducting operations limited in nature and scope. It has become

a real nascent state actor, similar in organization and power to the

Taliban of the late 1990s and possessing a real army of foreign

recruits capable of carrying out attacks across the world. The

territory it possesses is no longer a safe haven within a state. It has

become a de facto state that serves as a safe haven and an even more

vibrant incubator for international terrorism than did pre-9/11

Afghanistan. It is a saddening irony that as our efforts to eradicate

the Al Qaeda safe haven in Afghanistan are proving successful, we see

an even more dangerous terrorist sanctuary emerging on the border of

Europe between Damascus and Baghdad.

My friends, here is the tragic reality of the war in Syria. After

more than 3 years of horror, suffering, devastation, and growing

threats to international security, the conflict in Syria continues to

get worse and worse both for Syria and for the world. But the United

States and the international community have no effective policy to help

bring this conflict to a responsible end. The Geneva peace talks have

failed entirely, as predicted. Ambassador Brahimi, the U.N. Special

Representative, has himself given up on the process and resigned last

week. This should surprise no one. The United States and the

international community have been reluctant to provide the opposition

with much needed material support. Meanwhile, Assad has the active

support of Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia and is using nearly every weapon

in his arsenal to kill his way to victory, and he is winning. So why

would he want to negotiate himself out of power now?

Can we finally stop hiding behind the fantasy of Geneva and admit

what has been painfully obvious from the start: that there is no hope

for a negotiated solution until the momentum on the battlefield changes

against the Assad regime. And that will only happen through greater

international intervention of some sort.

After painful and costly experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, a war-

weary American public does not appear eager for an active,

internationalist foreign policy, and President Obama has sought to give

the American people what they want. While it is understandable and

unsurprising that the American public has been reluctant to get more

engaged with events in Syria and the wider Middle East, the tide of war

does not recede simply because we wish it so.

The outcome of the administration's disengagement has been a

consistent failure to support more responsible forces in Syria when

that support would have mattered--the descent of Syria into chaos and

growing international instability, the use of Syria as a training

ground for Al Qaeda affiliates and other terrorist organizations, the

ceding of regional leadership to our international adversaries, and the

tolerance of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In short, all of

the awful things that critics said would happen if we got more involved

in Syria have happened because we have not gotten more involved.

We continue to hear from the administration that there are no good

options in Syria\\--as if there ever were good options in the real

world--and that the only alternative to our current disengagement is a

full-scale ground invasion and war without end. The President

frequently has said as much, recently stating:

It is very difficult to imagine a scenario in which our

involvement in Syria would have led to a better outcome,

short of us being willing to undertake an effort in size and

scope similar to what we did in Iraq.

But this claim has been directly contradicted by other administration

officials who recognize that our inaction in Syria is not because we

lack options or capability but, rather, the will.

In an April 30 speech at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, our own

Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said:

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To those who would argue that a head of state or government

has to choose only between doing nothing and sending in the

military--I maintain that is a constructed and false choice,

an accompaniment only to disengagement and passivity.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has also highlighted this

false choice, recently expressing his regrets that Western nations did

not carry out threatened airstrikes against the regime following the

August 2013 chemical attack and that more had not been done to stop the

abominable behavior of the Assad regime. He stated:

We regret it \\\[not carrying out threatened airstrikes\\\]

because we think it would have changed everything.

That is a French Foreign Minister who regrets that we didn't carry

out the airstrikes because \\\`\\\`we think it would have changed

everything.'' In his comments he made it clear that a limited surgical

strike would have made all the difference in Syria and would have

stopped the chemical attacks that continue today, saved the lives of

thousands of people, and prevented the devastating consequences that

have reverberated around the world since that red line was crossed.

It is true our options to help end the conflict in Syria were never

good, and they are much worse and fewer now. But as Mr. Fabius pointed

out, as bad as our options in Syria may be, we still have options. No

one should believe that doing something meaningful to help in Syria

requires total war or invasion. Literally no one is calling for that,

and it is intellectually dishonest to suggest so. This is not a

question of options or costs or capabilities but a question of will.

The continued violence in Syria is expected to kill tens of thousands

more and produce millions of refugees by the year's end. This is a

humanitarian tragedy, to be sure, but one with immediate strategic

consequences. The longer the devastation goes on, the more difficult it

will be to put Syria back together again. Failing to do so will leave a

dangerous conflagration in the heart of the Middle East--a failed state

at war with itself where extremism and instability will fester and

terrorists of all brands will find ample space, resources, and recruits

to menace the region and eventually attack the United States.

If ever there was a case that should remind us that our interests are

indivisible from our values, it is Syria. We cannot afford to go numb

to this human tragedy. I have seen my fair share of suffering and death

in the world, but the images and stories coming out of Syria haunt me

most. In the time I have been speaking, at least two Syrians have been

killed, 45 Syrians have become refugees, and 15 Syrian families have

been forced from their homes. In another 15 minutes from now, two more

will be killed, 45 more will become refugees, and 15 more families will

be forced from their homes. Is that acceptable to us?

Neither the United States, Europe, nor the Syrian people can afford

the cost of defeatism. The price of abandonment includes not only a

failed state in Syria but an entire region teetering on the brink of

disaster, and it means emboldening our adversaries and conceding a safe

haven and a state to the world's most dangerous terrorist groups. While

these are the real, tangible consequences we face, it also means

conceding the moral sources of our great power and giving up on every

principle our Nation was built on.

All of us, Americans and Europeans, must recognize that our power

confers a responsibility on us. If the most powerful nations in the

world have the capabilities and the options to help bring to an end one

of the most horrific mass atrocities in modern times, what does it say

about us that we have not done so? History will render a bitter and

scathing judgment on America and the world for our failure in Syria,

and I pray we will finally recognize that and take the necessary

actions to help the Syrian people write a better end to this sad

chapter of world affairs.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the

Record two articles, one entitled \\\`\\\`FBI Director: Number of Americans

traveling to fight in Syria increasing,'' and the other entitled

\\\`\\\`Exclusive: Al Qaeda's American Fighters Are Coming Home--and U.S.

Intelligence Can't Find Them.''

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in

the Record, as follows:

\\\[From the Washington Post, May 2, 2014\\\]

FBI Director: Number of Americans Traveling to Fight in Syria

Increasing

(By Sari Horwitz and Adam Goldman)

FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday that the problem of

Americans traveling to Syria to fight in the civil war there

has worsened in recent months and remains a major concern to

U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials.

In a wide-ranging interview with reporters at FBI

headquarters, Comey said the FBI is worried that the

Americans who have joined extremist groups allied with al-

Qaeda in Syria will return to the United States to carry out

terrorist attacks.

\\\`\\\`All of us with a memory of the '80s and '90s saw the line

drawn from Afghanistan in the '80s and '90s to Sept. 11,''

Comey said. \\\`\\\`We see Syria as that, but an order of magnitude

worse in a couple of respects. Far more people going there.

Far easier to travel to and back from. So, there's going to

be a diaspora out of Syria at some point and we are

determined not to let lines be drawn from Syria today to a

future 9/11.''

Comey declined to give a precise figure for Americans

believed to be involved in the Syrian struggle but said the

numbers are \\\`\\\`getting worse.''

\\\`\\\`I said dozens last time,'' said Comey, referring to an

interview with reporters four months ago. \\\`\\\`It's still

dozens, just a couple more dozen.''

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official estimated this year

that 60 to 70 Americans have traveled to fight in Syria.

Comey said that Americans in Syria are actively recruiting

other Americans to join the fight.

Comey said the threat associated with foreign fighters in

Syria is of concern not only to the United States but also is

\\\`\\\`a huge focus'' of European intelligence officials.

\\\`\\\`It's the first thing we talk about when I go visit a

counterpart,'' said Comey, who has visited 13 FBI legal

attache offices abroad since he became director in September.

Comey said thousands of fighters are traveling to Syria

from European countries, and they are a focus for the FBI

because many of them could easily get into the United States.

\\\`\\\`They're visa-waiver countries,'' Comey said. \\\`\\\`If someone

flows out of Syria, they can flow in here very easily.''

Comey said the al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen remains the

greatest threat to the United States. He said the terrorist

group is bent on attacking America and that he was very

concerned about the group's bombmaking expertise.

\\\_\\\_\\\_\\\_

\\\[From the Daily Beast, May 20, 2014\\\]

Exclusive: Al Qaeda's American Fighters Are Coming Home--And U.S.

Intelligence Can't Find Them

(By Eli Lake)

The number of American extremists who have flocked to Syria

is higher than previously understood, American intelligence

sources say. And some of the fighters are coming home.

Western intelligence services have been warning that

European and American jihadists have been flocking to Syria

to fight. But they've been reluctant to say how many

Americans have joined the extremist forces there--until now.

The latest U.S. intelligence estimates say that more than 100

Americans have joined the jihad in Syria to fight alongside

Sunni terrorists there.

Senior American intelligence officials tell The Daily Beast

that they believe between six and 12 Americans who have gone

to Syria to fight Assad have now returned to America. \\\`\\\`We

know where some are,'' one senior U.S. intelligence official

told The Daily Beast. \\\`\\\`The concern is the scale of the

problem we are dealing with.''

The scale of that problem by all accounts has gotten worse.

Last fall, the official U.S. estimate on Americans

specifically who have joined the jihad in Syria was in the

low double digits. In January, the New York Times reported

that at least 70 Americans have either traveled or attempted

to travel to Syria. Earlier this month FBI Director James

Comey told reporters that he believed \\\`\\\`dozens'' of Americans

were suspected to be foreign fighters in Syria, but declined

to give a more precise number.

In recent months, the U.S. intelligence community has made

the tracking of all Westerners going to fight into Syria a

top priority. Speaking in March before the Senate Foreign

Relations Committee, Matthew Olsen, the director of the

National Counter-Terrorism Center, described in vague terms

an effort by the whole government to find Western citizens

traveling to Syria and to track their travel.

\\\`\\\`In light of the large foreign fighter component in Syria

crisis, we are working together to gather every piece of

information we can about the identity of these individuals,''

he said at the time.

More recently, the issue of Western foreign fighters came

up in top-level meetings between the Syrian opposition

delegation and the Obama administration last week to

Washington, D.C.

\\\`\\\`We view all foreign fighters as a threat and they are not

welcome. There is a convergence of interests between the

moderate Syrian opposition and the international community in

fighting these foreign fighters and insuring they do not use

Syria as a launching pad for external attacks,'' said Oubai

Shabandar, a strategic communications adviser to the Syrian

opposition's foreign mission in Washington. \\\`\\\`This was a

major topic

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of conversation this month in meetings with the Syrian

opposition delegation and top U.S. officials.''

The problem, U.S. counter-terrorism and intelligence

officials tell The Daily Beast, is that there are just so

many jihadists with Western passports traveling to fight in

Syria that they worry some of them may slip back into the

United States without being detected.

\\\`\\\`The NSA does not have the ability to track thousands of

bad guys--and on the human intelligence side, this is even

more difficult,'' another senior U.S. intelligence official

told The Daily Beast. \\\`\\\`So we are worried that people are

slipping through the cracks.''

Olsen in his March testimony said there were thousands of

foreign fighters in Syria and that hundreds of those fighters

held Western passports.

\\\`\\\`This raises our concern that radicalized individuals with

extremist contacts and battlefield experience could return to

their home countries to commit violence on their own

initiative or participate in al Qaeda-directed plots aimed at

Western targets outside of Syria,'' he said. Olsen also said

that a group of \\\`\\\`al Qaeda veterans'' from Afghanistan and

Pakistan have gone to Syria, making the prospect of

recruiting new members for the organization even more likely.

Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute

for Near East Policy who closely tracks the flow of foreign

fighters into Syria, said, \\\`\\\`In the past when we've seen

Americans go abroad to fight in foreign countries and a

number of individuals have been trained to go back to attempt

attacks on the homeland.'' The best example he said is Faisal

al-Shahzad, the Pakistani American who traveled to Taliban

training camps in Pakistan and then attempted to set off a

bomb in Times Square in 2010. Al-Shahzad failed to properly

detonate his bomb and was reported to the New York police by

a Muslim-American street vendor.

\\\`\\\`It's not just Americans who are going to Syria, but there

are up to 3,000 European citizens from countries that have

visa waivers with the United States who have also joined the

jihad in Syria,'' Zelin said. \\\`\\\`This is why so many Western

counter-terrorism officials are so worried, it's much easier

to get into our country with a Western passport.''

Those Americans that have gone off to fight in Syria also

do not fit the typical terrorist profile. Last May, the

Detroit Free Press reported that Nicole Lynn Mansfield, a

convert to Islam, was killed in fighting in Syria fighting

Assad. In April of 2013, a federal court charged Eric

Harroun, a former U.S. Army private, with firing a rocket-

propelled grenade while fighting alongside al-Nusra, al

Qaeda's official affiliate in Syria. If U.S. intelligence

estimates are correct, these cases could be unfortunate

harbingers of things to come.

Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I yield the floor.

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