Posted on 08/26/2014 5:56:07 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON — President Obama has authorized surveillance flights over Syria, a precursor to potential airstrikes there, but a mounting concern for the White House is how to target the Sunni extremists without helping President Bashar al-Assad.
Defense officials said Monday evening that the Pentagon was sending in manned and unmanned reconnaissance flights over Syria, using a combination of aircraft, including drones and possibly U2 spy planes. Mr. Obama approved the flights over the weekend, a senior administration official said.
The flights are a significant step toward direct American military action in Syria, an intervention that could alter the battlefield in the nation’s three-year civil war.
Administration officials said the United States did not intend to notify the Assad government of the planned flights. Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly called for the ouster of Mr. Assad, is loath to be seen as aiding the Syrian government, even inadvertently.
As a result the Pentagon is drafting military options that would strike the militant Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, near the largely erased border between those two nations, as opposed to more deeply inside Syria. The administration is also moving to bolster American support for the moderate Syrian rebels who view Mr. Assad as their main foe.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
More snuff flicks for the president’s pleasure...
“None but the Brave...”
Why is this even in the news? We should be doing this as a matter of national security and not know a friggin thing about it.
They must be operating on the theory that, when ISIS fighters spot a reconnaissance flight, they will immediately remain in place so they can be vaporized later.
soebarkah does not want to ruin his creation.
John Bolton on Fox News said the decision to use surveillance drones is the job of intelligence anyway.
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