The Obama administration is using a time-tested pitch to get Congress to back military strikes in Syria: It will help protect Israel. ■ Israel’s enemies, including Iran and the terrorist group Hezbollah, could be emboldened if Congress fails to approve action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, senior administration officials said Saturday. And for the second day in a row, President Barack Obama publicly cited the threat against Israel if Assad’s reported use of chemical weapons goes unchecked. “It endangers our friends and our partners along Syria’s borders, including Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq,” Obama said Saturday in the Rose Garden. “It could lead to escalating use of chemical weapons or their proliferation to terrorist groups who would do our people harm.” Secretary of State John Kerry also referred to Israel repeatedly as he made the rounds on all five major Sunday morning news shows — as well as comparing Assad to Adolf Hitler.

Al-Manar News: Lawmakers Blast Obama’s Syria War Draft ● American lawmakers have criticized the draft of President Barack Obama’s authorization for military action in Syria, saying it could open the door to attacks on "other countries" [Iran, Russia, N. Korea]. Obama and other White House officials pressed lawmakers on Monday to approve military force against Syria. However, there is deep disagreement on how to proceed, with some lawmakers saying the draft authorization is too broad in scope and duration [WWIII].

Yahoo: US inaction would embolden Iran, N. Korea: Kerry - "We will either send a message to Syria, Iran, North Korea, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, and any other non-state actors that the world will not tolerate the senseless use of chemical weapons by anyone or we will choose to stand silent in the face of horrific human suffering."

"nonwo": Seven Countries Without A Rothschild-Owned Central Bank ● In The Year 2000 There Were Seven Countries Without A Rothschild-Owned Central Bank: They were Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, N. Korea and Iran. In 2006 Putin had paid off Russia’s debt to the Rothschilds. Russia’s financial dependence on the Rothschild financiers was now over.

Patrick Martin: US Congress to debate and vote on Syria war

■ A hacker by the name of €Wagn3r claims to have hacked into approximately 20 members of the Pentagon and some of their spouses. In these emails US Colonels utilize an intense amount of military acronyms which when looked up point to a conversation about intelligence budgets and how to fund operations. The correspondence indicates the US government was the most probable sponsor of the latest chemical attack in Syrian Ghouta. The correspondence retreived by €Wagn3r shows a series of emails between Colonel Anthony J. MacDonald and Gene Furst – Program Manager at the Department of the Army.
■ Gene says ”congratulations” on “your latest success” and then references the Washington Post article on the chemical attack in Damascus. Two other emails go back and forth from Jennifer MacDonald (the Colonel’s wife) and their neighbor Mary Shapiro. As she puts it, “He said the kids weren’t hurt, it was done for cameras.” “Then a friend of Anthony MacDonald’s wife Jennifer writes she was shocked seeing on TV the children died after chemical attack in Syria. Jennifer answers she saw the story but Tony calm her down saying children were alive and the scene was staged," €Wagn3r commented on one of the emails.
■ Regarding the authenticity of these emails, Mary Shapiro allegedly acknowledged receipt of these emails and said they were authentic. The only question is whether or not Colonel MacDonald’s wife actually sent these emails; however they were laced with so many personal details that it’s hard to think they weren’t.

A senior Syrian opposition figure warned Washington that all its interests in the region will be attacked by battalions of suicide bombers formed by the Syrian opposition forces if it dares to attack Syria, stressing that homeland is more important to the dissidents than opposition to the government.

"Although, we are among the Syrian government's opposition forces, we assume our homeland's interests to be more important than any other interest and therefore, we have formed a number of battalions to conduct suicide operations and target the US interests in the Middle-East," Secretary-General of al-Shabab Party Mahir Marhaj told FNA on Saturday.

He blasted the US and its allies' warmongering policies and threats, and said, "We in al-Shabab party are highly prepared to confront any war against Syria." Marhaj warned the White House against the consequences of war in Syria, and said even a limited western invasion of the country will turn into an open and unlimited war with unforeseen consequences when Damascus gives back its crushing response.

HuffPost: Opposition Leader Haytham Al-Manna Criticises Plans For US Military Intervention As 'Satanic'

More than two million Syrians have now fled their war-ravaged country, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, lamenting the nearly 10-fold increase from a year ago. "Syria is haemorrhaging women, children and men who cross borders often with little more than the clothes on their backs," the UNHCR said in a statement, pointing out that on September 3, 2012, it had registered just 230,671 Syrian refugees. In addition to the two million Syrians living as refugees, some 4.25 million people have been displaced within the devastated country since the conflict began in March 2011, according to UN figures. A staggering 6.2 million Syrians have thus been torn from their homes - a number without parallel in any other country and representing nearly a third of Syria's pre-war population of 20.8 million.

● The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other ships in its strike group are heading west toward the Red Sea to help support a limited unlimited U.S. strike on Syria, if needed, defense officials said on Sunday. The Nimitz carrier strike group, which includes four destroyers and a cruiser, has no specific orders to move to the eastern Mediterranean at this point, but is moving west in the Arabian Sea so it can do so if asked.
● President Barack Obama on Saturday delayed imminent cruise missile strikes by five destroyers off the coast of Syria until Congress had time to vote on the issue, effectively putting any military action on hold for at least nine days. The delay gives military planners more time to reassess which ships and other weapons will be kept in the region - and which may be swapped out - before the military launches what defense officials [deceptively] say is still intended to be a limited and narrowly targeted attack on Syria.

US and Allied Warships off the Syrian Coastline: Naval Deployment Was Decided “Before” the August 21 Chemical Weapons Attack - Michel Chossudovsky

The Independent: Israel confirm they have conducted a US-backed Mediterranean missile weapons test
Russia Today: Israel claims joint US missile launch in Mediterranean for 'target practice'

● France’s intelligence services released a perfunctory, eight-page brief for war with Syria yesterday, as Socialist Party (PS) Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with leaders of France’s right-wing opposition parties to press them to support President François Hollande’s war drive.
● Hollande’s intelligence brief is a collection of already-discredited lies, non sequiturs, and unsupported claims. Reviewing it makes clear that Hollande’s charges against the Syrian regime are as unsubstantiated as those of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who suffered a humiliating defeat when he tried to obtain parliamentary approval for war in Syria last week.

WashingtonsBlog: Point-By-Point Rebuttal of U.S. Case for War In Syria
Julie Hyland: Senior political figures demand second vote in UK parliament on Syrian attack

● Russia is totally unconvinced by the evidence presented by the United States and its allies of an alleged chemical attack outside Damascus that the West says was perpetrated by the regime, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.
● "What we were shown before and most recently by our American partners as well the British and the French absolutely does not convince us," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a university lecture, adding there were "many doubts" about images of the alleged attack posted on the Internet.

Christopher Bollyn ■ Rupert Murdoch is part-owner of an Israeli-American company that has been granted the rights to explore for oil on the Golan Heights – Israeli-occupied Syrian land. It is highly unethical for FOX News not to disclose this information to its viewers. Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild are major shareholders of Genie Energy – which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel. Dick Cheney is also on the company’s advisory board.

Something's stirring here...deep down in the heart of America...

The National Security Agency hacked into Al-Jazeera TV’s encrypted e-mails, as well as the booking system of Russia’s major air carrier Aeroflot, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported relying on documents provided by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The papers said the two institutions had “high potential as sources of intelligence” for NSA.