Rivalries pose problem in arming Syrian rebels

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Syrian opposition's record so far in handling tens of millions of dollars in U.S. humanitarian and other nonlethal assistance paints a bewildering picture of logistical challenges ahead of any delivery of American weapons and ammunition.

No aid shipments appear to be heading to terrorists or corrupt hoarders, according to U.S. officials, but packages of food, medicine and other lifesaving supplies regularly face long delays because of political rivalries among various rebel factions.

Anecdotes abound.

An American shipment of humanitarian goods was held up for two weeks amid a dispute between opposition groups over whose label should be attached to the boxes, a senior administration officialrecounted this week. Aid-filled planes have landed in neighboring countries with no trucks at the landing sites for transporting the items into Syria. In Cairo, funds the U.S. was prepared to provide an opposition political office were flat-out rejected, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Although the Syrian opposition's described dysfunction is nothing new, its problems are getting increased scrutiny since the Obama administration's decision last week to authorize for the first time lethal military support to units fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad's regime.

Secretary of State John Kerry plans to use a meeting Saturday in Doha, Qatar, of officials from countries allying themselves with the rebels to underscore the need for coordinating and funneling aid through the Supreme Military Council, senior State Department officials said Friday. The U.S.-favored group is overseen by Gen. Salim Idris, a defector from Assad's military.

The aides, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly about Kerry's trip, said Kerry also hopes the meeting will re-energize a newly expanded group ofSyrian opposition leaders that is scheduled to elect new leadership in coming days.

Beyond that, the Obama administration's plans are unclear. Kerry held two classified briefings with members of Congress on Thursday. No details emerged about what types of weapons could be sent, where and when they'd be delivered or who exactly would be the recipients. The lack of clarity rankles both lawmakers who want more forceful U.S. action as well as those who say the U.S. should stay as far away as possible from Syria's brutal two-year civil war.

"All I know is what I've read in the media and that is light weapons," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a leading proponent of taking a bigger military role in Syria. "That's clearly not only insufficient, it's insulting. We've got to take out their air assets."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., another supporter of arming the rebels and other steps such as establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, said he also had no understanding from the Obama administration about what form future lethal aid might take and possible delivery dates.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., was even more critical. "''We have the ability right now to fully understand who is the type of individual or group that meet our standards, and I think we've had that information and ability for probably nine months," he said. "Will there be mistakes made? Of course, but I do think it helps to put our thumb on the scale."

Meanwhile, Senate opponents of arming the rebels moved Thursday to block Obama from providing any military support at all. The bipartisan group including Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., Mike Lee, R-Utah, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced a measure to prohibit the president from using any money to increase U.S. involvement in the conflict. Specifically, it would ban the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies from funding military, paramilitary or covert operations in Syria.

"We need to place a check on the president's unilateral decision to arm the rebels, while still preserving humanitarian aid and assistance to the Syrian people," Udall said.

Paul said the president's decision was "incredibly disturbing, considering what little we know about whom we are arming. Engaging in yet another conflict in the Middle East with no vote or congressional oversight compounds the severity of this situation."

Neither Obama nor any other member of his administration has publicly confirmed that the U.S. has authorized lethal aid for the rebels, though since last week several officials have acknowledged as much on condition of anonymity. The closest anyone came was Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser. He said last week that U.S. confirmation of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime has prompted American support to the Syrian rebels of increased "scope and scale."

Obama himself refused to provide any specifics when asked at a news conference this week in Germany.

The U.S. is most likely to provide rebel fighters with small arms, ammunition, assault rifles and a variety of anti-tank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles, according to officials. They haven't disclosed which specific weapons have been approved or when and how they might be delivered. The officials, who've demanded anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said any weapons and ammunitions are unlikely to make it to vetted Syrian rebel units before August.

The opposition's track record in handling aid has been discouraging.

U.S. officials said almost all of a $127 million package of ready-to-eat meals, medical kits and other nonlethal assistance announced earlier this year has been delivered to Syria. U.S.-provided food has made it from Turkey to as far south as Hama and Homs, and to the southeast border with Iraq. Humanitarian assistance reaching the besieged city of Qusair, which Assad's forces conquered from the rebels earlier this month, was limited pretty much to medical supplies.

The senior administration official said the U.S. is monitoring for aid being diverted, but so far hasn't found any instances of it. That could provide Obama with some confidence in the Syrian opposition's ability to ensure that U.S.-supplied weapons and ammunition don't fall into the hands of al-Qaida-linked extremists. The fear that it might has long been one of the administration's primary explanations for why the U.S. wouldn't arm the anti-Assad rebellion.

Syria's opposition, however, remains problematical. Because of constant bickering among its various branches in Turkey, Egypt and inside Syria, U.S. officials say they have often been forced to act as go-betweens, if only to get the opposition to sign off on some of the aid it originally requested.

Some $5 million in U.S. aid has gone to helping the opposition establish an office in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep and expand its staff from a handful of employees to a staff now of about 100, including many in liberated parts of Syria. In Aleppo, American-trained search and rescue personnel have helped dig survivors out of buildings struck by Scud missiles. The U.S. is also training policemen and providing them uniforms in an effort to build the opposition's credibility with the Syrian population.

Those are the successes.

On the other hand, disputes between local authorities and the opposition leaders outside the country has held up elections in parts of Syria wrested from Assad's control. The two sides have been unwilling at times to even talk to one another, the senior administration official said. When the U.S. offered to provide hospitals with emergency generators, a fight erupted over which cities and which politician's preferred recipients should get priority. The result was shipping none of them until the generators could go simultaneously to all the hospitals on an opposition list.

When the U.S. offered to provide the opposition headquarters in Cairo some $2 million to buy phones and computers and hire staff, Syrian opposition leader Moaz al-Khatib rejected the aid, citing administrative costs that the U.S. also was picking up, the official said.

One thing any future aid package will include is trucks. With Obama ruling out any American military boots on the ground in Syria, it is up to the opposition itself to transport goods received in Turkey or Jordan to civilians in Syrian cities or fighters on the battlefield. And so far it has struggled on this account, according to officials.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday that the next package of nonlethal U.S. assistance would include at least $16.6 million in "combat support assistance," which includes trucks, communications gear and medicine. Other funds will go to reconstruction efforts, university scholarships, activist training and democracy-building efforts.

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Taliban spokesman: Removal of sign threatens talks

This photo taken on Thursday, June 20, 2013 shows the new office of the Afghan Taliban in Doha, Qatar after the opening of the office several days ago. The United States on Thursday welcomed Qatar's decision to take down a sign that cast the Taliban's new office in Doha as a rival Afghan embassy saying the militant group can't represent itself "as an emirate, government or sovereign." (AP Photo/Osama Faisal)

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Angry voices within the Taliban movement could scuttle peace talks before they even begin, infuriated that a sign identifying their new office in the Gulf state of Qatar as theIslamic Emirate of Afghanistan was removed, their spokesman said Saturday.

The opening of the Taliban office was heralded as the best chance of bringing to a peaceful end 12 years of bloody war despite its rocky beginnings. But the peace process ran aground almost immediately when Kabul objected to the wording of its name, saying it was tantamount to the establishment of a rival government office, not a political office.

Under pressure from host nation Qatar, the Taliban removed the sign and lowered their flag __ a white flag emblazoned with a Quranic verse in black __ out of public view on Wednesday.

"There is an internal discussion right now and much anger about it but we have not yet decided what action to take," Shaheen Suhail, the Taliban's spokesman in Qatar told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "But I think it weakens the process from the very beginning."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reacted furiously Tuesday to the sign, temporarily withdrawing from talks and put a quick end to negotiations with the United States over a security accord that is to lay out protection for U.S. forces that will remain in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO combat troops at the end of 2014.

A Qatar Foreign Ministry statement said the Taliban had violated an agreement to call the office the "Political Bureau of the Taliban Afghan in Doha." The Obama administration also said the U.S. and Qatar never had agreed to allow the Taliban to use that name on the door.

But Suhail said the incident has frustrated and angered some within the militant movement who said the Taliban have been meeting with representatives of dozens of countries and holding secret one-on-one meetings with members of Karzai's High Peace Council on several occasions, always under the banner of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

"Now the process is being weakened at the beginning and not being given a chance," he said. "This is very bad for the Afghan people, for the international community."

In Kabul, a member of the government's negotiation team said it was still prepared to begin talks in Qatar and said the removal of the sign and flag was a positive sign.

High Peace Council member Shahzada Shahid told The Associated Press Saturday that it was too early to say when the council would travel to Qatar for talks. He also welcomed the participation of countries in the international coalition in Afghanistan and said they would have their own issues to discuss.

"Peace is very important and vital for us so we will take all measures for it," he said.

Meanwhile James Dobbins, the U.S. special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, arrived in Doha on Saturday where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was attending meetings on Syria. His presence suggested that the U.S. remains interested in talking with the Taliban despite the recent flap.

Suhail said the Taliban had not been notified of talks with Dobbins on Saturday but he advocated for cooler heads to prevail.

"Everyone should save the process. Give a chance to the process. In one day everything cannot be resolved," he said. "This is a very secondary thing and not important. I am also surprised that it should derail the process."

While the "internal talks" continued over the sign, the Taliban were still cobbling together a negotiating team, the spokesman said.

The Taliban have already agreed to hand over U.S. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, captured by the Taliban in 2009, in exchange for five Taliban held in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In the telephone interview, Suhail also said that a cease-fire and women's rights could be part of negotiations.

"Yes there should be a cease-fire but first we have to talk about how to reach a cease-fire. How can it be done in one day?" he said. "It can be part of the agenda and be discussed, also foreign troops in Afghanistan after 2014 can be discussed as part of the agenda as well as the general concerns of the Afghan people. Afghan women's concerns can all be part of the agenda to be discussed."

But Suhail warned all sides to step away from voicing criticism.

"How can we achieve all those things if even from the first day there is so much public criticism," he said.

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Kathy Gannon reported from Islamabad, Pakistan. AP Writer Rahim Faiez contributed from Kabul.

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Kathy Gannon is AP Special Regional Correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan and can be reached at www.twitter.com/kathygannon

Soldiers work to rescue flood survivors in India

Water gushes down a river as Indian paramilitary soldiers stand near a temporary bridge after it was damaged as stranded pilgrims wait to be evacuated on the other side in Govindghat, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

In this Friday, June 21, 2013 photo, Indian pilgrims wait to be evacuated by helicopters from the upper reaches of mountains, in Gaurikund, in northern Indian state of Uttrakhand. Officials say soldiers are working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo)

GOVINDGHAT, India (AP) — Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoonflooding and landslides.

With bad weather and heavy rainfall predicted over the next two days, there was an added urgency to reach the approximately 50,000 people still stranded in the flood-hit Uttarakhand state, federal Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.

Since helicopters could rescue only small groups of people at a time, Shinde said army troops were opening up another road route to the Hindu temple town of Kedarnath, worst hit by the floods. More than 250 people have taken shelter in Kedarnath's main temple and are waiting to be rescued, he said.

Bridges and roads were washed away or blocked by debris. Shinde said air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water to those stranded in inaccessible areas. More than 35,000 people have been rescued from the worst-hit districts over the past five days.

Officials say the death toll was expected to rise as troops reach remote hillside villages where flash floods washed away homes and boulders hurtled down on the fleeing villagers.

Around 10,000 army and paramilitary troops, members of India's disaster management agency and volunteers were involved in the rescue and relief efforts, Shinde said.

Uttarakhand state Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said Friday that 556 bodies were buried deep in slush caused by the landslides. Another 40 were found floating in the Ganges River.

Thousands of homes have been washed away or damaged in the state.

People across India are collecting clothes, blankets and tarpaulins and contributing money to help those left homeless in Uttarakhand.

Army engineers were rebuilding bridges and clearing roads to enable thousands of people to leave the region.

Uttarakhand is a popular summer vacation destination for hundreds of thousands of tourists seeking to escape the torrid heat of the plains. It is also a religious pilgrimage site with four temple towns located in the Garhwal Himalayan range.

The tourists usually head down to the plains before the monsoon breaks in July. But this year, early rains caught hundreds of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and local residents unaware.

Meteorological officials said the rains in Uttarakhand were the heaviest in nearly 80 years.

Google has launched an application, Person Finder, to help trace missing people in Uttarakhand. The version is available in both Hindi and English languages, according to a Google India blog.

Meanwhile, opposition parties and angry relatives in Uttarakhand accused the government of not doing enough to rescue people stranded in the temple towns.

Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party accused the government of callousness toward those affected by the flooding.

"It is very unfortunate that the government cannot coordinate the rescue efforts and provide timely help to the survivors of this calamity," Naqvi told repoters.

Earlier Saturday, Shinde admitted that there had been gaps in the government's rescue and relief efforts due to a lack of coordination between several disaster and welfare agencies in Uttarakhand.

Sri Devi, a tourist from neighboring Nepal, said she and her companions took shelter in a building in Govindghat, a small town on the road to the Sikh holy site of Hemkund, after their car was washed away. The 60-year-old woman was among a group of stranded tourists rescued from the town.

"It was raining boulders down the mountain and then a flood of water swept away everything. The road was washed away and we were stuck for four days without any food," Devi said.

Monsoon flooding is an annual occurrence in India, causing enormous loss of life and property, and hundreds of people were missing and feared washed away in this week's torrential monsoon downpours and flash floods in the tributaries of the Ganges River.

Government on offensive outside Syria's capital

This image made from amateur video released by Ugarit News, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian rebel firing his weapon in Damascus, Syria, Friday, June 21, 2013. The commander of Syria's rebels confirms they have received new weapons, giving his forces more power in battles against government troops and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon. Gen. Salim Idris refused to say in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV Friday where the weapons came from. (AP Photo/Ugarit News via AP video)

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government forces stepped up their attack against rebel strongholds north of the capital Damascus on Saturday, while opposition fighters declared their own offensive in the country's largest city Aleppo.

Both sides intensified operations as an 11-nation group that includes the U.S., dubbed the Friends of Syria, began meeting in Qatar to discuss how to coordinate military and other aid to the rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on an extensive network of activists in Syria, said the shelling of the district of Qaboun has killed three children, including two from the same family, since Friday.

Activists reported heavy shelling on many fronts on districts north of Damascus, apparently an attempt to cut links between rebel-held districts that have served as launching pads for operations against the capital.

The Lebanese TV station Al-Mayadeen, which had a reporter embedded with Syrian government forces in the offensive, quoted a military official as saying that the operation aims to cut rebel supply lines, separate one group from another, and secure the northern entrances to the capital. The regime's forces have struggled for months to regain control of these suburbs.

The Observatory said the neighborhood was being attacked from several different sides, while the shelling has caused structural damage and started fires. Activists from Qaboun posted on Facebook that government forces had brought up new tanks to reinforce its positions outside the neighborhood, and the bombardment had brought buildings down.

The Observatory said rebels targeted a police academy in the nearby Barzeh area Saturday, pushing back against a government attempt to storm the neighborhood. One rebel was killed in overnight fighting, it said.

A recent declaration by the U.S. that it had conclusive evidence that President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons on a small scale against opposition forces prompted Washington to authorize the arming of rebels, a major shift in policy. The decision also followed advances by the government forces aided by fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Rebels say they have already received new weapons from allied countries— but not the U.S. — that they claim will help them to shift the balance of power on the ground. Experts and activists said the new weapons include anti-tank missiles and small quantities of anti-aircraft missiles.

It was not clear if any of the new weapons have made it to the Damascus area. A spokesman for one of the main groups fighting outside of Damascus, the al-Islam brigade, said his group had none of the new weapons. The unnamed spokesman spoke to The Associated Press through Skype.

He said government forces were shelling Barzeh from Qasioun mountain overlooking Damascus.Syria's main Western-backed opposition group said Thursday that 40,000 civilians in the two northern districts of Damascus are suffering from shortages of food and medical supplies.

Rebels and government also clashed in and around the northern city of Aleppo, where government forces announced an offensive earlier this month. Activists said troops clashed in the southern neighborhoods of Rashideen and Hamdaniya and in the western suburbs.

The Observatory said rebels pounded a military academy in the area, causing a fire in the compound. There were no immediate reports of casualties. In Rashideen, rebel forces have pushed government forces out from parts of the neighborhood, according to the local Aleppo Media Center network and posts on Facebook.

A statement by a coalition of rebel groups, posted on the Center's page, declared that the fighters are launching a new operation to seize control of the western neighborhoods of Aleppo. Amateur showed what appeared to be intense government shelling of villages in the area.

On Saturday, a dozen shells from Syrian forces landed in a northern Lebanese border town, some landing near homes, causing a panic among residents, the Lebanese news agency reported.

Syria's official news agency said government troops were targeting a group of infiltrators across the border. It gave no further details.

Rockets from Syria fall regularly into towns and villages near the border. On Friday, a rocket slammed into a suburb of Beirut, bringing the war closer to Lebanon's bustling capital, the second in less than a month. No one claimed responsibility for that attack, but rebels in Syria have vowed to retaliate against Hezbollah's Beirut strongholds for its increasingly active role assisting Assad.

Syria's 2-year civil war has killed nearly 93,000 people. It increasingly pits Sunni against Shiite Muslims and threatening the stability of Syria's neighbors.

If you didn’t get flooded out during Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina or any of the extreme weather events in recent memory, it could still happen in the not-too-distant future.

Last Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released a report (pdf) on the impact of climate change on U.S. communities. Rising sea levels and increasingly severe weather will, says the report, lead to a 45 percent increase in the areas of the U.S. at risk for floods by 2100.

The FEMA report spells out what the impact of such a drastic increase in flood-prone areas could mean for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Currently there are 5.6 million properties that are categorized by FEMA as being in a special flood hazard area. Such places have a 1 percent risk of flooding in any given year. If you own a house in such an area and have a federally backed mortgaged, you are legally required to carry flood insurance.

By 2100, the number of properties that could be prone to flooding could double, says FEMA’s report. That is, as many as 11.2 million properties could require insurance and face the risk of routine flooding.

Were another huge storm and widespread flooding to occur, it would not be inaccurate to say that NFIP — which ended up $16 billion in debt after Hurricane Katrina and will be $25 billion in debt due to Hurricane Sandy – could find itself inundated with more cases than it can handle. With the average loss on each insured property projected to increase by as much as 90 percent by 2100, the NFIP — already “one of the largest fiscal liabilities for the U.S. government” — could be stretched to the point that the premiums policy holders pay would not be sufficient. For NFIP to stay solvent, the average price of a policy would have to increase by 70 percent — meaning that an individual policy holder who pays $560 a year now would have to pay $952 by 2100.

Sound bad? Mother Jones points out that the situation could actually turn out to be worse. FEMA has based its estimate on the assumption (pdf) that sea levels will rise by about four feet in the next 86 years. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a report last year that said that sea level could rise by six feet. Even more properties could be at risk of flooding than FEMA’s new report predicts.

The FEMA report makes it all too clear that the time for debating if climate change is real is long, long past. What we are living with is the very real results of climate change and what we need to do is make changes to accommodate ourselves to living in a warmer, wetter world.

Engineers have been at work creating floodgates and other technologies and infrastructure to help cities like New York in the event of major flooding. New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, recently unveiled a $19.5 billion plan to prepare the city for the effects of climate change; six-meter-high (20-foot) waterfront walls and dikes are to be constructed to prevent flooding.

But should municipalities allow building in places – coastal shorelines, barrier islands — that are likely to be hit hard by hurricanes and tropical storms? Should property owners assume more of the risk if they choose to build and/live in high-risk areas? Should more power and utility lines be installed underground?

In a climate changed world, what once passed for “record flooding” could become routine and have a huge impact on more and more communities as the population grows, especially in coastal areas and along rivers. The FEMA report does not itself make any recommendations for specific changes or policies but it is harsh reminder that climate change is costly in more than one sense of the word.

Read more: dikes extreme weather, fema, flood gates, flooding, floods, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane-katrina, nyc

Photo: U.S. Geographical Society/flickr