McCain tells Russia Putin 'doesn't believe in you'

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US Senator John McCain penned a blistering column for a Russian news website on Thursday, telling the Russian people that their President Vladimir Putin is a dissent-quashing tyrant who "doesn't believe in you."

The senior US lawmaker and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee accosted Putin and his associates for rigging elections, imprisoning and murdering opponents, fostering corruption and "destroying" Russia's reputation on the world stage.

"I am not anti-Russian," McCain wrote in the piece for Pravda.ru website. "I am pro-Russian, more pro-Russian than the regime that misrules you today."

McCain last week said he intended to write an op-ed piece for Russian media after Putin had his own column published in The New York Times.

Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Russian News Service radio that the president would read the piece, but is unlikely to respond.

"McCain is not known as a fan of Putin. To engage in polemics -- I doubt it, his is the point of view of a person who lives across the ocean," Peskov said.

The website Pravda.Ru is not known as a serious news source and has nothing to do with the newspaper Pravda published by the Communist party, which was the country's most important paper in the Soviet era but which has now fallen into obscurity.

Some observers have said that the publishing company Pravda.ru is bankrolled by the Kremlin, as it also runs websites that are staunchly pro-Putin and full of stories smearing his opposition.

McCain's piece was sent to both Pravda publications, his office said.

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US Senator John McCain penned a blistering column for Russian media, telling the Russian people that …

Putin in his widely quoted New York Times piece criticised Obama's plan to bomb Russia's ally Syria, demanded that Moscow's plan to secure Syria's chemical weapon stockpiles be given time to work, and slammed Washington for "relying solely on brute force" to conduct its international affairs.

In a blunt, often personal counter-punch that ran more than 800 words, McCain wrote that he bears no ill will toward the Russian people, only the country's government which he says ignores humanity's "inalienable rights" of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

"President Putin and his associates do not believe in these values. They don't respect your dignity or accept your authority over them," wrote McCain, who was a staunch supporter of US President Barack Obama's early plan for a military strike against Syria for that regime's apparent use of chemical weapons.

"They punish dissent and imprison opponents. They rig your elections. They control your media. They harass, threaten, and banish organizations that defend your right to self-governance," he added.

He brought up the case of Sergei Magnitsky, the Russian lawyer whose prison death three years ago became a black mark on Russia's human rights record.

Putin, in his third term as president, "is not enhancing Russia's global reputation. He is destroying it," McCain said.

"He has made her a friend to tyrants and an enemy to the oppressed," untrusted by countries seeking a more peaceful and prosperous world.

"President Putin doesn't believe in these values because he doesn't believe in you," McCain said.

The hawkish senator has been highly critical of the Russian plan to disarm Syria of its chemical weapons.

He said the framework reached by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would be "meaningless" without a UN Security Council resolution that threatens the use of force should Syria's President Bashar al-Assad not comply.

John McCain fires back at Vladimir Putin

The GOP senator pens a blistering response for Russian media to the Russian president's New York Times op-ed.
'He doesn’t believe in you'

Syrian President Bashar Assad should “absolutely” be tried for crimes against humanity and war crimes, the top U.S. official in charge of such issues told Yahoo News.

And the United States has, in a way, already started to build a case against him by training Syrians to collect information and analyze incidents on the ground in the country’s bloody civil war — evidence to use against Assad if that day comes.

“Enormous crimes have been committed that can be traced directly to the highest levels of the Syrian regime,” Stephen Rapp, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, said in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

“Without question, there are credible, very credible allegations of crimes against humanity, murder, rape, mutilation, other crimes,” Rapp said. “And, of course, since we now have a civil war these become war crimes as well.”

Not only should Assad “absolutely” face trial, Rapp said, but the quantity and quality of the evidence against him means his prosecutor “would have one of the better cases that we’ve seen at the international level against a chief of state.”

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In this Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013 photo, a Syrian girl poses for a portrait near her tent at a tempo …

Rapp warned that the process would face major hurdles (like opposition from Russia) and could take a long time. But he underlined that, when the time comes, there will be no lack of evidence, since it’s already being collected and stored in a special facility in Europe.

“We’re working with Syrian groups, educating them, training them in how to find this information, identifying it, and measuring shell holes, and determining what direction the shells came from, other things like that ” Rapp said.

“And we’ve actually, working with them, obtained more than 200,000 pages of documents which is now being analyzed and collected in a center, which the United States government helped establish that’s in Europe,” he said. “They’re developing the information that’ll be available when justice is possible.”

Rapp said he has been doing extensive diplomatic work to solicit international support for Washington's preferred approach — a Sierra Leone-style war crimes court that would be a blend of national and international staff with the support of regional powers.

“Our preference is to work with Syrians, with people in the region, with international players and work toward establishing some kind of hybrid, or mixed court,” he said. “That will take time, (but) it could be begun even before there was an end to the conflict.”

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Free Syrian Army fighters dress a mannequin to looks like a fighter during clashes in the Salaheddin …

But “at the end of the day, it’s not something we can do alone.”

Rapp also told Yahoo News that notorious warlord Joseph Kony is “in a box,” thanks to international efforts; explained how the United States is using rewards of up to $5 million to get information on Kony and other fugitives; and explained how he went from being a prosecutor in Iowa to the government’s top war crimes official. The full interview will be posted on Yahoo News on Thursday.

The diplomat’s declaration that Assad should face trial came after weeks in which top officials, starting with President Barack Obama, have accused the Syrian leader of crimes but stopped short of saying he should be prosecuted.

In his Sept. 11 address to the nation on Syria, the president said the international community regards Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons to slaughter civilians as “a crime against humanity, and a violation of the laws of war.”

But a day later, White House press secretary Jay Carney ducked and dodged when asked whether Obama had decided that Assad was a war criminal who should face prosecution by the International Criminal Court.

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A boy gestures at the camera with blood on his fingers after what activists said was shelling by for …

“That's obviously a distinct matter that was not a focus of the president’s remarks,” Carney told reporters. “It’s a not a focus of the discussion right now about using military force in response to the use of chemical weapons or pursuing the diplomatic opening that is currently being explored, so I would leave that for discussions in the future.”

U.S. officials had always hinted at possible prosecution of the Syrian strongman and his close advisers. A senior Obama aide told reporters on an Aug. 30 conference call that top aides to Assad “should consider the decisions that they make.”

“To associate with their regime, they would commit a violation of international law like the use of chemical weapons,” the official said. “So those around President Assad I think should consider the type of accountability that they will face in the long run from the international community for this use.”

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Official: Assad 'absolutely' should face trial

There won't be any lack of evidence when it's time to prosecute the Syrian president, a U.S. ambassador tells Yahoo News.
Exclusive interview

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad said a United Nations report finding "clear and convincing evidence" sarin nerve gas was used in Syria painted an "unrealistic" account, and he denied his government orchestrated the attack.

In an interview with Fox News Channel conducted in the Syrian capital of Damascus and aired Wednesday, Assad said terrorists were to blame for the chemical attack, which the U.S. says killed more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children. He said evidence that terrorist groups have used sarin gas has been turned over to Russia and that Russia, through one of its satellites, has evidence that the rockets in the Aug. 21 attack were launched from another area.

While the U.N. report did not lay blame, many experts interpreting the report said all indications were that the attack was conducted by Assad forces. The U.S., Britain and France jumped on evidence in the report — especially the type of rockets, the composition of the sarin agent and trajectory of the missiles — to declare that Assad's government was responsible.

"The whole story doesn't even hold together," Assad said. "It's not realistic. ... We didn't use any chemical weapons in Ghouta," a Damascus suburb.

The interview was conducted Tuesday by former Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Fox News contributor, and Fox News Channel Senior Correspondent Greg Palkot.

Assad said his government would abide by an agreement reached with U.S. and Russian officials to give up his chemical weapons. He says he has received estimates that destroying the stockpiles would cost $1 billion and would take roughly a year.

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A boy gestures at the camera with blood on his fingers after what activists said was shelling by for …

"We didn't say that we are joining partially. ... We joined fully. We sent the letter. We sent the document. And we are committed to the full requirement of this agreement."

He said Syria was ready to talk to experts about the technical aspects of what he said would be a complicated task. He said Syria was ready to provide a list of weapons and provide experts access to the sites.

"We can do it tomorrow," he said.

"It's not about will," Assad added. "It's about technique."

While he said the Aug. 21 attack was "despicable" and "a crime," he argued that no one had verified the credibility of videos or pictures of the victims.

"You cannot build a report on videos," he said. He later added: "There's a lot of forgery on the Internet."

Assad on what the future of Syria will look likePlay video."

He contended that opposition forces, which have been joined by extremist jihadists, could have gained access to sarin.

"Sarin gas is called kitchen gas," he said. "You know why? Because anybody can make sarin in his house. Any rebel can make sarin. Second, we know that all the rebels are supported by governments. So any government that would have such chemical can hand it over."

Assad said the balance of opposition forces has shifted during the more than two-year conflict, and he alleged that 80 to 90 percent were members of al-Qaida or its affiliates.

"At the very beginning, the jihadists were the minority. At the end of 2012 and during this year, they became the majority with the flow of tens of thousands from additional countries," he said adding that they were being financed by individuals who shared their extremist ideologies.

Assad said he had never talked with President Barack Obama. Asked if he wanted to, Assad said it would depend on the content of the conversation.

"It's not a chat," he said.

He said his message to Obama would be to "follow the common sense" of the American people.

Americans have been lukewarm about supporting any military strike on Syria for fear that the U.S. would be embroiled in war.

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