GOP Intel Committee Chair Against Arming Rebels: ‘We just don’t have a good handle on who they are’

via Think Progress

Speaking on MSNBC last night, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, explained to host Andrea Mitchell why he, unlike his party mates Sen. John McCain and Mitt Romneyopposes arming the Syrian rebels. Rogers explained that, because of his position on the intelligence committee, he “see(s) all the intelligence every day” and remains wary that the U.S. knows enough about the disparate and fractured opposition to begin arming them. “That ought to be very, very carefully considered,” he said, “But not until later.” That puts him in line with the Obama administration’s public position. Watch the video:

Ali Gharib

Ali Gharib is a New York-based journalist on U.S. foreign policy with a focus on the Middle East and Central Asia. His work has appeared at Inter Press Service, where he was the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief; the Buffalo Beast; Huffington Post; Mondoweiss; Right Web; and Alternet. He holds a Master's degree in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. A proud Iranian-American and fluent Farsi speaker, Ali was born in California and raised in D.C.

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  1. You need a new comment system. If a rogue button is pressed, it pages back, and unlike most systems, the comment is lost, and one must start all over again. You can change this easily, please look into it

  2. 4th edition, only copy–It’s good the see someone in the gov’t talking sense, particularly in the GOP ranks.

    What we are seeing in Syria issues from the deep divisions in the bureaucracy here and Israel. Many wise actors are ambivalent and watchful, and a faction is impetuous hawks. In that dynamic the impetuous hawks win the facts on the ground. This will take us into a quagmire that we aren’t ready to wade into, but we’re not doing this deliberately, we’re not debating this–the hawks are changing facts, and the ambivalents are playing catch-up, and our fog of war only gets thicker. If we don’t get our act together, we’re going to blunder our way into a real mess.

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