CNN:
The United States launched a military strike Thursday on a Syrian government target in response to their chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of civilians earlier in the week.
On President Donald Trump's orders, US warships launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase where the warplanes that carried out the chemical attacks were based, US officials said.
Six people were killed in the airstrike, according to a televised statement by the Syrian's Armed Forces General Command.
"Tonight, I ordered a targeted military strike on the air field in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched," Trump said during short remarks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, where he ordered the strike just hours earlier. "It is in this vital national security of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons."
He added: "There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council. Years of previous attempts at changing Assad's behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically."Actually, that is not quite true about there being no dispute, but I will go into that in a later post.
The bad side effects have begun:
Russians were present at the base the US struck Thursday night, a US defense official said, though the role of those Russians was not immediately known.
Tillerson confirmed that the US military contacted their Russian counterparts about the attack ahead of time, in accordance with deconfliction policies between the US and Russia over military activities in Syria.So the whole "Trump is a Russian spy" or "Trump is a Russian dupe" goes out the window.
A Russian official said the strike will undermine the war on terror and warned they may halt cooperation with US forces.
"Russia will demand an urgent UN Security Council meeting after the US airstrike on a Syrian aviation base," said Viktor Ozerov, head of the Russian Federation Council's defense committee, according to state news agency RIA.
"This is an act of aggression against a UN member," Ozerov said. "Cooperation between the Russian and US militaries may be shut down after the US strike."
As for Congressional reaction, the usual suspects are banging the war drums, namely John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Then again, those two never met a war they didn't like.
Marco Rubio was another senator who jumped on the war bandwagon.
On the other hand:
The Hill:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday night that President Trump needs congressional authorization for military action in Syria after Trump ordered an airstrike in retaliation for a deadly chemical attack earlier this week.Not surprisingly, the Democrats jumped on the peace bandwagon:
"While we all condemn the atrocities in Syria, the United States was not attacked," Paul said in a statement shortly after reports that the U.S. had launched more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles against an airfield in Syria.
"The President needs congressional authorization for military action as required by the Constitution, and I call on him to come to Congress for a proper debate," Paul said. "Our prior interventions in this region have done nothing to make us safer, and Syria will be no different."
A number of Democrats on Thursday night also urged caution.Finally, in other news...
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) sided with Paul on Twitter, saying that Trump "can use military force in defense of US. But attacking #Assad regime requires congressional approval."
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) also called the strike "an act of war" on Twitter, saying that "Congress needs to come back into session & hold a debate. Anything less is an abdication of our responsibility."
Newsweek:
North Korea has funded its development of nuclear weapons by stealing money from financial institutions around the world via state-sponsored hacks, top cybersecurity experts warned.Note that it was a Russian cybersecurity firm that released this report. At a time when much of the world is giving intense scrutiny to Russian hacking, isn't it curious that a Russian cybersecurity firm points the finger at North Korea? Mind you, it could still be true. But it is nonetheless curious.
In a 58-page news report released Monday, Russian leading cybersecurity firm Kaspersky revealed that Pyongyang utilized a secret government program called Lazarus to electronically remove funds from banks in 18 countries, according to CNN. North Korea had previously been suspected by researchers of being behind several major thefts, including one last year in which up to $81 million was stolen from Bangladesh's central bank account in New York, as well as other attempted heists in Ecuador, the Philippines and Vietnam. Kaspersky reportedly supplied evidence that Pyongyang was also directly responsible for hacks in over a dozen other nations and that the cash was likely used to fund North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Other nations affected by North Korea's digital robberies included Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Poland, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uruguay, said the report. Kaspersky said the addresses used by attackers were carefully concealed by routing their signals through countries such as France, South Korea and Taiwan, but one fateful error allowed researchers to detect the North Korean signal, according to United Press International.
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