Citizen Cartwright

U.S. seen likely to go it alone on Syria

President Obama was preparing on Thursday for the possibility of  launching unilateral U.S. military action against Syria within days, media are reporting, as Britain opted out in a "stunning" vote by Parliament.

Top U.S. officials spoke with some lawmakers for more than 90 minutes in a teleconference Thursday evening to explain why they believe Syria's government was the culprit in a suspected chemical attack last week.

The point of the cruise missile strikes the United States is planning to is to restore the "smudged red line” that President Obama drew a year ago against the use of poison gas, says The New York Times.

If carried out effectively, the paper says, the strikes also could send a signal to Iran that the White House is prepared to back up its words to that country on nuclear weapons.

What's up with Britain's policy on Syria

After Parliament on Thursday voted down participation in military action against Syria, here's the take by Mark Urban, a BBC diplomatic reporter:

"It would appear that the ability of a British government to commit to military action without broad parliamentary support in any but the most urgent emergency has gone. Given the war weariness and indeed anti-Americanism of much of the British public, that has important implications for the future of U.K.-U.S. relations."

U.S. intelligence agencies' 'black budget'

While spy agencies have created an "espionage empire" since 9/11, they face information gaps on nations such as North Korea and on homegrown terrorists, according to the $52.6 billion “black budget” for fiscal 2013 obtained by The Washington Post from former ­intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Former Rep. Lee Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who chaired the House Intelligence Committee and co-chaired the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, says access to budget details will make an informed public debate on intelligence spending possible for the first time.

“Much of the work that the intelligence community does has a profound impact on the life of ordinary Americans, and they ought not to be excluded from the process,” Hamilton says.

“Nobody is arguing that we should be so transparent as to create dangers for the country,” he says. But “there is a mind-set in the national security community: ‘Leave it to us, we can handle it, the American people have to trust us.’ They carry it to quite an extraordinary length so that they have resisted over a period of decades transparency. ... The burden of persuasion as to keeping something secret should be on the intelligence community, the burden should not be on the American public.”

Researchers extend mouse lifespan 20 percent

Reducing the activity of one type of gene not only increased lifespan but preserved memory, cognition and some other important traits, according to researchers from the National Institutes of Health reporting in the journal Cell Reports.

Also in the news

Finland to start scaling back generous welfare benefits to preserve credit rating

Government says it will release annual totals of surveillance orders from now on

IRS shifts to equal tax treatment for people in same-sex marriages

Justice Department says it won't challenge Colorado, Washington recreational marijuana laws

DOE proposes two major energy efficiency rules for new commercial fridges, coolers

Nasdaq says software bug caused last week's trading outage

NFL, former players agree to $765 million settlement of concussion lawsuits

Study: Mental energy needed to survive lowers ability of the poor to make good financial decisions

Officials: Intel on Syria's chemical use no 'slam dunk'

Wait, what?

While President Obama said in a PBS interview Wednesday that the Syrian government was responsible for the alleged chemical weapons attack, a report by the Office of the Director for National Intelligence outlining the evidence against Syria "is thick with caveats," says The Associated Press.

Multiple U.S. officials describe the intelligence using the phrase “not a slam dunk” — a reference to then-CIA Director George Tenet’s incorrect assertion in 2002 that U.S. intelligence showing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was a “slam dunk.”

Senior Obama administration officials are expected to brief congressional leaders on the situation on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Syria's ambassador to the U.N. said on Wednesday that his nation is in a “state of war” and is bracing for U.S.-led attacks.

British prime minister backs down on Syria

David Cameron has had to delay his plan for an imminent military strike against Syria in the face of opposition from the Labor party and some lawmakers in his own ruling Conservative party.

The opposition reflects public mistrust lingering after former Prime Minister Tony Blair's contested decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003, says Reuters.

U.N. resolution on Syria fails

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council were unable to reach an agreement Wednesday on a British-proposed resolution that would authorize the use of military force against Syria.

Meanwhile, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said no action should be taken until U.N. chemical weapons inspectors complete their work.

Russia repositioning ships over Syria crisis

Two ships are being moved to the eastern Mediterranean to strengthen Russia's naval presence, the Interfax news agency is saying on Thursday.

Many highest-paid CEOs are failures, report says

Nearly 40 percent of the country's best-paid CEOs over the past two decades were fired, forced to take government bailouts or in charge of companies that paid large amounts in fraud-related claims, says a report released Wednesday by the liberal Institute for Policy Studies.