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Former Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich reportedly interviewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

Baku - APA. Russia could give asylum to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he has to leave his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published on January 12, according to RFE/RL. "It was surely more difficult to grant [U.S. national security contractor Edward] Snowden asylum in Russia than it would be in the case of Assad," Putin told the German tabloid Bild, referring to the American leaker of classified U.S. documents who was given asylum in Russia in 2013. Putin said it was too early to say whether Russia would have to give shelter to Assad as...

Get this. GOPe shill Michael Medved of Salem Media just opened his show with Jeb Bush as his guest. First thing Jeb says when asked about what he'd be saying in a State of the Union speech if he were President was that he'd have congress authorize a use of force to ... Wait for it. Take out Assad. Not take out IS? No, Assad. Just like Obama, and Hillary. And McCain. These guys are obsessed and cock-eyed. He would send US troops to overthrow Assad. But not The Islamic State? This is how he thinks he can gain votes...

As the Syrian civil war and refugee crisis metastasize, we need a new approach for these unfolding human tragedies. To date, the Obama administration has mostly sat on the sidelines, in part because of war fatigue, but mostly because in the crowded mix of factions fighting in Syria, there are no good actors to support. After the Pentagon's embarrassing admission that $500 million put only "four or five" Syrian opposition fighters on the ground, it is clear that it's fantasy to think we can find reliable Syrian allies who are both anti-ISIS and anti-Assad -- which is the official policy...

Inside the minds of the world’s leaders; friendly, enemy and neutral… Putin – What this guy’s problem? He reminds me of an old cleaning lady waiting for a bus in Leningrad. All he needs is a scarf over his head. I’ve tried to get through to Obamsky, but he’s as cold as a Siberian lake; seems like nothing can break the ice with him. I’ve tried snow mobile racing, Rugby and walking on hot coals to try and bond with him, but nothing works. We did lift weights for a few minutes. He conked out after lifting a couple five...

They joined to fight Israel in Lebanon, but after multiple combat tours in the Syrian cities of Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia, and around Damascus, Hezbollah reservists tell The Daily Beast that they are no longer willing to die in Syria's unending, bloody civil war. As a result of their refusal to continue volunteering to prop up the embattled government of Bashar al-Assad, they say that the Shia Party of God has cut off the money they were accustomed to receiving: reservist paychecks and permanent family benefits packages. What other consequences there may be remain to be seen. Imad, as we'll call...

It's come to this: The Obama administration - and in particular the CIA - knowingly armed Islamic State terrorists in Syria. Okay, take it with a grain of salt. It came from Seymour Hersh. Barack Obama’s repeated insistence that Bashar al-Assad must leave office – and that there are ‘moderate’ rebel groups in Syria capable of defeating him – has in recent years provoked quiet dissent, and even overt opposition, among some of the most senior officers on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff. Their criticism has focused on what they see as the administration’s fixation on Assad’s primary ally, Vladimir...

United States held secret communications with Assad's regime for years in a bid to limit violence in Syria, officials claim U.S. officials held secret communications with members of President Bashar al-Assad's government for years to try to limit the violence in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. President Barack Obama's administration explored ways to encourage a military coup in 2011 as the civil war in the country got underway. American intelligence officials identified army officers belonging to Assad's minority Alawite sect who could lead a coup, but they found few weak spots to exploit, the Journal said, citing...

In American politics the nation of Russia, especially as personified in its leader Vladimir Putin, becomes all things to all men.To American leftists, Russia is a neo-fascist, violently nationalist country that ruthlessly suppressed minority groups, especially homosexuals. To the American Right, Putin is the second coming of Stalin who is working to subvert good old-fashioned American values around the world.In line with the latter narrative, a certain Christian Gomez recently published an article on The New American website, the flagship of the John Birch Society, supposedly revealing that the Russian government is the real power behind the ISIS terrorist group,...

The Joint Chiefs of Staff has indirectly supported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in a bid to help him defeat jihadist groups, a bombshell report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claims. Hersh writes in the London Review of Books that the group of senior military leaders who advise Secretary of Defense Ash Carter sent intelligence through Israel, Germany, and even Russia.

1) Polls show that, by a large margin, Americans feel we're on the wrong track, both economically and as to foreign policy. Yet none of you offers any criticism of President Barack Obama, who has been in charge for the last seven years. Why, then, should Americans believe that four more years, under your leadership, would be any different from the last seven? 2) Sen. Sanders, you've called for a $15-per-hour minimum wage. But even Vice President Joe Biden's economist, Jared Bernstein, considers a $15 hourly rate so high that it would cause an unacceptable loss of jobs. Is he...

Syrian President Bashar al Assad attended Christmas choir preparations in an ancient church close to a frontline area in the capital Damascus where his army is engaged in heavy fighting with rebels, state media said on Saturday. State television showed footage of Assad and his wife Asma making the visit overnight to the Notre Dame de Damas Church, where he was shown chatting to the choir. He took a seat near the altar and listened to a recital of Christmas poems in the main cathedral hall. The surroundings of the church in the old part of the ancient capital were...

When you elect a president because he has a sharp crease in his trousers, looks like a professor, and sounds smart you pretty much get what you bargained for: a president with sharp creases in his trousers. Too Kool for SkoolRest assured that Barry still thinks he’s the smartest man in the room at any given time; and if you don’t believe me ask Chuck Hagel. Or any of Barry’s other former Secretaries of Defense. Because, you see, when you’re the Professor being smart means you’re right. And right is more important than being effective – at least in the...

Many questioned Barack Obama’s judgment when he backed away from his own “red line” in Syria, but Chuck Hagel tells Foreign Policy in an exclusive interview that it was actually worse than that. Obama lost his nerve, Hagel alleges, calling off promised strikes on Syria after Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons. Hagel also says that Obama’s team then stabbed him in the back as he was heading for the exits, and tried to “destroy me”: Jet-lagged from a long overseas trip, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had just sat down with his wife for a quiet dinner at an...

John Kerry went to Moscow on Tuesday and was absolutely elated when he stumbled on a Dunkin Donuts:But America’s top diplomat didn’t travel halfway around the world just to get coffee (we don't think). He also met with Sergei Lavrov and Vladimir Putin to discuss (what else?) Syria. You can get a decent idea of which side prevailed by taking a quick look at the following priceless image captured during a discussion between three of the world’s most powerful government officials:In short, Kerry ended up conceding once and for all that the fate of Bashar al-Assad has effectively been...

Back on September 20 (so, a full ten days before a three star Russian general strolled into the US Embassy in Baghdad to let the US know that airstrikes in Syria “start in 1 hour”), we said that the US strategy in Syria had officially unraveled. At the time, John Kerry had just concluded a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in London. "For the last year and a half we have said Assad has to go, but how long and what the modality is, that's a decision that has to be made in the context of the Geneva...

After this story broke this afternoon, conservative Twitter spent an enjoyable half-hour swapping links to some of the many statements Obama’s made over the years insisting on regime change in Syria. How about this classic, from all the way back in 2011? Or how about this one from just three months ago? Better yet, how about this one from a mere four weeks ago? With the possible exception of “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan,” no Obama lie has been told more often or better captures his failures as president.Obama wants regime change. Putin doesn’t want...

Following lengthy talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said the United States is not seeking regime change in Syria and that the U.S. and Russia see the conflict "fundamentally very similarly." "The United States and its partners are not seeking so-called regime change as it is known in Syria," Kerry said in a news conference inside the Kremlin, before immediately adding that the U.S. continues to believe that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has no possibility of remaining the country's leader in the future.

MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday accepted Russia's long-standing demand that President Bashar Assad's future be determined by his own people, as Washington and Moscow edged toward putting aside years of disagreement over how to end Syria's civil war. "The United States and our partners are not seeking so-called regime change," Kerry told reporters

GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz said Thursday that the Middle East was more secure when key dictators were still in power, and said too many Democrats and Republicans have supported toppling Middle Eastern governments to the benefit of the United States' enemies."Was the world, in fact, in the Middle East, a more secure place when Saddam Hussein was in power, when Moammar Gadhafi was in power, and when [Bashar] Assad wasn't fighting for his life in Syria?" asked MSNBC's Joe Scarborough."Of course it was," Cruz answered. "That's not even a close call."Cruz said Gadhafi did bad things but had worked...