Free Republic

The head of the opposition Free Syria Army, General Salim Idriss, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Thursday that he has intelligence that the Assad regime is moving its chemical weapons out of the country. “Today we have information that the regime began to move chemical materials and chemical weapons to Lebanon and to Iraq,” General Idriss told Amanpour from inside Syria. It’s a huge claim that would fundamentally shift everything U.S. intelligence officials have in the past said they believe about the situation in Syria, CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr reports.

A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a high profile article from one Elizabeth O’Bagy arguing that the majority of the Syrian rebels were actually moderates. Senator McCain mentioned Elizabeth O’Bagy’s op-ed during the Senate hearings, when he wasn’t playing poker, and tweeted it. That should come as no surprise, considering that O’Bagy is credited with arranging McCain’s infamous photo op with the Syrian rebel leadership. The Wall Street Journal lists O’Bagy’s role as the Institute for the Study of War. It leaves out the fact that she is the political director for the Syrian Emergency Task Force...

N'DJAMENA, April 13 (Reuters) - Residents of Chad's capital N'Djamena were woken by the sound of artillery fire early on Thursday as government forces battled to keep rebels bent on overthrowing President Idriss Deby out of the city. A Reuters reporter living in a southern neighbourhood said the noise of heavy weapons could be heard coming from a few kilometres (miles) outside the city. "Everyone is up, wondering what is going to happen," he said. One resident reported seeing a column of smoke.