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Robert Ford to become first US ambassador to Damascus since 2005; opponents say move rewards Syrian regime for bad behavior. Talkbacks (23) WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama has bypassed the US Senate and directly appointed four new ambassadors, including Robert Ford, who will become the first US envoy to Syria since 2005. Specific senators had blocked or refused to consider the confirmations of the nominees for various reasons, including questions about their qualifications. But in the most high-profile case, that of the new envoy to Syria, a number of senators objected because they believed sending an ambassador to the...

The latest version of the CLEAR Act is slated for a floor vote in the House this week as Democrats look for ways to use the Gulf oil spill as a means to pass elements of their unpopular energy agenda. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stripped out authorization for an independent investigation into the Gulf disaster.  The Natural Resources Committee unanimously passed the amendment in committee markup July 14 offered by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) that would establish a bipartisan, independent, National Commission on Outer Continental Shelf Oil Spill Prevention. Unlike the commission set up by President Obama -- packed only with...

One of the signature achievements of the Bush Administration was pressuring the Syrians to give up their occupation of Lebanon. "Occupation" is a strong word, but how else would one describe a situation where a foreign power (a) assassinates the elected leader of Lebanon, (b) has their proxies take to the streets better armed than the nation's own armed forces, (c) controls the occupied nation’s intelligence and police forces, and (d) has 15,000 troops strategically based around the tiny nation? In 2005, the Syrians left Lebanon after 30 years of occupation and domination. Oh, and Syria still considers Lebanon to...