This massive ebook provides an up-to-the-minute compilation of authoritative documents and reports about Syria and the ongoing chemical weapons attack crisis, including the threat of U.S. military intervention, with professional analysis and background information. There is coverage of the ongoing uprising and the crackdown against the protesters; the current President, Bashar al-Assad, and the long rule of his father; the government, military, human and religious rights, terrorism and U.S. sanctions, exports, trade, and business information, statistics on all facets of Syrian life, and much more.
Contents include:
Possible U.S. Intervention in Syria: Issues for Congress - The war in Syria and the debate over possible punitive U.S. military action against the Asad regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons pose a uniquely challenging series of questions for policy makers. The overarching questions remain how to define, prioritize, and secure the core interests of the United States with regard to Syria's complex civil war. The immediate questions are whether and how best to respond to the apparent use of chemical weapons in Syria and how such a response might affect U.S. interests and standing regionally and globally. In weighing these questions, many Members of Congress and Administration officials are seeking both to protect concrete U.S. national security interests and to preserve abstract international security principles that may serve those interests. A mass casualty chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21 was the latest and most deadly of a string of reported instances where Syrian forces allegedly have used chemical weapons despite President Obama's prior statement that the transfer or use of chemical weapons is "a red line" that would "change his calculus."
Syria's Chemical Weapons: Issues for Congress - The use or loss of control of chemical weapons stocks in Syria could have unpredictable consequences for the Syrian population and neighboring countries as well as U.S. allies and forces in the region. Congress may wish to assess the Administration's plans to respond to possible scenarios involving the use, change of hands, or loss of control of Syrian chemical weapons.
U.S. Government Assessment of the Syrian Government's Use of Chemical Weapons on August 21, 2013 - The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013. We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack.
Chronology of Civil War, 2011-2013 - Complete compilation of statements, speeches, and position papers from the White House, President Obama, and the State Department, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Hillary Clinton from the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 through the chemical attack crisis.
Syria Background Information - Comprehensive data about all aspects of Syria.
Country Profile: Syria (Library of Congress) - This Library of Congress Federal Research Division Country Study is an exceptional review of Syria and its history.
Syria in Perspective: An Orientation Guide - A thorough introduction to critical information about Syria, produced by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, Technology Integration Division June 2011. Chapter 1: Geography, Chapter 2: History, Chapter 3: Economy, Chapter 4: Society, Chapter 5: Security
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Syria - The Syrian energy sector continues to suffer from the combination of ongoing fighting between government and opposition forces and stiff Western-led sanctions.
Syria - Complex Emergency: USAID Humanitarian Assistance * Chemical Weapons: A Summary Report of Characteristics and Effects * Facts About Sarin
