Summary

AP-APTN-2230: ++US Syria Monday, 5 March 2012 STORY:++US Syria- Senator McCain calls for US to lead on Syria airstrikes LENGTH: 03:21 FIRST RUN: 2130 RESTRICTIONS: See Script TYPE: English/Natsound SOURCE: Various STORY NUMBER: 731064 DATELINE: Various, 5 Mar 2012 LENGTH: 03:21 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY AMATEUR VIDEO RELEASED BY "SHAMSNN" - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++SHAAM NEWS NETWORK (SHAMSNN) IS A LOOSELY ORGANISED ANTI-ASSAD GROUP BASED IN AND OUT OF SYRIA WHICH POSTS VIDEO AND STILL IMAGES OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS ON THE INTERNET. IT CLAIMS IT DOES NOT HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO SYRIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES OR ANY OTHER STATES++ AMATEUR VIDEO - RELEASED BY A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF UGARIT NEWS - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS NOT A RECOGNISED NEWSGATHERING ORGANISATION++ ++AP CANNOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT, DATE, LOCATION OR AUTHENTICITY OF THIS AMATEUR MATERIAL++ SHOTLIST: AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 1. Wide of Senate floor 2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "Some kind of intervention will happen, with us or without us. So the real question for US policy is whether we will participate in this next phase of the conflict in Syria and thereby increase our ability to shape an outcome that is beneficial to the Syrian people and to us. I believe we must." 3. Wide of Senate floor 4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary. But at this late hour, that alone cannot be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives. The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power." AMATEUR VIDEO RELEASED BY "SHAMSNN" - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++SHAAM NEWS NETWORK (SHAMSNN) IS A LOOSELY ORGANISED ANTI-ASSAD GROUP BASED IN AND OUT OF SYRIA WHICH POSTS VIDEO AND STILL IMAGES OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS ON THE INTERNET. IT CLAIMS IT DOES NOT HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO SYRIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES OR ANY OTHER STATES++ Jib al Jandali, Homs 5. Wide of high rise building on fire from shelling with plumes of smoke rising from it in the district of Jib al Jandali, Homs AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad's forces." AMATEUR VIDEO - RELEASED BY A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF UGARIT NEWS - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS NOT A RECOGNISED NEWSGATHERING ORGANISATION++ Midan district, Damascus 7. Students demonstrating in support of the plight of the people in Homs and other cities that have allegedly come under fire by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Students chanting (Arabic) "There is no God but God and we will only bow for God. May God protect the Free Army." AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "The benefit for the United States of helping to lead this effort directly, is that it would allow us to better empower those Syrian groups that share our interests. Those groups that reject Al Qaeda and the Iranian regime, and commit to the goal of an inclusive, democratic transition as called for by the Syrian National Council." AMATEUR VIDEO - RELEASED BY A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF UGARIT NEWS - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS NOT A RECOGNISED NEWSGATHERING ORGANISATION++ Midan district, Damascus 9. Students demonstrating in support of the plight of the people in Homs and other cities that have allegedly come under fire by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Students chanting (Arabic) "There is no God but God and we will only bow for God. May God protect the Free Army." Students spray painting graffiti onto a wall in (Arabic) "God is Great; Free the Army." AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "Is it now the policy of NATO or the United states for that matter, to tell the perpetrators of mass atrocities in Syria or elsewhere, that they can go on killing innocent civilians by the hundreds of thousands, and the greatest alliance in history will not even bother to conduct any planning?" AMATEUR VIDEO - RELEASED BY A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF UGARIT NEWS - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS NOT A RECOGNISED NEWSGATHERING ORGANISATION++ Midan district, Damascus 11. Students demonstrating in support of the plight of the people in Homs and other cities that have allegedly come under fire by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad. Students chanting (Arabic) "There is no God but God and we will only bow for God. May God protect the Free Army." AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "The President must state unequivocally that under no circumstances will Assad be allowed to finish what he has started. There is no future in which Assad and his lieutenants will remain in control of Syria, and that the United States is prepared to use the full weight of our air power to make it so." AMATEUR VIDEO RELEASED BY "SHAMSNN" - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++SHAAM NEWS NETWORK (SHAMSNN) IS A LOOSELY ORGANISED ANTI-ASSAD GROUP BASED IN AND OUT OF SYRIA WHICH POSTS VIDEO AND STILL IMAGES OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS ON THE INTERNET. IT CLAIMS IT DOES NOT HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO SYRIAN OPPOSITION PARTIES OR ANY OTHER STATES++ Idlib 13. Demonstration to demand that the Free Syrian Army receives arms. People holding a large flag which was the former flag of Syria. AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Senator John McCain: "What we can say for certain is that we will have no influence whatsoever with these people (the Syrian opposition) if they feel we abandoned them. This is a real moral dilemma. But we cannot allow the opposition in Syria to be crushed at present while we worry about the future." AMATEUR VIDEO - RELEASED BY A GROUP WHICH CALLS ITSELF UGARIT NEWS - AP CLIENTS ONLY ++PLEASE NOTE - THIS IS NOT A RECOGNISED NEWSGATHERING ORGANISATION++ Daraa 15. Top shot of people demonstrating against a recent suicide bomb explosion that they blame on Assad forces; People chanting (Arabic) "Freedom, forever, despite you Assad" and "Death rather than humiliation." STORYLINE: Frustrated by a diplomatic logjam and a bloody Syrian offensive, Republican US Senator John McCain urged the United States to launch airstrikes against President Bashar Assad's regime to force him out of power. It was a call for dramatic military intervention that was not supported by the Obama administration or its European or Arab partners. McCain said that President Barack Obama has taken too soft a stand against Assad and the brutal crackdown on his own people. He said that Syria's neighbours in the region will intervene militarily, with or without the US. From the Senate floor, McCain said the United States has a moral and strategic obligation to force out Assad and his loyalists. "The only realistic way to do so is with foreign air power," McCain said. "The United States should lead an international effort to protect key population centres in Syria, especially in the north, through airstrikes on Assad's forces," he added. It was a marked change from McCain's remarks last month, when he said in a media interview that the US should find ways to help the Syrian people without putting American "boots on the ground." Then, he said the options included medical care and technical assistance to safe havens for refugees of the violence. But in his remarks on Monday, McCain declared it was time to step up militarily and that the US should lead the effort with direct military action. "The President must state unequivocally that under no circumstances will Assad be allowed to finish what he has started," McCain said. The Obama administration, he added, should make it clear that "the United States is prepared to use the full weight of our air power to make it so." McCain's proposal will likely divide American lawmakers, many of whom opposed a similar operation in Libya last year. Even if it were championed by the Obama administration and its NATO allies, the plan would divide other countries hostile to the Assad regime but unwilling to support another Western military intervention in the Muslim world. And it would be anathema to Russia, which sees Syria as its primary ally in the Middle East. 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