Ariel Castro’s life sentence ends in death. The man convicted of kidnapping and raping1 3 women for about a decade committed suicide in his prison cell. Say??? authorities tonight to exclusive interviews with Castro’s family. Also had??? the 30-day rape2 sentence that caused outrage3. A teacher who admitted to raping a 14-year student who later killed herself. A judge who suggested the young girl was partially4 to blame. Tonight why the case may not be closed after all. We begin though tonight with the question of a redline. Who said it, who crossed it, the politics of it and what that all means as the US weighs taking military action in Syria. The redline is of course the use of chemical weapons. The US is accusing Syria of using it against its own people 2 weeks ago. The use of those chemical weapons violates a convention signed by nearly 200 nations, Syria not included. It’s a ??? President Obama made today to stop in Sweden on his way to the G20 Summit.
“I didn’t set a redline. The world set a redline. The world set a redline when governments representing 98% of the world’s population said the use of chemical weapons are
abort5, and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war. Congress set a redline when it
rectified6 that treaty.”
So the president says he didn’t set a redline. That raised a lot of
eyebrows7, because keep them honest, it sounds like that’s exactly what he did when you listen to what he said in August in 2012.
“We have been very clear, to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a redline for us is that we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons are moving around the world or being
utilized8. That would change my calculous. That would change my equation.”
Both
Democrats9 and Republicans alike??? have said that the president boxed himself in with that statement last year, so many wondered if today they will hear Mr. Obama for the first time trying to talk his way out of the standards that he himself set. During debate on Capital Hill today, the No. 2 Republican in the House, majority leader Eric Cantor said any president would have
drawn10 that redline, and Secretary of State John Kerry tried to further drive home the point that it wasn’t something that the president just made up.
“Some have tried to suggest that the debate that we are having today is about this president’s redline, that this is about President Obama’s redline. Let me make it as clear as I can to all of you: that is just not true. This is about the world’s redline. It’s about humanity’s redline. A line that anyone with a conscience should draw, and a line that was drawn nearly100 years ago 1925, when the Chemical Weapons Convention was agreed on. “
The secretary??? Kerry there in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he and
Defense11 Secretary Chuck Hagel and
Joint12 Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey faced tough questions. They are now said against??? a vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, passing a resolution,
authorizing13 limited military action. Chief national security correspondent xxx has more.
“Today the Syria debate moved to the less friendly territory of the GOP-controlled House Foreign Affairs Committee. Some members are saying the administration wants to do too much, others too little.
“Why does America always need to be the world’s policeman?”
“Our enemies really don’t know what our foreign policy is, our friends don’t know what it is, and I’m not so sure Americans know what our foreign policy is in the Middle East.”
Secretary Kerry was forced even to confront the ghost of the administration’s last troubled Middle East
intervention14 in Libya.
“The same administration that was samely so quick in ??? the US and Syria now was reluctant to use resources at its disposal to attempt to rescue the 4 brave Americans that
forfeited15 their lives in Benghazi.”
“We are talking about people being killed by gas, and you wanna go talk about Benghazi.”
“Absolutely. I wanna talk about Benghazi.”
“But the 4 Americans lost their lives. I have sympathy for the people in Syria. And I do think there should be a worldwide response. But I wish that cautiously. ???”
The administration’s case
remains16 the same, framing the
confrontation17 with Syria not as a personal test for the president, but for congress, the country, and the world.
“This is not about getting into Syria’s civil war. This is about enforcing the principle that people shouldn’t be allowed to gas their citizens with
impunity18. And if we don’t vote to do this, Assad will interpret from you that he is free to go and do this any day he wants to.”
“Do you ??? trust these people?”
“That is not my business to trust.”
“Certainly it has to the business, because you are making decisions to go into war, and put American lives at risk. So it’s a simple concept. You either trust or do not trust.