details washington is inching closer to arming the rebels this monday the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee introduced a bill that would provide weapons to quote some very good groups of syrian rebels the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee also said the u.s. must act to tip the scales in favor of the opposition so we see washington trying to decide the outcome of the civil war in syria this monday the white house has basically brushed off the latest findings of the u.n. human rights commission wish that the syrian rebels may have used the deadly sarin nerve gas here is a leading u.n. investigators saying she was quote stupefied by the evidence chemical weapons were used in particular. in what was. what appear on. to our investigation that was used by openings by the rebels and we have no no indication at tool of government authority of the city government have used chemical weapons but i was happy to be stupefied that. first the first indication we got they were about the use of never opening to that the white house said we find it highly likely that chemical weapons if they

washington is inching closer to arming the rebels this monday the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee introduced a bill that would provide weapons to quote some vetted groups of syrian rebels the bill would also give the u.s. government the power to sanction any individual who sells or transfers military equipment weapons or oil to the syrian government the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee also said the u.s. must act to tip the scales in favor of the opposition so we see washington trying to decide the outcome of the civil war in syria the idea or mean the rebels has been floating in washington for a while now last week the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel said the administration was rethinking its opposition to arming the rebels if the bill comes to the president's desk he may actually sign it into law critics in the meantime say flooding syria with more weapons could only lead to more bloodshed this monday the white house has basically brushed off the latest findings of the u.n. human rights commission wish that the syrian rebels may have used the deadly sarin ne

mccain is a member of the senate foreign relations committee. a scare in new york city., tonight, the brooklyn bridge has reopened. an suv without a license plate was found unoccupied on the manhattan-bound side on the bridge shortly after 5:00 p.m. hundreds spent memorial day cleeping up from that ef-5 tornado. not only fr the waterer tables, but also, ochk, for your allergies. you can see we have a few showerings here moving throughout the south bay. it's nothing too heavy right now,but it's making those roadways dangerously slick. and it's very scattered that nature with this cold air in place. and we're going to continue to see more of these showers in place. eventual eventually, we'll make it down here to morgan hill. as far as rainfall totals duo, nothd nor le loi impleszive. >> and tomorrow, temperatures are going to be a little bit warmer. with that increased sunshine, it will help things to warm up from about 3-5 degrees. 73 in sunny vale. 70 in dublin. for san francisco, 63 for you and 7 in santa rosa. let's get you into that seven-day forecast, shall we? you c

we have a discussion with him as the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee talking about the rate at which refugees were coming into the country, the ability to sustain that. the possibility the population would double, so all of these are at stake. unless you could change that, to give the rebels of fighting chance to change the dynamics, you ultimately will continue to seek a great humanitarian consequence with regional consequences as well. >> everyone has talked about the consequences. you call it the greatest humanitarian crisis and now there is. 70,000 people have been killed. there has been a huge reluctance on the part of the white house to get involved. is it your understanding the president is moving closer to arming the rebels in syria belmont -- in cirio -- >> i believe the u.s. government is seriously considering it, and i believe we give congressional support to the. >> you have a sense of a time frame? >> but this still an open believe thet i do committee should go forward and give the wherewithal to do this, three key things. number one, allows for the arm

foreign. joining me is republican senator bob corker of tennessee, the ranking member of the senate foreign relations committee. >> helping these opposition groups themselves do the things that need to be done so that they are prepared post-- that is what we need to be focused on in my opinion is what the country is going to be post assad. all of our activities need to be moving in that direction. and what we don't need to do is let little events along the way presip difficultly just sort of change our direction. this is a strategy we need to go in. we need to keep our eyes on that. we need to be to kountion post assad. >> rose: we conclude this evening with richard wagner's ring cycle at the metropolitan opera. joining me -- >> i think as every composer writing an important opera because he start thinking now i'm writing something crucial, something very important. to put a mirror for us to see ourselves. and all great operas and generally all great artworks are a mirror for us. what do we see in them which we can understand ourselves. and the ring is important because it's about politics. it's about love. it

okay, last week, the senate foreign relations committee voted overwhelmingly bipartisan to approve a bill calling for the u.s. to arm some syrian rebel groups. republican rand paul was one of only three no-votes on the committee, and here's what he had to say about the idea of aiding syrian rebels. >> i think there's an irony that you can't get beyond here, that you will be voting to authorize, to send arm to an ally of al qaeda. these are forces that are allied, fighting against the government of syria, and i have no love lost for assad. i think he's a horrible authoritarian, like so many, but you will be funding today the alla allies of al qaeda. it's an irony you cannot overcome. >> john mccain also had a problem with the bill. of course, mccain was not concerned with whom we should be sending arms to, but however, we should be sending them, whoever they are, heavier weapons, than what's authorized under the bill. john mccain has been called upon to answer the concerns of rand paul and so many other people who worry that arming the rebels in syria will ultimately mean arming al qa

lou: we just received word tonight that be senate foreign relations committee committee, the republica have called for an investigation of this issue. this is the beginning of something very important to the american people a clear understanding from our government as to what happened and why ian bengzi, the games played in the white house briefing room today are not a substitute for the truth or respected regard for the public's right to know in this constitutional republic stephen hayes, a terrific reporting, judyiller, thank you. while e white house press corp took the press secretary to a task today, unusual, though liberal national media has been slow to report the damaging benghazi deeails. more than 90 minutes after jay carney finished his growing national news organitions to be generous and charitable were slow to update their web sites. the lead story for the new york times, a carbon dioxide at the highest level in human history. nbc news' top story, bombing suspect finally buried in virginia. cbs news, fbi no human remains among cleveland evidence. the only fox news and cnn h

israel has a right to respond in quote their own asylum for an interest meanwhile the senate foreign relations committee chairman robert menendez has introduced legislation that would arm a syrian opposition groups but the bill goes further than that it would also provide military training as well as non-lethal aid to rebel groups that have been vetted and senator menendez is not alone in his demands for action senator john mccain and numerous republicans are calling for an american response as well this proposed legislation to back of rebels comes at an interesting time during this conflict and that is because a leading member of the united nations' independent commission on inquiry on syria actually told swiss t.v. on monday that there's evidence suggesting that rebel forces are not president assad's army might have been the ones in using chemical weapons the un itself distance itself from those remarks saying that they have not yet reached conclusive evidence on the use of chemical weapons in syria so obviously there are a lot of information unfolding about the country right now to help me break it a

pushing plans to arm the syrian rebels and last week thanks to mccain's efforts the senate foreign relations committee overwhelmingly approved legislation to do just that to arm the rebels you see mccain has taken the role of charlie wilson in this war you remember charlie wilson right here is the congressman from texas who arm twisted congress to approve billions of dollars in military support back in the one nine hundred eighty s. for the afghan mujahedeen in their fight against the soviet union hollywood made a movie about wilson and how all that military aid helped the mujahideen when it started tom hanks and julia roberts and of course we know how this movie ended or at least we know how the larger story ended and real life the mujahideen won in the united states walked away from afghanistan no longer caring about what impact the billions of dollars in new weapons may have on the country in the years to come and then about a decade later a lot of those same forces we armed and trained in afghanistan produced this september eleventh two thousand and one. charlie wilson later said he felt guilty th

>> a number of republicans on the senate foreign relations committee have asked for additional hearingsn that. i think that the former secretary of state should want to come forward and testify. but it's not just secretary of state clinton. we want to hear from people who were on the ground in benghazi when this occurred -- jenna: and, senator, when would that happen? if you want to hear more from secretary clinton, when? >> well, i think that we ought to actually have a select committee, a bipartisan committee looking into this to get the kind of justice and the kind of accountability that the american people are looking for. there are still state department officials who are on paid leave even though they were responsible for security problems in benghazi, the terrorists who killed these brave americans, they have not been brought to justice in spite of what the president has promised the american people. and i think, you know, the president's talking about al-qaeda on the run, al-qaeda is on the rise, and we continue to see that worldwide. jenna: senator, there's been some reticence

senator menendez introduced the will. it would now have to get through his committee, the senate foreign relations committee, then pass the and senate and get to the president for his signature. this comes on the heels of reports that chemical weapons have been used in the syrian conflict, with varying degrees of certainty on the reports according to the white house, and accusations from both sides, meaning the rebels and the syrian government -- that the other side actually used the chemical weapons. so this is a squishy area. but the headline is, senator men anyone -- menendez has introduced a bill to give some vetted rebels weapons. more as we get it. >>> norimon the investigation into the boston marathon terror attack three weeks later. the fbi confirmed that yesterday teams did search the small apartment that the older suspect shared with his then-wife. a source says both bombing suspects likely built their explosive inside the home and how to we're getting a better sense what the investigators may want to investigate there. catherine is live in d.c. seems the fbi agents are not letting up on the suspect's widow. >>

the senate foreign relations committee will hear testimony from debra jones, president obama's choiceo replace chris stevens, the u.s. ambassador killed in benghazi. look for coverage on c-span.org. also in the senate, the homeland security panel will focus on the border security pr

senator rand paul of kentucky is joining us, key member of the senate foreign relations committee.hanks very much for coming in. >> glad to be with you, wolf. >> the president wants to learn the lessons of what happened in benghazi last september 11th. among other things he says the u.s. has to beef up security for diplomats around the world. listen to what he said. >> i'm calling on congress to work with us to support and fully fund our budget request to improve the security of our embassies around the world. >> are you with him on that? >> absolutely. in fact, i'd go one step further. i think some of these embassies need to be under military control and not state department. i think one of the mistakes we made in libya and i don't think they've yet recognized the mistake is benghazi is more like bagdad than it is paris. i think we treated the embassy and consulate in benghazi like paris, a marine here, or two. we had an unofficial militia guarding our ambassador. i think benghazi still they haven't learned the lesson. i would put it under military control rather than state depart

new york times revealed things about our drones and then senator kerry head of the senate foreign relations committee new york times for a terrible breach of security nothing happened. we have to remember that what we understand is true is not being purveyed as such in the rest of the country. >> sean: good point. kirsten? >> politically i think it will have an impact in terms of beginning up the base of the republican party and could have an impact. i don't think most liberals or democratic based voters are probably following it as closely. >> sean: thank you both. appreciate it. coming up next the architect karl rove here to dismantle the administration outrageous lies regarding the irs targeting of conservatives and react to the controversy regarding eric holder. log on to hannity live.foxnews.com. cast your vote for the video of the day. the winning video will be unveiled later tonight. and speaking of it, a sneak peek at the final choice. getting duped into signing a thank you card to the good old irs. >> thank you letter to the irs for targeting the tea party. want to sign my thank you letter?

in addition to the immigration bill, the senate foreign relations committee voted on legislation callinge u.s. to arm the rebels in syria. to arm the groups fighting against the assad regime in that civil war for the past two years. it was a 15-3 vote. 15-3. very lopsided vote. only votes against were against rand paul and two democratic senators. the vote is not definitive in terms of what the u.s. will do but puts pressure on john kerry who arrived in the middle east today for a week-long trip aimed at building support to a peaceful end to the war in syria. secretary kerry's former colleagues in the senate not making his job any easier today. >>> there was also big news out of the great state of arizona. a federal court in arizona struck down that state's ban on abortions after 20 weeks. the law that the court struck down today was signed by arizona's governor jan brewer last april making abortion illegal in the state even before the fetus has traditionally been thought to be viable. but today the ninth circuit court of appeals said what everybody knows to be true that ban is unconstit

the senate foreign relations committee today approved a new ambassador to libya.is debra k jones. the president nominated her after the death of ambassador chris stevens. she is a career diplomat who has served in several middle eastern hot spots, including syria and iraq, as well as kuwait and turkey joan still faces a full senate confirmation. more fallout from those automatic success ter spending cuts. the defense secretary chuck hagel says most of the pentagon's 800,000 workers will have to take 11 days off without pay in july. broke the news town hall meeting in virginia. he says he tried everything to avoid the furloughs. he may still be able to shorten them. truth be told he has shortened them. the original estimate was for twice as much unpaid leave. the automatic spending cuts took effect in march after the white house and congress failed to cut a deal to prevent them. a -- well. >> iran is now the newly elected rotating chair of the united nations conference on disarmament. yes, iran. it's a move that the u.s. mission to the united nations is calling unf

. >> this idea of vetted rebels was part of this bill that the past in the senate foreign relations committeeidea being everyone's worried rand paul say we've voted to arm al qaeda. everyone saying, no, these rebels are going to be vetted. you've been on the ground there. can you imagine a situation in which arms can stay in some contained group of people? >> there's no contained group of people. if somebody is in denial, delusion in washington, d.c., thinking they're arming a group of nice rebels, they have to look at internet. they don't have to go into syria. they just have to look at where they're exposing, putting themselves on the internet in terms of brutality. one of them, one of the leaders of the rebels opened the heart of the syrian soldiers, ate his heart and took a bite of his liver. these are the people that tomorrow will run syria? we have to ask ourselves today as u.s. citizens, what are our goals in syria to get rid of assad or stop the bloodshed? if you want to stop the bloodshed, then you cannot arm any more anybody. when syrians themselves today asking you to stop. >> okay

mccain is a member of the senate foreign relations committee which voted to provide weapons to moderate rebel groups. >>> the u.s. military is looking to what caused a u.s. fighter jet to crash off the coast of okinawa yesterday. the f-15 jet developed a problem which caused the pilot to eject. according to the japanese coast guard, the pilot was rescued via helicopter. o okinawa's governor says this could be disastrous if it crashed into a densely-populated area. >>> running a marathon is a big accomplishment. how about running ten of them back to back to back. a group of friends willing to do just that. how their feat is helping the victims of the boston marathon bombings. >>> good morning. taking a live look outside. waiting for the sun's arrival. gorgeous start to the day. meteorologist, christina loren warns us this morning. we will check the full forecast. 5:23. >>> an inspirational story. a group of ultramarathoners in washington, d.c. have a bold plan to help victims of the boston marathon bombings. the men ran double and triple marathons to raise money for the families of marti

foreign. joining me is republican senator bob corkerf tennsee,he rking member of the senate foreign relations committee. >> helping these opposition groups themselves do the things that need to be done so that they are prepared post-- that is what we need to be focused on in my opinion is what the country is going to be post assad. all of our activities need to be moving in that direction. and what we don't need to do is let little events along the way presip difficultly just sort of change our direction. this is a strate

the senate foreign relations committee has advanced a bipartisan measure to arm rebels but in the regime of syrian president bashar al-assad read the vote marks the first time u.s. lawmakers have formally backed the direct arming of the syrian opposition. 15 senators voted in favor of the measure while three voted against. democratic senators from new mexico and connecticut and republican senator rand paul of kentucky all criticized the measure saying -- iraq continues to face a wave of sectarian attacks raising fears of a return to the sunni-shiite violence of 2006. at least 40 people were killed tuesday in a series of bombings and shootings. the killings came one day after 70 people died in several blasts. nearly 300 people being killed and violence of the past week. the mangled corpse of an afghan torture victim has been found near a u.s. military base in afghanistan. the victim. sayid mohammed, was last seen being taken to the base for interrogation in november. his body was found with both feet cut off. afghan officials are seeking arrest of an afghan america interpreter on charges

the senate foreign relations committee, the republicans on that committee put out a statement this evening saying there needs to be another hearing. >> pretty amazing, they said they wanted to take something out because congress may beat the state department up for not heeding cia warnings. the original draft included that the cia had warned prior. you asked a lot of questions, jim, of the press secretary. you had a prior exchange with him. i want to play a little of that for our viewers. >> that is not a stylistic edit. that is not a single adjustment. that is a major, dramatic change in the information. >> i appreciate the question and the opportunity again to make clear that the cia produced talking points as a result of an interagency process on the -- that saturday morning. and in -- >> you say talking points. >> jim, let me just finish. and from that, we -- >> from pressure from other parties that were involved. >> there were numerous statements. >> jim, you and another reporter were bringing that up. >> i think there is a sense among all reporters in that room that there was a loost

the senate foreign relations committee will hear testimony from debra jones, president obama's choiceo replace chris stevens, the u.s. ambassador killed in benghazi. look for coverage on c-span.org. also in the senate, the homeland security panel will focus on the border security provision in the gang of eight's and immigration proposal. we want to get your take on usa today's front-page story from monday -- and \ / \ send us a tweet, post your comments on facebook.com, or e- mail us. here is "usa today" -- here is a quote from mark zandi -- we want to know what impact this economic growth has had on your paycheck. start dialing in now. good social media, code twitter, go to facebook. facebook. few of from we want to hear about your wages during this economic recovery, during the recession, what has happened. a little bit more from "usa today," this was a front-page story -- we will focus on the impact of the recovery on the wealthiest americans on the last 45 minutes today of "washington journal." right now, what has been the impact on your paycheck of this economic growth? send us a