Covert Support For Syrian Rebels; Secret Support for Syrian Opposition
SAMBOLIN: Good morning, Washington, D.C. It is 41 minutes past the hour. Seventy-six degrees right now. A little later, it's going to be 93, mostly sunny for you. Welcome back to EARLY START. Nice to have you with us. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.</s>BERMAN: It's about 41 minutes after the hour. I'm John Berman. CNN has learned that President Obama has secretly authorized American covert support for Syrian rebels in an effort to oust dictator Bashar al Assad. This as fighting rages on, killing nearly 200 people nationwide yesterday, where the rebels make some games. Former CIA officer Robert Baer telling CNN's Anderson Cooper the opposition needs more now of America's help.</s>ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OFFICER: More money will go to the opposition, the fighters, they're out of money. They've been complaining today they're not getting enough medicine, they're not getting enough weapons, enough ammunition. They simply need more funding. If it gets really bad and it could be very soon, we're going to have to switch this to a lethal fighting or actually get the United States military to start supplying these people.</s>BERMAN: CNN foreign affairs reporter Elise Labott joins us live now from Washington. And, Elise, we hear covert. Covert can mean a lot of different things. What kind of aid do we think this means the rebels will receive?</s>ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Well, John, we understand this finding was signed a few months ago. So some of it, they're already getting some of this help such as intelligence information on Assad's troop movements and also what the U.S. has really been doing, intelligence agencies, trying to vet some of these groups. As we know, the U.S. isn't ready to arm the opposition but what they are doing is trying to find out more information about these opposition groups to see which groups could get aid from Turkey, from Qatar, from Saudi Arabia. So, it's more about using U.S. intelligence assets to get a better picture on the ground and the U.S. not ready to provide anything beyond the communications equipment that it has already been getting. But that's a substantial amount of communications equipment that can help them move in a more sophisticated way.</s>BERMAN: The question I guess is who's then. The Obama administration has been hesitant to give too much help for a long time, saying there are so many factions they can't vet each and every one. Does it seem now then that one group has risen above the others?</s>LABOTT: Well, obviously, the Free Syrian Army is the main kind of rebel group if you will and last week, the Treasury Department authorized some licenses for a U.S.-based group to start giving financial support to them. Still not ready to give the tangible military support. But I think what the U.S. is trying to do is call al the opposition together. You have the non-armed opposition, the Syrian National Council and also the Free Syrian Army. I think what they're trying to do is get the opposition groups under one umbrella so they can start dealing with a few people as you say, one of the main complaints is they don't know who they're dealing with and if there would be a position where the U.S. would be ready to arm them, they don't know who they're arming. So, they need to get a better picture and putting more of everything under an umbrella would help them do that.</s>BERMAN: We have been hearing, of course, that sometimes, small arms and ammunition coming over the border from Syria to these rebel groups. The question is not directly from the U.S., the question then is -- what would have to happen for the U.S. to get directly involved in a military sense, for those weapons to come directly from the U.S.?</s>LABOTT: Well, as we've said, obviously, they need a better picture who is in these groups. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said something interesting last week. She said that if the free Syrian Army, if these rebels were to gain more territory, gain a more swath of Syria, maybe ally backing and U.S. backing would happen. And as we saw in Libya, one of the differences between Libya and Syria is the Libyan rebels had Benghazi. They had much more of a territory that they could hold. In Syria, they don't -- even if rebels are able to capture an area, they can't hold it very long. So, they don't want to funnel their support to them too quickly. But if the Syrian rebels were to gain more ground and you'd see more of a shift of balance of power on the ground, I think the U.S. would start backing the rebels a little bit more wholesomely.</s>BERMAN: Interesting. So, the U.S. looking for the rebels to gain some kind of toe hold in Syria.</s>LABOTT: But they're going to need some military support as Bob there was just saying for them to be able to do that. So, it's kind of a catch-22.</s>BERMAN: That is the quandary. Elise Labott down in Washington, thanks so much for joining us.</s>SAMBOLIN: Forty-five minutes past the hour. Soledad O'Brien is joining us now with a look at what is ahead on "Starting Point."</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you both. This morning, we're going to be talking about those terrifying moments that the airport as three U.S. Airways jets were literally seconds away from crashing into each other, happened at Reagan National in D.C. All three planes loaded with passengers. The question today, of course, is, how could the air traffic controllers get it so wrong? We've got the tapes, we've got details ahead. And it's a rich man's game clearly. The estimated price tag for this November's presidential election is $6 billion. Why is it so high? And is that a good thing or a bad thing? Plus, congratulations on winning that gold medal. You owe us $8,000 in taxes. Yes. That's our "Tough Call" this morning. Tell you what happens when a 20 something-year-old man decides to ditch all of his friends, get rid of all of his possessions, and live off the generosity of people on craigslist. We're going to talk to the filmmaker who shot it. That's straight ahead on "Starting Point" this morning. We'll see you in 15 minutes or so.</s>SAMBOLIN: Oh, that will be interesting. Thank you.</s>BERMAN: Thanks so much, Soledad. All right. It is 46 minutes after the hour right now. And, a narrow escape for one driver in New England. You have to look at this video. His R.V., look where it ended up. The story behind this unbelievable video coming up.