Intel: Democrats try to stymie Trump’s 'secure the oil' mission in Syria

Democrats are turning up the heat on President Donald Trump’s “secure the oil” mission in northeast Syria.

The House’s version of the 2021 defense authorization bill, released this weekend, would require the defense secretary to certify that no US “military forces are being used or have been used for the extraction, transport, transfer or sale of oil from Syria.”

“The committee remains concerned that the United States strategy for Syria expresses objectives that cannot be achieved with the means identified,” a report accompanying the bill states. “Furthermore, the committee is concerned about the stated purpose of US military forces serving in Syria and tasks assigned to those forces,” the report adds.

The legislation also directs Defense Secretary Mark Esper to brief Congress by October “on the applicable domestic and international legal authorities that would authorize the US military presence in oilfields in northeast Syria and to deny the government of Syria access to them.”