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When it comes to Syria's rebels, the conventional wisdom in Washington has been that there are countless factions with a range of agendas and it's difficult, if not impossible, to know exactly who they are.

But ask researchers who've spent two years digging into social media and YouTube videos and they offer a remarkably detailed picture of rebel brigades, their ideologies and their arsenal of weapons in the fight against President Bashar Assad's regime.

"It's a myth that we don't know about the rebels," says David Kilcullen, the CEO of Caerus, a Virginia-based strategy firm that tracks Syria's governance councils for clients that include the U.S. government, aid agencies and development banks.

Kilcullen, a former counterterrorism strategist at the U.S. State Department, says the Syrian conflict is the most open in history. One rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, supports seven YouTube channels, updated daily. Islamist battalions wage "hearts and minds" campaigns on Facebook. Syria activists and fighters maintain hundreds of Twitter feeds.

"There is a new level of connectivity," Kilcullen says. "We have an enormous data base. It's easy to know what's going on. It's hard to validate."

For Kilcullen, one of the key takeaways is that the more moderate rebel groups are becoming less influential in comparison to the more radical Islamist factions.

"The civilian, secular democracy folks have been sidelined," says Kilcullen. "That is just a fact of life and I do think it's tragic. Today, you are looking at a polarized resistance, a larger number at the extremes."

A Profile Of The Rebels Emerges

Researchers at Caerus spend hours calling into Syria to confirm videos for detailed analyses that include monthly reports on the price of bread in the bakeries of northern Syria, where much of the fighting takes place.

Nathaniel Rosenblatt, a Caerus researcher, is working on a study of rebel checkpoints around Aleppo, Syria's largest city in the north of the country.

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As he sought to make the case Monday that the U.S. needs to strike Syria, but won't be going to war as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, Secretary of State John Kerry said this:

"We're not going to war. We will not have people at risk in that way. We will be able to hold Bashar Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria's civil war. That is exactly what we're talking about doing — [an] unbelievably small, limited kind of effort."

We're following several stories regarding Syria Sunday, including new comments from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. There are also reports that an Islamist group with ties to al-Qaida has seized a town with a large Christian population. Elsewhere, officials in the U.S. and its allies are debating how to respond to the conflict that began in 2011, as President Obama's administration tries to shore up support for military action.

We'll update this post with news as it emerges today.

Update at 5 p.m. ET: Sampling Of Political Debate

As the Obama administration pushes for congressional support for its plan to punish Syria, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough appeared on all five major Sunday talk shows today.

Below, we've collected a sampling of opinions that aired Sunday, using transcripts from the Federal News Service.

McDonough, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press:

"Nobody doubts the intelligence. That means that everybody believes that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people to the tune that you just said of killing nearly 1,500 on August 21st.

"So the question for Congress this week is what are the consequences for his having done so? How Congress chooses to answer that question will be listened to very clearly in Damascus but not just in Damascus, also in Tehran and among the Lebanese Hezbollah."

... Later in the show, discussing the Obama administration's plan:

"Here is what this is not: No boots on the ground; not an extended air campaign; not a situation like Iraq and Afghanistan; not a situation even like Libya. This is a targeted, limited, consequential action to reinforce this prohibition against these weapons that unless we reinforce this prohibition will proliferate and threaten our friends and our allies."

New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, a Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on Meet the Press:

"I haven't changed my mind, and I think the most important thing here is we all know, first of all, that what he did, Bashar Assad, was a heinous act. It's despicable. My heart is broken when I see that video, and you see women and children dying as a result of chemical weapons....

"But the big question for the Congress right now is what is the most effective way to move forward? And I think the American people don't want to be embroiled in a Middle Eastern civil war. This is an act of war that we're going to take. We haven't exhausted all of our political, economic, and diplomatic alternatives, and that's where I want to be focused. "

... Later in the show, discussing other options:

"I think what we're talking about is moving much too rapidly down the warpath and not trying to find a political solution through the international community. And Russia — we haven't even made them vote. You know, everybody says, well, Russia is going to veto it. They keep saying they haven't seen the intelligence. We ought to show them the intelligence. We ought to take the intelligence to the world and like has been done in the past, at the United Nations and the Security Council, a presentation as to exactly what has happened here and why Russia is complicit in all of this.

"And I think we have a real chance to move us forward in a very, very positive vein."

New York Rep. Peter King, a Republican on House Panels on Intelligence and Homeland Security, speaking on Meet the Press:

"I would vote yes in spite of the president's conduct."

... Later in the show, discussing regional concerns:

"I do believe, though, that there is a real axis between Syria and Iran that for Syria to be allowed to use chemical weapons, to continue to have their chemical weapons, at the same time, we're issuing a red line to Iran not to go ahead with nuclear weapons. That makes that Iran/Syria an axis predominant in the Middle East. It endangers Jordan, it endangers Israel, and that necessarily endangers our national security.

"I just wish president had laid this out better. I wish he'd quit backing away from his own red line, and I wish he was more of a commander-in-chief than the community organizer."

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaking on Fox News Sunday:

"Well, the interesting thing is when I see the horror of those attacks, my first impulse is that whoever would order that deserves death. I mean, someone who is a war criminal who would execute citizens and kill innocent people with any kind of weapon deserves death. But the question is the attack as I've seen the plan, as I've heard about the plan from the administration is not to target Assad, not to target regime change and to really be so surgical and so specific that it doesn't affect the outcome of the war.

... Later in the show, discussing possible outcomes:

"The worst case scenario is that the stockpiles of sarin gas begin to move about the country and maybe they go to Hezbollah and they go into Lebanon and become more of a threat to Israel. I think that is more likely to happen if we attack Assad than if we don't attack Assad.

"With regard to North Korea, I think the North Koreans know and should know absolutely if gas or conventional weapons were used on our troops ever that there would be an overwhelming response against them. They're completely separate situations."

Update at 11:30 a.m. ET: Assad Speaks To Charlie Rose

In an interview that will air on Monday, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad tells CBS News' Charlie Rose about the looming threat of a U.S. military strike and the claims that he used chemical weapons against his own citizens.

Speaking from Beirut, Rose described the interview on Face the Nation Sunday morning, saying that Assad repeated his denial of having ordered a chemical weapons attack. Assad also said the U.S. hasn't shown evidence of such an attack.

CBS News reports:

"'He does accept some of the responsibility' for the attack that killed almost 1,500 Syrian civilians — including hundreds of children, Rose said. 'I asked that very question: 'Do you feel any remorse?' He said, 'Of course I do,' but it did not come in a way that was sort of deeply felt inside. It was much more of a calm recitation of anybody who's a leader of a country would feel terrible about what's happened to its citizens."

Crime has been bad on the south side of Stockton. Katherine Anderson, a lifelong resident of the Northern California city, says she's almost gotten used to hearing shots fired in her neighborhood.

Stockton has long had a problem with drugs. But there's been more crime because Stockton is broke.

Until Detroit's recent filing, Stockton's bankruptcy was the largest in U.S. history. Given widespread police layoffs and retirements, the city's gang intervention and narcotics teams have both closed shop. The result was a murder rate that last year broke all local records.

Anderson called the police recently after a boy was shot riding his bike down the alley that runs alongside her home. It took them four hours to show up.

"He was dead by the time they got here," she says. "There's more crime around here — a lot."

Stockton has sought to fight back. Working closely with the state highway patrol and county sheriff, Stockton has fashioned a "Marshall Plan" for crime. Thanks to stepped-up policing, the murder rate came down 63 percent in the first half of the year.

No one is declaring victory. Stockton is the second-most dangerous city in California, according to FBI statistics.

"There are still an unacceptable number of hours in a day when police will only respond to crimes in progress," says Bob Deis, the city manager.

But problems with crime and city finances aren't as bad as they were. Stockton intends to present a federal judge with its plan to get out of bankruptcy as early as this month.

There's no guarantee the city will meet with success. It continues to face legal challenges and one incredibly steep political hurdle: Convincing residents who have not been getting much by way of government services that they should start paying higher taxes.

Seeking More Taxes

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