National Security Brief: Former Assad Ally Defects

– French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed to a meeting of Syrian opposition leaders in the French captial that a ?senior official? and commander of the Republican Guard had ?defected and is on his way to Paris.?

– Syrian opposition leader Hassan Hashimi is asking the international community to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria to prevent military forces “flying over defected soldiers and civilians and bombarding them.”

– A group of senators led by John McCain (R-AZ) is asking 15 of the biggest defense contractors to explain how $500 billion in defense cuts could impact them, the latest effort in a campaign to pry information from the White House and Pentagon about the automatic cuts.

– Politico reports that “Mitt Romney?s campaign is considering a major foreign policy offensive at the end of the month that would take him to five countries over three continents and mark his first move away from a campaign message devoted almost singularly to criticizing President Barack Obama?s handling of the economy.”

– The Pentagon is pushing ahead with a $420 million effort to build refineries to make competitively priced biofuels, despite anger in Congress over the price the Navy paid for alternative fuel to test a carrier strike group this month.

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