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Fifth Try The Charm For Swimmer Diana Nyad
Five turns out to be a very lucky number for swimmer Diana Nyad.
The 64-year-old athlete navigated the waters between Havana, Cuba, and Key West, Florida, on Monday, after five tries over three decades. CNN's Karin Caifa reports.
Nyad started on Saturday and swam over 100 miles without a protective shark cage or flippers, though she battled jelly fish with a protective mask.
It reportedly took a team of 35 people to help monitor her progress and clear her path of danger.
After reaching Florida, Nyad was taken to the hospital for observation but not before she acknowledged her fans.
The dreamer said: "We should never ever give up, you never are too old to chase your dreams."
President Obama Makes His Case To Congress
As President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. officials present the case for military action in Syria to Congress, we're learning more about the timeline behind the decision.
CNN's Brianna Keilar reports.
Aides to the Commander-in-Chief say President Obama didn't tell anyone about his plan to ask Congress for permission to proceed with military strikes in Syria until Friday at 6pm, when he took a 45-minute walk with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.
Shortly after, at 7 p.m, the President tells his National Security staff of the decision, sparking a heated debate.
Saturday morning, he calls his top team to the Situation Room to finalize the plan, then calls Congressional leaders from the Oval Office and heads to make the announcement to the public.
Speaking from the Rose Garden,the President says "All of us should be accountable as we move forward and that can only be accomplished with a vote."
Secretary of State Kerry also recently revealed new evidence to back claims the Assad regime killed hundreds of his people with nerve gas.
"Blood and hair samples that have come to us has tested positive for signatures of Sarin," Kerry said.
Despite this evidence, CNN's Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash says the President has his work cut out for him as support for military action abroad is far from guaranteed.
Bash reports that lawmakers emerged from a classified briefing Sunday intended to convince them to authorize force in Syria seemingly unconvinced, despite reports the administration appealed to their sense of patriotism and morality.
Texas Rep. Michael Burgess said, "The mood in the district I represent is, do not do this. And I honestly did not hear anything that told me I ought to have a different position."
The resistance to action cuts across the aisle.
Connecticut Democrat Jim Hines adds, "I'm still very skeptical about the President's proposal. It's not clear to me that we know what the results of this attack would be, meaning it would be effective."
Concern also lingers over authorizing a bill many lawmakers currently find too broad for the limited action that has been publicized.
Republican Senator Roy Blunt, Missouri, says "The biggest single concern among members may very well have been a very broad request for authority with a supposedly very narrow intent to do anything."
The administration continues to meet with key figures and later Monday, Senators' John McCain and Lindsey Graham are expected to go to the White House to meet with the President.
Pres. Obama Calls Lawmakers With No Doubt on Syria
Since congress is not back in session yet, President Obama takes to the phone to get his point to lawmakers that action needs to be taken in Syria, CNN's Dana Bash reports.
Top White House officials tell CNN the president called lawmakers Thursday night to say the administration has no doubt President Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria is behind deadly chemical attacks.
Though CNN's Frederick Pleitgen reports the Syrian defense minister recently sent a letter to the defense minister of Iran saying the rebels are the ones responsible for the attacks in the country.
Secretaries of State, Defense and others, refute this claim and assured the group the U.S. has intercepted communications "from a high level Syrian official which clearly indicates they were responsible for these weapons."
One key GOP senator, Bob Corker, emerged from the briefings to announce support for what he called "surgical, proportional military strikes given the strong evidence of the Assad regime's continued use of chemical warfare."
Democratic Senate foreign relations chair Bob Menendez reaffirmed his support too, saying "a decisive and consequential U.S. response is justified and warranted."
Others argued the president still has to come before congress and the American people before he acts.
For more information on this story visit CNN.com.
President Obama: "There Must Be Consequences in Syria"
The White House could release evidence the Syrian government used chemical weapons on its own people as early as Thursday, CNN's Barbara Starr reports.
In an interview with PBS Newshour, the President left no doubt who the U.S. believes ordered the chemical weapons attacks, saying:
"We want the Assad regime to understand that by using chemical weapons on a large scale against your own people – against women, against infants, against children, that you are not only breaking international norms and standards of decency, but you're also creating a situation where U.S. national interests are affected, and that needs to stop."
Among the evidence proving the Syrian regime's hand behind chemical weapons use: intercepts of Syrian commanders discussing the movement of chemical weapons to the area of the attack, provided by Israeli intelligence.
The U.S.'s potential next step, launching cruise missile strikes, has put the U.S. at direct odds with Russia.
"We do not believe the Syrian regime should be able to hide behind the fact that the Russians continue to block action on Syria at the U.N., State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf tells the press.
"But behind the scenes officials are signalling the U.S. may not wait for the U.N. to act," Starr says.
"The U.S. military is strengthening its position in the Eastern Mediterrrean with the addition of two more submarines."
The Syrian regime is also getting prepared.
Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria's ambassador to the UN, says "We are in a state of war right now preparing ourselves for the worst scenario."
But the rhetoric from the Syrian government has also become more subdued now.
"You can tell that the regime is getting more and more nervous," reports CNN's Frederik Pleitgen.
Pleitgen says many Syrians are also getting fearful and trying to leave the country now.
“People seem unsure what the future will bring with the American air strikes looming.”
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