Reports that President Barack Obama has signed an authorization for covert aid to the Syrian rebels and the resignation of UN/Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan suggest a new stage in the Syrian crisis where the international community is giving up on diplomacy with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and is preparing to back the Syrian rebels who have recently proven to be better organized and more capable of launching deadly attacks and may be on the brink of putting the regime on the defensive.

According to press reports that emerged today, President Obama earlier this year signed a secret covert action finding to provide intelligence and communications support to the Syrian rebels.  Reuters cited a “government source” who claimed that under the provisions of the presidential finding, the United States is collaborating with a secret rebel command base operated by Turkey and its allies.  The rebel base is located in the Turkish city of Adana, about 60 miles from the Syrian border.