Aide to ISIS Leader Among 3 Killed in U.S. Strike: Iraqi Official
ISIS Kills Second American Hostage Steven Sotloff
Nightly News
Three senior members of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) - including an aide to its leader - were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq, a senior Iraqi security official told NBC News Thursday. The strike on the ISIS stronghold of Mosul killed Abu Hajar Al-Sufi, an aide to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as well as an explosives operative and the military leader of nearby Tel Afar, the source said on condition of anonymity. Al Arabiya cited the Iraqi Defense Ministry saying Baghdadi's aide had been killed.
Pentagon Spokesman Col. Steve Warren could not confirm the deaths and said ISIS leaders had not been targeted. But he added that if ISIS leaders were embedded "inside troop formations they are likely to be killed." The U.S. has been carrying out airstrikes across the country's north after the brutal terror group gained ground in a murderous sweep in June. The U.S. and the West have stepped up their rhetoric against the group after what Obama's opponents said was a slow start in articulating a solution to the crisis.
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"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
No. Looks like some aid to some leader or some other goat fucker. Who knows?
Exactly my point.
If we don't know the guy's name right away, he's not the leader. Everyone who is not THE leader is just a chumper.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
During the past ten years and two days, the ostrich cabinets did nothing. Every warning was ignored. They lied to the people.
Do not prevent jihadists from leaving our country. Let them leave. I am prepared to go to Schiphol [airport] to wave them goodbye. But let them never come back.
Madam Speaker, war has been declared against us.
Madam Speaker, actually I was expecting flowers from you. I am celebrating an anniversary these days. Exactly ten years and two days ago, I left a party whose name I cannot immediately remember. During these ten years and two days. I have been much criticized. Most importantly for always saying the same thing.
My critics are right. Indeed, my message had been the same during all these years. And today, I will repeat the same message about Islam again. For the umpteenth time. As I have been doing for ten years and two days.
I have been vilified for my film Fitna. And not just vilified, but even prosecuted. Madam Speaker, while not so many years ago, everyone refused to broadcast my film Fitna, we can today watch Fitna 2, 3, 4 and 5 daily on our television screens. It is not a clash of civilizations that is going on, but a clash between barbarism and civilization.
The Netherlands has become the victim of Islam because the political elite looked away. Here, in these room, they are all present, here and also in the Cabinet, all these people who looked away. Every warning was ignored.
As a result, also in our country today, Christians are being told: "We want to murder you all." Jews receive death threats. Swastika flags at demonstrations, stones go through windows, Molotov cocktails, Hitler salutes are being made, macabre black ISIS flags wave in the wind, we hear cries, such as "F-ck the Talmud," on the central square in Amsterdam.
Indeed, Madam Speaker, this summer, Islam came to us.
In all naivety, Deputy Prime Minister Asscher states that there is an "urgent demand" from Muslims to "crack down" on this phenomenon. Last Friday, in its letter to Parliament, the Cabinet wrote that jihadists are hardly significant. They are called a "sect", and a "small" group.
This is what those who look away wish, these deniers of the painful truth for ten years and two days, the ostrich brigade Rutte 2.
But the reality is different. According to a study, 73% of all Moroccans and Turks in the Netherlands are of the opinion that those who go to Syria to fight in the jihad are "heroes." People whom they admire.
And this is not a new phenomenon. Thirteen years ago, 3,000 people died in the attacks of 9/11. We remember the images of burning people jumping from the twin towers. Then, also, three-quarters of the Muslims in the Netherlands condoned this atrocity. That is not a few Muslims, but hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the Netherlands condoning terrorism and saying jihadists are heroes. I do not make this up. It has been investigated. It is a ticking time bomb.
Madam Speaker, is it a coincidence that for centuries Muslims were involved in all these atrocities? No, it is not a coincidence. They simply act according to their ideology. According to Islam, Allah dictated the truth to Muhammad, "the perfect man." Hence, whoever denies the Koran, denies Allah. And Allah leaves no ambiguity about what he wants. Here are a few quotes from the Quran:
Surah 8 verse 60: "Prepare to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah."
Surah 47 verse 4: "Therefore, when ye meet the unbelievers, smite at their necks". We see it every day in the news.
Another quote from Allah is Surah 4 verse 89: "So take not friends from the ranks of the unbelievers, seize them and kill them wherever ye find them."
Madam Speaker, the Koran on the table before you is a handbook for terrorists. Blood drips from its pages. It calls for perpetual war against non-believers. That Koran before you is the hunting permit for millions of Muslims. A license to kill. That book is the Constitution of the Islamic State. What ISIS does is what Allah commands.
This bloodthirsty ideology was able to nestle in the Netherlands because our elites looked away. Neighborhoods such as Schilderswijk, Transvaal, Crooswijk, Slotervaart, Kanaleneiland, Huizen, you name it. There, the caliphate is under construction; there, the Islamic State is in preparation.
During the past ten years and two days , the ostrich Cabinets did nothing. It has nothing to do with Islam, they lied to the people. Imagine them having to tell the truth.
But the people have noticed. Two thirds of all Dutch say that the Islamic culture does not belong in the Netherlands. Including the majority of the electorate of the Labour Party, the majority of the voters of the VVD, the majority of the voters of the CDA, and all the voters of the PVV.
The voters demand that, after ten years and two days of slumber, measures are finally taken. The voters demand that something effective happen. No semi-soft palliatives. Allow me to make a few suggestions to the away-with-us mafia. Here are a few things which should happen starting today:
Recognize that Islam is the problem. Start the de-Islamization of the Netherlands. Less Islam.
Close our borders to immigrants from Islamic countries. Immediate border controls. Stop this "cultural enrichment".
Close every Salafist mosque which receives even a penny from the Gulf countries. Deprive all jihadists of their passports, even if they only have a Dutch passport. Let them take an ISIS passport.
Do not prevent jihadists from leaving our country. Let them leave, with as many friends as possible. If it helps, I am even prepared to go to Schiphol [airport] to wave them goodbye. But let them never come back. That is the condition. Good riddance.
And, as far as I am concerned, anyone who expresses support for terror as a means to overthrow our constitutional democracy has to leave the country at once. If you are waving an ISIS flag you are waving an exit ticket. Leave! Get out of our country!
Madam Speaker, war has been declared against us. We have to strike back hard. Away with these people! Enough is enough! Click for a video of this speech.
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Smoke rises after what activists said was an air raid by Syrian government forces at the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa August 18, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
(Reuters) - In the cities and towns across the desert plains of northeast Syria, the ultra-hardline al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State has insinuated itself into nearly every aspect of daily life.
The group famous for its beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions provides electricity and water, pays salaries, controls traffic, and runs nearly everything from bakeries and banks to schools, courts and mosques.
While its merciless battlefield tactics and its imposition of its austere vision of Islamic law have won the group headlines, residents say much of its power lies in its efficient and often deeply pragmatic ability to govern.
Syria's eastern province of Raqqa provides the best illustration of their methods. Members hold up the province as an example of life under the Islamic "caliphate" they hope will one day stretch from China to Europe.
In the provincial capital, a dust-blown city that was home to about a quarter of a million people before Syria's three-year-old war began, the group leaves almost no institution or public service outside of its control.
"Let us be honest, they are doing massive institutional work. It is impressive," one activist from Raqqa who now lives in a border town in Turkey told Reuters.
In interviews conducted remotely, residents, Islamic State fighters and even activists opposed to the group described how it had built up a structure similar to a modern government in less than a year under its chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Reuters journalists are unable to visit the area for security reasons.
The group's progress has alarmed regional and Western powers - last month U.S. President Barack Obama called it a "cancer" that must be erased from the Middle East as U.S. warplanes bombarded its positions in Iraq.
But Islamic State has embedded itself so thoroughly into the fabric of life in places like Raqqa that it will be all but impossible for U.S. aircraft - let alone Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish troops - to uproot them through force alone.
BRIDE OF THE REVOLUTION
Last year, Raqqa became the first city to fall to the rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. They called it the "Bride of the Revolution."
A variety of rebel groups ranging from hardline Islamists to religious moderates held sway in the city, although Islamists clearly dominated. Within a year, Islamic State had clawed its way into control, mercilessly eliminating rival insurgents.
Activists critical of the group were killed, disappeared, or escaped to Turkey. Alcohol was banned. Shops closed by afternoon and streets were empty by nightfall.
Communication with the outside world - including nearby cities and towns - was allowed only through the Islamic State media center.
Those rebels and activists who stayed largely "repented", a process through which they pledge loyalty to Baghdadi and are forgiven for their "sins" against the Islamic State, and either kept to their homes or joined the group's ranks.
But after the initial crackdown, the group began setting up services and institutions - stating clearly that it intended to stay and use the area as a base in its quest to eradicate national boundaries and establish an Islamic "state".
"We are a state," one emir, or commander, in the province told Reuters. "Things are great here because we are ruling based on God's law."
Some Sunni Muslims who worked for Assad's government stayed on after they pledged allegiance to the group.
"The civilians who do not have any political affiliations have adjusted to the presence of Islamic State, because people got tired and exhausted, and also, to be honest, because they are doing institutional work in Raqqa," one Raqqa resident opposed to Islamic State told Reuters.
Since then, the group "has restored and restructured all the institutions that are related to services," including a consumer protection office and the civil judiciary, the resident said.
BRUTALITY AND PRAGMATISM
In the past month alone, Islamic State fighters have broadcast images of themselves beheading U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as captive Kurdish and Lebanese soldiers, and machine-gunning scores of Syrian prisoners wearing nothing but their underwear.
But the group's use of violence has not been entirely indiscriminate. The group has often traded with businessmen loyal to Assad when it has suited its interests, for instance.
According to one fighter, a former Assad employee is now in charge of mills and distributing flour to bakeries in Raqqa. Employees at the Raqqa dam, which provides the city with electricity and water, have remained in their posts.
Islamic State's willingness to use former Assad employees displays a pragmatism residents and activists say has been vital to its success holding onto territory it has captured.
They have been helped by experts who have come from countries including in North Africa and Europe. The man Baghdadi appointed to run and develop Raqqa's telecoms, for instance, is a Tunisian with a PhD in the subject who left Tunisia to join the group and serve "the state".
Reflecting Islamic State's assertion that it is a government - rather than simply a militant group that happens to govern - Baghdadi has also separated military operations from civilian administration, assigning fighters only as police and soldiers
Instead, Baghdadi has appointed civilian deputies called walis, an Islamic term describing an official similar to a minister, to manage institutions and develop their sectors.
Administrative regions are divided into waliyehs, or provinces, which sometimes align with existing divisions but, as with the case of the recently established al-Furat province, can span national boundaries.
Fighters and employees receive a salary from a department called the Muslim Financial House, which is something like a finance ministry and a bank that aims to reduce poverty.
Fighters receive housing - including in homes confiscated from local non-Sunnis or from government employees who fled the area - as well as about $400 to $600 per month, enough to pay for a basic lifestyle in Syria's poor northeast.
One fighter said poor families were given money. A widow may receive $100 for herself and for each child she has, he said.
Prices are also kept low. Traders who manipulate prices are punished, warned and shut down if they are caught again.
The group has also imposed Islamic taxes on wealthy traders and families. "We are only implementing Islam, zakat is an Islamic tax imposed by God," said a jihadi in Raqqa.
Analysts estimate that Islamic State also raises tens of millions of dollars by selling oil from the fields it controls in Syria and Iraq to Turkish and Iraqi businessmen and by collecting ransoms for hostages it has taken.
BAGHDADI CALLS THE SHOTS
At the heart of the Islamic State system is its leader, Baghdadi, who in June declared himself "caliph", or ruler of all the world's Muslims, after breaking with al Qaeda.
Residents, fighters and activists agree Baghdadi is now heavily involved in Raqqa's administration, and has the final word on all decisions made by commanders and officials. Even the prices set for local goods go back to him, local sources say.
Residents say Baghdadi also approves beheadings and other executions and punishments for criminals convicted by the group's Islamic courts.
On the battlefield, fighters describe him as a fierce and experienced commander.
The Syrian fighter said Baghdadi led major battles, such as one to retake a Syrian military base known as Division 17 in July, the first in a series of defeats the group dealt to Syrian government forces in Raqqa province.
"He does not leave the brothers. In the battle to retake Division 17 he was also slightly wounded but he is fine now," the fighter said.
"He is always moving. He does not stay in one place. He moves between Raqqa, Deir al-Zor and Mosul. He leads the battles."
NEXT GENERATION JIHAD
Although pragmatism has been a key to the group's success, ideology is also vital to the group's rule.
By declaring the caliphate and setting up a "state", Baghdadi aimed to attract foreign jihadis and experts from abroad. Supporters say thousands have responded.
At the same time, wealthy Islamists from across the world have sent money to Raqqa to support the caliphate, jihadis say.
According to sources in Raqqa, the group maintains three weapons factories mainly designed to develop missiles. Foreign scientists - including Muslims from China, fighters claim - are kept in a private location with bodyguards.
"Scientists and men with degrees are joining the State," said one Arab jihadi.
The group has also invested heavily in the next generation by inducting children into their ideology. Primary, secondary and university programs now include more about Islam.
The group also accepts women who want to fight - they are trained about "the real Islam" and the reasons for fighting.
Islamic education groups are held in mosques for newly arrived fighters, who, according to militants in Raqqa, have flocked to Islamic State-controlled territory in even greater numbers since Baghdadi declared the "caliphate".
"Every three days we receive at least 1,000 fighters. The guest houses are flooding with mujahideen. We are running out of places to receive them," the Arab jihadi said.
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ISis recently obtained something like $400 million in stolen goods, gold, money from Libya.
Libya has become a “failed state”.
Pakistan is being threatened. Pakistan, for anyone that fails to recall, has nuclear weapons. ISIS agents are on the ground passing out pamphlets urging young people to join them.
These people are wealthy now, they have the drive and ambition to kill as many Americans (or Europeans) as they can, they now have the ability to basically field 11 nuclear armed “cruise missiles” aimed at places like Tel Aviv, Washington, Moscow, Paris, London, Rome, Beijing, Madrid, Stockholm, Copenhagen, New York…. if they so wished.
Don’t think they can’t get a dozen nukes from someone with the right amount of money? You’d be wrong, North Korea would be pleasantly surprised by such an offer of 400 million US equivalent bucks. Moscow probably wouldn’t help, nor would China KNOWINGLY assist them – but North Korea? Why should they care?
Think they can’t get pilots? Remember 9-11? Yes they can. We have something like 6000 “students” MISSING in America. God KNOWS how many full cells have crossed the Mexican border now – and you thought we hated immigration, you leftist asses. NO we HATE UNCONTROLLED ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSING!
Think we’d “shoot them down”? Doubtful at this time, with this President.
Think if they actually get through we’d “return fire”? NO, for the same reasons Bush didn’t. We didn’t KNOW WHO the STATE actors were. States won’t act against individuals in most cases.
It isn’t impossible for these Fascist-Marxist-Nazis to get nukes.
They’ve proved they can destroy a country (Look at Libya, look at Iraq, look at Syria).
They’ve proved they have enough sympathizers.
They’ve killed, without caring, or remorse two innocent American journalists and somewhere around 700 Iraqi soldiers who were trying to defend their own country. Executed these guys without a “giveashit” active among them.
Think we can deal with them? Obama claims not to even have a strategy. Biden thinks they will get “chased to the gates of Hell”, and a US soldier said in a tweet, “Hell? We can’t even chase them out of gates of our BASE!”
Think we can stop this in America?
You bet your sweet American ASS we can stop it. American Citizens will stop this shit. We are armed. We don’t like being told what to do, when to “convert”, or bad men trying to take our wives and daughters as their OWN wives and daughters and slaves. NOT on OUR watch.
Nuke our cities, crash planes into our buildings and there won’t be one Muslim left alive in this country or Europe. No one will stand for you bringing your BULLSHIT to our shores.
America has put up with enough of your mouthy crap and this American Patriot, for one will no longer stand here and take the insults and bullshit you’ve been feeding the world. Rights? YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS HERE you vermin.
Your American buddies ignore you, or pretend you’re not going to hurt them. They won’t call you out on this, because you’ve got them cowed. But you don’t have the rest of us afraid.
Americans are NOT afraid of you, as evidenced by the two innocent men you killed in their videos.
Muslim-Extremists, Islamic Fanatics – hear this. DO NOT COME TO OUR SHORES, we DO control our government and we will replace every man and woman IN IT to get to you if we must.
Americans will stand up to you, we will “kill you back” if you try to hurt us again.
This is your final warning.
Americans – it’s up to you now.
To that, we get a response. A vague, fleeting, non-"threatening" type of dig on the American Patriot. Sure, this person is trying to "moderately justify" Islam.... There are no longer moderates. You either disdain and deny Islam, or you're the problem. As George Bush said - "You're either with us, or you're against us." And as the Knight Templar said to Indiana Jones, "Choose, but choose WISELY".
JSF says: If you were hungry most of the day, had to work for the bread (yes bread) on your table, and people treated you how they got treated by that guy they begged for money or how their boss physically or sexually confronted them, or any combination of the three, you’d know what the real world was like. In fact, there are a million other things people with a lower standard of living have to deal with on a day to day basis, and each one of them has it’s own little stab of pain that makes their day a living hell. I’m not a fascist, I’m just saying most Americans (non-military) couldn’t outwit a one legged beggar lady from Ethiopia, let alone have the gall to kill them.
I usually ignore assholes like you. But I want the world to see your arrogance here. You don’t know me, or most Americans. “Hungry most of the day”. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt and got off my ass and worked for a living. I know precisely what the “real world” is. I’ve personally visited 50 countries, traveled to the slums – of which most countries are nothing BUT slums. Does that mean you should continue living like that or get up and make something of your country?
Some of us have raised children in hovels, lived in the slums of America and fought our way through life. Some of us have been shot at in other countries by people we were there to help. Some of us have tried to understand and let people be themselves.
I met the one legged beggar lady from Ethiopia and I gave her some money. But the fact is, no matter how much money a person has (or doesn’t have) they can never HELP all the poor people on this planet. The Ethiopians ought to take more responsibility for their own country and help their own people. The old Chinese saying, at times attributed to Jesus, is “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish… and you know, I am sure the rest. I can give only so much to the poor.
ISIS/ISIL/IS or whatever you want to call those maggots are nothing more than a bunch of brain-washed, religious fanatics.
Islam is a shit religion. The Qu’ran is nothing but a recipe to kill – at least as it is interpreted by those of you who follow it literally. Islam, Mohammad, want everyone killed who isn’t a Muslim. Well, partner, I’ve news for your limited, narrow-minded, hateful, kill-the-Westerners attitude. You can shove it straight up your Muslim ass, along with Allah, your fucking Qu’ran, and ten goats for all I care.
And if you think *I* am a narrow minded “Christian” – think again. I’ve visited many of the Arab countries. I’ve visited Europe. I’ve been all over Africa, Central and South America. I have spent my life trying to understand, and to, as we say here in America “give a fuck”. Today, no more “fucks are given”.
Islam needs to die. And Muslims who believe in the words of a lying god like Allah should know that for them, hell only gets worse than it is here on Earth.
And – lastly, the truth is, one American is worth any 2000 Islamic pigs. Especially the non-military Americans. Don’t come to my country, plop yourself in Kansas City or somewhere near there and think you can’t be located, or you can’t be tracked down, or that folks there won’t take you out as fast as someone in the military, if you threaten their families.
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Our post Wednesday on the 11 Libyan airplanes stolen by Islamist radicals warned of the potential 9/11 terror attacks that could be carried out by suicide air-bombers. Since that report, photos have circulated online of Islamist rebels posing with some of the planes they seized when they overran the Tripoli airport. According to The Daily Mail, these fundamentalist fighters belong to a terrorist organization known as “Libyan Dawn.”
Also since the Washington Free Beacon first broke the story of the stolen jetliners and fears they could be used in a mass terror campaign, details have emerged about the possible targets of any attacks from the air:
Al Jazeera reported that the planes are now being held by a group called the Masked Men Brigade who plan to use them in terror attacks.
Moroccan military expert Abderrahmane Mekkaoui told Al Jazeera there is “credible intelligence” that the Masked Men Brigade “is plotting to use the planes in attacks on the Maghreb state’ on the 9/11 anniversary.”
The Washington Free Beacon reporter who has been on top of this developing story is Bill Gertz, who has a deep background in national security issues. Gertz appeared on Fox News’ Hannity program; and in the video clip below, you can see what he reveals about the airplanes now in the hands of terrorists.
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UNITED STATES: ‘ Former CIA Operative Says Sleeper Cells of ISIL Are Already in the United States ‘
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#AceWorldNews – UNITED STATES – September 05 – A former CIA operative says that sleeper cells of the ISIL terror group are already active in the United States and capable of launching terrorist attacks.
“The people who collect tactical intelligence on the ground, day-to-day – and this isn’t Washington – but people collecting this stuff say they’re here, ISIL is here, they’re capable of striking,” Bob Baer told CNN.
Though CNN said two U.S. officials had refuted the claim, they’re worried ISIS militants with passports might travel to the United States to launch attacks on American soil, CNN reported. One ISIS fighter already has hinted as much. In several telephone conversations with a Reuters reporter over the past few months, Islamic State fighters suggest their leader, Iraqi Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is planning something for the West – and that attacks could take place through sleeper cells in both Europe and the United States. “The West are idiots and fools,” one fighter taunted, according to Reuters. “They think we are waiting for them to give us visas to go and attack them or that we will attack with our beards or even Islamic outfits. Islamic State’s beheading of a U.S. journalist and its threat to "destroy the American cross" suggests it has gained enough confidence seizing large areas of Iraq and Syria to take aim at American targets despite the risks.
#ANS2014
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President Obama spoke with President François Hollande of France at the NATO summit in Newport, Wales, on Friday. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Continue reading the main story Share This Page
NEWPORT, Wales — The Obama administration said Friday that the United States and its allies had formed a coalition to fight Sunni militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, unveiling a military and political campaign that officials said could serve as a model for combating extremist groups around the world.
In a hastily organized meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit meeting here, diplomats and defense officials from the United States, Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark conferred on what they called a two-pronged strategy: working to bolster allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria, while attacking Sunni militants from the air. They said the goal was to destroy the Islamist militant group, not to contain it.
“There is no containment policy for ISIL,” Secretary of State John Kerry said at the beginning of the meeting, using an alternate acronym for ISIS. “They’re an ambitious, avowed, genocidal, territorial-grabbing, caliphate-desiring quasi state with an irregular army, and leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us.”
But he and other officials present made clear that at the moment, any ground combat troops would come from either Iraqi security forces or Kurdish pesh merga fighters on the ground in Iraq, or from moderate Syrian rebels opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. “Obviously I think that’s a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground,” Mr. Kerry said.
For President Obama, assembling a coalition to fight ISIS is critical. The president is loath to be viewed as going it alone in Iraq now that the United States has been dragged back into a combat role there. And even as Mr. Obama weighs expanding airstrikes into Syria, both he and his administration have been questioning what might happen after launching those strikes, especially as targeting ISIS in Syria would help the government of Mr. Assad, who President Obama has said must yield power.
An administration official on Friday said there were concrete reasons for assembling a coalition that went beyond the political cover that such an alliance might offer the president from a war-weary American public. For one thing, the official said, certain countries bring specific expertise, like Britain and Australia in special operations, Jordan in intelligence, Turkey in border control and Saudi Arabia in financing.
“Sure, the American military can handle airstrikes,” the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic and military negotiations. “But it’s always nice to have help from your friends.”
American officials are hoping to expand the coalition against ISIS to include as many countries as possible, particularly in the region. Obama administration officials said privately that in addition to the countries that attended the meeting Friday morning, the United States was hoping to get quiet intelligence help about the Sunni militants from Jordan, whose leader, King Abdullah, was participating in the NATO summit. Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
United States officials said they also expected Saudi Arabia to provide money and aid for moderate Syrian rebel groups. Yousef al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, said in a statement earlier this week that the United Arab Emirates stood ready to join the fight against ISIS. “No one has more at stake than the U.A.E. and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path,” the ambassador said. The Emirati government, he said, is “ready to join the international community in an urgent, coordinated and sustained effort to confront a threat that will, if unchecked, have global ramifications for decades to come.”
Enlisting the Sunni neighbors of Syria and Iraq is crucial, experts said, because airstrikes alone will not be enough to push back ISIS. The Obama administration is also seeking to pursue a sequential strategy that begins with gathering intelligence, and is followed by targeted airstrikes, more robust and better-coordinated support for moderate rebels, and finally, a political reconciliation process.
Administration officials said that building support for moderate rebels in Syria was particularly critical. This summer, President Obama set aside $500 million to train and support vetted members of the moderate opposition to Mr. Assad of Syria; officials say they expect that Congress will approve that request to the Pentagon at the beginning of October.
But even if that money is approved, American officials will still have a tough road ahead to strengthen the Free Syrian Army, the moderates of choice for the United States. “This is going to take months,” one Defense Department official said on Friday.
Speaking at the beginning of the meeting on Friday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the assembled countries the “core coalition” to battle ISIS. But, he added, “I think we’re all quite familiar with the extended challenges this represents.”
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My Concealed Carry Gun, a Ruger P90, a semi-auto 45, copyright 2014 John J. Rigo
Of all the civilized countries in the world, the population of the United States has the most well-armed citizens in the world. We have something in the Constitution of the United States called the Second Amendment that allows us to be so armed.
9/11 is a day of sorrow for our nation in remembering the almost 3,000 innocent Americans that were killed by terrorist. 9/11 is also a day, that we as American citizens will demonstrate our will to stand up and defend our country from the likes of killers such as the evil face of ISIS.
My wife and I have had concealed carry licenses for almost 15 years. We are both proficient in handling a semi-automatic pistol. This coming 9/11 we will be insuring our carry that day. Any terrorist involved in attempting a terrorist act in our presence will be shot down like the evil they are.
We ask all American citizens that have Concealed Carry Licenses to carry on 9/11. We also ask all Americans who believe in “Open Carry” of rifles and shotguns to open carry in a public way on 9/11 to demonstrate to ISIS we will “not be” a nation that will hide in fear from their terror, but will bring death and destruction to them and their own who wish to harm the American people.
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Unlike Israelis who face the threat of Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza every day, Americans like to think that they are safe from radical Islamic terrorists at home. But that safety may be an illusion.
But these warnings overlook a potentially enormous threat to Americans–attacks by radical Islamic terrorists who are also American citizens, like the mass murders allegedly committed by Ali Muhammad Brown that the American media has completely ignored.
According to Allen West’s website, Brown is accused of murdering four men as “vengeance for the actions of the United States in the Middle East.” Chillingly, Brown added that he was “just doing (his) small part.”
The politically correct leftist American media has all but ignored this story, as West points out, dismissing the threat in the same vein as President Barrack Obama, who as recently as earlier this year referred to the ISIS terrorists–now calling themselves the Caliphate or Islamic State–as “a JV team.”
West raises the specter of the possibility of other such Islamist murders occurring in America–now or in the future–but not reported in an American media “enslaved to the gods of political correctness.”
Freedom of the press is enshrined in the Bill of Rights for just such a time as this–to allow journalists the ability to provide Americans the information they need to ensure their safety and freedom. Because this freedom is all but impossible to overcome through legislation, liberals have invented political correctness to shame the press into refusing to do its job.
Ideas, however, have consequences, and the idea of political correctness results in a less-than-fully informed citizenry. That, in turn, can lead to poor choices at the ballot box, which is actually the liberal intent. In this case, however, the consequences can be much more important that the election of another leftist. They can, in fact, be mortal.
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” A woman was found beheaded on Thursday in a back garden in north London, according to British media reports, but police said the attack was not linked to terrorism.
Police discovered the body in the suburb of Edmonton after being alerted at midday by local residents who said a man with a knife was attacking a cat or dog.
They would not confirm reports she had been beheaded, nor some media descriptions that the act was carried out with a machete.
A 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is in custody, they said.
Police evacuated residents from their homes as the man ran through a row of back gardens.
“At first there were two police cars, then all of a sudden there were 20,” one witness, 19-year-old Ahmed Yusuf, said. “
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American presidents are usually heavily scripted in public and blunt in private.
So, when US President Barack Obama stated flatly “We don’t have a strategy yet for Isis,” it raised eyebrows and more than a few hackles.
Whether or not it was wise to be so candid, his intent was to tamp down the conjecture that the United States was poised to expand military action against Islamic State (IS), often still known by its former name Isis, beyond Iraq into Syria as well.
In the Sotloff tape, the narrator again calls on Obama to “back off and leave our people alone.”
However, as they work to supplant al-Qaeda as the driving force behind the creation of a new caliphate (they are not likely to be any more successful than their rivals were), they seem to relish the re-ignition of the perceived war between Islam and the West.
An American incursion into Syria without clear regional support would be a potential recruiting bonanza just as the US invasion of Iraq was in 2003.
The United States has gradually intensified the pressure on IS in Iraq.
With the help of US air strikes, Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga have regained some lost territory, including the Mosul dam, a development IS specifically highlighted in the Sotloff recording.
IS still displays significant staying power, and its ability to hold and govern large sections of Iraq and Syria is why US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel suggested the group “is beyond just a terrorist group.”
While military action has been effective in Iraq, the next crucial step is political, whether the new government (which is still being formed) can reverse the mistakes of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki or not, govern more effectively and inclusively, as well as unite the country in opposition to IS.
There are ways to achieve this — the devolution of meaningful responsibility to Iraq’s provinces will certainly help — but this is for the Iraqis themselves to resolve.
Creating regional consensus The Syrian dimension is far more complex.
In saying there is not yet a strategy for IS, President Obama was actually admitting he lacks a viable and sustainable strategy for Syria, something that has been apparent for three years.
To be sure, the president has had his share of mistakes and miscalculations.
He was right to call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, but underestimated his survival skills and the lengths to which other countries would go, especially Russia, to protect him.
He was right to side with the moderate opposition, but did not provide them enough support when it really mattered.
A year ago, he was right to call for decisive military action in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, but his failure to pull the trigger enabled President Assad to regain the upper hand and undermined the credibility of US policy and power in the region.
IS in Iraq and Syria
The emergence of IS is a serious problem, but hardly the only one and not necessarily the most consequential.
It is important to continue to view Syria through a wider lens.
It is true there is no solution to IS without meaningful action not just in Iraq, but also in Syria.
It is also true that a solution to IS requires a solution for Syria, which means addressing the malign roles played by Assad, as well as those played by Iran and Russia.
Assad is a central factor in the rise of IS. He is part of the problem, not of any solution.
Russia and Iran are problems, but also see IS as one. Ideally, they could be part of a solution.
The United States also needs to deal with the conflicting agendas of other players in the region, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
It will take time to create a regional consensus on Syria. Without it, no strategy made in Washington is likely to succeed.
Stomach for action
The Sotloff tape does not change our understanding of the group. If anything, it should reinforce it.
IS poses a threat to the West, particularly its ability to attract Westerners to the conflict.President Barack Obama wants Iraq and other countries to fight extremism inside their own borders
There is no reason to believe at this point that it has the ability or the interest to attack the United States or European countries directly.
That may change over time, but while there is an urgency to all of this, there is still time to develop an appropriate strategy and gain allies to help carry it out.
President Obama may get some welcome support from Congress as well.
In the next few weeks, it may provide specific authorisation for the United States to undertake military operations inside Syria, something it was unwilling to do a year ago.
Air strikes in Syria may well be part of the answer.
Ultimately, taking that step is not a question of stomach, but of strategy.
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A man held in connection with a suspected beheading of an 82-year-old woman in north London remains under police guard in hospital.
The body of Palmira Silva was found in a garden behind a house in Edmonton on Thursday afternoon.
Officers found her collapsed at the scene where she was pronounced dead.
A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder by armed officers who discharged a Taser. Officers plan to question him when he is well enough.
An officer is also believed to have suffered a broken wrist during the arrest.
Homes evacuated
Police said they were initially called to reports of a man armed with a knife and eyewitnesses said he had attacked an animal, possibly a cat or a dog.
The BBC's Home Affairs Correspondent Danny Shaw said it was unknown whether the victim and the suspect were known to each other
Speaking at the scene, Cdr Simon Letchford said police had distracted the man while they evacuated nearby homes.
He said officers smashed windows to get people out of properties after the man was "cornered" in a house.
'Jumping over gardens'
One eyewitness, Freda Odame, 30, said she saw a man screaming and waving a weapon around.
"I heard shouting and banging and I opened my curtains and saw a guy holding a knife in a back garden a few doors along," she said.
Ahmed Yusuf, 19, said police knocked on his door and told him to leave the property immediately.
"The police said to drop everything. I said 'What's going on?' and they said there's a guy jumping over gardens," he said. Palmira Silva ran Silva's Cafe in Church Street
Detectives investigating Ms Silva's death are also looking into an earlier attempted attack on two people at another address in Nightingale Road. Officers said the pair were not thought to have been hurt in the incident.
Police said they had traced the victim's next of kin but were unwilling to speculate on the nature of her injuries or the type of weapon used.
The motive for the attack is still unclear and it is not known whether the victim and the suspect were known to each other. Continue reading the main story“Start Quote
London is a safe city and incidents like this are very rare”
Boris Johnson London Mayor
London Mayor Boris Johnson has also expressed his "shock" at the attack.
"Yesterday's events in Edmonton were truly shocking and my thoughts are with Palmira Silva's family during this incredibly difficult time," he said.
"London is a safe city and incidents like this are very rare. I'd like to commend the bravery shown by the officers involved in keeping other members of the public safe during a very volatile situation."
A neighbour who knew Ms Silva, said the widow had lived in the house for more than 25 years and ran Silva's Cafe in Church Street, near Edmonton Green.
"I was speaking to her yesterday. She was weeding in the front garden, she loved her gardening," she said.
"She was such a sweet lady. She was slow getting around but she still went to work. I think really after her husband died that's what kept her going."
The police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, has been informed of the incident.
A post-mortem examination is due to take place on Saturday at Haringey Mortuary. A number of police forensic officers attended the scene
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The world isn't frightened of these people, the world is PISSED OFF they are animals, and pissed off Obama, the animal lover has done nothing to take out the convoys of animals killing other Muslims.
What kind of world is this?
ISIS:How did a few thousand fighters on pickup trucks manage to frighten the world? Read more: How did a few thousand fighters on pickup trucks manage to frighten the world?
If it wasn’t so disturbing, it probably could have been entertaining: an army in 4×4 Toyota pickup trucks, managing to terrorize not only Middle Eastern Shiites, but also Western and Israeli media.
If an outsider read the newspaper and internet headlines over the past few months, he would think that the Islamic State, and its counterpart/rival in Syria, the al-Nusra Front, were planning a mass invasion of tens of thousands of jihadis into Israel, and from there into Europe and the United States.
Everyone can calm down. IS and al-Nusra are not military forces that can present an actual threat to a functioning conventional army. The IDF, or the Jordanian army for that matter, are not expecting any difficulty dealing with these rising Islamist forces on the battlefield. The big problem with these two groups is that they can cause significant damage through terror attacks. And as is always the case with terrorism, the focus is the fear it engenders among the public.
Both groups, but especially IS, have chalked up impressive victories on the media battlefield and on the PR front. With their trove of videos and photographs, speeches and frightening scenes like mass killings and beheadings, IS has managed to instill fear in everyone who isn’t a radical Sunni.
The campaign in the Iraqi city of Mosul shows how significant its deterrence has become. The organization understood that in order to conquer a city, the attacker doesn’t need an advantage in manpower or weaponry. It’s enough for the adversary to be sure that his fate is certain death in order to instill mass panic. When IS forces approached Mosul, most of the residents and defenders left within 24 hours, before the first jihadist even began fighting.
By this week it was obvious that IS’s military progress had been challenged. True, its leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the establishment of Wilayat al-Furat (an Islamic State province), shattering the familiar borders of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. But the group is barely advancing, and in some places, especially in Iraq, its fighters have been forced to retreat.
There is no miracle or military secret here. The airstrikes carried out by the US military against IS did their work. The group cannot withstand these types of attacks, certainly not with the arsenal it has now. The Toyotas, the “army’s” main means of transportation, can’t do a thing against any type of helicopter attack.
So why hasn’t more been done, earlier? You would need to ask US President Barack Obama that question, as he seeks to find a strategy against IS and build an international coalition — as though he is dealing with a conflict with Russia.
And all the while, Israeli and American media continue to escalate the panic. This week, for example, a “senior US intelligence official” said that IS presents a clear threat to the West.
It’s almost unbelievable. They used to say in the IDF that “the man in the tank will win,” justifying the preference for armor over infantry. Now we hear that, from a US source no less, “the man in the Toyota” will defeat the West. The rivalry
Plenty has been written in recent months about the rivalry between Al-Nusra and IS. The two were born from the same ideological womb. It was a fight over credit for their victories that led to the bitter rivalry, including suicide bombings against each other, between the two commanders, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from IS and Abu Muhammad al-Julani from Al-Nusra.
IS’s penetration into Syria, and its brutal actions against its rival there, led to Al-Nusra escaping west and south to center its activities on Dara’a and the Syrian Golan Heights area, while IS focused on eastern and northern Syria.
The exact number of fighters is not clear. Some estimates put the numbers of fighters in each organization at 7,000-8,000. That does not include the massive tribes who have affiliated themselves with the organizations in Syria and Iraq, like the Jubar tribe on the Iraq-Jordan border. If we include the tribes, and the former soldiers from Saddam Hussein’s military aiding IS, the number in Iraq reaches close to 15,000. IS and Al-Nusra are also aided by a significant number of foreigners (Europeans, Middle Easterners, and more). The dominant element was and is the locals — Iraqis and Syrians. Recently, however, we find in al-Nusra, too, plenty of foreigners, mostly Jordanians, who are fighting on the Golan front against the Syrian Army. Foreigners now make up a third of the fighters.
The two organizations operate as semi-militaries — not a conventional army with uniforms, but there is a hierarchy, central command, basic communication systems, and differentiated missions. The capture of Quneitra, on the Syrian side of the Golan, for example, required the al-Nusra emir in Dara’a (equivalent to a brigade or division commander for the Dara’a district) to not only assign missions to his men, but also to cooperate with more moderate opposition groups. In total, a few hundred al-Nusra fighters operate on Israel’s border, of which a few dozen participated in the capture of old Quneitra. About 3,000 operatives are deployed in the Dara’a district as a whole.
The story with IS is a little different. The organization enjoys the booty captured from the Iraqi Army, like armored vehicles and anti-aircraft missiles, including the SA-6 missiles that led to the decision by American and UAE air carriers to halt all flights over Iraq. Al-Baghdadi’s fighters can tap into the expertise of ex-Saddam soldiers, who are teaching them how to operate some tanks, wheeled BTR armored personnel carriers, and tracked BMP APCs.
And still, the most iconic piece of equipment in the hands of the two groups is the Toyota pickup with the heavy machine gun, the Russian “Dushka.” These machine guns can be used as a primitive anti-tank weapon, and can taken down for use as anti-personnel weapons. The organizations mount them on their Toyotas, and charge around Dara’a (in the case of al-Nusra) or the deserts of Iraq (in the case of IS). The threat on other fronts
Senior officers in Jordan’s military intelligence have plenty to worry about these days. They are the ones dealing with the threats at home (Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations, protests in Ma’an, a million Syrian refugees, etc.) and abroad (al-Qaeda and Jubhat al-Nusra to the north and IS to the east). The jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria have not shown any intention to operate in Jordan, certainly not as they have in Iraq or Syria. That is, there will not be an invasion or an attempt to take over, since there they will run smack into air and ground forces far superior to their fleet of armed Toyotas.
The danger for the Hashemite Kingdom is not the toppling of the regime, but unrest, terror attacks, car bombs, suicide attacks, and the like. The newspaper a-Sharq al-Awsat reported Thursday that Jordanian security forces had arrested 71 radical activists belonging to Islamist organizations, including IS and al-Nusra, throughout the kingdom.
The relatively small Jordanian Army is spread thin along the Iraqi and Syrian borders, huge frontiers stretching hundreds of kilometers, and the mission of defending them is not simple. But Jordan also enjoys close American support, including half an F-16 squadron and Patriot missiles, additional equipment and advisers. In addition, Israel helps significantly in the intelligence realm.
On the Palestinian front, there is currently no need for alarm regarding these groups. For now, there is no IS presence in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or the Gaza Strip. Yes, occasionally some Facebook hotshot posts a picture of someone running around with an IS flag, and one can even buy IS flags and shirts in the Old City of Jerusalem, but that’s all it is. In the West Bank, the Salafist Hizb ut-Tahrir movement is present, but it has no connection to IS and doesn’t identify with it. There are also members of Salafiya Jihadiya, like those killed in Hebron almost a year ago, but their numbers are vanishingly small.
Besides challenging the Syrian regime and Iraq, Jubhat al-Nusra and IS are a profound danger to Hezbollah. The Shiite organization has been fighting in recent weeks on the Qalamoun Ridge, which it had already captured from al-Nusra and its affiliates. That area, like the Beqaa, is critical for Hezbollah’s control of the routes between Syria and Lebanon. If it doesn’t control the border, Hezbollah’s ability to smuggle in weaponry from Assad’s storage facilities in Syria to basements and bunkers in Lebanon will be harmed.
Let’s not be fooled. It is estimated that even during the recent battles, Hezbollah has taken advantage of the chaos in order to smuggle into Lebanon rockets and sensitive military equipment originating in Syria or Russia.
In this vein, it’s impossible to ignore the drone that was shot down this week over the Golan Heights. Was Hezbollah behind the launch? Israel is having trouble determining that for sure. There are at least four groups that could be behind a drone launch, and one of them is Hezbollah. But Bashar Assad also understands that if he allows Hezbollah to fire drones from the Syrian Golan into Israel, he is risking a serious Israeli reaction. And that is the last thing he needs while he is fighting the jihadists for survival.
Read more: How did a few thousand fighters on pickup trucks manage to frighten the world? | The Times of Israelhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/how-did...#ixzz3CRxB40xF
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Info wars reporter Joe Biggs crossed the U.S. border from Mexico dressed as an ISIS militant to illustrate how easy it is for anyone to get into America despite warnings that Islamic State terrorists are plotting to carry out attacks on the homeland from their base in Juarez.
Just miles from the center of El Paso, Texas, Biggs was able to cross a river from Mexico into America dressed as a jihadist, while simulating a beheading and waving an ISIS flag.
“We dressed up as an ISIS jihadi to be as obvious as possible and to show and illustrate just how wide open the border really is,” states Biggs.
Last month, James O’Keefe also demonstrated the porous state of the U.S. border when he crossed an unguarded footbridge in the upper Rio Grande while dressed as Osama Bin Laden.
Biggs’ stunt is shocking given that ISIS militants are currently operational in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
According to an alert released by watchdog group Judicial Watch which cites high level law enforcement and intelligence sources, “Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED).”
“Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source. “It’s coming very soon,” according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.”
As we previously reported, the Vice President of the Border Patrol Council was silenced from commenting on the risk of an assault on the U.S. border by ISIS.
A recent report by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) found that illegal immigrants from over 75 countries are crossing into the U.S. from Mexico, including individuals from Syria where ISIS has announced the establishment of its Islamic caliphate.
Yesterday, Senator Rand Paul urged the White House to, “secure our own borders and immigration policy from ISIS infiltration,” pointing to the ISIS terror threat to the southern border.
The fact that it is so easy for ISIS militants, drug dealers and other terrorists to cross into America via the largely unguarded border while ordinary Americans face routine harassment at the hands of the TSA merely for flying within the country highlights the ludicrousness of the Obama administration’s claim that it is adequately protecting the homeland.
Last month, the TSA admitted that illegals were allowed to board planes within the United States without having to show any form of proper identification.
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The Obama administration is scheduled to brief members of Congress about the Islamic State (ISIS) on Friday after the beheading of two American journalists, but several Republicans on key committees involved told Newsmax on Thursday that they knew nothing about the classified session.
The briefing is to be conducted by officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center, news reports say.
The officials are expected to brief members of the congressional leaders' staffs, as well as the House Intelligence Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, Armed Services Committee, and the defense and foreign operations appropriations subcommittees.
Secretary of State John Kerry is also scheduled to testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee the week of Sept. 15, an aide said.
Rep. Ed Royce, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said Kerry would testify on whether the administration has developed a strategy against ISIS.
"The president said his administration had no strategy against ISIS two weeks ago, despite it long being on the march," Royce said. "The administration is sending mixed messages now.
"ISIS is a serious threat to U.S. national security," he said. "The committee needs to hear a comprehensive strategy from Secretary Kerry on how the administration is going to confront this brutal and sophisticated terrorist group.”
A Royce spokeswoman did not respond to a Newsmax query late Thursday on whether the chairman was informed of Friday's session.
Others say they were not.
"I've received no notice of any such briefing," Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino told Newsmax. "As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I am disgusted that this administration refuses to engage with Congress on a critical national-security issue where we could potentially agree.
"Unfortunately, that's nothing new," Marino added. "We know that this president would rather use and abuse executive power than have discussions with the elected representatives of the American people."
Kevin Fogarty, a spokesman for New York Rep. Peter King, said that "the congressman was not informed of the meeting or briefing." King sits on the Intelligence Committee.
A spokesman for a GOP member of the Armed Services Committee told Newsmax that the congressman was not told of the briefing.
Newsmax queried press representatives of 15 ranking GOP members of the panels. Only five responded, with three saying the legislators were not told of the session. Two referred Newsmax to House Speaker John Boehner's office, which did not respond to queries seeking comment.
Representatives of five top Democrats on the panels also did not respond to Newsmax queries.
Congress is scheduled to return from its recess on Monday.
The classified session comes as President Barack Obama faces widespread criticism from members of both political parties for lacking a strategy for defeating ISIS.
In Estonia on Wednesday, Obama said the United States would seek to diminish ISIS to "a manageable problem," while Vice President Joe Biden declared at a navy yard in New Hampshire that "we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice."
The comments followed Obama's acknowledgment last week that "we don't have a strategy yet" to deal with ISIS in Syria.
ISIS beheaded two American journalists, James Foley, 40, of Rochester, N.H., and Steven Sotloff, 31, of Miami. The terrorists posted their executions in videos on the Internet.
The U.S. resumed airstrikes on Iraq last month after ISIS gained ground in its quest to establish a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Three top Islamic State members, including an aide to leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were reportedly killed by an airstrike Wednesday in Iraq.
Obama would need congressional approval to expand the airstrikes or to continue them for more than 60 days.
"At this point, I would simply like to see the president and members of his inner circle clearly define the threat and set a goal to defeat ISIS," Marino told Newsmax. "We can debate strategy and tactics later, but the president first needs to acknowledge the threat, recognize the evil nature of this enemy and its beliefs, and convey to the American people our determination to defeat them."
Other Republicans called on the president to develop a plan for ISIS, also known as ISIL.
"The U.S. position against ISIL must be clear and concise, but the administration sending mixed messages is not helpful during this time of unrest in the Middle East," said Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. "We cannot operate in a pre-9/11 mentality because the global threat of ISIL is real and poses a serious threat to our national security and stability in the region.
"As Congress returns to Washington, the White House must bring forward as soon as possible its plan to combat this threat and make its case to the American people," Ros-Lehtinen said.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy told fellow Republicans on Thursday that the administration has been "too passive" on ISIS and other Islamic jihadists.
In his first memo as majority leader, the Californian chided the White House over a recent U.S. Forest Service report on roasting marshmallows with such healthy ingredients as fruit instead of chocolate.
"For the things that government is supposed to do — like confront terrorist groups — we don't have a strategy," McCarthy said, "but for things Americans are supposed to be able to do for themselves — like figuring out the best ingredients for s'mores — government bureaucrats have that figured out."
Congress is expected to adjourn again later this month, not returning until mid-November after the congressional elections.
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Tell them "No. You made your bed, now go lie in it..."
Better yet, tell them to go fuck themselves.
Dozens of British jihadis ‘want to return home’, intermediary claims
A man representing a group of 30 militants in Syria reportedly contacted a radicalisation research centre in London and told experts he and his group want to return to Britain
US-Iranian military, intelligence cooperation in war on ISIS reaps first successes in Syria and Iraq
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 5, 2014, 10:15 AM (IDT)
Tags: ISIS, US-Iran, Syria, Iraq, Intelligence, NATO,
At least 18 foreign ISIS fighters including Americans and Europeans were killed Thursday, Sept. 4, in a Syrian air raid of the Al Qaeda-ISIS’ northern Syrian headquarters in the Gharbiya district of Raqqa. The raid caught a number of high Al Qaeda commanders and a large group of foreign adherents assembled at the facilty.
A second group of high ISIS officers were killed or injured in another Syrian air raid over their base in Abu Kamal near the Iraqi border.
debkafile’s military and intelligence sources report that top men of the Islamist terrorist group were holding meetings at both places Thursday to coordinate IS strike plans in Syria and Iraq. For Syria, these plans center on the Deir a-Zor and Al Qaim areas, while in Iraq, they focus on targets in the east and center of the country.
The twin Syrian air offensive coincided with the opening of the two-day NATO Summit outside the Welsh town of Newport .
The information about the two Al Qaeda meetings at Raqqa and Abu Kamal could have come from only two sources: US surveillance satellites and aircraft or Iranian agents embedded at strategic points across Syria.
Syria does not have the necessary intelligence capabilities for digging out this kind of information. Nor does its air force normally exhibit the surgical precision displayed in the two strikes on Al Qaeda bases.
It is therefore more than likely that they owed their success to the widening military and intelligence cooperation between the United State and Iran in Iraq and Syria.
President Barack Obama will have taken his seat at the NATO summit to discuss ways of fighting ISIS after word of the successful Syrian strikes was already in his pocket.
While they must be credited to top-quality US aerial surveillance over Syria and Iraq, they were undoubtedly made possible by the Obama administration’s deepening military and intelligence ties with Iran.
Many of the allies present at Newport will not welcome these tidings - Britain, Germany and Australia, in particular. They deeply resent being displaced as America’s senior strategic partners by the Revolutionary Republic of Iran, after their long partnership with the US in fighting terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But they will find it hard to argue with success.
On Aug. 31, our military sources reveal, US and Iranian special forces fighting together, broke the 100-day IS siege of the eastern Iraqi town of Amerli, 100 km from the Iranian border, to score a major victory in their first joint military ground action.
Then, Wednesday, Sept. 3, US jets struck an IS base in the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar, killing its commander, Abu Hajar Al-Sufi, and two lieutenants of the IS chief Abu Baker Al-Baghdadi.
While President Obama has denied having a strategy for fighting ISIS, a working mechanism appears to have been put in place to support a trilateral military offensive against al Qaeda’s Islamist State. The successful attacks in the last 24 hours were apparently made possible by this mechanism: Iranian intelligence collected US surveillance data from the Americans and passed it on to Syria for action.
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Re: Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham - ISIS
Originally Posted by American Patriot
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A number of police forensic officers attended the scene
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