Friday, August 29, 2014

Obama on Confronting ISIS in Syria: ‘We Don’t Have a Strategy Yet’

President Obama on Thursday threw cold water over the notion that U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists in Syria were imminent, telling a press conference at the White House “we don’t have a strategy yet.” Read

Obama Accuses Unnamed Countries of Financing ‘Extremist Groups’

Speaking about the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant Thursday, President Obama accused unnamed countries in the Middle East of having financed “some of these groups” – seemingly contradicting repeated State Department assertions that the U.S. has no information that countries like Qatar have been funding ISIS. Read

Obama Administration Avoids the Term ‘Invasion’; 'A Continuation,' Obama Says

Ukraine’s U.N. envoy Oleksandr Pavlichenko says Russia’s military action -- sending tanks and troops across the border -- amounted to an “invasion,” although the Obama administration has not used that term. Read

U.S. Must ‘Make Russia Listen,’ Ambassador Says; But Aid Still Limited to ‘Nonlethal’

Amid international expressions of outrage over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, President Obama at a press conference Thursday did not answer a question on providing arms to the Ukrainians, and the State Department confirmed that current policy was to provide Kiev with “non-lethal” assistance only. Read

Thursday, August 28, 2014

U.N. Report: Syrian Children Forced to Watch ISIS Beheadings

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant commonly carries out public executions in its Syrian stronghold on Fridays, forcing children to watch as victims are beheaded or shot at close range. Corpses are then displayed on crucifixes and decapitated heads exhibited on sticks for days afterwards. Read

UN Climate Chief: 'Not Very Far' from Considering 'Climate Change as a Public Health Emergency'

Secretary of State John Kerry has called climate change “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now,” and his French counterpart has warned of climate “chaos” in 500 days, and now the U.N. climate change chief is implying that climate change can be viewed on a par with the deadly Ebola outbreak. Read

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Hezbollah Has Seized and Murdered Hostages, But Condemns Foley Killing

Hezbollah has condemned the murder of U.S. journalist James Foley at the hands of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), but the Iranian-backed Lebanese terrorist group has a history of kidnapping – and in some case murdering – foreigners, including Americans. Read

Pentagon: Egypt, UAE Attacking Islamists in Libya Differs From US Bombing ISIS in Iraq

The United States does not support Egyptian and Emirati airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya because the U.S. believes the crisis in Libya must be resolved politically and without outside interference, a Department of Defense spokesman said Tuesday. Read

Obama: Withdrawing U.S. Troops From Iraq Was ‘Right Thing to Do’

Despite accusations that not leaving a residual U.S. military presence in Iraq contributed to its present crisis, President Obama on Tuesday both called the 2011 withdrawal “the right thing to do” and reiterated his intention to remove most U.S. troops from Afghanistan at the end of the year. Read

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Has Syria’s Al-Qaeda Affiliate Killed a Veteran Palestinian Terrorist?

Ahmed Jibril, a veteran Palestinian terrorist of the generation that included Yasser Arafat, George Habash and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, reportedly has been killed in Damascus, where his unwavering support for the Assad regime put him at odds with many Palestinians in the latter years of his life. Read

As Libyan Chaos Deepens, US and Europeans Condemn Airstrikes Against Islamists

The U.S. joined four European partners on Monday condemning the escalation of violence in Libya, where Islamists seized control of Tripoli’s airport at the weekend, but also criticized airstrikes against those same Islamists, although without identifying the source of the air attacks. Read

Monday, August 25, 2014

ISIL, ISIS – Now QSIS? Top Sunni Cleric Says Stop Calling Terrorists ‘Islamic’

Stand by for a new acronym for the ISIS/ISIL terrorist group causing havoc across Syria and Iraq. Read

Qatar, Fending Off Allegations of Supporting Terrorists, Secures Release of US Journalist

Qatar, which has been accused of supporting terrorists in Syria, Iraq and the Gaza Strip, used its contacts in Syria to secure the release Sunday of an American journalist kidnapped in 2012 and held by the al-Qaeda-affiliated group Al Nusrah. Read

Friday, August 22, 2014

Hagel: ISIS ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen;' Does Not Rule Out Airstrikes in Syria

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday called the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) “beyond anything that we’ve seen,” and did not rule out the possibility that the U.S. could carry out airstrikes against the group inside Syria. Read

ISIS Tried to Use Foley as Leverage to Free Female Pakistani Terrorist

The terrorists who murdered U.S. journalist James Foley claimed to have offered his freedom in exchange for a Pakistani woman whose lengthy prison term for attempting to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan has made her a cause célèbre in Pakistan and among jihadists worldwide. Read

Thursday, August 21, 2014

No Comment From Islamic Bloc on Beheading of American Journalist

The bloc of Muslim nations remained mum Wednesday on the killing of U.S. journalist James Foley by terrorists claiming to act on behalf of Islam and led by a man who – by naming himself “caliph” – lays claim to the mantle of Mohammed. Read

Saudis Denounce ISIS, But They Behead People, Too

After State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf on Wednesday pointed to a statement by Saudi Arabia’s highest religious leader condemning the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), a reporter pointed out that beheadings form part of the kingdom’s system of criminal punishment. Read

State Dep’t: Obama Was Not Suggesting Countries Like Qatar, Turkey Are Helping ISIS

President Obama’s reference to the need for Middle East governments to work against the “cancer” of jihadist terrorism was not intended to signal suspicion that some were supporting the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Wednesday. Read

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Al-Qaeda in Yemen Announces ‘Solidarity’ With ‘Our Muslim Brothers in Iraq’

The world’s two most dangerous Islamic terror groups appear to be joining forces. A statement purportedly by al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based branch -- al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula -- expresses support for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), the Yemen Times reported on Tuesday. Read

Mother of Beheaded American Journalist Urges ISIS to Spare Other Captives

The mother of American journalist James Foley, believed to have been beheaded by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists, urged the group Tuesday to spare their other captives. Read

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

UN Human Rights Council Urged to End Virtual Silence on Iraq’s Endangered Minorities

Iraqi Christian and Yazidi representatives will gather in Geneva on Tuesday to urge the U.N.’s top human rights body to hold an urgent meeting to discuss the plight of their imperiled communities. The Human Rights Council has largely ignored the issue up until now. Read

U.S., Assad Both Bombing ISIS, But State Dep’t Disputes ‘We Are on the Same Page’

With the U.S. carrying out airstrikes against ISIS/ISIL terrorists in Iraq, the Syrian regime has launched an unusually intensive air offensive of its own against the group in its northern Syria stronghold. Read

Monday, August 18, 2014

Democrat Worries About 1930s-Style Appeasement in Ukraine

A Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that allowing President Vladimir Putin to keep Crimea and possibly other parts of eastern Ukraine on the grounds of protecting ethnic Russians would be akin to appeasing Hitler in 1938. Read

Ayatollah: Ferguson Highlights U.S. Human Rights Problem

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose regime regularly features near the top of human right advocates’ list of the world’s worst violators, spent a busy weekend condemning the United States over the tensions in Ferguson, Missouri. Read

Rogers: Competing Terror Groups Multiply Danger to U.S.

The terrorist threat facing the United States is greater now than it was before 9/11 and the failure to address the jihadist problem as “an ecosystem” is helping it to spread and become more dangerous, House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers warned Sunday. Read

Friday, August 15, 2014

Christian Charity: ‘Worst Genocide Since Rwanda’

Open Doors, an international ministry that helps persecuted Christians, is comparing the violence in Iraq to what happened in Rwanda years ago, when 800,000 men, women, and children were killed in unchecked violence. Read

Christians and Yazidis in Iraq Subjected to ‘Savage Rapes,' Sexual Slavery

As the U.N. scrambles to help tens of thousands of religious minority Iraqis displaced by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL), experts are warning that jihadists may have forced 1,500 Christians and Yazidis into sexual slavery. Read

UN Bureaucrat Says U.S. Senators 'Need to Have Their Hands Forced' on Human Rights Treaties

A U.N. anti-racial discrimination committee took the U.S. government to task Thursday for not having ratified various international rights-related treaties, with one member saying that “from time to time … parliamentarians need to have their hands forced.” Read

Thursday, August 14, 2014

WH: If Troops in Iraq Come Under Fire, ‘Force Protection is Always a Mission’

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes acknowledged Wednesday that if U.S. troops now on a humanitarian mission in northern Iraq come under fire they would protect themselves – but he stressed that “the purpose and the mission that they are going to Iraq for is not to engage in combat.” Read

Kerry: Climate Change ‘Biggest Challenge of All That We Face Right Now’

The global impact of climate change is “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now,” Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience in Hawaii Wednesday, putting an issue he feels passionately about at the center of a speech entitled “U.S. Vision for Asia-Pacific Engagement.” Read

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Kerry: Child in Photo ‘Should Be Playing With Other Kids, Not Holding a Severed Head’

Secretary of State John Kerry reacted Tuesday to an online photo of a young Australian boy purportedly holding the decapitated head of a Syrian soldier. Read

Kerry: No Combat Troops to Iraq, But We’ll Consider Future Requests for Additional Security Aid

Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Tuesday that U.S. combat forces will not return to Iraq, but both he and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the administration will consider future requests from Iraq’s new government, once it is formed, for security assistance beyond that now being given. Read

‘Not a Combat-Boots-on-the-Ground Operation,’ Says Hagel, Announcing 130 More Troops to Iraq

Around 130 more U.S. troops have arrived in northern Iraq, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Tuesday, saying their mission was to “take a closer look and give a more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help the Iraqis.” Read

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Iran Leery of US Airstrikes Against ISIS, Which It Opposes

Iran is sending mixed signals about the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq, on the one hand voicing support for its Shi’ite ally in Baghdad in its campaign against the Sunni jihadists but on the other criticizing U.S. airstrikes launched in recent days against ISIS positions in the north. Read

State Dep’t: Hillary Clinton ‘Knows There Are No Easy Answers’ on Syria

The Kerry State Department on Monday pushed back gently against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s criticism of what she has called a “failure” to arm moderate Syria rebels early on during the civil war, a decision Clinton says helped to strengthen jihadists. Read

US Signals to Maliki: It’s Time to Go

The Obama administration on Monday sent interim Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the clearest signal yet that he has lost Washington’s support. Read

Friday, August 08, 2014

Wolf to Obama: Your Words on Preventing Genocide Were 'Hollow'

As Iraq’s biggest Christian town fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) slammed President Obama Thursday for “doing nothing” in response to the atrocities being committed against religious minorities in Iraq, saying it was evident his past assertions on preventing genocide were hollow. Read

Obama Sets 3 Conditions for U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq, ‘If Necessary’

President Obama on Thursday night specified three distinct sets of circumstances that – “if necessary” – would trigger U.S. airstrikes in Iraq in the coming days. Read

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Kurdish Gov’t, Fighting ISIS, Asks for Airstrikes and Humanitarian Aid

The foreign minister of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region appealed Wednesday for the U.S. and others to provide military and humanitarian help in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL). The jihadists’ violent campaign across northern Iraq is placing the lives of tens of thousands of people, many of them children, in grave jeopardy. Read

Netanyahu: Will Civilized World Tolerate Terrorists Using Human Shields?

Failing to respond to Hamas attacks because they were being launched from civilian areas would be a moral and operational mistake that would validate its use of human shields and “hand an enormous victory to terrorists everywhere,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. Read

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Death of US General in Insider Attack Followed Fresh Encouragement from Mullah Omar

An “insider attack” in Afghanistan Tuesday that cost the life of the most senior American military officer to be killed in either the Afghanistan or Iraq wars came shortly after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar gave fresh encouragement to Afghan military personnel members “who launch attacks on the enemy and then join the ranks of jihad.” Read

Tens of Thousands of Iraqi Children Stranded, Facing Death After ISIS Advance

A humanitarian tragedy is looming in northwestern Iraq, where up to 25,000 children, mostly from the minority Yazidi community, are among those who fled ahead of advancing Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) jihadists and are now stranded without water or supplies in arid, mountainous terrain. Read

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Iran’s Top Terror Commander Asks Allah to ‘Damn’ Israel’s Supporters

The head of Iran’s shadowy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force, responsible for the regime’s terror operations abroad, has issued a fiery message to all the militant factions in the Gaza Strip, underlining support for their violent campaign against the Jewish state. Read

Syria's Assad Regime Wants Israeli Leaders to Be Tried for War Crimes

Israeli leaders must be put on trial for crimes against humanity in Gaza, an emergency meeting of foreign ministers from Non-Aligned Movement member states was told Monday – by a representative of Syria’s Assad regime. Read

Monday, August 04, 2014

Eyeing Turkey’s Presidency, Erdogan Steps Up Anti-Israel Rhetoric

Despite serious anti-government protests and allegations of corruption, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan looks set to become Turkey’s first directly-elected president, even as the Islamist politician, an outspoken supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, loses popularity in the region. Read

Perry: Record Number From Terror-Linked Countries Being Nabbed at Border

The number of illegal aliens being apprehended coming across the southwest border who hail from countries with “substantial terrorist ties” is at a record high, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday in comments backed up by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers. Read

Friday, August 01, 2014

Kerry in 2009: Qatar Can’t 'Be American Ally on Monday That Sends Money to Hamas on Tuesday’

On a day when Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Qatari counterpart by phone “numerous times” in efforts to achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a Republican lawmaker sent him a letter challenging “the State Department’s active partnership with Qatar.” Read

Two Weeks Later, Russia Still Insinuating That Ukraine Shot Down Flight MH17

Two weeks after the world was horrified by the deaths of almost 300 people, killed when a Russian-made missile shot down a Boeing 777 over eastern Ukraine, Russia continues to shrug off accusations of at least indirect responsibility, while pointing a finger at the Ukraine government. Read