| Pope Francis calls Foley family: priest Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:39 PM PDT  Pope Francis called the family of slain US journalist James Foley on Thursday to offer his condolences, a Catholic priest close to the family said. The gruesome video of Foley's beheading, released Tuesday by the Islamic State, a jihadist group operating in Iraq and Syria, has caused worldwide revulsion and outrage. "Pope Francis phoned the family of #JamesFoley this afternoon at their residence in New Hampshire.
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| Irish peacemaker, ex-premier Reynolds dies at 81 Posted: 21 Aug 2014 04:33 PM PDT  DUBLIN (AP) — Albert Reynolds, the risk-taking Irish prime minister who played a key role in delivering peace to Northern Ireland but struggled to keep his own governments intact, died Thursday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 81.
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| Foley case lays bare debate over paying ransom Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:59 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The beheading of freelance journalist James Foley has forced a new debate between the longtime U.S. and British refusal to negotiate with terrorists, and Europe and the Persian Gulf's increasing willingness to pay ransoms in a desperate attempt to free citizens. The dilemma: How to save the lives of those kidnapped without financing terror groups, and encouraging more kidnappings.
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| The 'Unbelievable' Way the US Misinterpreted Iran's Remarks Today Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:52 PM PDT  A defiant statement by the Iranian Foreign Minister linking cooperation against ISIS in Iraq to sanctions relief might actually be a giant, lost-in-translation misunderstanding, the State Department said today. According to state-run media, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that Iran would help the West with the crisis in Iraq if the West lifts sanctions – a report that has made its way into English-speaking media. "If we agree to do something in Iraq, the other side of the negotiations should do something in return," Zarif is quoted as saying. ""All the sanctions that are related to Iran's nuclear program should be lifted," he added.
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| Secret Mission to Rescue US Hostages ‘Flawless,’ Except for the Rescue Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:52 PM PDT  US Official: Special Ops Forces Killed 15 or More ISIS Fighters in Doomed Operation
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| Court decision delayed on Marine's Iraq vanishing Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:51 PM PDT  CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina (AP) — A U.S. defense attorney said Thursday that a Marine accused of deserting his unit a decade ago in Iraq was kept in Lebanon for eight years while he faced a military trial there.
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| Americans among 12,000 foreign fighters in Syria: US Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:50 PM PDT  Some 12,000 foreign jihadists from 50 countries, including Americans, have gone to fight in Syria since the conflict began, the US State Department said Thursday. A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimated that more than 100 US citizens have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to join the conflict. They have traveled to join radical groups including the Islamic State (IS), militants fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria who have expanded into neighboring Iraq. "We think that there are approximately 12,000 fighters from at least 50 countries in Syria -- foreign fighters, including a small number of Americans -- that may have traveled to Syria since the beginning of the conflict" more than three years ago, said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
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| Why US Special Forces failed to rescue James Foley Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:50 PM PDT The failed attempt to rescue journalist James Foley before he was killed by Islamic State militants – and the ongoing efforts to track down other American hostages before it's too late – illustrate a glaring shortcoming in US military capabilities: that good US military intelligence on these militant groups is in short supply. Although the Pentagon greenlighted the deployment of Special Operations Forces (SOF) to Syria – along with the US military's most high-tech air and ground components – the mission did not result in a rescue. The Pentagon's unusual confirmation of a failed Special Forces mission – made at the behest of the White House – was in large part an effort to reassure the American public that the United States has not sat idly by during the meteoric rise of the Islamic State (IS). "Was this a failure of intelligence? |
| IS group a danger to all regional states, says Tunisia Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:38 PM PDT  Tunisia Thursday condemned the "savage crimes" of the Islamic State (IS) after it beheaded American journalist James Foley, calling the jihadist group a threat to all states in the region. "After savage and repeated crimes committed by the terrorist organisations in Iraq against its ethnic and religious minorities and the savage execution of one of its hostages, Tunisia strongly condemns these heinous crimes," a presidency statement said. "These terrorist organisations pose a threat to all countries in the region," the presidency statement said. Tunisia "calls on the international community to protect ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq, using methods permitted by international law in such extreme situations", it said.
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| British Muslims blame jihadi subculture after beheading video Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:26 PM PDT By Kate Holton and Raheem Salman LONDON/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A British Muslim leader called for action on Thursday to tackle a jihadi sub-culture after an Islamic State video showed a suspected Briton beheading U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the threat from Islamic State was "beyond anything we've seen" and the U.S. Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the death of Foley on the video, which featured a masked man speaking English with a British accent. As Western officials tried to identify the man, the Muslim Council of Britain denounced Foley's "abhorrent murder" and one of its advisers urged anyone who knows the killer's identity to contact the police. |
| US warns of long cross-border war against IS Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:21 PM PDT  The United States admitted Thursday that the Islamic State is the most dangerous group it has faced in recent years and warned that the Middle East faces a long-term battle to defeat it. Pentagon chiefs said the jihadist group could be eradicated if local Sunni communities reject it and regional powers unite to fight it, but only if the battle is taken into Syria and not just Iraq. Speaking after the US military said it had already carried out a failed hostage rescue mission inside Syria, and against the backdrop of new air strikes in Iraq, they warned IS poses a considerable threat. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days strategic vision that will eventually have to be defeated."
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| Catholic Relief Services Commits $1 Million to help Persecuted Iraqis Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:17 PM PDT BALTIMORE, Aug. 21, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has committed an initial $1 million in private funding to help victims of the escalating violence in northern Iraq. With the help of our partners in Iraq, CRS is currently providing food, water and essential living supplies to families in desperate need of the essentials. The situation is horrific, said Kris Ozar, CRS emergency response coordinator in Iraq. With support from our Catholic Church partners in Iraq, CRS has provided immediate, life-saving assistance to almost 4,000 families forced to flee their homes by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). |
| UN rights chief rebukes Security Council inaction Posted: 21 Aug 2014 03:06 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — In her last address to the Security Council, the U.N. human rights chief sharply criticized the body for its ineffectiveness on Syria and other intractable conflicts, saying its members have often put national interests ahead of stopping mass atrocities. |
| Iraq Kurd forces: from guards to anti-jihadist vanguard Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:54 PM PDT  Iraqi Kurdish forces, which have been thrust into the vanguard of the battle against jihadists, fared well maintaining security in their autonomous region but face a daunting task fighting the militants. Famed as guerrilla fighters during their decades-long struggle for self-rule, the Kurdish peshmerga forces are now made up of a new generation of recruits without the battlefield experience of their forebears. "Training is very limited by Western standards," said Michael Knights, a fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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| Islamic State threat 'beyond anything we've seen': Pentagon Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:47 PM PDT  By Missy Ryan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sophistication, wealth and military might of Islamic State militants represent a major threat to the United States that may surpass that once posed by al Qaeda, U.S. "They are an imminent threat to every interest we have, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere else," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon. Hagel's assessment of Islamic State, which gained strength during Syria's civil war and swept into northern Iraq earlier this summer, sounded a note of alarm several days after the group posted a video on social media showing one of its fighters beheading an American hostage kidnapped in Syria. This is beyond anything we've seen." Hagel spoke as the United States continued attacking Islamic State targets in Iraq.
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| Could Money Have Saved James Foley? ISIS 'Wasn’t Serious' About Demands, Officials Say Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:38 PM PDT  Former Official, GlobalPost CEO Say ISIS Wanted $132M for U.S. Journalist's Freedom
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| US must 'destroy' jihadists in Iraq, Syria: ex-general Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:32 PM PDT  The US military must take decisive action to "destroy" Islamic extremists in both Iraq and Syria before the threat from the jihadists expands, a former American general said on Thursday. Only the United States has the power and weaponry to lead a coalition -- including local Iraqi, Kurdish and tribal forces -- to confront the so-called Islamic State (IS), said retired four-star general John Allen, who led US troops in Iraq and served as the top commander in Afghanistan. "The Islamic State is an entity beyond the pale of humanity and it must be eradicated. The former commander said the grisly execution of US reporter James Foley by the jihadists "brings home to us all what this group represents."
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| Does the News of Foley's Failed Rescue Put Troops At Risk? Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:27 PM PDT  Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on Thursday issued a statement calling it "outrageous" for someone to have told reporters about the classified mission. Successful or not, such operations are incredibly sensitive, even after they have concluded. Disclosure of these missions puts our troops at risk, reduces the likelihood that future missions will succeed, and risks the lives of hostages and informants alike. While I believe it was unwise for the White House and Department of Defense to formally acknowledge this operation;
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| Pentagon: Islamic State militants will regroup Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:27 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airstrikes have helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces regain their footing in Iraq, but the well-resourced Islamic State militants can be expected to regroup and stage a new offensive, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.
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| Islamic State 'beyond anything we've seen': US Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:21 PM PDT  The Islamic State poses a greater danger than a conventional "terrorist group" and is pursuing a vision that could radically alter the face of the Middle East, US defense leaders said Thursday. The IS jihadists could be contained and eventually defeated by local forces backed by the United States, but the Sunni population in both Syria and Iraq would need to reject the group, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey told reporters. Hagel warned that the Islamic State is better armed, trained and funded than any recent militant threat.
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| Dutch to send flak jackets, helmets to Iraq Kurds Posted: 21 Aug 2014 02:03 PM PDT  The Netherlands is to send 1,000 flak jackets and helmets to Iraqi Kurds to help with their fight against the Islamic State, the Dutch government said on Thursday. "It has been decided in the short term to send 1,000 combat helmets and 1,000 flak jackets to the Kurdish Regional Authorities," Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans and Defence Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote in a letter to parliament. Europe has stepped up its response to IS militants, who beheaded US journalist James Foley and have taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria. The Dutch ministers said the helmets and flak jackets would only be delivered once they had guarantees from the government in Baghdad that the road to the Kurdish regional capital of Arbil was open.
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| Stocks advance to put S&P 500 at a record high Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:51 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market advanced for a fourth straight day Thursday, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index to a record high.
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| Pentagon Calls Foley Rescue Operation 'Flawless,' Despite Hostages Being Elsewhere Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:50 PM PDT  During a press conference Thursday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey addressed the failed hostage rescue mission in Syria and defended the Intelligence behind the mission. "This operation was a flawless operation," Hagel said, "but the hostages were not there."
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| British Muslims urge cooperation in Foley murder hunt Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:44 PM PDT By Kate Holton and William James LONDON (Reuters) - British Muslim leaders urged people to contact police if they knew the identity of the man with an English accent who appeared in a video showing the beheading of an American journalist. The Muslim Council of Britain, the largest Muslim umbrella group in the country, condemned the "abhorrent murder" of James Foley and called for united action by Muslims to stop the "poison of extremism" infiltrating their communities. Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday it looked increasingly likely that the man in the Islamic State video was British, one of hundreds who have travelled to Syria to fight. "We are horrified at the abhorrent murder of James Foley, a reporter who initially went to the region to expose the human rights abuses of the Syrian regime." Iqbal Sacranie, an adviser to the council, told London's Evening Standard newspaper that anyone who recognised the man had a duty to contact police. |
| Foley captors demanded $132 million ransom: employer Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:35 PM PDT  Journalist James Foley's jihadist captors had demanded a ransom of 100 million euros -- $132 million -- for his release, his employer said Thursday after a video of the American's gruesome execution was made public. "GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni confirms that the initial ransom demand from Jim Foley's captors was 100 million euros," a spokesman for the news website told AFP. Foley was reporting from Syria for GlobalPost and other outlets including AFP when he was abducted in November 2012, and Balboni had been closely involved in efforts to locate and free the photojournalist. The extremist group, which calls itself the Islamic State, has marauded across large areas of Iraq in recent months.
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| Iran denies linking Iraq role to Western sanctions Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:24 PM PDT  Iran on Thursday denied linking any future cooperation with the international community against jihadists in Iraq to the lifting of crippling Western sanctions. Earlier, the official IRNA news agency quoted Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as suggesting that Tehran could help the international community if it lifted the sanctions. "If we agree to do something in Iraq, the other side of the negotiations should do something in return," IRNA had quoted Zarif as saying.
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| Amid war and beheadings, Iraq's fresh start Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:20 PM PDT Iraq took a big step in that direction last week when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was forced to relinquish power, marking the country's first peaceful transition of power in more than a decade. A political vacuum had left Iraq open to attack by the militants of Islamic State (IS), the group previously known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIS. "The country is in your hands," whispered Iraq's president, Fuad Masum, as he charged Mr. Abadi with the task of forming a new government. The charming, British-trained electrical engineer knows he must find a firm ground for Iraq's supercharged identity politics. |
| U.S. opens criminal probe of journalist Foley's death: Holder Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:05 PM PDT  Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation of the death of American journalist James Foley, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday. Foley was beheaded by the Islamist militant group Islamic State, an act shown in a video released on Tuesday in which the group called for the United States to end its air strikes in Iraq. President Barack Obama responded that the United States would be relentless in fighting the organization despite the killing.
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| Reports: Syria troops kill scores of jihadis Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:02 PM PDT Syrian troops killed dozens of jihadi fighters, including a prominent media activist, in heavy clashes on Thursday around a sprawling northern air base that the Islamic State group is trying to seize, activists and state media said. |
| Oil prices climb on upbeat US data Posted: 21 Aug 2014 01:00 PM PDT  Oil prices pushed higher Thursday after a batch of solid economic data in the United States, the world's top consumer of crude, lifted demand hopes. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for October advanced 51 cents to close at $93.96 a barrel. The main European futures contract, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in October, settled at $102.63 a barrel, up 35 cents in London trade. A series of better-than-expected US economic indicators fueled "a lot of optimism" about the economy and hope for "a little bit of stronger demand going forward," said Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions.
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| Rick Perry Thinks ISIL May Have Already Crossed the Mexico Border Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:48 PM PDT  Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Thursday that there was "a very real possibility" that terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has crossed into the U.S. Perry was asked about the possibility following a speech he delivered at the conservative Heritage Foundation in which he criticized the Obama administration's handling of the border crisis and called for an expanded air campaign against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.
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| Study: Combining vaccines boosts polio immunity Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:23 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — New research suggests a one-two punch could help battle polio in some of the world's most remote and conflict-torn regions: Giving a single vaccine shot to children who've already swallowed drops of an oral polio vaccine greatly boosted their immunity.
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| Megyn Kelly Upset When Ferguson Protests Interrupt Her ISIS Coverage [VIDEO] Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:20 PM PDT Megyn Kelly was upset Tuesday night when her Fox News producers interrupted a segment about the death of journalist James Foley to show protesters clashing with police in Ferguson, Mo. Pete Hegseth, Fox News contributor and Iraq combat veteran, was discussing the video that surfaced of the Islamic State beheading Foley, and the growing threat the Islamic State poses to the U.S. "It is not just a terrorist group," he says as footage of police clashing with protesters in Ferguson takes over the screen. "At this point this is a terrorist army that believes it controls a state, a caliphate, an Islamic state. |
| Perry Warns Terrorists Could Infiltrate US Through Border Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:17 PM PDT  Just two days after smiling for a mugshot, Texas Gov. Rick Perry took his message to conservatives in Washington, D.C., quickly turning from talk of his indictment to weighing in on the threat ISIS poses to the United States. In a speech at the Heritage...
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| U.N. rights chief rebukes Security Council for failures to act Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:14 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Outgoing U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay rebuked the U.N. Security Council on Thursday for putting short-term geopolitical concerns and narrowly-defined national interests ahead of intolerable human suffering and grave breaches of global peace and security. "I firmly believe that greater responsiveness by this council would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives," Pillay told the 15-member body during her final briefing after six years as the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. She said crises in Syria, Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Gaza, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Ukraine "hammer home" the international community's failure to prevent conflict. They built up over years - and sometimes decades - of human rights grievances," said Pillay, a South African jurist.
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| FBI Hostage Negotiators Share Their Insight on the James Foley Tragedy Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:08 PM PDT  James Foley, an American journalist, was murdered by ISIL (ISIS) forces in a graphic video that was put online by the Islamic State controlled media outlet AlFurqan. Since that time, it has been authenticated by the White House and British Government (Foley's executioner is from the United Kingdom.) In the United States, the FBI delivered the news of the authentication to Foley's family. Unfortunately, Foley is not the only hostage to be seized by this group. Foley's murderers have threatened to kill another one, Steven Sotloff, unless the U.S. The FBI has a pivotal role in rescuing hostages, both in the U.S.
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| GOP Hawks Push Obama to Up the Ante After Foley Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:03 PM PDT  The execution of American journalist James Wright Foley has spurred a fresh round of calls, mainly from Republicans, for President Obama to expand his limited U.S. "We have to go in, and it's more than pin-prick airstrikes," Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) sad Thursday on Fox News. "We're going to need more boots on the ground, and it does not mean combat troops. It does mean a significant increase." Sen. John McCain (R)/AP McCain, one of the foremost G.O.P. hawks and a longtime critic of Obama's Iraq policy, praised Obama's statement Wednesday calling the Islamic State a "cancer." But he harshly criticized what he characterized as the president's policy of trying merely to "contain" ISIL.
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| Syria opposition: Deadly chemical attack forgotten Posted: 21 Aug 2014 12:00 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — The year since a chemical attack that killed hundreds near Damascus has been a strikingly good one for President Bashar Assad.
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| USS Saratoga carrier heads off to be scrapped Posted: 21 Aug 2014 11:45 AM PDT  NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Saratoga left its port in Rhode Island on Thursday for its final journey to Texas, where it will be scrapped.
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