| IS poses 'immediate' threat to Europe: US Posted: 05 Sep 2014 04:29 PM PDT  Islamic State extremists fighting in Iraq and Syria pose an "immediate" threat to Europe as a significant number carried European passports, top US intelligence officials said Friday. The danger presented by jihadists potentially returning to the West to carry out attacks has prompted more cooperation between US and European intelligence agencies in a bid to track terror suspects, the officials said. Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, suggested IS militants presented a more serious danger for European states than for America, given the number of recruits from EU countries. "The threat is quite immediate for Europe," Olsen told reporters.
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| Hollande counterpunches after weeks of body blows Posted: 05 Sep 2014 04:29 PM PDT  French President Francois Hollande launched a blistering counterattack Friday, saying he had no intention of throwing in the towel after weeks of political, economic and personal body blows that have seen him plumb new depths of unpopularity. For the first time, he hit back at the explosive claims penned by his former partner and first lady Valerie Trierweiler, the most damaging of which was that he secretly despised the poor, calling them the "toothless". Only one percent of French people said they had "total confidence" in Hollande "to resolve the problems France is currently facing". Hollande's loyal Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned before France departed on its long summer holiday that the "rentree" -- the return from the beach -- would be "difficult", but few could have seen the series of crises the president would have to endure.
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| Bosnia Muslim top cleric urges British hostage release Posted: 05 Sep 2014 04:17 PM PDT  Bosnia's most senior Muslim leader, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic on Friday urged the Islamic State to liberate a British hostage threatened with beheading by the jihadists. "Bearing in mind that the human life is sacred for Muslims, I call those who hold in detention David Haines to give up their threats and unconditionally leave this man to return to his family," Kavazovic said in a statement. Haines, taken hostage in Syria in March 2013, was threatened with death by IS militants during a video depicting the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff. The militant jihadist group said the journalist's killing, which came on the heels of its beheading last month of another US reporter, James Foley, was in retaliation for expanded US air strikes against its fighters in Iraq.
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| Britain ready to commit 3,500 troops to new NATO force Posted: 05 Sep 2014 04:04 PM PDT  Britain said on Friday it could contribute 3,500 troops to a NATO rapid response force defending against new threats like the Ukraine crisis and Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq. Prime Minister David Cameron said the alliance, set up in 1949 to protect Western Europe from the Soviet Union, had to show that its Article 5 collective security guarantee was still valid. Underlining Cameron's pledge to beef up European defence capability, he also said Britain would put into service a second aircraft carrier, The Prince of Wales, which the government had previously considered selling or holding in reserve due to budget constraints. "As Russia tramples illegally over Ukraine, we must reassure our Eastern European members that we will always uphold our Article 5 commitments," Cameron told the second day of a NATO summit in Wales.
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| New Iraq coalition not a 2003 redux, US insists Posted: 05 Sep 2014 03:41 PM PDT  US plans to forge a coalition to defeat Islamic militants are not modeled on the global front brought together for the heavily-criticized 2003 invasion of Iraq, American officials insisted Friday. "When we talk about what we are doing today, in no way do we want to resemble anything that was done in 2003 in the invasion of Iraq," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters. US President Barack Obama said Friday he was confident he could gather a broad international coalition to defeat Islamic State extremists, after two days of talks at a NATO summit in Wales. Following the beheading of two US journalists by the Islamic State, which has overrun swathes of northern Iraq and Syria, Obama said there was "unanimity" among NATO members that the group "poses a significant threat."
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| Hundreds attend memorial service for slain US journalist Posted: 05 Sep 2014 03:22 PM PDT  Murdered American journalist Steven Sotloff urged his friends and family to live life "to the fullest," in a letter penned during his captivity in Iraq and read Friday at a memorial service in his honor. Hundreds of mourners paid their last respects to the journalist at a somber and emotional ceremony held just days after his beheading by Islamic State militants. Sotloff, 31, was beheaded by Islamic State militants in a video released Tuesday, two weeks after the similar video of US journalist James Foley's killing was posted online. I have lost my son and my best friend, but I know his passing will change the world," said his grieving father Arthur Sotloff.
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| How big a threat does Islamic State pose to the US homeland? Posted: 05 Sep 2014 03:19 PM PDT When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned last month that the Islamic State (IS) is an "imminent" threat to the United States, a number of lawmakers and analysts seized upon that claim. "This is really the first group that has the wherewithal in terms of financing" to potentially strike on US soil, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Indeed, many have argued that IS now represents a far greater prospect of peril to US interests than Al Qaeda does. How big a threat are IS foreign fighters to the US? |
| Turkey may play quiet role in U.S. coalition against Islamic State Posted: 05 Sep 2014 02:58 PM PDT  By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Turkey may find it hard to play a public role in the coalition the United States is building to strike at Islamic State targets in Iraq and possibly Syria for fear the militant group might retaliate against dozens of Turks held hostage. President Barack Obama has said he hopes to devise a regional strategy to try to counter IS, which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria, but current and former U.S. officials say they expect Turkey to avoid any major public role. An ally in the U.S. ...
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| Charity calls for IS to release threatened British hostage Posted: 05 Sep 2014 02:13 PM PDT  Paris (AFP) - The charity that employs British aid worker David Haines, threatened with death by Islamic State militants in a recent video, called on Friday for his immediate release.
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| Obama seeks solace at Stonehenge Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:53 PM PDT  President Barack Obama sought solace Friday at the mystical, prehistoric English monument of Stonehenge, relaxing after stressful days confronting Russia and rising jihadism in the Middle East. "How cool is this?" Obama exclaimed as he toured the iconic stone circles, believed to have been built across different eras from around 3,100 BC, as he stopped off on Salisbury Plain on the way back to Air Force One after the NATO summit in Wales. It's a special place," Obama said, as he strolled past the huge erect stones, some weighing up to 25 tons, set up in two concentric rings.
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| 35 bodies found in Iraq town retaken from jihadists Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:43 PM PDT  Iraqi Kurdish forces and Shiite militiamen discovered mass graves containing 35 bodies after retaking the town of Sulaiman Bek from jihadists, an officer and a doctor said on Friday. The 35 bodies were taken under guard in ambulances to the morgue in Kirkuk, a city to the north of Sulaiman Bek, so their identities could be determined, Doctor Baha al-Bayati said. Iraqi forces, militiamen and Kurdish fighters broke a months-long jihadist siege of the town of Amerli on Sunday and retook Sulaiman Bek the following day, in the first major offensive successes for the federal government since the crisis began.
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| GOP senator seeks new authority against militants Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:41 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is pushing legislation authorizing the president to use military force against Islamic state militants in Iraq, Syria and wherever else they threaten U.S. interests. |
| Obama says key allies ready to join U.S. action in Iraq Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:37 PM PDT  President Barack Obama said key NATO allies stood ready to join the United States in military action to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq as he vowed to 'take out' the leaders of a movement he said was a major threat to the West. Obama said the Washington would hunt down and dismantle the organization, which has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, in the same way it had tackled al Qaeda since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and was doing to al-Shabaab in Somalia.
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| Family mourns slain journalist in tearful service Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:35 PM PDT  PINECREST, Fla. (AP) — Letters slain journalist Steven Sotloff wrote to his family before he was beheaded by Islamic State militants were read at his memorial service Friday, with him telling them to be happy and stay positive and that if they didn't meet again, he hoped they would in heaven.
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| Obama calls on allies to defeat Islamic State Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:20 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama on Friday outlined plans for a broad international coalition to defeat Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, but European allies gave a cautious reaction. Speaking at a NATO summit, Obama said the United States would also try to involve Middle Eastern allies in a strategy to counter the jihadists, who have overrun large swathes of territory.
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| US: 'No plans' for military coordination with Iran over IS Posted: 05 Sep 2014 01:08 PM PDT  The United States said Friday it has "no plans" for any military coordination with Iran in the fight against Islamic State fighters operating in Iraq and Syria. "We are not going to coordinate military action or share intelligence with Iran and have no plans to do so," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said, reacting to reports that Tehran had approved such an arrangement. Harf said that Washington was "open to engaging" with Iran as it had in the past on select issues, notably on Afghanistan in late 2001, when the two sides worked to put Hamid Karzai into power after the fall of the Taliban. The BBC earlier reported, citing unnamed sources in Tehran, that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had approved cooperation with the US in the fight against Islamic State.
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| Minnesota man gets two-year sentence for soldier identity thefts Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:57 PM PDT A Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to identity theft for swiping personal data including Social Security numbers on 400 soldiers from his former U.S. Keith Novak gave information on about 100 of the soldiers to undercover FBI employees from July 2013 to November 2013 in exchange for two payments totaling $4,000 while he was serving in the Minnesota National Guard, prosecutors said. He served in Iraq while on active duty in the Army and had joined the Minnesota National Guard in September 2012. His attorneys had sought a sentence of no more than a year, arguing in part that he was disillusioned after serving in Iraq. |
| US confirms death of Somalia terror group leader Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:55 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airstrikes earlier this week killed the leader of the al-Shabab terrorist group in Somalia, the Pentagon said Friday. President Barack Obama said the death of Ahmed Abdi Godane demonstrated U.S. counterterrorism resolve and was an example of his deliberate approach to dismantling al-Qaida affiliated groups.
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| Senator seeks to strip U.S. citizenship from Islamic State recruits Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:54 PM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator said Friday that Americans who join, support or fight with Islamic State should lose their U.S. citizenship, and said he would introduce legislation to bar anyone who does so from returning to the country. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican and conservative firebrand who is seen as a likely 2016 presidential contender,- said he would introduce his "Expatriate Terrorist Act" on Monday, the first day Congress is back from its five-week August recess. ...
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| IS executes Syrian youth after anti-jihadist protest: NGO Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:52 PM PDT  Islamic State fighters executed a youth in a Syrian town Friday, after hundreds of residents demanded they leave following regime air strikes that targeted the jihadists but killed eight civilians, a monitor said. Residents of Ashara, in the mostly IS-controlled eastern province of Deir Ezzor, protested in front of an IS headquarters Thursday evening, hours after air strikes killed two children, five women and a man, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said. In response, IS gunmen opened fire and seized several young men, the Observatory and an activist said. The air strikes were part of a stepped-up campaign launched in recent weeks by President Bashar al-Assad's regime against IS-held towns and villages in eastern and northern Syria.
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| Man who stole Army IDs gets 2 years in prison Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:44 PM PDT MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Minnesota man who admitted to stealing identification information from soldiers in his former Army unit at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, then selling it so false identities could be created for militia members, was sentenced Friday to two years in prison. |
| Obama Says US Will 'Degrade and Ultimately Defeat' ISIS Like Al Qaeda Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:44 PM PDT  President Talks Tough on Terror Group
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| UN races to shelter refugees in Iraq before winter Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:43 PM PDT  Hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to northern Iraq to escape jihadist fighters are in desperate need of housing, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday. "Time is of the essence," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva, stressing there was an "acute" need for accommodation. The agency is organising a massive aid operation in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region to help many of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled there. Swathes of Iraq have been seized by militants since the beginning of the year, especially since jihadists from the Islamic State group launched an lightening offensive in June.
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| Hundreds at slain journalist Sotloff's service Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:40 PM PDT PINECREST, Florida (AP) — Letters slain journalist Steven Sotloff wrote to his family before he was beheaded by Islamic State militants were read at his memorial service Friday, with him telling them to be happy and stay positive and that if they didn't meet again, he hoped they would in heaven. |
| Iraq refiles case in U.S. court over disputed Kurdish crude Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:08 PM PDT  HOUSTON (Reuters) - Iraq has refiled in U.S. court to gain control of $100 million of Kurdish crude oil on a tanker near Texas, days after the court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to seize the cargo but said it could hear arguments over who is the oil's rightful owner. Iraq, in court documents seen on Friday, widened its case to include potential buyers of the cargo and said the Kurdistan Regional Government has not stated if it currently owns it. Baghdad urged the court to intervene by taking temporary control of the cargo until the dispute is resolved, and said the U.S. ...
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| NATO allies agree to take on Islamic State threat Posted: 05 Sep 2014 12:05 PM PDT  NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — The U.S. and 10 of its key allies agreed Friday that the Islamic State group is a significant threat to NATO countries and that they will take on the militants by squeezing their financial resources and going after them with military might.
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| Survivors demand justice after Iraq massacre Posted: 05 Sep 2014 11:54 AM PDT  By Raheem Salman DIWANIYA Iraq (Reuters) - No one disputes the horrific outcome: Iraqi military recruits were led off their base unarmed and murdered in their hundreds, machine gunned in mass graves by the Islamic State, whose fighters boasted proudly of the killings on the Internet. The massacre of the Iraqi army detachment at Camp Speicher in June was unprecedented even by the standards of Iraq's decade of sectarian war. It sent panic through Iraq and announced to the world that the Sunni militants of Islamic State were a new kind of foe, determined not only to seize and hold territory but to exterminate sectarian enemies who fell into their hands. They blame the government and local tribespeople in the surrounding Salahuddin province, who they say promised the recruits safe passage and allowed them to be led to their deaths.
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| For Congress, Campaigning Trumps Key Crises This Fall Posted: 05 Sep 2014 11:33 AM PDT  Congress returns from a five-week vacation Monday with an extraordinary array of problems to address, among them the Middle East crisis and the growing menace of the murderous Islamic State. With President Obama returning from a NATO summit in Wales with ideas for expanded military action against ISIS in Iraq and possibly Syria, lawmakers will be asked to signal how much military authority they're prepared to grant the president. On Friday Obama said the administration had formed a coalition of countries to oppose Sunni militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
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| Canada to send military advisers to Iraq Posted: 05 Sep 2014 11:07 AM PDT  TORONTO (AP) — Canada is sending between 50 to 100 military advisers to Iraq as part of an effort to bolster Iraqi forces against Islamic militants after a request from President Barack Obama.
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| Obama Takes Aim at ISIL, Russia in Fiery NATO Farewell Posted: 05 Sep 2014 10:30 AM PDT  President Obama spoke at the conclusion of the NATO summit in Wales on Friday, announcing the alliance's continuing and increasing support for Ukraine, while stressing the organization's commitment to defeating the Islamic State in Iraq. We've met at a time of transition and a time of testing... Russia's aggression against Ukraine threatens our vision of a Europe that is free and at peace." In his remarks, which came just an hour after a cease-fire went into effect in Ukraine, Obama discussed the creation of a NATO "rapid response force" to monitor the situation and intervene should pro-Russian separatists break the cease fire. Today the United States and Europe are strengthening our sanctions against Russia's financial, energy, and defense sectors."
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| Obama says U.S. will 'take out' Islamic State leaders Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:52 AM PDT President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States would hunt down Islamic State militants in Iraq and "take out" their leaders with the goal of dismantling the organization as it had done with al Qaeda and was doing in Somalia. In some of his toughest comments since Washington began air strikes last month to halt an Islamists' advance in northern Iraq, Obama set out a long-term plan to degrade and ultimately destroy the movement that has captured swathes of Iraq and Syria. We are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL, the same way that we have gone after al Qaeda," Obama told a news conference after a NATO summit in Wales. |
| Obama says hopeful but skeptical of Ukraine ceasefire Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:45 AM PDT NEWPORT Wales (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said he was hopeful but skeptical about a ceasefire agreed in Ukraine on Friday and urged European allies to agree on new sanctions against Russia that could be suspended if the peace plan holds. He also said he was leaving a two-day NATO summit in Wales confident that U.S. allies were prepared to join a broad coalition to take action to degrade and ultimately destroy Islamic State militants in Iraq. "We also sent a strong message to Russia that actions have consequences. ... |
| New Rescue Mission for ISIS Hostages Difficult, Still Possible: Experts Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:38 AM PDT  After Failed Secret Attempt in July, Former Commander Says American Special Ops Likely Eager to Complete Mission
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| Iran's supreme leader said to approve military cooperation with US Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:35 AM PDT Iran's top commander has been authorized to coordinate military operations with US, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq, according to a report today by BBC Persian, citing sources in Tehran. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is said to have approved military cooperation with the US, a longstanding adversary, in the fight against what Tehran and Washington view as a common and growing threat. The US launched airstrikes against IS positions that broke a two-month siege on the northern town of Amerli last weekend. Concurrently, Iranian military advisors were on the ground guiding an eclectic mix of Kurdish peshmerga forces, Shiite militias, and Iraqi Army troops. |
| House Republicans Won't Vote on an ISIL Resolution Unless Obama Asks For It Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:32 AM PDT  The House will only vote on a formal resolution authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State if President Obama makes a direct request for congressional action. Members in both parties have begun clamoring for Congress to respond to the advances of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, and those calls have grown significantly louder in the wake of the terrorists' videotaped beheadings of two U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) has already drafted a resolution authorizing the president to go after ISIL and other international terrorist groups, while Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said the Senate should not leave Washington this month without voting on an ISIL resolution. Tim Kaine (Va.) and Bill Nelson (Fla.) have also called on Obama to come to Congress.
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| Key allies ready to join U.S. military action in Iraq: Obama Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:29 AM PDT  Key NATO allies stand ready to join the United States in military action to defeat Islamic State militants in Iraq, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday. He said Washington would destroy the movement just as it had gone after the Islamist militants of al Qaeda, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Obama said NATO leaders were unanimous at a summit in Wales that the radical Sunni fighters posed a significant threat to the West and he had found support for U.S.
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| NATO approves new force aimed at deterring Russia Posted: 05 Sep 2014 09:25 AM PDT  NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — Seeking to counter Russian aggression, NATO leaders approved plans Friday to create a rapid response force with a headquarters in Eastern Europe that could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack.
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| France ready to act against Islamic State group Posted: 05 Sep 2014 08:40 AM PDT NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — French President Francois Hollande says his country is ready to join a coalition to take action against the Islamic State group if Iraqi authorities request it and the United Nations approves. |
| Some Christians arm as Mideast perils mount Posted: 05 Sep 2014 08:30 AM PDT  QAA, Lebanon (AP) — Every day around sunset, dozens of residents of this small Lebanese Christian village on the border carry their automatic rifles and deploy on surrounding hills, taking up positions and laying ambushes in case Muslim extremists from neighboring Syria attack.
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| France's Hollande says would join alliance to fight Islamic State Posted: 05 Sep 2014 08:29 AM PDT French President Francois Hollande said on Friday that France would join a military coalition to help battle Islamic State militants in Iraq if asked by the government there, but did not provide specific details. Hollande spoke at a news conference on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Wales, where earlier in the day the United States said it was forming a "core coalition" of allies and partners to fight the militants. The response is yes," Hollande told journalists, when asked if France could be involved in possible air strikes or boots on the ground. France was already in discussion with its partners, Hollande said, adding that he would not provide further details. |
