| Iraq parliament to convene for government vote Posted: 07 Sep 2014 01:52 PM PDT  Iraq's parliament is to meet on Monday to vote on a new government in a key moment for the country which is battling to regain territory from jihadist-led militants. "The Council of Representatives will hold a session... to form the government," said an invitation from parliament for media to attend. If a government is not agreed, this will mean a return to the start of the contentious process, leaving Iraq rudderless at a time of crisis. Government formation got off to a rocky start.
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| Arab governments agree to 'confront' IS jihadists Posted: 07 Sep 2014 01:12 PM PDT  Arab states agreed Sunday to take the "necessary measures" and were prepared to cooperate internationally to confront Islamic State militants, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said. At the start of a foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo, Arabi had called for a political and military confrontation with the jihadists and other militants he said threatened the existence of Arab states. He later stopped short of explicitly backing US air strikes targeting IS jihadists who control swathes of Iraq and Syria. "The Arab foreign ministers have agreed to take the necessary measures to confront terrorist groups including" IS, Arabi said at a news conference.
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| Chuck Todd (helped by Obama) launches his ‘Meet the Press.’ So how did he do? Posted: 07 Sep 2014 01:02 PM PDT Chuck Todd kicked off his tenure as NBC's new host for its struggling "Meet the Press" Sunday TV political talk show. Huffington Post senior editor Jack Mirkinson describes Todd's approach as "not radically different than David Gregory's, but … certainly livelier, less stuffy." (Gregory was the "Meet the Press" host recently fired when MTP – which had led the pack of Sunday news shows for years under the late Tim Russert – dropped to third in viewership.) He was engaged (and nicely tough in some places) with Obama … and he didn't seem too cowed by the task before him." Todd had President Obama as his principal guest Sunday, certainly a big deal even though Obama had his own agenda and talking points. |
| US expands Iraq air strikes to Sunni Arab heartland Posted: 07 Sep 2014 12:50 PM PDT  Washington expanded its month-long air campaign to Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, hitting Islamic State fighters west of Baghdad as troops and allied tribesmen launched a ground assault on Sunday. The new strikes deepen Washington's involvement in the conflict and are a significant escalation for President Barack Obama, who made his political career opposing the war in Iraq and pulled out US troops in 2011. The operation and the expanded US strikes come at a critical time, with Iraq's parliament set to meet on Monday to vote on a new government after a lengthy and contentious process to select a premier-designate and potential cabinet members. He said he would not announce the return of American ground troops to Iraq and would focus instead on a "counter-terrorism campaign".
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| Obama to set out plan to go on offensive against Islamic State Posted: 07 Sep 2014 12:38 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to Americans and consult with lawmakers this week to sell his plan to go on the offensive against Islamic State militants, but is trying to head off public concern about another big military escapade. Obama said that in his remarks on Wednesday he would "describe what our game plan's going to be." He will meet congressional leaders on Tuesday to seek their support for his strategy to halt the militant Islamist group. Obama indicated he did not believe he needed additional authorization from Congress to carry out the plan, although he intends to consult with lawmakers and might seek approval for additional funds. "I'm confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people," Obama said.
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| After Syria and Iraq, Islamic State makes inroads in South Asia Posted: 07 Sep 2014 12:33 PM PDT  By Hameedullah Khan and Saud Mehsud PESHAWAR/DERA ISMAIL KHAN Pakistan (Reuters) - Islamic State pamphlets and flags have appeared in parts of Pakistan and India, alongside signs that the ultra-radical group is inspiring militants even in the strongholds of the Taliban and al Qaeda. A splinter group of Pakistan's Taliban insurgents, Jamat-ul Ahrar, has already declared its support for the well-funded and ruthless Islamic State fighters, who have captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in a drive to set up a self-declared caliphate.
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| Arab League chief: Confront Islamic State group Posted: 07 Sep 2014 12:05 PM PDT  CAIRO (AP) — The head of the Arab League urged its members Sunday to confront Islamic State extremists "militarily and politically," issuing an apparent call to arms as President Barack Obama prepares to go to lawmakers and the American public with his own plan to stop the militants.
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| Congress coming back, must act to avoid shutdown Posted: 07 Sep 2014 11:28 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are streaming back to Capitol Hill after their summer vacation for an abbreviated September session in which feuding Democratic and Republican leaders promise action to prevent a government shutdown while holding votes aimed at defining the parties for the fall campaign.
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| Pope says war no way to address injustice Posted: 07 Sep 2014 11:21 AM PDT  War is not the way to address injustice, Pope Francis said Sunday, in comments that appeared to distance himself further from any faith-based justification for US airstrikes in Iraq. "War is never a satisfactory way to right injustices," the pontiff said in a message to an inter-faith colloqium being hosted in Antwerp, Belgium by the St Egido community.
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| Italian navy lands... a baby girl Posted: 07 Sep 2014 11:11 AM PDT  Italy's efforts to cope with the flow of migrants risking their lives to cross the Mediterranean in perilous conditions rarely give reason to warm the heart. Mother and daughter -- who was named Yambambi Yete -- were both reported to be doing fine after the on-board birth on Saturday. Many migrants trying to reach Italy from Africa, often in overcrowded, unseaworthy vessels operated by ruthless people traffickers, are fleeing strife in their countries of origin. This year has seen a surge in the numbers attempting to make the hazardous crossing from north Africa, with more than 100,000 having reached Italy since the turn of the year and nearly 2,000 having perished in the attempt, according to the UN refugee body UNHCR.
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| Arabs vow all necessary measures to combat Islamic State, other militants Posted: 07 Sep 2014 10:34 AM PDT CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League foreign ministers agreed on Sunday to take all necessary measures to confront Islamic State and cooperate with all international, regional and national efforts to combat militant groups. It also endorsed in the closing statement of its meeting in Cairo a UN Security Council resolution passed last month calling on member states to act to stem the flow of logistical, military and financial support to extremists in Iraq and Syria. (Reporting by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) |
| Arabs vow to confront Islamic State, cooperate with international efforts Posted: 07 Sep 2014 10:34 AM PDT  By Lin Noueihed and Omar Fahmy CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab League foreign ministers agreed on Sunday to take all necessary measures to confront Islamic State and cooperate with international, regional and national efforts to combat militants who have overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria. The Arab League also endorsed in the closing statement of its meeting in Cairo a UN Security Council resolution passed last month calling on member states to "act to suppress the flow of foreign fighters, financing and other support to Islamist extremist groups in Iraq and Syria". Baghdad had earlier submitted a draft resolution endorsing its own efforts to confront militants who have seized large areas for a cross-border caliphate and to condemn Islamic State's actions as war crimes and crimes against humanity. Diplomatic sources said before the meeting that Arab foreign ministers were set to endorse a U.S.
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| Iraq parliament session to vote on government scheduled for Monday Posted: 07 Sep 2014 10:10 AM PDT BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi parliament is scheduled to be convened on Monday night to vote on Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi's proposed cabinet, the parliament speaker Selim al-Jabouri's office said on Sunday. State television also reported the tentative plan to hold the session. The approval of the cabinet could still be delayed amid last-minute wrangling and brinkmanship over posts. The make-up of the cabinet has still not been revealed, but Abadi is expected to include representatives of all the country's religious and ethnic components in a bid to save Iraq from collapse. ... |
| U.S. air strikes target insurgents near Iraq's Haditha Dam Posted: 07 Sep 2014 09:40 AM PDT Obama has branded Islamic State an acute threat to the West as well as Middle East and said that key NATO allies stand ready to back Washington in action against the well-armed sectarian force, which has seized expanses of northern Iraq and eastern Syria and declared a border-blurring religious caliphate. The leader of a pro-Iraqi government paramilitary force in western Iraq said the air strikes wiped out an Islamic State patrol trying to attack the dam - Iraq's second biggest hydroelectric facility that also provides millions with water. "They (the air strikes) were very accurate. |
| Obama to speak Wednesday on Islamic State strategy Posted: 07 Sep 2014 09:25 AM PDT  US President Barack Obama says he will make a speech Wednesday to lay out his "game plan" to deal with and ultimately defeat Islamic State militants, but warned he was not going to wage another ground war in Iraq. "I'm preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from ISIL," Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," using an alternative name for the jihadist group. "On Wednesday, I'll make a speech and describe what our game plan's going to be going forward," Obama said in the interview, in which he gave his most explicit rundown yet of his strategy for taking on IS. Two days after returning from the NATO summit in Wales, Obama said he was confident he would be able to build a broad-based international coalition to take on Islamic State, which has carved out a stronghold in large areas of Syria and Iraq.
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| Obama to give speech on Islamic State group Posted: 07 Sep 2014 09:16 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will begin laying out a strategy this week to defeat Islamic State militants in the Middle East, meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday and giving a speech to the American people on Wednesday, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
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| Obama: Time to ‘Go on Some Offense’ Against ISIS Posted: 07 Sep 2014 08:34 AM PDT President Obama has faced criticism from all sides for what appeared to many to be an ad hoc approach to countering the spread of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The group, which has murdered ... |
| Obama to give speech Wednesday on Islamic State Posted: 07 Sep 2014 08:11 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will begin laying out a strategy this week to defeat Islamic State militants in the Middle East, meeting with congressional leaders Tuesday and giving a speech Wednesday, the eve of the 13th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. |
| U.S. Strikes ISIL Target Near Hadith Dam Posted: 07 Sep 2014 07:39 AM PDT  "We conducted these strikes to prevent terrorists from further threatening the security of the dam, which remains under control of Iraqi Security Forces, with support from Sunni tribes," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement. "If that dam would fall into ISIL's hands or if that dam would be destroyed, the damage that would cause would be very significant and it would put a significant, additional and big risk into the mix in Iraq," Hagel told reporters during a trip to Tbilisi, Georgia. "They (the air strikes) were very accurate. There was no collateral damage ... If Islamic State had gained control of the dam, many areas of Iraq would have been seriously threatened, even Baghdad," Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, the leader of a pro-Iraqi government paramilitary force in western Iraq, told Reuters.
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| Obama on Islamic State: 'This is not the equivalent of the Iraq war' Posted: 07 Sep 2014 07:25 AM PDT President Barack Obama says the threat posed by the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria is "serious," but the administration's strategy to defeat them will not involve U.S. ground troops. |
| U.S. moves to reassure Georgia as Ukraine crisis stokes unease Posted: 07 Sep 2014 06:34 AM PDT  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel vowed to help further strengthen Georgia's military during a rare visit on Sunday to the former Soviet republic, which has watched Ukraine's crisis with alarm after fighting its own brief war with Russia in 2008. Georgia's capital Tbilisi was Hagel's first stop after the NATO summit in Wales, where Georgia was given an enhanced status that inched it closer to its goal of NATO membership -- something fiercely opposed by Moscow. "Russia's actions here and in Ukraine pose a long-term challenge that the United States take very seriously," Hagel told reporters after talks Georgia's defense chief. "But President (Vladimir) Putin's actions have brought the United States and our friends in Europe, including Georgia, closer together." His comments came as a fledging ceasefire in Ukraine began to fray with resumed fighting in a five-month-old conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
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| NATO's new missions won't solve Ukraine, Iraq crises Posted: 07 Sep 2014 06:14 AM PDT  By Paul Taylor and Adrian Croft NEWPORT Wales (Reuters) - NATO leaders emerged from a summit in Wales with a plan to protect eastern members from a resurgent Russia, a pledge to reverse the decline in their defense spending, and an embryonic Western coalition to combat Islamic militants in Iraq. Yet despite ringing declarations of resolve, the U.S.-led alliance cannot fix the conflict between Ukraine and Russian-backed separatists, and the West is still a long way from having a strategy to defeat Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria.
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| A brush with death in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq Posted: 07 Sep 2014 06:06 AM PDT The events of the next hours and days bring home the ongoing costs and broad trauma of Iraq's struggle for stability. Mohamed is a Methboub, the second oldest son in an Iraqi Shiite family the Monitor has followed since late 2002, opening a window into the lives of a typical Baghdad family caught up in the forces unleashed by the US-led invasion. Not long ago, the poverty-stricken family thought they were over the worst. For years their Baghdad district was rocked by car bombs as the capital reeled from vicious ethnic cleansing. |
| US launches airstrikes around Iraq's Haditha Dam Posted: 07 Sep 2014 04:38 AM PDT TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — The U.S. military said Sunday it launched airstrikes around Haditha Dam in western Iraq, targeting Islamic State insurgents there for the first time in a move to prevent the group from capturing the vital dam. |
| Face the Nation Transcripts, September 7, 2014: Rubio, Kissinger, Ruppersberger Posted: 07 Sep 2014 03:18 AM PDT A transcript of the September 7, 2014 edition of Face the Nation. Guests included Marco Rubio, Henry Kissinger, Dutch Ruppersberger, Anthony Salvanto, David Leonhardt, Peggy Noonan, David Ignatius, Peter Baker. |
| US 'not serious' in fight against IS: Iran Posted: 07 Sep 2014 03:10 AM PDT  Iran accused the United States Sunday of not taking the threat from Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria seriously, and charged that US aid had previously helped the jihadists. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif levelled the accusations despite an expanding US air campaign in Iraq since August 8 that provided key support in relieving a jihadist siege of a Shiite Turkmen town north of Baghdad late last month. Iran and the United States have a shared opposition to IS, which controls a swathe of both Iraq and neighbouring Syria, but both governments deny cooperating militarily against the jihadists.
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| Kerry discusses IS with Arab League chief Posted: 06 Sep 2014 09:13 PM PDT  US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the Islamic State threat with the head of the Arab League, ahead of the group's next round of discussions. The Arab League is due to hold a ministerial meeting in Cairo on Sunday to address fast-moving changes in the region. Kerry and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi "discussed the need for the Arab League and its members to take a strong position in the coalition that is developing against ISIL," a senior State Department official said, using one of the acronyms by which the Islamic State is known. Both men agreed that Iraq is on the frontline in the struggle against IS "and that Iraq, the United States, the region, and the international community must stand together to assist Iraq in facing this threat," the official said.
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| IS must be confronted 'militarily and politically': Arab League Posted: 06 Sep 2014 05:33 PM PDT  Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi on Sunday called for a military and political confrontation with Islamic State jihadists and other militants he said threatened the existence of Arab states. "What is needed is a clear decision for a comprehensive confrontation, militarily and politically," Arabi said at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers, a day after he and US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed taking action against the jihadist group that controls swathes of Iraq and Syria. The United States is looking for broad support for its campaign against the jihadist group, which its air force has already targeted in Iraq. An Arab League diplomat told reporters that the ministers were considering adopting a resolution on combating IS and "coordinating with the United States to confront this terrorist organisation".
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