Biden warns ISIS
Biden says the U.S. is grieving the deaths of Foley and Sotloff and will bring ISIS to justice:
They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.
He says America will not be intimidated by brutal acts like the beheading by ISIS of the two journalists:
We came back after 9/11. We dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama bin Laden would never, ever again threaten the American people. We came back after Boston strong, blaming no one but resolving to be certain that this didn’t happen again. As a nation, we’re united, and when people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget.
Cold threatens Iraq refugees
The UN High Commission on Refugees says the upcoming winter threatens to worsen conditions for around half a million displaced Iraqis receiving UN aid in August. A statement:
Time is now of the essence in providing support to Iraq’s displaced. Winter is approaching fast, with snow, rain and muddy conditions. In less than three months from now, daily temperatures will average less than ten degrees Celsius, and the rains will begin.
The agency says it has provided more than 100,000 mattresses, 10,000 family tents, and 40,000 jerry cans for water as well as tens of thousands of other essential items for some of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled into the northern Kurdistan region. It will send another 10 aid flights into Erbil over the next few days to supply 40,000 blankets, 10,000 kitchen sets, and almost 18,000 plastic tarpaulins. However the accommodation situation remains acute and the agency needs extra financial support:
UNHCR, as a part of the UN humanitarian relief effort, will be launching an appeal for an additional US$350 million to help meet these needs. The main focus will be on providing life-saving protection services and assistance to respond to the most urgent basic needs of displaced Iraqis, including winterization support.
House lawmakers urge Syria strikes
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s senior members urge Obama to authorize strikes against ISIS in Syria. Panel chairman Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member:
Target them and target the terrorist training camp where they’re bringing thousands of fighters from around the world, putting them through training over a period of weeks to teach them how to conduct terrorist activities. Those camps and the munitions should be targeted as well.
‘Not as dangerous as Al Qaeda’
The top U.S. counterterror official says ISIS presents a threat to U.S. security but is not as grave a threat as Al Qaeda. National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen says at a Brookings Institute event that the group could inspire a lone wolf attack by a sympathizer in the U.S.:
[ISIS] poses a direct and significant threat to us [and] has the potential to use its safe haven to plan and coordinate attacks in Europe and the United States
But it is not as capable of carrying out a large-scale attack as al Qaeda was before 9/11:
ISIL is not al Qaeda pre 9/11. We are not what we were pre 9/11. We are so much better postured, in so many ways, to see, detect, stop any attack like what we saw on 9/11.
The major threat is to U.S. troops in Iraq:
We have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the United States … in the near term, we’re focused on protecting our personnel on the ground in Iraq.
‘We will secure international coalition’
Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes says the U.S. is sure of securing international support in the fight against ISIS from European nations concerned that radicalized jihadis who have traveled to the Middle East could return home and create a domestic terror threat. In an interview with CNN:
I absolutely do believe that there will be a coalition of countries from the international community, from here in NATO, also from the region where many of the neighbors have stepped up and said they want to be a part of that type of effort
While the U.S. has yet to commit to airstrikes in Syria there are many other ways partners could contribute:
Intelligence. Law enforcement. Lots of ways for nations to step up to the plate and be a part of this coalition
Kerry: Fight may take years
Kerry says that the U.S. needs to combat ISIS without putting boots on the ground:
We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own.
It may take years to defeat the group:
We’re convinced in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy Isis. It may take a year, it may take two years, it may take three years. But we are determined.
‘A dozen American fighters’
A Pentagon spokesman says that around 100 American fighters are ‘operating inside Syria,’ and the U.S. government believes that several of them have joined ISIS. Col. Steven Warren:
We believe there are maybe a dozen that are with ISIL
‘Send Syrian refugees home’
Lebanese Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi proposes dividing refugees from the Syrian conflict by political alliance and deporting them:
What is at stake now is the proposal that refugees who trust the regime return to the areas under regime control, and those who have faith in Nusra Front and ISIS go to the regions under their control.
Azzi says the option of setting up camps for the refugees similar to the ones existing in Jordan and Turkey is no longer relevant. The remarks come after protests by the families of security personnel kidnapped by ISIS and Al-Nusra Front, the Syrian arm of Al Qaeda.
Witness: Haines kidnapped by ‘professionals’
A Syrian translator for the charity that David Haines was working with says he was taken in March 2013 by ‘professional gunmen’ who targeted the vehicle in the hopes of gaining Western victims. Haines was in the final hours of a three-day tour to assess locations for new refugee camps in the north of Syria for the Paris-based Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) when he was abducted with the organisation’s Italian coordinator, Federico Motka. Details of the abduction have previously been kept secret until ISIS threatened Haines this week in a video containing the execution by beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff.
British militants ‘disillusioned’
The International Centre for Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) at King’s College London says it has talked to British militants fighting with ISIS who are growing disillusioned with the group’s aims and its infighting with rival opposition factions. One jihadist claiming to represent 30 British fighters with a group linked to ISIS says they would be willing to undergo deradicalisation and submit to surveillance if they were assured of avoiding jail terms on their return. He tells ICSR:
We came to fight the regime and instead we are involved in gang warfare. It’s not what we came for but if we go back [to Britain] we will go to jail. Right now we are being forced to fight – what option do we have?
ICSR director Peter Neumann believes up to a fifth of British jihadists could be looking for a way to disengage from the fighting in Syria:
The people we have been talking to… want to quit but feel trapped because all the government is talking about is locking them up for 30 years.
Rubio: Congress doesn’t need to OK airstrikes
Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) says Obama does not need authorization from Congress to launch airstrikes in Syria, and should act immediately against ISIS. In a letter to Obama:
Just as the U.S. has conducted operations against terrorists elsewhere, there is no legal reason preventing you from targeting ISIL in Syria
‘Airstrikes in Syria won’t work’
Schiff, a Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says airstrikes in Syria won’t address the primary threat to the U.S. and could increase the risk factor:
The most significant threat we face from ISIS will be the return of foreign fighters to our shores, something an aerial campaign over Syria will do little to address. And in the absence of an immediate threat to our homeland from ISIS planners in Syria … the most profound consequence of U.S. airstrikes may be to give us greater ownership of Syria’s brutal civil war.
The U.S. leveraged potential military strikes and assistance to get Iraqis to jettison Nouri Al-Maliki and form an inclusive government, but the U.S. cannot work with the regime in Damascus:
Bashar al-Assad has gassed and dropped barrel bombs on his own people and teaming up with him would only further drive Sunnis into the arms of ISIS.
Instead the U.S. should take advantage of growing discontent among Assad’s backers – Iran and the Alawite tribe – to lessen the regime’s support.
If we discover an imminent threat to the United States emanating from Syria—and that day may come—the president would be right to attack it and he will enjoy Congress’ full support and authorization. But airstrikes now would only serve to harass, not defeat, ISIS. Let’s use the promise of American military assistance to replace, not reinforce, Assad, so that we may begin to see the outlines of an end to the Syrian civil war and with it, ISIS.
Arab League statement
The 22-member Arab League says that it will join the fight against ISIS, taking all necessary security measures and cooperating with international and regional efforts to combat the group. Secretary-general Nabil el-Araby:
What is needed is a clear decision for a comprehensive confrontation, militarily and politically.
He says the plan includes accepting international intervention:
While some Arab states object to allowing the Arab League to intervene in their internal crises, the floodgates are opened to foreign intervention, including militarily.
He also calls for the activation of an Arab defence treaty to allow for military action when needed, suggesting that military action could take place under the umbrella of an Arab League joint defense pact.
Denies ‘mission creep’
The White House denies that the expansion of airstrikes in Iraq means it is engaging in ‘mission creep,’ saying that the mission parameters remain to provide humanitarian aid and protect U.S. personnel and facilities. Press Secretary Josh Earnest responds to questions about weekend strikes around the Haditha dam to support anti-ISIS fighters:
The way that it’s been described to me is that there is a threat that if ISIL decided to destroy the Haditha Dam that it could threaten or would threaten the airport downstream from the dam.
Video shows captured fighter jets
An ISIS propaganda video shows at least three MIG-21 fighter jets captured in the seizure of al-Taqba airbase. The footage obtained by CNN shows fighters displaying the ISIS flag above the captured jets at the base, which was seized around two weeks earlier. The jets are not shown in the air, however CNN Arabic reports that several pilots were captured along with their planes and helicopters at al-Tabqa. It says a tweet from ISIS claims they are forcing the prisoners to train militants to fly the stolen aircraft.
Urges intelligence cooperation on ISIS
Israeli defense officials urge cooperation between global intelligence services on ISIS. Defense Minister Ya’alon tells Israel Radio:
In order to stop and overcome the Islamic State, we have learnt since 9/11 that there must be cooperation between intelligence agencies from across the free world, a sharing of experience and operational cooperation
Former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin
The intelligence that we gather in the Middle East — which deals with threats from Iran, (Lebanon’s Shiite) Hezbollah, what’s happening in Syria, terrorist organizations in Sinai and the Gaza Strip — is of very good quality and we share it with our allies
‘Has the authority to act against ISIS’
The Obama administration says he will ask Congress to quickly authorize training and arming Syrian opposition forces in his prime-time speech on his anti-ISIS strategy due Wednesday night in Washington. The President will push forward on other areas of the anti-ISIS strategy without formal approval from lawmakers, potentially including widening airstrikes in Iraq and possibly expanding the air campaign to Syria. Following an hour-long meeting with congressional leaders, the White House says Obama told them he ‘has the authority he needs to take action,’ but will still welcome action from action from Congress that would…
…aid the overall effort and demonstrate to the world that the United States is united in defeating the threat.
‘No evidence’ ISIS crossing Mexico border
Border officials say there is no evidence that ISIS militants are entering the U.S. via Mexico despite evidence that the possibility is being discussed on social media accounts related to ISIS. They say that radicalized militants returning to the U.S. remain a greater threat. Department of Homeland Security official Jennifer Lasley tells the House Homeland Security border security subcommittee:
We don’t have any credible information, that we are aware of, of known or suspected terrorists coming across the border.
John Wagner, assistant commissioner in the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s Office of Field Operation:
The number of known watch-listed persons we are encountering on the Southwest border is minimal compared to commercial aviation. We’re talking tens versus thousands.
‘Jihad poster girls’
Austrian authorities are concerned that 16-year-old Samra Kesinovic and 15-year-old Sabina Selimovic are inspiring other Austrian teens to join extremist groups after the pair allegedly ran away from their homes in Vienna to join ISIS. Interior Ministry spokesman Alexander Marakovits says authorities are noticing an increase in such incidents after a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old are detained attempting to leave the country, apparently to travel to Syria. Marakovits:
If we can catch them before they leave we have the chance to work with their parents and other institutions to bring the youngsters out of the sphere of influence that prompted them to act in this way the first place. Once they have left the country, even if they then changed their minds, it is then almost impossible to get them back.
UK, Germany: No air strikes
A day after President Obama tells American that the US will be joined by “a broad coalition of partners,” Britain and Germany announce they will not be participating in airstrikes against ISIS. British foreign secretary Philip Hammond says Parliament decided against participating in airstrikes in 2013, and it won’t be “revisiting” the matter. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country would not participate either.
To be quite clear, we have not been asked to do so and neither will we do so.