Strategy Cartoon

Israeli soldier succumbs to wounds; Israel's Gaza death toll rises to 72

JERUSALEM –  The Israeli military says a soldier wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip has died, bringing the Israeli military toll in the recently concluded conflict to 66.
The military says 20-year-old Sergeant Shachar Shalev died Sunday. He was wounded on July 23, six days after Israeli ground forces entered the densely populated coastal strip.
Six civilians were also killed on the Israeli side, including one agricultural worker from Thailand.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed during the 50-day war.
Israel and Hamas agreed last Tuesday to an open-ended truce. The cease-fire brought an immediate end to the fighting but left key disputes unresolved.

Obama under pressure to delay immigration action until after midterms

It's all about politics.

President Obama is reportedly mulling the possibility of delaying making changes to U.S. immigration policy until after the upcoming midterm elections, after Democrats in tough Senate races have argued that it could damage their chances in November.
The president had been expected to use his executive authority to ease deportations and give temporary work permits to millions of illegal immigrants. 
After Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down a version of immigration reform, Obama announced that he intended to act on his own before the end of summer in order to make what he said were urgent changes to the immigration system. Republicans claim that such moves would exceed his legal authority if he were to act without congressional approval.
However, The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials are now debating whether to put off some or all of Obama’s policy changes until after the November election, after several Democrats running in tight elections in conservative states have urged the president to do so, claiming that such a move would damage their election prospects.
Democratic Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Mark Begich in Alaska and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, all have called for immigration reform to be addressed by Congress, not by the White House, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Obama said in a news conference Thursday that his timeline for immigration reform was unclear, and said that the child-migration crisis could affect the timing of any announcement.
"Some of these things do affect timelines, and we're just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done," Obama said.
Obama also faces pressure from immigrant-rights advocates strongly urging the president not to back down and to move forward as planned, especially as he has already delayed action once in 2014.
However, Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Mr. Obama's executive action on immigration would be unpopular no matter when he made it. 
"Whether President Obama declares executive amnesty in September, October or November, he has neither the legal authority nor the public support to do it," Dayspring told The Wall Street Journal.

Reid's name removed from center at Utah university from which he graduated

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s name has been removed from a Southern Utah University facility, following pressure from a conservative group to make the change.
The group received $40,000 in pledges over five days toward removing the Nevada Democrat’s name from the school’s Outdoor Engagement Center.
University President Scott Wyatt acknowledged Friday that he was under pressure from a group of conservatives to remove Reid's name but insisted that politics had nothing to do with his decision.
Reid’s name was removed last week from the front door of the facility, several months after two local elected officials and others met with Wyatt and told him about the campaign, Wyatt said.
He said he told the group to stop raising money and that pledge money would not be accepted to remove Reid's name.
Wyatt said he removed Reid’s name because "nobody" associated the senator with the outdoors. 
The center rents outdoor equipment to students, offers internship programs for students seeking outdoor careers and coordinates project-based learning activities for students. Reid graduated from the school in 1959.
Wyatt also said the school's 2011 naming of the center in Reid's honor generated no donations to it from the senator's friends as had been hoped. 
"The decision has nothing to do with politics," Wyatt told The Associated Press. "We're a university. We're full of Democrats and Republicans and Green Party members and Libertarians. We don't make partisan calls with regard to our esteemed alumnus.
"The leading factor is the center's leadership reported to me it created confusion. When people looked at the name, they didn't understand the connection (between the center and Reid). It was just a little difficult."
Reid issued a brief statement Friday.
"I was approached and asked to use my name and I was happy to, but there was no such agreement to have me raise funds for it," he said. "I'm not going to raise money to have my name placed on anything."
When the center was named for him, Reid touted his congressional record concerning public lands in Nevada, noting his role in the creation of Great Basin National Park, the designation of wilderness areas and an annual summit to protect Lake Tahoe.
At the time, he also criticized Utah's attempts to wrest control of public lands from the federal government.
Cedar City Councilman Paul Cozzens and Iron County Commissioner Dave Miller praised Wyatt's decision to remove Reid's name. They were among the group of conservatives who met with him last spring.
"This is a conservative base in southern Utah, and many people in southern Nevada also feel the same way," Cozzens told The Spectrum of St. George, Utah. "These people in Nevada do not espouse to Reid's political philosophies, and they told me they would not support the university or send any more of their children there ... so long as Harry Reid's name remained."
But Wyatt said plans call for a future center to be named for Reid on campus. The center's purpose will depend on who donates and their interests.
"Absolutely, he's one of our most distinguished alumnus," Wyatt said. "He's somebody we should all be proud of, regardless of politics ... . It's not Sen. Reid's concern as to whether we raise money (for the new center). It's ours."

ISIS CARTOON

Mitch McConnell's campaign manager resigns

Senator Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager resigned Friday in the wake of a scandal involving former Texas Rep. Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign, where he had been a top aide.
Jesse Benton said the decision to leave the staff of McConnell, R-Ky., “breaks my heart” but “inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors about me and my role in past campaigns” were becoming a distraction in McConnell’s efforts to win re-election in November.
His announcement stems from a political scandal in Iowa. Earlier this week, a former Iowa lawmaker pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his switch of support from one Republican presidential candidate to another before the 2012 Iowa caucuses.
Former state Sen. Kent Sorenson received thousands of dollars in "under the table payments" before switching loyalties from Michele Bachmann, whose Iowa campaign he headed, to Paul, then lied to federal investigators about the money, the Justice Department said. Prosecutors refused to say which campaign paid Sorenson.
Benton, a Tea Party insider, worked as a top aide to Paul.
In a separate statement Friday, McConnell's campaign said the senator "obviously has nothing to do with the Iowa presidential caucus or this investigation, so it would be inappropriate for his campaign to comment on this situation."
Benton was mentioned in documents gathered during an Iowa state ethics probe of Sorenson, a complaint to the Federal Election Commission and e-mails purported to be from the Ron Paul campaign obtained by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which monitors federal campaign finance issues, The Courier-Journal of Louisville reported.
McConnell, the Senate minority leader, is in a tight race for a sixth term against Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, Kentucky’s secretary of state.
Charly Norton, a spokeswoman for the Grimes campaign, said in a statement, "Sen. McConnell owes the people of Kentucky a full account of what he knew and when he knew it."
In his resignation statement, Benton said, “recently, there have been inaccurate press accounts and unsubstantiated media rumors about me and my role in past campaigns that are politically motivated, unfair and, most importantly, untrue... the press accounts and rumors are particularly hurtful because they are false.
“However, what is most troubling to me is that they risk unfairly undermining and becoming a distraction to this reelection campaign.”
He said his resignation would take effect Saturday.

Online posts show ISIS eyeing Mexican border, says law enforcement bulletin

EXCLUSIVE: Social media chatter shows Islamic State militants are keenly aware of the porous U.S.-Mexico border, and are “expressing an increased interest” in crossing over to carry out a terrorist attack, according to a Texas law enforcement bulletin sent out this week.
“A review of ISIS social media messaging during the week ending August 26 shows that militants are expressing an increased interest in the notion that they could clandestinely infiltrate the southwest border of US, for terror attack,” warns the Texas Department of Public Safety "situational awareness" bulletin, obtained by FoxNews.com.
The three-page bulletin, entitled “ISIS Interest on the US Southwest Border” and dated Aug. 28 was released to law enforcement on Thursday.
“Social media account holders believed to be ISIS militants and propagandists have called for unspecified border operations, or they have sought to raise awareness that illegal entry through Mexico is a viable option,” states the law enforcement bulletin, which is not classified.
It notes no known credible homeland threats or specific homeland attack plot has been identified. That assertion was underscored by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who said Friday that DHS and the FBI are "unaware of any specific, credible threat to the U.S. homeland" from Islamic State.
Despite assurances that no threat to American soil is imminent, the watchdog group Judicial Watch said Friday that Islamic State operatives are in Juarez, just across the border from Texas, and are planning to attack the United States with car bombs.
"Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat," Judicial Watch stated on its website.
The Texas law enforcement bulletin cites suspected fighters from the terrorist group previously known as ISIS and based in Syria and Iraq as eyeing a border crossing.
“The identities of persons operating these accounts cannot be independently verified; however the accounts were selected for monitoring based on several indications that they have been used by actual ISIS militants for propaganda purposes and collectively reach tens of thousands of followers,” states the bulletin. “One account was verified as belonging to an individual located in Mosul, Iraq.”
Some 32 Twitter and Facebook posts monitored by law enforcement over one recent week reflected interest in the southern border, according to the bulletin. The messages, which were forwarded thousands of times, included calls for jihadists to cross over from Mexico to carry out attacks and even alluded to a recent video by U.S. activist James O’Keefe, who was recorded coming across the Rio Grande valley in an Usama bin Laden costume.
The bulletin details numerous “calls for border infiltration” on social media, including one from a militant confirmed to be in Mosul, Iraq who explicitly beckons the “Islamic State to send a special force to America across the border with Mexico.”
“This Twitter account holder, who is the administrator of an ISIS propaganda trading group, stated that the time was right for such an action because ‘the US-Mexican border is now open large numbers of people crossing,’” the bulletin said.
Another message sent out via Twitter suggested that Islamic State fighters have already entered the U.S. via the border, warning that, as a result, “Americans in for ruin (sic).”
The Texas DPS bulletin comes on the heels of a federal Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice Joint Intelligence bulletin dated August 22, a copy of which was also obtained by FoxNews.com.That bulletin, entitled “Online Reaction but No Known Credible Homeland Threats from ISIL and Its Supporters Following US Air Strikes,”addresses potential threats to the Homeland in response to recent US air strikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets in Iraq and the murder of journalist James Foley.
This bulletin notes that while the FBI and DHS are unaware of specific credible threats against the U.S. from homegrown violent extremists, ISIL or other violent extremist groups overseas “we continue to assess that violent extremists who support ISIL have demonstrated the capability to attempt attacks on US targets overseas with little-to-no warning.”
The report also says that “because of the individualized nature of the radicalization process—it is difficult to predict triggers that will contribute to [homegrown violent extremists] attempting acts of violence…lone offenders present law enforcement with limited opportunities to detect and disrupt plots, which frequently involve simple plotting against targets of opportunity.”
“FBI and DHS assess that civilian deaths reportedly associated with these US military air strikes will almost certainly be used as further examples of a perceived Western war against Islam in English-language violent extremist messaging that could contribute to [homegrown violent extremist] radicalization to violence,” the report notes.
The FBI and DHS bulletin includes a section titled "ISIL Supporters Increasingly Using Social Media to Encourage Violent Acts against US Interests."
"ISIL and its online supporters have employed—and will almost certainly continue—Twitter “hashtag” campaigns that have gained mainstream media attention and been able to quickly reach a global audience of potential violent extremists, highlighting ISIL’s supporter message and encouraging individuals to commit acts of violence, in Iraq or in the West," the bulletin states.
"Several of the Tweets in response to the air strikes featured original and creative use of graphics—including a photo of the ISIL flag in front of the White House—and graphically rendered images depicting desecration of US monuments and landmarks."

Qatar's role as US ally at odds with claims it sponsors terror

The man in the above photo on the right thinks man on left is a dumb ass.                                                                                                                                            

If the Middle East were one big room, Qatar would be the elephant, according to a growing number of regional experts who believe the oil rich emirate is propping up violent jihadists around the globe even as it poses as a U.S. ally and would-be broker of peace.
Israel has long complained of Qatar's alleged duplicity, accusing it of meddling, bankrolling Hamas in Gaza, exporting radical Islamic terrorism through its tight links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Nusra. And a German official recently suggested that Qatar may also play a role in funding Islamic State, the savage extremist group behind the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley.
"You have to ask who is arming, who is financing ISIS troops? The key word there is Qatar - and how do we deal with these people and states politically?" German Development Minister Gerd Muller said last week.
In response, Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid bin Mohammed al-Attiyah unequivocally denied funding the Islamic State group.
"Qatar does not support extremist groups, including ISIS, in any way," he said in an emailed statement. "We are repelled by their views, their violent methods and their ambitions. The vision of extremist groups for the region is one that we have not, nor will ever, support in any way."
Indeed, Qatar was one of the first Middle Eastern countries to condemn Foley's murder, saying it was "a heinous crime that goes against all Islamic and humanitarian principles, as well as international laws and conventions."
Qatar hosts a U.S. military base, helped broker U.S.-backed peace talks between Israel and Hamas, helped free U.S. journalist Peter Theo Curtis from Al Nusra earlier this week and even played a role in the U.S. swap of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five Guantanamo Bay detainees earlier this year.
Yet previous statements from U.S. officials indicate that they know Qatar has a multi-faceted role in the region.
“Qatar, a longtime U.S. ally, has for many years openly financed Hamas, a group that continues to undermine regional stability,” Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen told the Center for New American Security on "Confronting New Threats in Terrorist Financing" in March. “Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria. To say the least, this threatens to aggravate an already volatile situation in a particularly dangerous and unwelcome manner.”
Qatar is a U.S. “frenemy,” according to Jonathan Schanzer, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. On one hand, it hosts the biggest U.S. military base in the Middle East at Al Udeid; invests tens of billions of dollars in the U.S and across the globe in a bid to make itself indispensable and acts as the ‘white knight’ intermediary in hostage negotiations.
On the other hand, Qatar is arming and funding Hamas in Gaza, brazenly fueling violent Arab uprisings including the brief and bloody reign in Egypt of the Muslim Brotherhood and is long alleged to be arming vicious rebel groups in Libya, Mali, Syria, Iraq, and Tunisia.
“Qatar is trying to cozy up to everyone," Meir Dagan, former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, warned the U.S. in a 2010 cable revealed by Wikileaks. "I think that you should remove your bases from [Qatar]. [The Qataris] owe their security to the presence of the Americans.”
Noting that Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have all recalled their ambassadors from Qatar, Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, called for Qatar to be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
"If we can get that done, then we can stop [the sale of U.S.] defense equipment and arms to Qatar.," Klein said. "There is an $11 billion deal to Qatar right now to sell them Apache helicopters, Patriot missiles, anti-tank rockets and such. This [designation] would enable both Israeli and Arab victims of Hamas attacks to sue Qatar in the United States.”
Klein is also working to try to suspend the FAA license for Qatar government-owned airline Qatar Airways to operate in the United States, but admits that getting enough U.S. politicians to speak out is a challenge.
Qatar’s policy of involving itself in so many different spheres on the world stage might finally be catching up with the tiny Gulf state that has a native population of just 250,000. The more Qatar seeks the limelight, the more scrutiny it attracts, and a growing number of informed observers around the world appear to increasingly believe that Qatar's two-faced foreign policy posture is being exposed.
“There are simply too many links, this network is too great, for us to pretend these are isolated instances of misguided individuals operating independently of government policy; or that this is merely part of talking to all sides in an argument,” Martin Samuel of Britain’s Daily Mail noted earlier this year. “Qatar has systematic and long-standing associations with some extremely dangerous people and information to support these allegations are established and in the public domain.”

Canada Cartoon

Former US judge on 'one-sided' UN Gaza inquiry headed previous probe that criticized Israel

A former New York State Supreme Court judge who replaced George Clooney’s fiancé on the latest United Nations-sponsored inquiry into human rights violations in Gaza once chaired another U.N. committee that harshly criticized Israeli for a previous military operation into the Hamas-controlled territory.
The “committee of independent experts in international humanitarian and human rights law” chaired by Mary McGowan Davis in 2011 was intended to follow up on  the now discredited Goldstone Commission investigating human rights violations in the wake of the 2008 operations, known as Operation Cast Lead, against the forces of Hamas. 
The Goldstone Commission’s report, which placed responsibility on Israel’s political and military leadership for human rights violations during the conflict including the direct targeting of civilians, was subsequently recanted by its chairman, South African jurist Richard Goldstone, for its unfounded accusations of Israeli war crimes and tilt against Israel—though it lives on in U.N. archives and references.
Both the Davis committee of 2010 and the current inquiry—generated by the U.N.’s 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva—were opposed by the U.S., which cast the sole negative vote against each of them.
In the case of the current three-person probe—called the Schabas commission, after its chairman, Canadian law professor William Schabas— the U.S. declared it was “deeply troubled” by the enabling resolution and said that it created “yet another one-sided mechanism targeting Israel.”
The U.S. attitude now, however, is more wait-and-see.  While reaffirming that the Obama Administration was “strongly opposed” to creation of the Schabas Commission,  a State Department official told Fox News that “we will watch closely to see if the commission takes a constructive, unbiased, and balanced approach to the investigation.”
He warned that “It risks damaging the reputation of the Human Rights Council and its ability to objectively and constructively address human rights in the region.”
Whether the Geneva-based Human Rights Council has any reputation left to damage is perhaps a more pertinent question. Nonetheless, the appointment of Davis, by providing a thread of continuity tracing back to the other distorted U.N. investigations against Israel in the now- simmering Gaza conflict, doesn’t indicate that the Council itself is fretting much about the issue.
For its part, Israel has charged bias against all of the investigations and refused to allow them into the territory.
Davis, who served on the New York Supreme Court from 1986 to 1998, was named to the latest inquiry on Monday by the current President of the Council, Baudelaire Ndong Ella, after British human rights attorney  Amal Alamuddin—better known these days as the fiance of George Clooney—turned down the job.
Davis can at least claim to have impressive amounts of experience on the issue. Before she chaired the 2011 “independent experts” probe, she was a member of its three-person immediate predecessor, which reported in September 2010  along the same lines as her own probe six months later.
When it came to even-handedness, both reports were also about the same. In the report resulting from the  inquiry she chaired, eight pages were devoted to the criticism of the shortcomings of Israeli military investigations into alleged crimes and excessed by Israeli forces, while three pages were devoted to Palestinian investigations—which were, the report noted delicately, “limited.”
The report also heard from Gaza’s ruling Hamas authorities—referred to as the “de facto Gaza authorities,” meaning they had no legal status—that they “did not have access to persons involved in the launching of rockets and mortars into Israel” –an assertion that the probe said left it “concerned,” but not much else.
The committee also took with a straight face the assertion by “de facto authorities” that they had conducted seven investigations of alleged human rights violations by their forces—against fellow Palestinians” but that four of the cases had been “discontinued at the request of the victim.”
Overall, the Davis committee said mildly, “It considers that the de facto authorities should make genuine efforts to conduct criminal inquiries and to hold accountable those who have allegedly engaged in serious violations of international humanitarian law by firing these rockets.”

Census figures show more than one-third of Americans receiving welfare benefits

Fifty years after the “war on poverty” was first waged, there are signs a new offensive is needed.
Newly released Census data reveals nearly 110 million Americans – more than one-third of the country – are receiving government assistance of some kind.
The number counts people receiving what are known as “means-tested” federal benefits, or subsidies based on income. This includes welfare programs ranging from food stamps to subsidized housing to the program most commonly referred to as “welfare,” Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
At the end of 2012, according to the stats, 51.5 million were on food stamps, while 83 million were collecting Medicaid – with some benefitting from multiple programs.
Though the programs were created to help those in need, some analysts worry that the way they’re designed is, increasingly, incentivizing people not to work. They note that when recipients combine several government assistance programs, in many cases they pay better than going to work.
The Cato Institute’s Michael Tanner said that in the eight most generous states, the benefits can be tantamount to a $20 minimum wage – which would exceed the $7.25 minimum wage in most states.
“So in many cases people could actually do better on welfare than they could in an entry level job," Tanner said.   
Supporters say the safety net is necessary to keep Americans from living in dire conditions. As for concerns that these benefits pay better than working, they argue the solution is to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
"I think a lot of people would do the jobs when they pay a living wage,” said Melissa Boteach, from the Center for American Progress. “In addition, there's growing jobs in health care and information technology and energy. There's a lot of places where, if able to make investments, we can really grow our economy in those sectors.”
As millions still rely on government assistance programs, technology and automation have eliminated jobs many Americans used to do with a high school diploma. The challenge for policymakers is helping the economy adjust.  
"We have to figure out a way around this. Put innovation in play and really figure out how we're going to create a new economy where we can both raise wages and create more jobs for people," Boteach said.
Tanner said there must be a serious effort to put people back to work because the continued growth of these entitlement programs is unsustainable. The number of people on such benefits is up slightly from 2011.
The government still runs a half-trillion dollar deficit, according to the most recent estimates, and the national debt is nearing $18 trillion.
"You can't in the long run have a society in which you have to rely on a smaller and smaller group of wealth producers who have to support more and more people who are not contributing to that wealth," Tanner said.

Fort Hood shooter says he wants to become 'citizen' of Islamic State caliphate

 Bailey Comment: "This just shows you how politically correct our officials in the government are. He should have been put up against a wall and shot for the mad dog he is !"


The convicted shooter in the Fort Hood massacre has written a letter to the leader of the Islamic State saying he wants to become a "citizen" of the caliphate, in the latest example of the terror group's reach inside the U.S.
The letter from Nidal Hasan, obtained by Fox News, comes after two Americans reportedly died fighting for ISIS in Syria. Sources late Wednesday identified the second as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis. Fox affiliate KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reported that Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McArthur McCain, who grew up outside Minneapolis in the town of New Hope and most recently lived in San Diego.
The State Department said Thursday it could not confirm Muhumed’s death and efforts to reach his family were unsuccessful.
In the undated letter, Hasan -- who fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 at Fort Hood in 2009 in what the Defense Department called “workplace violence”-- tells ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that he wants to join the caliphate.
"I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State,”Hasan says in the handwritten document addressed to “Ameer, Mujahid Dr. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”
"It would be an honor for any believer to be an obedient citizen soldier to a people and its leader who don't compromise the religion of All-Mighty Allah to get along with the disbelievers."
The two-page letter includes Hasan’s signature and the abbreviation SoA for Soldier of Allah.
Hasan's attorney, John Galligan, said the letter “underscores how much of his life, actions and mental thought process are driven by religious zeal. And it also reinforces my belief that the military judge committed reversible error by prohibiting Major Hasan from both testifying and arguing…how his religious beliefs” motivated his actions during the shooting.
In the last year, the Department of Justice has brought at least five prosecutions against Americans -- in Florida, California, Virginia and North Carolina - for trying to help terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
Omar Jamal, who is well known in Minneapolis’ Somali community, said at least 10 young men from there have been recruited to travel to Syria for ISIS.
"Douglas McCain wasn't the first one and unfortunately he won't be the last,"Jamal told KMSP-TV.
The former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee that investigated radicalization in a series of congressional hearings said there is a pattern.
“It was clear and convincing evidence then, that there was a pipeline from Minneapolis to Islamic jihad overseas,” said Peter King, R-N.Y. “And that people in the community knew about it and that people in the community were covering it up.”

Whopper Cartoon

Minnesota man is second American ISIS fighter killed in Syria, sources say

Is that a American Tank??

A second American killed fighting with the Islamic State group in Syria has been identified as Abdirahmaan Muhumed, of Minneapolis, two sources told Fox News late Wednesday. 
KMSP-TV in Minneapolis reported that Muhumed was killed in the same battle as Douglas McArthur McCain, who grew up outside Minneapolis in the town of New Hope and most recently lived in San Diego. The State Department confirmed McCain's death earlier this week, but spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the U.S. has no independent confirmation of the second American's death. "We're looking into it," she said.
A source told Fox News that Muhumed's family had been sent a photo of his body from Syria, but had not been formally notified by the State Department. 
A profile of Muhumed by Minnesota Public Radio this past June described him as a 29-year-old Somali-American who had been married more than once and was a father of nine children. MPR reported, citing the FBI, that at least 15 young men from the Twin Citites' Somali-American community had traveled to Syria to join Islamic State, the militant group formerly known as ISIS that has captured wide swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. 
In a Facebook messages to an MPR reporter, Muhumed wrote "I give up this worldly life for Allah" and "Allah loves those who fight for his cause." A picture posted on the social network showed Muhumed carrying a Koran in one hand and a rifle in the other. 
Federal investigators believe that approximately 100 Americans have traveled to Syria to join Islamist groups. Most of them are disaffected young men targeted by recruitment videos like those one put out by the Somali-based, Al Qaeda-linked group al-Shabaab that praised Minnesota's "martyrs." One such "martyr" was Troy Kastigar, a high school classmate of Douglas McCain and a Muslim convert who was killed in Somalia in 2009. 
Abdi Bihi, a leader in the Twin Cities' Somalian community, told KMSP that ISIS has recently begun trying to recruit young women from the Twin Cities to their cause.
"They are brainwashing them to marry them off to jihadists," he said. "They call them to help out as nurses, help out the wounded -- but the real catch is they will be sexually exploited."
While the jihadists may see fighting as a path to paradise, Bihi said the only thing young people who take that path will face is disappointment, possibly even death.
"What will not change is the pain and agony and suffering of the parents," he lamented.

Federal consumer watchdog agency hit with complaints of retaliation, discrimination

The federal consumer watchdog agency has been beset by complaints of retaliation and discrimination, according to a published report. 
The Washington Times, citing congressional investigators, internal documents, and interviews with employees, reports that workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) filed 115 official grievances through the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in 2013 alone. 
Among the complaints are that managers retaliated against employees for comments or questions that they didn't like by denying vacation time, refusing internal requests for promotion, and hiring unqualified acquaintances who would have to be trained by employees in lower positions. 
"Certain managers have adopted an authoritarian, untouchable, unaccountable and unanswerable management style," CFPB enforcement attorney Angela Martin told Congress earlier this year.
More seriously, according to the Times, Martin's testimony alleged the existence of an entire department at the CFPB nicknamed "The Plantation" that is staffed almost entirely of black workers supervised by white managers with no obvious promotional track.
"There is an entire section in Consumer Response Intake that is 100 percent African-American, even the contractors, and it is called 'The Plantation,'" Martin said. "And people tell me it’s very hard to leave The Plantation. You must be extremely savvy, or you must [have] somebody else [help you] to get out. And I will note, you cannot say education is a factor, because there are licensed attorneys and [people with] advanced master’s degrees working there."
CFPB spokeswoman Jen Howard told the Times that Martin's claims are incorrect, claiming that the vast majority of the promotions from the consumer response intake section went to minorities. 
Issues of discrimination first came to light at the CFPB earlier this year, when agency director Richard Cordray told staff members in an email this past May that "broad-based disparities" in the way employees were rated in 2012 and 2013 had been uncovered in several areas including: race/ethnicity, age, bargaining unit membership eligibility, location in the field or at headquarters, and tenure as a CFPB employee.
A 2013 internal agency report found 74.6 percent of white employees ratings of four or five compared with 65.2 percent of Hispanics and 57.6 of black employees. That resulted in the agency scrapping its old rating system, which assigned workers a score between one and five, in favor of giving everyone who scored a three or above a retroactive rating of five and a pay raise.
The Times reported that the issue was addressed at an agency-wide conference this past spring, where a management presentation vowed to "compensate employees to remediate [sic] statistical disparities caused by our prior performance management system and to bargain with NTEU to change it going forward." 
However, agency employees say that the retroactive raises have done nothing to eliminate the disparity, since almost every employee got a bonus of some kind.

George Will: IRS is 'off the rails' and 'corrupted'

George Will said Tuesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier" that new revelations in the investigation into the IRS targeting scandal show the agency is “off the rails” and “thoroughly corrupted."
The president of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch told Fox News Monday that Justice Department attorneys have said the "missing" emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner likely still exist in back-up computers. However, the attorneys told Judicial Watch that retrieving the emails would be “too onerous.”
Will, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, called the revelation a "really interesting defense."
“I can just hardly wait until the IRS lawyers go into that courtroom and tell the judge it would be too onerous to stop obstructing justice in this case," he said.
Will added that it is clear that the Justice Department cannot be trusted to investigate the case fairly. 
"The IRS is the most intrusive and potentially punitive institution of the federal government, and it is a law enforcement and it is off the rails and it is now thoroughly corrupted," he said. "And people are saying, well the Justice Department can take care of this. There’s a reason why Jack Kennedy had his brother attorney general. There’s a reason why Richard Nixon has his campaign manager John Mitchell attorney general. It’s an inherently political office, and it can’t be trusted in cases like this."

The debt we owe to those who stand between us and our enemies

I was only 5-years-old, but I remember well the cold, dreary Sunday,  December 7 in 1941, when our family gathered around my Granddaddy’s big floor model radio to listen to the news that the Japanese Imperial Air Force had attacked the United States naval facilities in Pearl Harbor.
That's the day the world changed for me, never to be the same in my life. The Second World War become very real to those of us in coastal North Carolina, where ships leaving my seaport hometown of Wilmington were sunk by German U-boats just miles off our coast, prompting a very real fear that the Nazis would try to bring the war on shore.
I learned very early in my life that only two things protect our nation: the grace of Almighty God and the United States military. 

I learned very early in my life that only two things protect our nation: the grace of Almighty God and the United States military.

That’s the way it was then, the way it is now and the way it will always be, as long as America is a free and sovereign nation. And I feel we owe an unpayable debt of gratitude to those who stand between us and our enemies.
Being exposed to the horrors of war creates unique problems for those who experience it up close. The needs of our returning veterans are many and diverse – life-changing injuries, deep-seated mental difficulties, damaged marriages and a myriad of other challenges that few of us who have not been there can begin to understand.
One day young men and women are dodging bullets and IEDs in the desert, and a couple of days later they're walking through the airport in Dallas among a hurrying crowd of travelers who have no idea what it's like to live in constant danger or see a buddy die.
How alone they must feel, how insignificant our bustling around must seem to them, how shallow our priorities, how indifferent our attitudes.
Sometimes we make the mistaken assumption that the men and women who serve in our military have an extra gene or some internal mechanism that staves off loneliness and enables them to be away from their families for months on end without experiencing the pain of separation the rest of us feel.
The truth is that they miss their families and loved ones just as badly as any civilian – or, given the circumstances of the desolate places they serve in, even worse. It’s actually courage and devotion to duty that enable them to weather their long deployments.
When we think about the care and welfare of our veterans, we tend to believe government programs have it all covered. But government programs are just another name for bureaucracies, often operated by insensitive bean counters, tight-fisted administrators and, as we've seen recently, downright crooks.
In my opinion, it is the duty of us, the private American citizens, to take up the slack, fill in the blank spaces and make sure our returning vets have the medical care, education, counseling and opportunities they so desperately need to jump-start an interrupted life.
Many good and dedicated service organizations have come along in the last few years, and they do a wonderful job of helping our vets readjust and re-acclimate. They would appreciate any support caring Americans can provide.
Tonight when you go home, look at your family and know they can go to bed and sleep in safety and wake up tomorrow in the freest nation on the planet.
Thanks to the grace of Almighty God and the United States military.
God, please bless America.
Charlie Daniels is an American patriot. A musician, singer and songwriter during his 50+ year career, he has scored hits on the rock, country, pop and Christian charts, and is a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Visit Charlie’s “Soap Box” blog and follow him on Twitter@CharlieDaniels.

US reportedly recruiting allies to support expanded airstrikes, Syrian opposition

The Obama administration is pressing U.S. allies to increase their support for moderate rebel groups in Syria, as well as possible military operations, according to a published report. 
The New York Times reported late Tuesday that White House officials believe that Great Britain and Australia would be willing to join the United States in a campaign of airstrikes in Syria, while the administration hoped that Turkey would give it access to key military bases. 
The Times also reported that the U.S. has asked Turkish government to help seal that country's border with Syria, which has proven to be an easy crossing point for foreign militants looking to join up with the Islamic State, the militant group formerly known as ISIS, in northern Syria. The paper reported that the White House is also seeking intelligence help from Jordan, as well as financial support for groups like the moderate Free Syrian Army from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. 
The political calculus of such maneuvering among America's Western allies is unclear. Last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron experienced one of the most humiliating defeats of his premiership when a motion to join potential airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad's government was rejected by Parliament. However, the atrocities committed by ISIS since its overrunning of broad swathes of Syria and Iraq, have seemingly galvanized Cameron to press for action. In a recent opinion piece in the Sunday Telegraph, Cameron said that Britain was "in the middle of a generational struggle against a poisonous and extremist ideology."
Late Monday, the Pentagon began sending surveillance drones on flights over Syria to gather intelligence on ISIS positions after Obama approved their use over the weekend. The Times cited a report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that “non-Syrian spy planes” on Monday carried out surveillance of ISIS positions in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.
The Assad government in Damascus has warned the U.S. not to strike ISIS positions on Syrian territory without asking permission. However, on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki emphatically rejected that condition, telling reporters "We're not going to ask permission from the Syrian regime." However, Psaki also noted that Obama had not made a final decision on whether to approve airstrikes in Syria. 
The Times also reported that the White House was also close to a decision to authorize airstrikes and aid drops around the town of Amerli in northern Iraq, home to a community of ethnic Turkmens, which has been besieged by ISIS for more than two months. The Turkmens, as Shiite Muslims, are thought of as infidels by the Sunni members of ISIS. 
Over the weekend, the United Nations' special representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, said the situation in Amerli was "desperate, and called for "immediate action to prevent the possible massacre of its citizens." The BBC reported Saturday that the town had no electricity or drinking water, and is running out of food and medical supplies.

School Cartoon

Officials estimate California earthquake caused $1B in damage

NAPA, Calif. –  The earthquake that jarred California's wine capital caused $1 billion in damage, Napa County officials estimated Monday as business owners mopped up high-end vintages that spilled from barrels and bottles and swept away broken glass in the rush to get the tourist hotspot back in shape for the summer's final holiday weekend.
With the dust still settling from Sunday's magnitude-6.0 temblor centered near the city of Napa, government and tourism officials assessing its economic and structural impact encouraged visitors to keep flocking to the charming towns, tasting rooms, restaurants and spas that drive the Napa Valley economy.
While cleanup will take time and broken water mains remained a problem, they said, the worst damage and disruption was confined to the city's downtown, where a post office, library and a 141-room hotel were among 150 homes and buildings deemed unsafe to occupy.
The strongest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in a quarter-century also caused several injuries, triggered fires that destroyed or damaged six mobile homes, and ruptured gas lines.
"Clearly, we are concerned that people are going to see that it was a catastrophe, and it certainly wasn't good, but it wasn't a catastrophe by any means," Clay Gregory, president of tourism organization Visit Napa Valley, said as workers at a shuttered downtown visitor's center updated lists of open wineries and surveyed hotels about cancellations. "The real story is that it has impacted a very small part of the valley."
In Napa Valley, two hotels and 12 wineries were still closed Monday, as well as many of the businesses downtown, he said.
Local officials have an early working estimate that Napa Valley suffered $1 billion in property damage, but they hope the long-term economic impact of the quake to businesses will be modest, Napa County Supervisor Bill Dodd said. He said 80 percent of the valley's 500 or so wineries were unaffected.
If people "think Napa is devastated, it's anything but devastated. We're only 24 hours out from an earthquake, and we're on our way back," Dodd said.
CoreLogic Eqecat, which models economic losses from disasters, estimates that insured losses from the earthquake could range from $500 million to $1 billion. Vineyards have already started to harvest their grapes, crush them and store the juice. If the earthquake had happened before the harvest, Eqecat notes, the losses would have been lower.
The wine business and associated tourist crowds represent a bulk of Napa County's economy. Visit Napa Valley estimates that 3 million tourists spend $1.4 billion a year within the county. The Napa Valley Vintners trade association says the industry generates more than $13 billion of economic activity each year, including 46,000 local jobs.
The Napa Valley Wine Train, which offers tourists a three-hour journey through 18 miles of wine country, canceled its service Monday but planned to resume trips Tuesday. Other tour operators said they were taking it one day at a time, readjusting tours as each winery decides when to reopen.
"We've definitely had to make some last-minute adjustments for this week as people are assessing damage," said Sherry Laseke, whose family owns Saint Helena Wine Tours, a boutique luxury tour operator. "Everybody is dealing with broken glass."
The 19th-century stone-and-masonry Victorian buildings that form the core of Napa's downtown, and are part of the town's attraction to tourists, were hit the hardest by Sunday's earthquake. That included the Andaz Hotel, which suffered water damage and was declared uninhabitable on Sunday because of falling roof debris.
Front desk host Omar Hurtado stood outside with a push broom Monday, holding the door for the newly hired cleanup crews that had replaced the guests evacuated after the earthquake. The hotel is hoping city inspectors will clear it to reopen by the end of the week, he said.
"This is the time of year when we are sold out every night practically," Hurtado said, noting that the August, September and October grape harvest represents the busiest time of year for both vintners and the visitors who come from all over the world to see them work.
Even with the earthquake making headlines and the hotel closed, people have been calling all day for reservations, he said.
"It looks like everybody is OK with what happened. They'll come back," Hurtado said.
Cynthia Kroll, an economist with the Association of Bay Area Governments who studied the economic impact of the Bay Area's last big earthquake 25 years ago, agreed. Napa might have some immediate harm, but "I certainly don't expect it to have any long-term effects on the area."
Jake Gukowsky, 35, and his wife, Sarah, moved to San Francisco from New York last week and celebrated with a quick weekend trip to wine country. They browsed the Carneros inn winery Monday after having ruled out cutting short their vacation.
"In New York, they say it takes seven years to experience everything," Jake Gukowsky said. "In California, it's three days — wineries, an earthquake, and you're in."
A hotel closer to the epicenter, Holiday Inn Express near American Canyon, reported 10 cancellations and 500 telephone calls about quake damage, but remained 90 percent booked, said Gregory, of the tourism organization.
With the harvest just starting this week, he said, both the grape crush and the attendant peak tourist season should still be good, he said.
"The grapes don't know there's been an earthquake," Gregory said.

GOP lawmakers say DOJ probe into IRS 'compromised,' demand special counsel

House Republicans are calling on the Department of Justice to appoint a special counsel for its probe into the IRS targeting scandal, claiming new evidence shows the investigation is “compromised” due to multiple instances of conflict of interest.
One example, according to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Regulatory Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Jim Jordan, involved a DOJ attorney representing the IRS in litigation relating to the scandal who used to work for the IRS and was involved in the targeting.
However Monday night a DOJ source confirmed to Fox News that the employee in question, Andrew Strelka, "no longer works at DOJ."
Issa, R-Calif., and Jordan, R-Ohio, said in a statement Monday that new documents have revealed conflict of interest in the investigation into the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. The lawmakers said they have sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding an independent special counsel be appointed for the probe.
“This new information about additional conflicts of interest within the Justice Department shows that almost every facet of the department with an interest in the IRS targeting investigation is compromised,” the letter states.
According to Issa and Jordan, Strelka, who was employed as an attorney at the Justice Department’s tax division, until recently represented the IRS in civil lawsuits filed over the targeting. However, Strelka used to work under Lois Lerner in the exempt organizations division of the IRS.
Lerner served as the IRS’s exempt organizations director when Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations had their applications for tax-exempt status held up for extra scrutiny.
According to the lawmakers, emails show that during his tenure Strelka was directly involved in the targeting of conservative groups. In one instance, Strelka was informed by a manager to be on the “lookout” for a Tea Party case.
“If you have received or do receive a case in the future involving an exemption for an organization having to do with Tea Party let me know,” the manager reportedly told Strelka.
The lawmakers also claim that a DOJ employee in the Office of Legislative Affairs maintained a close relationship with Lerner, and has worked to fundraise for Democratic candidates.
This is not the first time conservative lawmakers have raised the alarm about a potential conflict of interest in the probe. Republicans have previously complained that Barbara Bosserman, the lead DOJ attorney on the investigation, is unfit because she has donated to Democrats.
Holder has dismissed previous calls to appoint a special counsel in the investigation.

Ferguson

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Israeli airstrike levels 7-story building in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip –  Israeli airstrikes leveled a seven-floor office building and severely damaged a two-story shopping center in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, signaling a new escalation in seven weeks of fighting with Hamas.
The strikes in the southern town of Rafah came just hours after Israel bombed a residential tower in Gaza City, collapsing the 12-story building with 44 apartments.
A total of eight people were killed in Sunday's airstrikes. Israel said one of the dead was a Hamas official involved in handling the group's finances.
The targeting of large buildings appears to be part of a new tactic by Israel. Over the weekend, the army began warning Gaza residents in automated phone calls that it would target buildings harboring "terrorist infrastructure" and that they should stay away.
A senior military official confirmed that Israel has a policy of striking at buildings containing Hamas operational centers or those from which military activities are launched. The official said each strike required prior approval from military lawyers and is carried out only after the local population is warned.
However, he said, there was now a widening of locations that the military can target. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss the matter with reporters.
Speaking ahead of Israel's weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza residents to keep their distance from Hamas militants.
"I call on the people of Gaza to immediately evacuate any structure that Hamas is using to commit acts of terror," he said. "Every one of these structures is a target for us."
In the 12-story apartment tower, the target was a fourth-floor apartment where Hamas ran an operations center, according to Israeli media. In the past, Israel has carried out pinpoint strikes, targeting apartments in high-rises with missiles, while leaving the buildings standing.
The military declined immediate comment when asked why it collapsed the entire building instead of striking a specific apartment.
Meanwhile, Gaza militants continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel, including at least 10 on Sunday, one of which wounded three people on the Israeli side of the main Gaza crossing, the military said.
Israel's Defense Ministry said the three wounded were civilian drivers waiting to transport wounded Gazans who had been brought into Israel for treatment in hospitals. The Erez crossing is used by journalists, aid workers and Palestinians with Israeli permits to enter or leave Gaza.
In southern Israel, hundreds of people attended the funeral of 4-year-old Daniel Tragerman, who was killed Friday in a mortar attack. The mourners included Israel's President, Reuven Rivlin.
Elsewhere, five rockets were fired from Syria and fell in open areas in northern Israel. It was not immediately clear whether they were fired by pro-government forces or rebel groups.
Amid persistent violence, Egypt has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume indirect talks in Cairo on a durable cease-fire, but stopped short of issuing invitations.
Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have collapsed, along with temporary cease-fires that accompanied them. The gaps between Israel and the Islamic militant group on a new border deal for blockaded Gaza remain vast, and there's no sign either is willing to budge.
The Israeli military said it had carried out some 20 strikes on Gaza since midnight Saturday. Gaza police and medical officials reported eight fatalities.
The seven-story Zourab building bombed by Israeli aircraft early Sunday housed an office of the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Witnesses said the building in Rafah was leveled and that the strikes caused severe damage to nearby shops, homes and cars. It was not immediately clear if anyone was wounded or killed.
Another strike hit a nearby shopping center with dozens of shops, sparking a fire that gutted the two-story building and wounding seven people. After daybreak Sunday, smoke was still rising from the site as shop owners inspected the damage. Windows and doors had been blown out in nearby buildings.
The military said the two buildings were attacked because they housed facilities linked to militants, but did not provide details. Twenty-two people were wounded in Saturday's strike on the tower in Gaza City.
Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra, who confirmed the casualty figures for the strikes, said two people were killed in a pair of airstrikes near a coastal road on Sunday, including one on a group of people coming out of a mosque after morning prayers.
Two more fatalities were registered when a motorcycle following a car evacuating the wounded from the strikes was targeted, he said.
Another man was killed in an airstrike on a car, and an 18-month-old infant and a 17-year-old were killed in an airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza City. Three people were killed in an airstrike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, police said.
Palestinians identified the man traveling in the car as Mohammed al-Ghoul. Israel said al-Ghoul was responsible for Hamas' financial transfers for "terror funds." It did not elaborate, and the claim could not immediately be verified.
The U.N. estimates that more than 17,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged beyond repair since the war began on July 8. In some of the attacks, family homes with three or four floors were pulverized.
However, the weekend strikes marked the first time large buildings were toppled.
Since the fighting began, Israel has launched some 5,000 airstrikes at Gaza, while Gaza militants have fired close to 4,000 rockets and mortars, according to the Israeli military.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, including close to 500 children, have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials and U.N. figures. Israel has lost 64 soldiers and four civilians.
Israel says it is targeting sites linked to militants, including rocket launchers, command centers and weapons depots. The U.N. says about three-fourths of the Palestinians killed have been civilians.
With the war showing no signs of winding down, educational officials in Gaza said they were delaying the start of both U.N. and government-run schools. Classes in both were supposed to begin Sunday.
The U.N. said it would begin a gradual back to school program this week "to help students and teachers start to transition into a new school year."
The nearly two-month Gaza war stems from the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank by Hamas operatives in June, which triggered a massive Israeli arrest campaign in the West Bank, followed by an increase in rocket fire from Gaza.

Joint Chiefs chairman says ISIS not a direct threat to US, won't recommend Syria strikes yet

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said that he would not recommend U.S. military airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria until he determines that they have become a direct threat to the U.S.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, speaking to reporters on board a military plane traveling to Afghanistan, said Sunday that he believes the Sunni insurgent group formerly known as ISIS is more of a regional threat and is not currently plotting or planning attacks against the U.S. or Europe.
ISIS has repeatedly made threats to attack the U.S. through social and conventional media. Earlier this month, in a Vice News documentary, a spokesman for the group vowed to "raise the flag of Allah in the White House." The group took over Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, in June, and has since declared an Islamic state, or caliphate, in a swath of territory covering northeastern Syria and northern and western Iraq. U.S. airstrikes and a new policy of direct military aid to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have served as a check on a threatened ISIS advance toward Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. 
On Sunday, Dempsey contrasted ISIS to the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has plotted and attempted attacks against the U.S. and Europe. As a result, the U.S. has conducted counterterrorism strikes against the group within Yemen.
Dempsey said that so far, there is no sign that the Islamic State militants are engaged in "active plotting against the homeland, so it's different than that which we see in Yemen."
"I can tell you with great clarity and certainty that if that threat existed inside of Syria that it would certainly be my strong recommendation that we would deal with it," said Dempsey. "I have every confidence that the president of the United States would deal with it."
Dempsey also told reporters that he believes that key allies in the region -- including Jordan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia -- will join the U.S. in quashing the Islamic State group.
"I think ISIS has been so brutal, and has wrapped itself in a radical religious legitimacy that clearly threatens everybody I just mentioned, that I think they will be willing partners," said Dempsey, who added that those regional partners could come together and squeeze the Islamic State group "from multiple directions in order to initially disrupt and eventually defeat them. It has to happen with them, much less with us."
Up to now, when asked about airstrikes inside Syria, Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have said all options remain on the table. But so far there has been no broader authorization for such operations.
The Obama administration has authorized airstrikes within Iraq to protect U.S. personnel and facilities and to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces assist refugees driven from their homes by the Islamic State. Most of the recent strikes have been around the Mosul Dam, which Islamic militants had taken, but it is now back in the hands of the Iraqi and Kurdish troops.
Senior U.S. leaders, from the White House to the Pentagon, have said the key to success in Iraq is the formation of an inclusive government that will include disenfranchised Sunnis.
As the Islamic State militants moved across Iraq, some Sunnis -- including some members of the Iraqi security forces -- either threw down their weapons or joined the group.
The U.S. has been encouraged as new Iraqi leaders, including Shiite prime minister-designate Haider al-Abadi, begin to take steps to form a new government and reach out to Sunnis.
Officials have suggested that any additional military assistance from the U.S. to Iraq is contingent on those political and diplomatic steps by the government.
One possibility, said Dempsey, would be to have U.S. forces provide more expanded advice and assistance to the Iraqi force.
He said military assessment teams looked at about 50 Iraqi brigades and a number of the Kurdish units and have a good idea which ones have appropriate training and equipment and have not been infiltrated by militia.
So far, Dempsey said the U.S. has not sought or received permission to put advisers into Iraqi brigades or headquarters units and accompany them into combat.
To date, U.S. forces have conducted a total of 96 airstrikes across Iraq. Of those, 62 have been around the Mosul Dam.
The strikes have helped to break the insurgents' momentum, said Dempsey, and strip away some of the mythology that the Islamic State is impregnable or overwhelming.
Dempsey is on his way to Afghanistan to attend a change of command ceremony Tuesday. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford is stepping down as the top commander there; Army Gen. John Campbell will take over.

Terror group Jabhat Al-Nusrah releases American hostage Peter Theo Curtis

American freelance journalist Peter Theo Curtis, held hostage for nearly two years by the terror group Jabhat Al-Nusrah in Syria, has been released, the State Department said Sunday.
“We are all relieved and grateful knowing that Theo Curtis is coming home,” Secretary of State John Kerry said.
Curtis, a resident of Massachusetts and Vermont, is also an author fluent in Arabic and French, according to his family.
“My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people… who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months,” said Curtis’ mother, Nancy Curtis, of Cambridge, Mass. “Please know that we will be eternally grateful.”
She also said that her son, while working as a journalist in Yemen, became interested in the stories of “the many disaffected young men from the West coming to study Islam” and that wrote about them in his book, “Undercover Muslim,” published in the United Kingdom.
The Obama administration said Curtis is now safely outside of Syria but provided no details about the circumstances of his abduction or his release.
However, the Curtis family said the government of Qatar was involved in the release, which was carried out on a humanitarian basis without ransom.
The family believes the 45-year-old Curtis was captured shortly after he crossed into Syria in October 2012.
What prompted Curtis’ release is unclear. However, the United Nations said it helped with the handover to U.N. peacekeepers in a village in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and that Curtis was released to American authorities after a medical checkup.
Curtis’ release comes after the militant group Islamic State recently beheaded American journalist James Foley, who was abducted while covering that country's civil war.
Kerry said the United States over the past 24 months had reached out to more than 24 countries to help secure Curtis’ release “and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria.”
"Just as we celebrate Theo’s freedom, we hold in our thoughts and prayers the Americans who remain in captivity in Syria," National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice said in a statement. "Notwithstanding today’s welcome news, the events of the past week shocked the conscience of the world. As President Obama said, we have and will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to see that the remaining American hostages are freed."
White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said: President Obama "shares in the joy and relief that we all feel now that Theo is out of Syria and safe. But we continue to hold in our thoughts and prayers the Americans who remain in captivity in Syria."
A cousin of Curtis', Viva Hardigg, declined to provide details on the circumstances of Curtis' release, but confirmed that he had been held by Jabhat Al-Nusrah, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
Curtis’ mother also said her son was born Peter Theophilus Eaton Padnos in Atlanta, Ga. He graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont and has a doctorate degree in comparative literature from the University of Massachusetts.
Islamic State militants released a video last week of Foley’s beheading, blaming his death on U.S. airstrikes against their fighters in Iraq.
Foley's captors had demanded $132.5 million from his parents and political concessions from Washington.
A senior Obama administration official said last week the Islamic State had made a "range of requests" from the U.S. for Foley's release, including changes in American policy.

London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary

American and British intelligence officials reportedly are eyeing a British-born rapper as the militant who beheaded journalist James Foley. 
A senior Western intelligence official told Fox News that 23-year-old London rapper Abdel Majed Abdel Bary is the suspect believed to be Foley's executioner. 
U.S. intelligence officials are not commenting publicly on the reports, but a well-placed source told Fox News that Bary's Egyptian-born father was extradited from London to the United States in 2012 for his alleged connection to Usama Bin Laden and the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa.
Bary traveled to Syria last year to fight with  ISIS, the source said. 
The Sunday Times and Sunday People identified Bary as a member of a group of at least three British-born ISIS fighters known among former hostages as "The Beatles."
The Sunday Times reported that MI5 and MI6, Britain's two major intelligence agencies, had identified the man who did the brutal deed, though he had not been publicly identified.
A counterterrorism source told Fox News that the investigation was moving forward and slowly eliminating individuals of interest. The source also told Fox News that the FBI had opened a crisis file shortly after Foley was kidnapped in northern Syria in November 2012 that included signals intelligence and interviews with former hostages. 
The Sunday Mirror, citing British intelligence sources, identified two other suspects as 20-year-old Abu Hussain al-Britani, originally from Birmingham, and 23-year-old Abu Abduallah al-Britani (no known relation), originally from the county of Hampshire on England's south coast. 
The Mail on Sunday reported that the three men known as "John," "George," and "Ringo" had formed a special kidnapping gang that may have targeted Westerners like Foley. The paper reported that the hostages regarded the group as particularly vicious jailers, who routinely beat their prisoners and tortured them with Tasers. At one point, the paper reported, the "Beatles" were actually prohibited from guarding the hostages due to the level of violence they inflicted.
According to The Mail on Sunday, the "Beatles" also boasted that they had made millions of dollars from ransoms paid by European countries, enough to "retire to Kuwait or Qatar," as one hostage told the paper. 
The U.S. and Britain have a policy of not paying ransom to terrorist groups in exchange for captured citizens. However, other Western countries have no such policy. The New York Times reported last month that Al Qaeda and its direct affiliates have received at least $125 million in ransom money since 2008, paid by European countries like France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. 
Similarly, The Mail on Sunday reported that France had paid approximately $13.2 million for the release of four hostages held by ISIS earlier this year, while Italy had paid close to $5 million for the release of an Italian journalist. The release of seven other European journalists and aid workers reportedly cost a combined $26.5 million. Last week, the CEO of GlobalPost, a media organization where Foley had worked, revealed that ISIS had demanded a ransom of $132 million in exchange for Foley's release. 
In addition to Foley, ISIS is believed to be holding three other Americans hostage. One of them, journalist Steven Sotloff, is threatened with beheading by the militant known as "John" at the end of the video released last week.

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Israel steps up Gaza strikes as Netanyahu says Hamas is 'being crushed'

The Israeli military stepped up its campaign of airstrikes Sunday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to deliver "painful blows" against Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
"The more determined we remain, the more we demonstrate patience, the sooner our enemies will understand that they will not succeed in wearing us down," Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting. "While they try to tire us out, they are being crushed. I think anyone who observes [the conflict] in recent days understands this concept. The IDF continues to deliver, and to increase, its painful blows against Hamas and the terror groups in the Gaza Strip, and will continue to do this until the goal is achieved."
Among the targets of Israeli strikes early Sunday were a 12-story apartment in Gaza City, as well as a seven-floor office building and severely damaged a two-story shopping center in the southern town of Rafah. 
A senior Israeli military official told the Associated Press that Israel had recently widened the scope of locations that can be targeted on the grounds of housing Hamas operational centers or serving as a starting point for military activities. The official said each strike required prior approval from military lawyers and is carried out only after the local population is warned.
In the 12-story apartment tower, the target was a fourth-floor apartment where Hamas ran an operations center, according to Israeli media. In the past, Israel has carried out pinpoint strikes, targeting apartments in high-rises with missiles, while leaving the buildings standing. However, this time a decision was made to bring down the entire tower, according to Channel 10, an Israeli TV station.
Meanwhile, Gaza militants continued to fire rockets and mortar shells at Israel, including at least 10 on Sunday, the military said. That was in addition to more than 100 on Saturday, most aimed at southern Israel.
Elsewhere, five rockets were fired from Syria and fell in open areas in northern Israel. It was not immediately clear whether they were fired by pro-government forces or rebel groups.
Amid persistent violence, Egypt has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume indirect talks in Cairo on a durable cease-fire, but stopped short of issuing invitations.
Several rounds of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas have collapsed, along with temporary cease-fires that accompanied them. The gaps between Israel and the Islamic militant group on a new border deal for blockaded Gaza remain vast, and there's no sign either is willing to budge.
The Israeli military said it had carried out some 20 strikes on Gaza since midnight Saturday.