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.

Obama orders review of federal role in arming state and local police

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President Obama has directed a review of federal programs and funding that allow state and local law-enforcement agencies to acquire surplus military equipment, a senior administration official said Saturday.
The review will include whether the programs are appropriate, if the agencies are getting enough training and guidance to use the equipment and whether the federal government is sufficiently auditing the use of the equipment.
The president hinted Monday that a review was likely in the aftermath of an unarmed Ferguson, Mo., teen being fatally shot by a police officer, which was followed by local law enforcement using military equipment to try to control the ensuing protests and riots.
“I think it's probably useful for us to review how the funding has gone, how local law enforcement has used grant dollars, to make sure that what they’re purchasing is stuff that they actually need, because there is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement and we don't want those lines blurred,” Obama said. “And I think that there will be some bipartisan interest in reexamining some of those programs.”
The August 9 incident in which 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by the officer and the local police later using automatic rifles and tank-like vehicles to control crowds was not the first time the issue about local police using military equipment has been raised.
An Associated Press investigation last year found that a large share of the $4.2 billion in surplus military gear distributed through the 24-year-old program went to police and sheriff’s departments in rural areas with few officers and little crime.
On Tuesday, Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Defense Department's chief spokesman, said the program has not been allowed to “run amok.”
The program was created by Congress in 1990 to allow local police to apply for the excess equipment. However, the transfers reportedly have increased as the United States winds down its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Defense Logistics Agency took over the program in 1997.
“We don’t push equipment on anybody,” Kirby continued. “This is excess equipment the taxpayers have paid for and we're not using anymore. And it is made available to law enforcement agencies, if they want it and if they qualify for it. … Just because they ask for a helicopter doesn’t mean that they get a helicopter."
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., is among the members of Congress who plan to address the issue following August recess.
Johnson, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, wants to introduce legislation to curb what he describes as an increasing militarization of police agencies across the country.
“Militarizing America’s Main Streets won’t make us any safer, just more fearful and more reticent,” he said Thursday.
The president’s review will be led by White House staff including the Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council, the Office of Management and Budget and relevant U.S. agencies -- including the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice and Treasury, in coordination with Congress, the administration official also said Saturday.

US, UK 'getting closer' to identifying journalist's killer as British-born ISIS fighters scrutinized

American and British intelligence officials reportedly are "getting closer" to identifying the Islamic State fighter who beheaded American journalist James Foley in a video released last week by the militant group formerly known as ISIS. 
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 militant who beheaded Foley is believed to be a member of a group of at least three British-born ISIS fighters known among former hostages as "The Beatles." In the video showing Foley's beheading, the man speaks in a British accent that linguists believe originated from London or southeastern England. 
One of the suspected "Beatles" has been identified by both The Sunday Times and Sunday People as 23-year-old Abdel Majid Abdel Bary, a former rap artist and DJ from Maida Vale in Northwest London. Bary, who is believed to have arrived in Syria sometime last year, is the son of Adel Abdul Bary, an Egypt-born terror suspect who was extradited from Britain to the U.S. in 2012 and is awaiting trial for his alleged role in the 1998 Al Qaeda bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 
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.

Hamas kills 18 suspected Israel informants

Hamas carried out a deadly purge of suspected informants in Gaza, killing as many as 18 people suspected of providing information to the Israel Defense Forces as fighting flared anew following the collapse of Egyptian-brokered cease-fire talks.
Masked gunmen killed seven suspected informants for Israel near a Gaza City mosque as worshippers were ending midday prayers on Friday, according to a witness and Hamas media. Earlier in the day, Hamas killed 11 men by firing squad in Gaza City's police headquarters, according to the Hamas-run Al Rai website.
Two of those killed were women, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, which called for an immediate halt to what it said were "extra-judicial executions."
Hamas media portrayed the killings as the beginning of a new crackdown, under the rallying cry of "choking the necks of the collaborators." The killings, which took place near the al-Omari Mosque in downtown Gaza, occurred a day after Israel killed three top Hamas military commanders in an airstrike on a house in southern Gaza. 
A witness says masked gunmen lined up the seven men in a side street and opened fire on them. He spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his own safety.

"We will not accept anything less than an end to the [Israeli] aggression and an end to the blockade."- Senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh

The deaths marked the third time since the outbreak of the Gaza war six weeks ago that Hamas has announced the killing of alleged collaborators. On Thursday, it said seven people had been arrested and that three of them had been killed on suspicion of working with Israel.
In pinpointing the whereabouts of the Hamas commanders, Israel likely relied to some extent on local informers. Israel has maintained a network of informers despite its withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, at times using blackmail or the lure of exit permits to win cooperation.
Meanwhile, Israel-Gaza fighting continued for a third day since the collapse of Egyptian-led cease-fire talks earlier this week.
An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza farm killed two Palestinians on Friday, a Gaza health official said. By midmorning, Israel had launched about 20 airstrikes at Gaza, while Gaza militants fired at least 26 rockets at Israel, the Israeli military said.
The renewed exchanges have dashed hopes for a lasting truce after a monthlong war that has already killed over 2,000 Palestinians. And earlier this week, Hamas rejected an Egyptian truce proposal under which Israel would gradually ease its blockade of Gaza, without giving specific commitments.
Hamas demands a lifting of the border closure imposed by Israel and Egypt after the militant group's takeover of the coastal strip in 2007.
A quick resumption of indirect talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo also seems unlikely, particularly after the killing of the three Hamas commanders. Senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh said late Thursday that his group would not budge from its demands.
"We will not accept anything less than an end to the (Israeli) aggression and an end to the blockade," Haniyeh said in a statement posted by Al Rai. "Anyone involved in cease-fire efforts must understand that our people will not accept anything less than this."
Despite the crisis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in Qatar meeting Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal to push him to return to a cease-fire, and to encourage Qatar to support Egyptian cease-fire efforts, a Palestinian official said.
Abbas was set to travel to Egypt later Friday to meet with Egyptian intelligence officials to discuss cease-fire efforts, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss issues related to the negotiations.
Since Israel-Hamas fighting erupted on July 8, at least 2,086 Palestinians have been killed in the coastal territory, according to Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Nearly a quarter of the dead -- 469 -- are children, according to the top UNICEF field officer in Gaza, Pernilla Ironside. Of the more than 10,400 Palestinians wounded, nearly a third are children, according to UNICEF figures, while some 100,000 Gazans have been left homeless.
On the Israeli side, 67 people have been killed in the past six weeks, including 64 soldiers, two civilians and a Thai worker.
The airstrike Friday that hit the livestock farm where two workers were killed, also wounded three Palestinians, al-Kidra said. The Israeli military said its strikes targeted concealed rocket launchers and weapons sites.
In Israel, one civilian was moderately wounded by a rocket that hit the major southern city of Beersheva on Friday and another Israeli was lightly hurt by a rocket that landed in the border town of Sderot.
Israel has said that the three Hamas commanders killed Thursday had played a key role in expanding the militants' military capabilities in recent years, including digging attack tunnels leading to Israel, training fighters and smuggling weapons to Gaza. One of the trio also played a role in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006. After being held captive in Gaza for more than five years, Schalit was exchanged for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011.
Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to prevent Hamas and other militant groups from getting weapons. The restrictions prevent most Gazans from traveling outside the crowded coastal strip and bar most exports.