White House confirms authenticity of ISIS video showing beheading of reporter

The White House has confirmed that an Internet video purporting to show the beading of American reporter Steven Sotloff by the Islamic State extremist group is authentic.
"The U.S. Intelligence Community has analyzed the recently released video showing U.S. citizen Steven Sotloff and has reached the judgment that it is authentic," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement released early Wednesday. "We will continue to provide updates as they are available."
The global terror intelligence firm SITE first reported the release of the 2-minute video, titled "A Second Message to America," in which Sotloff, a 31-year-old freelance journalist, speaks to the camera before a cloaked Islamic State fighter begins to decapitate him.

“I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing,” Sotloff said under apparent duress. "Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?”

The video then cuts to the masked militant warning that as long as U.S. missiles “continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.” He also threatens the life of British captive David Cawthorne Haines.

"I'm back, Obama," said the left-handed executioner with a British accent who appears to be the same man who killed Foley. "And I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State."

The gruesome video then shows Sotloff's severed head lying next to his body.

"The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately," Barak Barfi, a spokesman for the Sotloff family, told The Associated Press Tuesday. "There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time."

The grim video comes just days after Sotloff's mother, Shirley, directly addressed the leader of the Islamic State last week, saying her son shouldn't pay for U.S. government actions in the Middle East and that he cared about the weak and oppressed as a journalist.

"I want what every mother wants, to live to see her children's children," she said last week. "I plead with you to grant me this."

Shirley Sotloff cited by name the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has described himself as a caliph intending to lead the Muslim world. She had asked him to show mercy and follow the example of the prophet Muhammad in protecting people of Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths.

Sotloff was last seen in August 2013 in Syria. He was recently threatened with death by the militants on a video unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the group in Iraq. The same video showed the beheading of fellow American journalist James Foley, 45.

Several U.S. officials, including U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., have said they were working behind the scenes to find out more about Sotloff and try to secure his release.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest could not confirm the reports when asked about the video at Tuesday’s press briefing. He noted the administration has been monitoring his situation carefully since threats were first made.

“The United States, as you know, has dedicated significant time and resources to try and rescue Mr. Sotloff,” he said, adding “thoughts and prayers” are with the family.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the intelligence community will work “as quickly as possible” to determine the video’s authenticity.

"If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act taking the life of another innocent American citizen,” she told reporters.

Pressed by Fox News, Psaki would not say whether this would constitute an act of war. She said the prior execution of journalist James Foley was a “horrific terrorist act,” and was a “motivating” factor for creating a coalition to address the Islamic State.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Council confirmed that the agency had seen the purported video.

"The intelligence community is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity," spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in a statement. "If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends.  We will provide more information when it is available.”

At University of Central Florida, where Sotloff studied journalism from 2002 to 2004, President John Hitt said the school is mourning the loss.

“Our UCF family mourns Steven’s death, and we join millions of people around the world who are outraged at this despicable and unjustifiable act,” said Hitt.

Obama Cartoon

Dozens of police agencies report loss of Pentagon-supplied military weapons

Just tell the bad guys to come on in!

Images showing high-powered military rifles in the hands of law enforcement in Ferguson, Mo., after the police shooting of an unarmed black man focused attention on a controversial Pentagon program that supplies that kind of weaponry to local police departments. Now reports reveal how some of those guns have been lost by law enforcement officials who received the weapons.
Take Huntington Beach, Calif., which was given 23 M-16 rifles and has reported one missing.
“Bottom line is the gun is not here and we were suspended from the program, haven’t received anything since 1999,” Huntington Beach Police Department Lt. Mitchell O’Brien told ABC News Friday.
O’Brien told the network the lost weapon could have been melted down, but that’s uncertain.

“Bottom line is the gun is not here and we were suspended from the program."- Huntington Beach Police Department Lt. Mitchell O’Brien

“Probably, [it was] one of those things where we used it for parts and the spare parts probably got discarded at some point -- but again, it’s inconclusive,” he said. “But we are pretty confident nobody got into our armory and took it.
The program O’Brien was referencing is the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which gives away surplus military weapons to local police departments. In a report Friday the Cox Washington Bureau said Huntington Beach is one of 145 local law enforcement agencies across the country that has been suspended from the program.  Three states — Alabama, North Carolina and Minnesota — also have been suspended.
Cox named some of the banned agencies.
The Daytona Beach Police Department was suspended after reporting a lost M-16 in January.
“We still have not been able to find it,” Daytona Beach Police spokesman Jimmie Flynt told Cox.
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office was banned after someone stole a rifle from an employee’s personal vehicle.
“If I knew where it was, I’d go get it,” Undersheriff Jean Donaldson told Cox. “It’s equipment we can obtain at no cost to our budget, so the taxpayers don’t get taxed twice.”
KARK-TV in Arkansas said three law enforcement agencies in the state have been suspended for losing weapons or having weapons stolen: the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, the Woodruff County Sheriff’s Office and the Judsonia Police Department.
James Ray, who oversees the 1033 program in Arkansas, told the station officials are worried the missing weapons could end up in the wrong hands.
“I have no reason to believe that, but if we don’t know where they are then hopefully we can get them back,” he said. “I mean they’ve been reported stolen by the law enforcement agencies….”
“It just appears that the Pentagon’s not minding the store, that once the inventory is gone, it’s out of sight, out of mind—and we can’t afford to have weapons of this type walking around the streets,” Steve Ellis, vice president of Tax Payers for Common Sense, told ABC.
A Pentagon spokesman told the station that 8,000 law enforcement agencies participate in the 1033 program and that 98 percent remain in good standing.

Islamic militia group says it has 'secured' US compound in Libya

An Islamic militant group said Sunday it has “secured” a U.S. Embassy compound in Libya’s capital city of Tripoli.
American personnel evacuated the area roughly a month ago amid ongoing fighting in the country.
An Associated Press journalist walked through the compound Sunday after the Dawn of Libya, an umbrella group for Islamist militias, invited onlookers inside.
Windows at the compound had been broken, but it appeared most of the equipment there remained untouched.
The breach of a deserted U.S. diplomatic post likely will reinvigorate debate in the U.S. over its role in Libya, more than three years after supporting rebels who toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
A commander for the Dawn of Libya group said his forces had entered and been in control of the compound since last week.
"We've seen the reports and videos and are seeking additional details." a senior State Department official told Fox News late Sunday. "At this point, we believe the Embassy compound itself remains secure but we continue to monitor the situation on the ground, which remains very fluid."
"We continue to work with the Government of Libya and other parties on issues of concern. Our Ambassador and other officials remain engaged both in Washington and from our Embassy in Valetta, Malta, where Embassy staff from Tripoli were recently relocated," the official said.
No U.S. military or assets were guarding the property after the State Department pulled out.
On Sept. 11, 2012, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, and State Department information management officer Sean Smith were killed in a terror attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya.
A video posted online showed men playing in a pool at the compound. In a message on Twitter, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Deborah Jones said the video appeared to have been shot in at the embassy's residential annex.
However, two sources with first-hand knowledge of the embassy and other U.S. facilities in Libya say the YouTube video in which the militia members are diving from a roof into pool was taken at the CIA annex in Tripoli that was abandoned when U.S. Embassy personnel and the ambassador pulled out July 26. It is about a mile away from the U.S. Embassy in Libya.
When CIA abandoned the annex in July, it would no longer be considered sovereign US territory.
Jones also said the compound appears to be "safeguarded," not "ransacked."
The fighting prompted diplomats and thousands of Tripoli residents to flee. Dozens were killed in the fighting.
On July 26, U.S. diplomats evacuated to neighboring Tunisia under a U.S. military escort. The State Department said embassy operations would be suspended until the security situation improved.
The Dawn of Libya militia is deployed around the capital and has called on foreign diplomats to return now that the fighting has subsided.

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."