White House claims Arab nations offer to join airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq, Syria

White House officials have claimed that Arab nations have offered to join the U.S. in airstrikes against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria, though no countries were specifically named. 
The New York Times reported that Secretary of State John Kerry had declined to say which states had offered to contribute air power, with White House officials saying that any announcement of specifics could wait until later this week. Kerry is scheduled to testify before congressional committees Wednesday and Thursday. 
Led by Kerry, U.S. diplomatic officials have raced to secure commitments from allies in Europe and the Middle East, as well as nations like Australia, since President Obama authorized expanded action against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, in a televised address last Wednesday. On Monday, Kerry attended international talks in Paris seeking to finalize a strategy against ISIS, which rocketed to prominence over the summer by seizing broad swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq. 
The Times reported late Sunday that any effort on the ground against ISIS would be dependent upon regular Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in that country's north, and moderate Syrian rebels who have battled the forces of that country's President, Bashar al-Assad, in a bloody civil war since 2011. The paper said that the U.S. strategy calls for the Iraqi army to be guided by 12-man teams of advisers, with arms and other assistance going to the Peshmerga. The Obama administration has called on Congress to approve a $500 million arms package for the Syrian opposition, meant to serve as a prelude for the expansion of the U.S. effort against ISIS. 
According to the Times, State Department officials say that Arab nations could participate in non-lethal ways against an air campaign against ISIS, possibly by making reconnaissance flights or by flying arms to Iraqi or Kurdish forces. 
Reuters reported Monday that France has offered to take part in airstrikes against Iraq, and the Associated Press reported, citing a French official, that jets from that country were prepared to carry out reconnaissance flights beginning Monday. 
"The terrorist threat is global and the response must be global," French President Francois Hollande said in opening Monday's conference. "There is no time to lose." French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius acknowledged that a number of the countries at the table Monday had "very probably" financed ISIS's advances.
Muslim-majority countries are considered vital to any operation to prevent the militants from gaining more territory in Iraq and Syria. Western officials have made clear they consider Assad to be part of the problem, and U.S. officials opposed France's attempt to invite Iran.
In an exclusive interview on Sunday with The Associated Press in Paris, Iraq's President Fouad Massoum — a Kurd, whose role in the government is largely ceremonial — expressed regret that Iran was not attending the conference.
Massoum noted "sensitivities between some countries and Iran."
He also seemed not to welcome the possible participation Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in air strikes in Iraqi territory.
"It is not necessary that they participate in air strikes; what is important is that they participate in the decisions of this conference," he said, underscoring Baghdad's closeness to Iran and how tensions among the regional powers could complicate the process of forming a Sunni alliance.
Speaking in his first interview since becoming Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi told state-run al-Iraqiyya in comments aired Sunday that he had given approvals to France to use Iraqi airspace and said all such authorizations would have to come from Baghdad.
Earlier, Fabius said quick action was vital, insisting there was no comparison with the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which France vocally opposed.
"It's the same geographic area but that's the only similarity," Fabius told France Info radio on Monday. "When you are a political leader you have to measure the cost of inaction."
U.S. Central Command has carried out more than 150 airstrikes against ISIS targets in Iraq since August 8. The militant group has responded by beheading three Western hostages, most recently British aid worker David Haines, whose killing was shown in a graphic video released Saturday.

Polls Cartoon

White House reportedly assures Hill lawmakers about executive action this year on immigration reform

The White House this week assured anxious Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill that President Obama will use executive action before the holiday season closes to reform U.S. immigration law, after breaking his pledge to make changes by the end of summer.
The message was delivered in a meeting Thursday with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other administration officials, including domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz, a key player for Obama on the issue, according to Politico.
The president faced sharp criticism, including accusations of caving to election-year politics, from Hispanic lawmakers, immigration-reform advocates and others in his Democratic base when the White House revealed last weekend that he would delay action until after the Nov. 4 elections.
In 2012, Obama used executive action to delay deportation for many young immigrants brought to the United States illegally by their parents. He is expected to widen that effort to include millions more.
Roughly 11 million people are now living in the U.S. illegally.
This week’s meeting was apparently intended to restore the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s faith in the White House, considering in part that a reform plan appears stuck in the GOP-led House.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he needs “constant reassurance” that the president will soon act.
“I don’t want to go down this path come November and then for some other reason, find that the immigrant community and the Latino community get thrown in the heap again,” he told Politico.
Multiple people familiar with the meeting told Politico that McDonough did not go into specifics about the executive action but made clear Obama will go as far as he can under existing law.
McDonough also declined to get into specifics.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the caucus will meet early next week to determine a formal response to the White House over delaying deportation relief.

Landrieu releases report on questionable flights, new safeguards, after repaying $34G

Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu, battling to keep her Senate seat, released a detail report Saturday on her air travel since 2002, after repaying the Treasury earlier this week nearly $34,000 in questionable travel expenses.
The three-term senator on Friday apologized for the mistakes that she blamed on “sloppy bookkeeping" and said that on Sept. 1 she put new procedures in place.
“I take full responsibility,” Landrieu said. “They should have never happened, and I apologize for this. A new system has been established that has been successfully used by a number of Senate offices to provide a safeguard from this happening in the future.”
The 11-page report shows 104 flights. It also states the campaign spent $202,330 for separate flights for campaign travel over the period in question, that the $33,727 repaid is the correct prorated amount and that lawyers will now determine the percentages that Landrieu’s campaign and Senate office should pay.
Louisiana Republican Party Director Jason Dore filed a complaint Sept. 2 with the Senate Ethics Committee, accusing Landrieu of billing taxpayers for campaign travel.
Republicans need to win a net total of six seats in November to take control of the Senate and have made Landrieu a top target since the start of the election cycle.
Over the past few weeks, state Republicans have also argued Landrieu shouldn’t be eligible for reelection because her true residence is in Washington, not her parents’ home in Louisiana.
“No matter how Senator Landrieu spins it, she billed taxpayers for dozens and dozens of private jet flights since the turn of this century," said the campaign for Republican Bill Cassidy, Landrieu’s closest challenger in the deadlocked race. “Even more problematic is the fact that she did not release any flight records from 1997-2002.”
Landrieu also released a letter on Saturday from her Washington, D.C.-law firm, Perkins Coie, to the Ethics committee in which the firm says it conducted the review and arrived at the repayment amount, on behalf of the senator and Friends of Mary Landrieu Inc.

ISIS video claims to show beheading of British hostage David Haines

Islamic State militants have released a video claiming to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, in what British Prime Minister David Cameron has described as "an act of pure evil."
The 44-year-old Haines was abducted in Syria in 2013 while working for an international aid agency. The British government had managed to keep his kidnapping secret out of concern for his safety until the most recent video identified him as a captive.
Prime Minister David Cameron described the apparent murder as "an act of pure evil" in a tweet from his official account. 
Sky News reports that Cameron is returning to Downing Street to chair a COBRA emergency response meeting.
The UK Foreign Office had said earlier in a statement that they were "working urgently to verify" the video.
"If true, this is another disgusting murder," the Foreign Office said in the statement.
"We are offering the family every support possible. They ask to be left alone at this time."
Islamic State militants have beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as Kurdish and Lebanese fighters, and posted video evidence online. At the end of the last video showing the beheading of  American journalist  Steven Sotloff, the Islamic State group threatened to kill Haines next and briefly showed him on camera.
In the video posted Sunday, the group threatened to kill another Briton.  Both British men were dressed in orange jumpsuits against an arid Syrian landscape, similar to that seen in the Foley and Sotloff videos.
The SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, reported the video, which was also posted online by users associated with the Islamic State group.
The video was entitled "A Message to the Allies of America." Haines' purported killer, who appeared to be the same man speaking with a British accent as in the previous videos, tells the British government that its alliance with the U.S. will only "accelerate your destruction" and will drag the British people into "another bloody and unwinnable war".
Late Friday, the family of Haines issued a public plea urging his captors to contact them.

Obama Cartoon

Vermont bans brownies, turns kids on to kale, gluten-free paleo lemon bars

It’s a best-seller at bake sales, a king of American confections, even a mandatory munchie of marijuana users. But the iconic chocolate brownie, that perfect blend of cake and cookie, is banned in Vermont schools.
In its place are new hoped-for kid favorites like fruit shish kebab, kale and even gluten-free paleo lemon bars.
The switch stems from nutrition mandates required under the new Smart-Snacks-in-Schools program in effect for public schools.
“The new school lunch pattern has low-fat, leaner proteins, greater variety and larger portions of fruits and vegetables; the grains have to be 100 percent whole-grain rich,” Laurie Colgan, child nutrition program director at the Agency of Education, told Vermont Watchdog.
The new rules, which evolved out of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, spell death to brownies, cupcakes, cookies and other bake sale goodies used to raise money for extracurriculars at money-strapped schools.

Military source: ISIS hostages dispersed after revelation of Foley rescue mission

After the administration released details of the July mission to rescue journalist James Foley and others in Syria, intelligence suggests ISIS dispersed the remaining hostages to multiple locations, making them harder to locate, a military source told Fox News.
In addition, the source added guard forces around the hostages doubled while widely publicized reporting about the scope of new aerial surveillance in the region caused ISIS to change its pattern of behavior on the ground.
"Any time you (disclose) very highly sensitive tactical information, you're giving away your road map if you will, your strategy,"  said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee receives regular intelligence briefings. "It's very highly damaging to the hostages."
The details about the rescue mission were released by the Defense Department and National Security Council one day after a video was posted online Aug. 19 of Foley’s execution.
The administration said its hand was forced because unnamed reporters had learned about the raid to rescue Foley and other hostages, believed to include Steven Sotloff, who was also later executed by ISIS.
Asked about the ramifications of providing the information in such a public way, Defense Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday it was still the right call.
"We regret it at the time we had to talk about this," Kirby said. "There was absolutely no intention of ever having to talk about that rescue attempt but because of leaks to certain reporters, it forced our hand to try and provide some context to that. So it's not about do I now regret it. We regret it at the time. We still regret that we had to talk about it."
The military source said the disclosures, which included specific details about the mission itself -- including personnel and hardware -- increased the risk for special operations forces in the future. 
Two separate sources also told Fox the release of information was damaging because the Foley case was considered "an ongoing mission" after the raid did not locate him and the others near the ISIS stronghold of Raqaa, Syria.
Some Republicans, including McCaul, believe the administration shoulders some of the blame.
"It's all because the administration leaked this information that is highly sensitive,” he said. “And quite frankly is in violation of the law."
Asked about ISIS' response to the disclosures, a National Security Council spokeswoman said she could not discuss intelligence matters, adding the administration had nothing to do with the original leaks to reporters, describing those claims as "baseless."