Wednesday, September 17, 2014 3:04:22 AM
U.S. Pushes Back Against Warnings That ISIS Plans to Enter From Mexico
A border agent on patrol.
Credit Eric Gay/Associated Press
“There’s a longstanding history in this country of projecting whatever fears we have onto the border,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
Credit Rod Lamkey/Getty Images
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
SEPT. 15, 2014
WASHINGTON — Militants for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have traveled to Mexico and are just miles from the United States. They plan to cross over the porous border and will “imminently” launch car bomb attacks. And the threat is so real that federal law enforcement officers have been placed at a heightened state of alert, and an American military base near the border has increased its security.
As the Obama administration and the American public have focused their attention on ISIS in recent weeks, conservative groups and leading Republicans have issued stark warnings like those [ http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/09/military-experts-isis-el-paso-ft-bliss-danger-terrorist-attack/ ] that ISIS and other extremists from Syria are planning to enter the country illegally from Mexico. But the Homeland Security Department [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/homeland_security_department/index.html ], the F.B.I. [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html ] and lawmakers who represent areas near the border say there is no truth to the warnings.
“There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border,” Homeland Security officials said in a written statement, using an alternative acronym for the group.
Democrats say opponents of President Obama are simply playing on concerns about terrorism as part of their attempt to portray Mr. Obama as having failed to secure the border against illegal immigration.
“There’s a longstanding history in this country of projecting whatever fears we have onto the border,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke, Democrat of Texas, who represents El Paso and other areas near the border. “In the absence of understanding the border, they insert their fears. Before it was Iran and Al Qaeda. Now it’s ISIS. They just reach the conclusion that invasion is imminent, and it never is.”
At a congressional hearing last week, Representative Jeff Duncan, Republican of South Carolina, pushed back strongly against the testimony of Homeland Security Department officials and Mr. O’Rourke, saying they were ignoring a gathering threat.
“Wake up, America,” Mr. Duncan said before storming out of the hearing. “With a porous southern border, we have no idea who’s in our country.”
But counterterrorism officials say they are far more concerned that an ISIS militant will enter the United States the same way millions of people do each year: legally, on a commercial flight. Their efforts have focused on the more than 2,000 Europeans and 100 Americans who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside extremist groups, nearly all of them crossing over its unprotected borders. Without markings in their passports to show that they traveled to Syria, American border authorities have few ways of determining where they were and stopping them from entering the country.
Warnings about the possibility of terrorists entering the United States from Mexico have been sounded in the past. During the 2012 presidential campaign both Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, said Islamic extremists working with countries in Latin America, including Mexico, posed a significant threat to the United States.
“We know that Hamas and Hezbollah are working in Mexico, as well as Iran, with their ploy to come into the United States,” Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, said [ http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1111/22/se.06.html ] at a Republican debate in 2011. “So the idea that we need to have border security with the United States and Mexico is paramount to the entire Western Hemisphere.”
Mr. Perry repeated his concerns in a speech [ http://www.heritage.org/events/2014/08/southern-border-rick-perry ] last month at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in which he said that because the border was not secure, “individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be” crossing into the United States. “I think it’s a very real possibility that they may have already used that,” he said.
In late August, the conservative group Judicial Watch posted an article [ http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/09/military-experts-isis-el-paso-ft-bliss-danger-terrorist-attack/ ] on its website about how ISIS was operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez and planning car bomb attacks.
“High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued,” the report said. “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 said intelligence officials had “picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to ‘carry out an attack on the border.’ “ It quoted a “high-level source” saying that the attack was “coming very soon.”
Mr. O’Rourke said that immediately after that report was posted he called the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Department. They told him they had no intelligence about such an attack. Mr. O’Rourke said he spent the rest of his day arguing with members of the news media in Texas about why the Judicial Watch report was not a story. He largely failed to convince them, and the article was widely reported.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said the Obama administration had a history of looking the other way on national security threats, particularly ones involving the border.
“President Obama or his administration should acknowledge this dire threat on the border, whatever its political ramifications are for the debate on immigration,” Mr. Fitton said.
Mr. Fitton said that the idea of ISIS coming across the border “goes against the narrative that the border is secure” and that Americans “don’t need to worry about illegal immigration.”
On Fox News on Monday, a county sheriff in Texas said [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/09/15/texas_sheriff_muslim_clothing_koran_books_found_at_border_isis_cells_active.html ] he had received reports that Qurans and Muslim clothing had been found on smuggling routes. He said that was evidence that Muslims had been smuggled into the United States.
“If they show their ugly head in our area, we’ll send them to hell,” said the sheriff, Gary Painter, of Midland County. “I would like for them to hit them so hard and so often that every time they hear a propeller on a plane or a jet aircraft engine that they urinate down both legs. When you do that, then you’ve accomplished a lot.”
Fox News itself has covered the threats in different ways. After senior administration officials testified at a Senate hearing last week about ISIS, an article [ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/10/us-confirms-isis-planning-infiltration-us-southern-border/ ] on FoxNews.com [ http://foxnews.com/ ] about the testimony ran under the headline “D.H.S. Confirms ISIS Planning Infiltration of U.S. Southern Border.” An article [ http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/09/11/isis-terrorists-not-sneaking-over-us-southern-border-with-mexico-dhs-officials/ ] on Fox News Latino about the same hearing had the headline: “ISIS Terrorists Not Sneaking Over U.S. Southern Border With Mexico, D.H.S. Officials Tell Congress.”
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SEPT. 10, 2014
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For James Foley’s Family, U.S. Policy Offered No Hope
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U.S. Airstrikes Hit Targets Near Baghdad Held by ISIS
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Kerry Says U.S. Is Open to Talking to Iran, Even as Ayatollah Is Dismissive
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/middleeast/iraqi-leader-asks-world-powers-to-pursue-isis-in-syria.html
Related in Opinion
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ROOM for DEBATE
SEPT. 16, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/09/15/does-the-us-have-allies-it-needs-to-fight-isis
To Crush ISIS, Make a Deal With Assad
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Obama Must Get Congress’s Backing for the Fight Against ISIS
SEPT. 15, 2014
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© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/us-pushes-back-against-warnings-that-isis-plans-to-enter-from-mexico.html
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The Real Death Valley
THESE STUDENTS FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY DUG UP A TRAGIC SECRET IN TEXAS. THEIR DISCOVERY WILL MAKE YOU MAD.
5 September, 2014
http://www.twclongform.com/stories/real-death-valley/ [with documentary video embedded]
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The existential threat
Sep 15, 2014
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/15/1328974/-Cartoon-The-existential-threat [with comments]
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Iran Rejects A Global Strategy Against Islamic State Militants
In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By ELAINE GANLEY and LARA JAKES
Posted: 09/15/2014 8:21 am EDT Updated: 09/15/2014 9:59 pm EDT
PARIS (AP) — As more than two dozen nations pledged Monday to help Iraq fight the Islamic State militants, the United States said it was open to talking to Iran about a role in resolving the crisis, despite Washington's earlier opposition to Tehran even attending the conference.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ruled out any military coordination with Iran, which in the end was not invited to Paris.
"That doesn't mean that we are opposed to the idea of communicating to find out if they will come on board, or under what circumstances, or whether there is the possibility of a change," Kerry told a small group of reporters.
France and Iraq see Shiite-powerhouse Iran as an interlocutor who could bring its influence to bear in the region against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group, but some Arab states, like Saudi Arabia, disagree.
The U.S. opposed a place for Iran at the conference. But Tehran, which has political and military influence with its neighbor Iraq, still managed to be part of the conversation.
The absence of Iran underscored the conflicting sensitivities and complex politics in the region as Western countries seek to battle the Islamic State group, which has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The meeting of foreign ministers from Asia, the Middle East and the West was a first step toward deciding who does what in a multilayered offensive against the Islamic State group. As envisioned by France and Iraq, the effort would include intensifying airstrikes, cutting off financing, and helping Baghdad cope through humanitarian aid and reconstruction. There would be no combat troops on the ground, however.
As the conference began, two French jets took off over Iraq in France's first reconnaissance missions over the country in a sign of the larger battle ahead. Later, the United States, which has led airstrikes over Iraq since August, said it had taken the first step in its planned expanded fight against Islamic State militants, going to the aid of Iraqi security forces near Baghdad who were being attacked by enemy fighters.
The strikes represent the newly broadened mission authorized by President Barack Obama to go on the offensive against the Islamic State group wherever it is. Previous U.S. airstrikes in Iraq were conducted to protect U.S. interests and personnel, assist Iraqi refugees and secure critical infrastructure. U.S. officials said Iraqi forces requested assistance when they came under fire from militants.
"We are asking for airborne operations to be continued regularly against terrorist sites. We must not allow them to set up sanctuaries. We must pursue them wherever they are," Iraqi President Fouad Massoum said, an apparent reference to neighboring Syria.
Syria, deep in a civil war waged in part by rival extremist groups, was the wellspring for the Islamic State group, with its fighters sweeping across the border into Iraq, overwhelming the military in Sunni-dominated Anbar province and capitalizing on grievances against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The fighters went on to conquer Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, with the U.S.-trained military crumbling, and seized tanks and other military equipment, then steamrolled across northern Iraq.
The CIA estimates the group has access to between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria — including foreigners lured to the cause.
The recent beheadings of three Western hostages — British aid worker David Haines and two American journalists — added new urgency to the task of creating a viable strategy to knock out the Islamic State group.
"We must cut off their financing. We must bring them to justice and we must stop the fighters in neighboring countries from joining them," Massoum said at the conference opening.
The group brings in more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence officials and private experts.
The Paris meeting was a coalition of strange bedfellows, some of whom have allegedly financed extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, and others, like Russia, which backs Syria's Bashar Assad who is also supported by Iran.
Less than a week ago in Baghdad, Kerry was clear about the U.S. position regarding Iran, embroiled in a years-long dispute with the West over concern that Tehran wants nuclear weapons.
"The United States does not cooperate, militarily or otherwise, nor does it have any intention in this process of doing so, with Iran," he had said.
France, stressing a pragmatic approach, felt Iran could be an ally against a common enemy if, as President Francois Hollande said, Tehran "abides by principles permitting a sincere and useful conversation."
On Monday, Kerry, in an apparent about face, said he wouldn't shut the door to talking to Iran about a common enemy.
"We're not coordinating with Iran, but as I said, we're open to have a conversation at some point in time if there's a way to find something constructive," he said.
Kerry spoke after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the U.S. had in fact requested that Tehran join the fight against the Islamic State group but it rejected the overture because of Washington's "unclean intentions."
Kerry did not respond directly to questions about that claim. He said there are often discussions on the sidelines of nuclear talks.
"I'm never going to shut the door to something that could solve a problem if there's a way to do it," Kerry said.
Back-door dealings are common in Middle East diplomacy, but it was unclear whether Iran would cooperate. Khamenei said Iran is proud not to be part of the U.S.-led coalition and warned it will suffer the same problems it suffered in the past should it enter Iraq and Syria without authorization.
Massoum would have liked Iran at the talks.
"We have a nearly 1,000-kilometer (625-mile) border with them (Iran) and from the first day the Islamic State group made itself known ... Iran gave us humanitarian and military aid," Massoum told The Associated Press ahead of the conference.
He conceded "there are perhaps sensitivities between certain countries and Iran."
There was never any question of adding Iran to the coalition planning airstrikes, but Tehran is closely linked to Iraq.
"There will be no success in Iraq without cooperation with Iran," said Francois Gere, of the French Institute of Strategic Analysis.
Opponents of Iranian involvements cite Iran's backing of Assad, mainly via the Hezbollah group it helped create decades ago and, as one diplomat said, "all these dark zones about Iranian intentions."
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Monday that Syria and Iran are "natural allies" in the fight against the extremists, and therefore must be engaged, according to Russian news agencies.
"The extremists are trying to use any disagreements in our positions to tear apart the united front of states acting against them," he said.
Talks and possibilities to review options with Iran are not over. Discussions likely will continue informally at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal has said.
Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten, Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Lori Hinnant in Paris and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/15/iran-fights-isis_n_5821710.html [with comments]
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An open letter to Barack Obama: World War III is here
By Larry Gatlin
Published September 03, 2014
Dear Mr. President,
It’s been quite a summer. The world is not a pretty place right now but I see you have had a chance to play golf. In fact you’ve played golf through the worst of it. Right after announcing that American journalist James Foley had been beheaded.
Now I play golf and I enjoy it. But I’m not president of the United States… so I have a little more time.
But I digress. Let's skip on down to the really important part... I hope you’ll read closely. There will be a quiz.
One of your predecessors said this when our country was being threatened…
"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking to the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. I ask that that congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. With confidence in our armed forces, with the un bounding determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph--so help us God."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered those words on a December day almost 73 years ago.
In the name of that same God invoked so eloquently and powerfully by that president, I ask that you, Mr. President -- if you're not too busy playing golf, campaigning, orchestrating the cover ups of all the "phony scandals," and just being cool -- could again declare war on the enemies who have unleashed "unprovoked and dastardly attacks" on the United States.
This summer we have now seen two American journalists beheaded by the “Islamic State” – ISIS or IL or IS. We are at war, sir, whether you like it or not.
Over 2,400 members of the United States military were killed that December morning long ago, in an attack not really on the United States mainland. It happened in Hawaii. I know you are familiar with Hawaii. The Aloha State was just a territory of the United States at that time.
That war would last for 4 long years and would kill 60 to 80 million people, including 291,557 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
That terrible toll was exacted in a war wherein the enemy combatants of the Axis powers, Japan, Germany, and Italy, had no means whatsoever of successfully mounting a military strike against the United States homeland.
Even if we hadn't won the war, and even if we hadn't captured/liberated Werner Von Braun and the other German scientists at Peenemunde before the Russians got to them, it would have been at least 10-15 years before Germany would have had a rocket/missile capable of reaching the U. S. mainland. And yet President Roosevelt galvanized, mobilized, and energized, and united the American people like never before.
Then America, in its "righteous might" unsheathed and unleashed the most devastating war machine in the history of mankind.
Guess what Mr. President, THE GOOD GUYS WON!! They won because President Roosevelt had the "cojones" to "pull the trigger," giving no thought to his legacy, but giving thought only to the preservation of the American way of life.
Forget the fun on the golf course, Mr. President. Does that way of life mean anything to you, sir, or are you still so hell bent on "fundamentally changing" the American way of life that you cannot, or will not, change course and "pull the trigger?"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that, for Israel, the question of the current conflict with the enemies of Israel is an existential one.
In my opinion, sir, and in the opinions of most of the grown-ups in our military apparatus, and other expert military analysts, the United States is now engaged -- or not really engaged -- in no less an existential conflict.
Please pay attention sir. It's not your shot yet. It's Alonzo's shot.
We are being told every night on TV that the American people don't have the stomach for more war 10,000 miles away. Well sir, I think you should conduct another of your seemingly endless polls and ask those Americans a few simple questions:
Do Americans have the stomach to see planes crash into our buildings again, or citizens running through the streets of New York City with the residue of those buildings and the ashes of those who were burned alive on their faces again, or a man and wife holding hands and jumping out of an 80th story window, together, to keep from being burned alive again?
Sir, why don't you ask Americans these simple questions and see what their answers are.
Whether you like it or not sir, World War III has already started and it is time for America to "take arms against a sea of trouble, and by opposing," try to keep 9/11 and other attacks on America from happening again.
From 1941-45, 291,557 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines died to defeat an enemy that had absolutely no means of attacking the United States mainland. And now, we are being told that after more than 10 years of fighting those ruthless bastards in Iraq and Afghanistan where "only" 6,802 of our warriors have been killed, America doesn't have the stomach to go do what needs to be done?
Please understand the context of the word "only." With all my heart I thank all thank these warriors and their families for the sacrifices they have made, and continue to make. And now we are giving up the fight? We are surrendering? We are being told that AMERICA DOESNT HAVE THE STOMACH TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE????????
Well sir, you need to have enough stomach, GUTS, COJONES for all of us. It's called LEADERSHIP!!
If that is so, that America doesn't have the stomach to do what needs to be done, I say shame on us, and especially, shame on you, Mr. President. We deserve what we will get.
I believe that it is time for America to go on wartime footing, all the way up to and including a "peacetime" draft if necessary. Heck, pay the soldiers what congressmen, senators, and your White House spin doctors make.
Go save Iraq -- AGAIN. Take 20% of their oil revenue until the money we have spent freeing them -- TWICE -- is paid back. Leave a residual force there to keep this from happening again (see Japan, Germany, and Italy) and tell anyone who doesn't like it to kiss AMERICA's happy, safe rear end.
I am 66 years old, I'm in pretty damn good shape and I will go right now. I've lived a good life and I want my granddaughters to have the chance to live one too.
I was #296 during Vietnam... I didn't have to go, but I would have gone if I had been called.
I will go now if called… Unfortunately, I know that I never will be called, so I will answer a different call.
I will call on you, Mr. President. Do you have the stomach to lead our scared, uncertain, worried, "tired of war" American citizens in a fight to the death against the Islamic murderers, even if the "tide of public opinion" is against it?
Anyone can lead people who are willing and eager to go. Can you, will you lead people who are not willing, but need to go?
Finally, while it is long past time to start treating our veterans with the dignity and care they deserve, it is also long past time to stop treating our current soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. They have been trained to defend the United States, Mr. President, to the death, if it comes to that.
We have trained them, fed them, housed them, equipped them, armed them, and stationed them in close proximity to hot spots all over the world, in order to be ready for the start of World War III.
Well, Mr. President, WORLD WAR III is here.
It's high time we turn our troops loose to let them GO KILL THE BAD GUYS. Turn them loose, sir, and give America another, "righteous might, so help us God" moment.
Please, sir, before it's too late...
IT'S YOUR SHOT…FORE!!
Larry Gatlin
[ http://www.foxnews.com/archive/larry-gatlin/index.html ,
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/3jCe2BmwBKV/47th+Annual+Academy+Country+Music+Awards/daKReQ8S8ix/Larry+Gatlin ]
is a country music singer and songwriter.
©2014 FOX News Network, LLC (emphasis in original)
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/09/03/open-letter-to-barack-obama-world-war-iii-is-here/ [with comments]
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in addition to (linked in) the post to which this is a reply and preceding and (any future other) following, see also (linked in):
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=104254370 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106332340 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106333741 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=99281882 and preceding (and any future following)
A border agent on patrol.
Credit Eric Gay/Associated Press
“There’s a longstanding history in this country of projecting whatever fears we have onto the border,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke of Texas.
Credit Rod Lamkey/Getty Images
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT
SEPT. 15, 2014
WASHINGTON — Militants for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have traveled to Mexico and are just miles from the United States. They plan to cross over the porous border and will “imminently” launch car bomb attacks. And the threat is so real that federal law enforcement officers have been placed at a heightened state of alert, and an American military base near the border has increased its security.
As the Obama administration and the American public have focused their attention on ISIS in recent weeks, conservative groups and leading Republicans have issued stark warnings like those [ http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/09/military-experts-isis-el-paso-ft-bliss-danger-terrorist-attack/ ] that ISIS and other extremists from Syria are planning to enter the country illegally from Mexico. But the Homeland Security Department [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/homeland_security_department/index.html ], the F.B.I. [ http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal_bureau_of_investigation/index.html ] and lawmakers who represent areas near the border say there is no truth to the warnings.
“There is no credible intelligence to suggest that there is an active plot by ISIL to attempt to cross the southern border,” Homeland Security officials said in a written statement, using an alternative acronym for the group.
Democrats say opponents of President Obama are simply playing on concerns about terrorism as part of their attempt to portray Mr. Obama as having failed to secure the border against illegal immigration.
“There’s a longstanding history in this country of projecting whatever fears we have onto the border,” said Representative Beto O’Rourke, Democrat of Texas, who represents El Paso and other areas near the border. “In the absence of understanding the border, they insert their fears. Before it was Iran and Al Qaeda. Now it’s ISIS. They just reach the conclusion that invasion is imminent, and it never is.”
At a congressional hearing last week, Representative Jeff Duncan, Republican of South Carolina, pushed back strongly against the testimony of Homeland Security Department officials and Mr. O’Rourke, saying they were ignoring a gathering threat.
“Wake up, America,” Mr. Duncan said before storming out of the hearing. “With a porous southern border, we have no idea who’s in our country.”
But counterterrorism officials say they are far more concerned that an ISIS militant will enter the United States the same way millions of people do each year: legally, on a commercial flight. Their efforts have focused on the more than 2,000 Europeans and 100 Americans who have traveled to Syria to fight alongside extremist groups, nearly all of them crossing over its unprotected borders. Without markings in their passports to show that they traveled to Syria, American border authorities have few ways of determining where they were and stopping them from entering the country.
Warnings about the possibility of terrorists entering the United States from Mexico have been sounded in the past. During the 2012 presidential campaign both Rick Perry and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, said Islamic extremists working with countries in Latin America, including Mexico, posed a significant threat to the United States.
“We know that Hamas and Hezbollah are working in Mexico, as well as Iran, with their ploy to come into the United States,” Mr. Perry, the governor of Texas, said [ http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1111/22/se.06.html ] at a Republican debate in 2011. “So the idea that we need to have border security with the United States and Mexico is paramount to the entire Western Hemisphere.”
Mr. Perry repeated his concerns in a speech [ http://www.heritage.org/events/2014/08/southern-border-rick-perry ] last month at the Heritage Foundation in Washington in which he said that because the border was not secure, “individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be” crossing into the United States. “I think it’s a very real possibility that they may have already used that,” he said.
In late August, the conservative group Judicial Watch posted an article [ http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/09/military-experts-isis-el-paso-ft-bliss-danger-terrorist-attack/ ] on its website about how ISIS was operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez and planning car bomb attacks.
“High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued,” the report said. “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 said intelligence officials had “picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to ‘carry out an attack on the border.’ “ It quoted a “high-level source” saying that the attack was “coming very soon.”
Mr. O’Rourke said that immediately after that report was posted he called the F.B.I. and Homeland Security Department. They told him they had no intelligence about such an attack. Mr. O’Rourke said he spent the rest of his day arguing with members of the news media in Texas about why the Judicial Watch report was not a story. He largely failed to convince them, and the article was widely reported.
Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, said the Obama administration had a history of looking the other way on national security threats, particularly ones involving the border.
“President Obama or his administration should acknowledge this dire threat on the border, whatever its political ramifications are for the debate on immigration,” Mr. Fitton said.
Mr. Fitton said that the idea of ISIS coming across the border “goes against the narrative that the border is secure” and that Americans “don’t need to worry about illegal immigration.”
On Fox News on Monday, a county sheriff in Texas said [ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/09/15/texas_sheriff_muslim_clothing_koran_books_found_at_border_isis_cells_active.html ] he had received reports that Qurans and Muslim clothing had been found on smuggling routes. He said that was evidence that Muslims had been smuggled into the United States.
“If they show their ugly head in our area, we’ll send them to hell,” said the sheriff, Gary Painter, of Midland County. “I would like for them to hit them so hard and so often that every time they hear a propeller on a plane or a jet aircraft engine that they urinate down both legs. When you do that, then you’ve accomplished a lot.”
Fox News itself has covered the threats in different ways. After senior administration officials testified at a Senate hearing last week about ISIS, an article [ http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/10/us-confirms-isis-planning-infiltration-us-southern-border/ ] on FoxNews.com [ http://foxnews.com/ ] about the testimony ran under the headline “D.H.S. Confirms ISIS Planning Infiltration of U.S. Southern Border.” An article [ http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/09/11/isis-terrorists-not-sneaking-over-us-southern-border-with-mexico-dhs-officials/ ] on Fox News Latino about the same hearing had the headline: “ISIS Terrorists Not Sneaking Over U.S. Southern Border With Mexico, D.H.S. Officials Tell Congress.”
*
Related Coverage
Paths to War, Then and Now, Haunt Obama
SEPT. 13, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/world/middleeast/paths-to-war-then-and-now-haunt-obama.html
Kerry Scours Mideast for Aid in ISIS Fight
SEPT. 13, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/world/middleeast/kerry-visits-egypt-seeking-aid-in-isis-fight.html
Syrian Leaders See Opportunities and Risks in U.S. Striking ISIS on Their Soil
SEPT. 14, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/world/middleeast/syrian-leaders-see-opportunities-and-risks-in-us-strikes-against-isis-on-their-soil.html
Obama, in Speech on ISIS, Promises Sustained Effort to Rout Militants
SEPT. 10, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/world/middleeast/obama-speech-isis.html
ISIS Draws a Steady Stream of Recruits From Turkey
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/europe/turkey-is-a-steady-source-of-isis-recruits.html
ISIS’ Goals and Tactics Worldwide
SEPT. 10, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000003106592/isis-goals-and-tactics-worldwide.html
U.N. Investigators Cite Atrocities in Syria
SEPT. 16, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/17/world/middleeast/un-investigators-cite-atrocities-in-syria.html
For James Foley’s Family, U.S. Policy Offered No Hope
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/for-hostages-family-us-policy-offered-no-hope.html
U.S. Airstrikes Hit Targets Near Baghdad Held by ISIS
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/middleeast/us-airstrikes-hit-targets-near-baghdad-held-by-isis.html
Kerry Says U.S. Is Open to Talking to Iran, Even as Ayatollah Is Dismissive
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/world/middleeast/iraqi-leader-asks-world-powers-to-pursue-isis-in-syria.html
Related in Opinion
Does the U.S. Have the Allies It Needs to Fight ISIS?
ROOM for DEBATE
SEPT. 16, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/09/15/does-the-us-have-allies-it-needs-to-fight-isis
To Crush ISIS, Make a Deal With Assad
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/opinion/to-crush-isis-make-a-deal-with-assad-.html
Obama Must Get Congress’s Backing for the Fight Against ISIS
SEPT. 15, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/opinion/obama-must-get-congresss-backing-for-the-fight-against-isis.html
*
© 2014 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/16/us/us-pushes-back-against-warnings-that-isis-plans-to-enter-from-mexico.html
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The Real Death Valley
THESE STUDENTS FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY DUG UP A TRAGIC SECRET IN TEXAS. THEIR DISCOVERY WILL MAKE YOU MAD.
5 September, 2014
http://www.twclongform.com/stories/real-death-valley/ [with documentary video embedded]
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The existential threat
Sep 15, 2014
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/15/1328974/-Cartoon-The-existential-threat [with comments]
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Iran Rejects A Global Strategy Against Islamic State Militants
In this photo released by the official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
By ELAINE GANLEY and LARA JAKES
Posted: 09/15/2014 8:21 am EDT Updated: 09/15/2014 9:59 pm EDT
PARIS (AP) — As more than two dozen nations pledged Monday to help Iraq fight the Islamic State militants, the United States said it was open to talking to Iran about a role in resolving the crisis, despite Washington's earlier opposition to Tehran even attending the conference.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry ruled out any military coordination with Iran, which in the end was not invited to Paris.
"That doesn't mean that we are opposed to the idea of communicating to find out if they will come on board, or under what circumstances, or whether there is the possibility of a change," Kerry told a small group of reporters.
France and Iraq see Shiite-powerhouse Iran as an interlocutor who could bring its influence to bear in the region against the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group, but some Arab states, like Saudi Arabia, disagree.
The U.S. opposed a place for Iran at the conference. But Tehran, which has political and military influence with its neighbor Iraq, still managed to be part of the conversation.
The absence of Iran underscored the conflicting sensitivities and complex politics in the region as Western countries seek to battle the Islamic State group, which has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
The meeting of foreign ministers from Asia, the Middle East and the West was a first step toward deciding who does what in a multilayered offensive against the Islamic State group. As envisioned by France and Iraq, the effort would include intensifying airstrikes, cutting off financing, and helping Baghdad cope through humanitarian aid and reconstruction. There would be no combat troops on the ground, however.
As the conference began, two French jets took off over Iraq in France's first reconnaissance missions over the country in a sign of the larger battle ahead. Later, the United States, which has led airstrikes over Iraq since August, said it had taken the first step in its planned expanded fight against Islamic State militants, going to the aid of Iraqi security forces near Baghdad who were being attacked by enemy fighters.
The strikes represent the newly broadened mission authorized by President Barack Obama to go on the offensive against the Islamic State group wherever it is. Previous U.S. airstrikes in Iraq were conducted to protect U.S. interests and personnel, assist Iraqi refugees and secure critical infrastructure. U.S. officials said Iraqi forces requested assistance when they came under fire from militants.
"We are asking for airborne operations to be continued regularly against terrorist sites. We must not allow them to set up sanctuaries. We must pursue them wherever they are," Iraqi President Fouad Massoum said, an apparent reference to neighboring Syria.
Syria, deep in a civil war waged in part by rival extremist groups, was the wellspring for the Islamic State group, with its fighters sweeping across the border into Iraq, overwhelming the military in Sunni-dominated Anbar province and capitalizing on grievances against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
The fighters went on to conquer Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, with the U.S.-trained military crumbling, and seized tanks and other military equipment, then steamrolled across northern Iraq.
The CIA estimates the group has access to between 20,000 and 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria — including foreigners lured to the cause.
The recent beheadings of three Western hostages — British aid worker David Haines and two American journalists — added new urgency to the task of creating a viable strategy to knock out the Islamic State group.
"We must cut off their financing. We must bring them to justice and we must stop the fighters in neighboring countries from joining them," Massoum said at the conference opening.
The group brings in more than $3 million a day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion, according to U.S. intelligence officials and private experts.
The Paris meeting was a coalition of strange bedfellows, some of whom have allegedly financed extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, and others, like Russia, which backs Syria's Bashar Assad who is also supported by Iran.
Less than a week ago in Baghdad, Kerry was clear about the U.S. position regarding Iran, embroiled in a years-long dispute with the West over concern that Tehran wants nuclear weapons.
"The United States does not cooperate, militarily or otherwise, nor does it have any intention in this process of doing so, with Iran," he had said.
France, stressing a pragmatic approach, felt Iran could be an ally against a common enemy if, as President Francois Hollande said, Tehran "abides by principles permitting a sincere and useful conversation."
On Monday, Kerry, in an apparent about face, said he wouldn't shut the door to talking to Iran about a common enemy.
"We're not coordinating with Iran, but as I said, we're open to have a conversation at some point in time if there's a way to find something constructive," he said.
Kerry spoke after Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the U.S. had in fact requested that Tehran join the fight against the Islamic State group but it rejected the overture because of Washington's "unclean intentions."
Kerry did not respond directly to questions about that claim. He said there are often discussions on the sidelines of nuclear talks.
"I'm never going to shut the door to something that could solve a problem if there's a way to do it," Kerry said.
Back-door dealings are common in Middle East diplomacy, but it was unclear whether Iran would cooperate. Khamenei said Iran is proud not to be part of the U.S.-led coalition and warned it will suffer the same problems it suffered in the past should it enter Iraq and Syria without authorization.
Massoum would have liked Iran at the talks.
"We have a nearly 1,000-kilometer (625-mile) border with them (Iran) and from the first day the Islamic State group made itself known ... Iran gave us humanitarian and military aid," Massoum told The Associated Press ahead of the conference.
He conceded "there are perhaps sensitivities between certain countries and Iran."
There was never any question of adding Iran to the coalition planning airstrikes, but Tehran is closely linked to Iraq.
"There will be no success in Iraq without cooperation with Iran," said Francois Gere, of the French Institute of Strategic Analysis.
Opponents of Iranian involvements cite Iran's backing of Assad, mainly via the Hezbollah group it helped create decades ago and, as one diplomat said, "all these dark zones about Iranian intentions."
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted Monday that Syria and Iran are "natural allies" in the fight against the extremists, and therefore must be engaged, according to Russian news agencies.
"The extremists are trying to use any disagreements in our positions to tear apart the united front of states acting against them," he said.
Talks and possibilities to review options with Iran are not over. Discussions likely will continue informally at the U.N. General Assembly later this month, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal has said.
Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten, Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton and Lori Hinnant in Paris and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran contributed to this report.
© 2014 Associated Press
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/15/iran-fights-isis_n_5821710.html [with comments]
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An open letter to Barack Obama: World War III is here
By Larry Gatlin
Published September 03, 2014
Dear Mr. President,
It’s been quite a summer. The world is not a pretty place right now but I see you have had a chance to play golf. In fact you’ve played golf through the worst of it. Right after announcing that American journalist James Foley had been beheaded.
Now I play golf and I enjoy it. But I’m not president of the United States… so I have a little more time.
But I digress. Let's skip on down to the really important part... I hope you’ll read closely. There will be a quiz.
One of your predecessors said this when our country was being threatened…
"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking to the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger. As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. I ask that that congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. With confidence in our armed forces, with the un bounding determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph--so help us God."
Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered those words on a December day almost 73 years ago.
In the name of that same God invoked so eloquently and powerfully by that president, I ask that you, Mr. President -- if you're not too busy playing golf, campaigning, orchestrating the cover ups of all the "phony scandals," and just being cool -- could again declare war on the enemies who have unleashed "unprovoked and dastardly attacks" on the United States.
This summer we have now seen two American journalists beheaded by the “Islamic State” – ISIS or IL or IS. We are at war, sir, whether you like it or not.
Over 2,400 members of the United States military were killed that December morning long ago, in an attack not really on the United States mainland. It happened in Hawaii. I know you are familiar with Hawaii. The Aloha State was just a territory of the United States at that time.
That war would last for 4 long years and would kill 60 to 80 million people, including 291,557 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
That terrible toll was exacted in a war wherein the enemy combatants of the Axis powers, Japan, Germany, and Italy, had no means whatsoever of successfully mounting a military strike against the United States homeland.
Even if we hadn't won the war, and even if we hadn't captured/liberated Werner Von Braun and the other German scientists at Peenemunde before the Russians got to them, it would have been at least 10-15 years before Germany would have had a rocket/missile capable of reaching the U. S. mainland. And yet President Roosevelt galvanized, mobilized, and energized, and united the American people like never before.
Then America, in its "righteous might" unsheathed and unleashed the most devastating war machine in the history of mankind.
Guess what Mr. President, THE GOOD GUYS WON!! They won because President Roosevelt had the "cojones" to "pull the trigger," giving no thought to his legacy, but giving thought only to the preservation of the American way of life.
Forget the fun on the golf course, Mr. President. Does that way of life mean anything to you, sir, or are you still so hell bent on "fundamentally changing" the American way of life that you cannot, or will not, change course and "pull the trigger?"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said that, for Israel, the question of the current conflict with the enemies of Israel is an existential one.
In my opinion, sir, and in the opinions of most of the grown-ups in our military apparatus, and other expert military analysts, the United States is now engaged -- or not really engaged -- in no less an existential conflict.
Please pay attention sir. It's not your shot yet. It's Alonzo's shot.
We are being told every night on TV that the American people don't have the stomach for more war 10,000 miles away. Well sir, I think you should conduct another of your seemingly endless polls and ask those Americans a few simple questions:
Do Americans have the stomach to see planes crash into our buildings again, or citizens running through the streets of New York City with the residue of those buildings and the ashes of those who were burned alive on their faces again, or a man and wife holding hands and jumping out of an 80th story window, together, to keep from being burned alive again?
Sir, why don't you ask Americans these simple questions and see what their answers are.
Whether you like it or not sir, World War III has already started and it is time for America to "take arms against a sea of trouble, and by opposing," try to keep 9/11 and other attacks on America from happening again.
From 1941-45, 291,557 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines died to defeat an enemy that had absolutely no means of attacking the United States mainland. And now, we are being told that after more than 10 years of fighting those ruthless bastards in Iraq and Afghanistan where "only" 6,802 of our warriors have been killed, America doesn't have the stomach to go do what needs to be done?
Please understand the context of the word "only." With all my heart I thank all thank these warriors and their families for the sacrifices they have made, and continue to make. And now we are giving up the fight? We are surrendering? We are being told that AMERICA DOESNT HAVE THE STOMACH TO DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE????????
Well sir, you need to have enough stomach, GUTS, COJONES for all of us. It's called LEADERSHIP!!
If that is so, that America doesn't have the stomach to do what needs to be done, I say shame on us, and especially, shame on you, Mr. President. We deserve what we will get.
I believe that it is time for America to go on wartime footing, all the way up to and including a "peacetime" draft if necessary. Heck, pay the soldiers what congressmen, senators, and your White House spin doctors make.
Go save Iraq -- AGAIN. Take 20% of their oil revenue until the money we have spent freeing them -- TWICE -- is paid back. Leave a residual force there to keep this from happening again (see Japan, Germany, and Italy) and tell anyone who doesn't like it to kiss AMERICA's happy, safe rear end.
I am 66 years old, I'm in pretty damn good shape and I will go right now. I've lived a good life and I want my granddaughters to have the chance to live one too.
I was #296 during Vietnam... I didn't have to go, but I would have gone if I had been called.
I will go now if called… Unfortunately, I know that I never will be called, so I will answer a different call.
I will call on you, Mr. President. Do you have the stomach to lead our scared, uncertain, worried, "tired of war" American citizens in a fight to the death against the Islamic murderers, even if the "tide of public opinion" is against it?
Anyone can lead people who are willing and eager to go. Can you, will you lead people who are not willing, but need to go?
Finally, while it is long past time to start treating our veterans with the dignity and care they deserve, it is also long past time to stop treating our current soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. They have been trained to defend the United States, Mr. President, to the death, if it comes to that.
We have trained them, fed them, housed them, equipped them, armed them, and stationed them in close proximity to hot spots all over the world, in order to be ready for the start of World War III.
Well, Mr. President, WORLD WAR III is here.
It's high time we turn our troops loose to let them GO KILL THE BAD GUYS. Turn them loose, sir, and give America another, "righteous might, so help us God" moment.
Please, sir, before it's too late...
IT'S YOUR SHOT…FORE!!
Larry Gatlin
[ http://www.foxnews.com/archive/larry-gatlin/index.html ,
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/3jCe2BmwBKV/47th+Annual+Academy+Country+Music+Awards/daKReQ8S8ix/Larry+Gatlin ]
is a country music singer and songwriter.
©2014 FOX News Network, LLC (emphasis in original)
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/09/03/open-letter-to-barack-obama-world-war-iii-is-here/ [with comments]
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http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106332340 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=106333741 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=99281882 and preceding (and any future following)
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
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