GOP candidates criticize Obama, Clinton after Paris attacks

Republican presidential candidates urged greater confrontation with terrorists and a clampdown on immigration while slamming President Barack Obama after Friday’s terror assaults in Paris.

The Paris carnage, in which 129 people were killed in attacks on a concert hall, restaurants, bars and a sports stadium, also poses a major challenge for Europe, with populist leaders rushing to demand an end to an influx of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

“We will redouble our efforts, working with other members of the coalition, to bring about a peaceful transition in Syria and to eliminate Daesh as a force that can create so much pain and suffering for people in Paris, in Ankara, and in other parts of the globe”, he added, using an alternative name for Islamic State. If nuances were bombs, Islamic State would have been destroyed years ago.

World leaders are looking again to the USA for leadership in the campaign to defeat the militant group.

Obama has been resistant to the idea of sinking more deeply into the Syrian civil war, but there are signs that could be changing. No “Islamic State” in that territory has ever been recognized by any government as representing any actual country. The US said it is also sending as many as 50 special forces to northern Syria. Jindal called the comment “insane” and said there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed.

“We have recovered information from our direct sources in the Islamic State terrorist organization about the orders issued by terrorist “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” directing all members of the organization to implement an worldwide attack that includes all coalition countries, in addition to Iran and the Russian Federation, through bombings or assassinations or hostage taking in the coming days”.

It was not immediately clear what additional steps Carter meant, but they probably would include intelligence-sharing and closer coordination, such as the assistance offered in Sunday’s retaliatory strike by French warplanes.

Obama said he had also discussed in his meeting with Erdogan the progress made by foreign ministers in Vienna, who on Saturday outlined a plan for a political process in Syria leading to elections within two years, although differences over Assad’s fate still remained. Of course, while expressing their sympathies, they took jabs at the current administration, touting how they could’ve handled and will handle ISIS and Syria differently.

Friday’s attacks also “raise hard questions for us and France about how this went undiscovered”, said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a phone interview Saturday after a briefing by USA intelligence officials.

The raids were France’s biggest to date in Syria and were directed at the Islamist extremists’ stronghold of Raqqa.

“What we need to be able to do, frankly, is sort out that foreign fighter flow, those who have gone into Syria and come out and want to launch attacks or those who have connections with ISIL in Syria”, Rhodes said. Most Islamic State attacks outside the region up until now have been carried out by affiliated groups or individuals who were inspired to act by Islamic State propaganda.

He drew applause when he said there is a point at which people have to say enough is enough.