Islamic State working on chemical weapons, say U.S., Iraqi officials

Mrs Clinton, who as Secretary of State unsuccessfully argued for a greater U.S. intervention in Syria by arming “moderate” forces to fight dictator Mr al-Assad, urged the USA to significantly step up its air bombing campaign in a foreign policy speech on Thursday.

In short, one should have no illusions that simply intensifying airstrikes and more tough talk can lead to the defeat of ISIS. For instance the USA ambassador to Canada, Bruce Heyman uses the term Daesh instead of ISIL.

Another reality is that the Obama administration is under political attack for what critics sees as a feckless military effort.

The problem is that no matter what the GOP says these days, it is “doing exactly what the Islamic State wants” – the most popular platitude this side of “those Syrian refugees are just like baby Jesus”.

Q: Al-Qaida is al-Qaida. State TV aired exclusive video footage of warplanes striking ISIS positions in Syria. By standardizing the use of “Islamic State”, Davis says the words “become loaded with other kinds of meaning and people try to enforce a certain way of talking about them” in the public square. One thing’s for sure: Years of repeated, horrific attacks against Shia Iraqis led to deep divisions in Iraqi society, which have yet to heal.

The author, Sameer Al Khalifawy, claimed there had been “significant progress”.

What’s their objective? According to a New York Times interview with Harleen Gambhir, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, ISIS is focused on three parallel tracks: inciting regional conflicts in Iraq and Syria; building relationships with jihadist groups that carry out military operations across the Middle East and North Africa; and inspiring ISIS sympathizes to conduct attacks on the West. The Islamic State itself has taken tens of thousands of innocent lives in the region, and now hundreds more civilian lives in Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and France.

The Iraqi officials said the two men were working with al-Baghdadi, citing IS correspondence they seized from al-Jabouri.

The threat stated by an Islamic State member a day or two after the Paris attack to do something similar in Washington only heightens the concern and makes it seem we must do something decisive to stop the terrorist group. New countries were constructed, including Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

Does the Islamic State have chemical or biological weapon capabilities? He had been a prisoner of US forces in Iraq.

But even the “Islamic” part of their name is contentious. They wouldn’t give details of the program, including how many personnel it is thought to have or its budget. While both acronyms refer to the same group, The media, and in most cases politicians seemingly use these names interchangeably, which can be confusing.

– Daesh is an acronym that sounds closer to the Arabic name – and like an insult.

“We don’t need 100,000 troops, we need 20,000 mostly Arab, with good leadership who can go in and do the job.” he said. “I can not think of a more potent recruitment tool for (the Islamic State group) than some of the rhetoric that’s been coming out of here”, he said of Republicans, who were demanding a pause in the influx of Syrian refugees. Obama’s started too, although he mainly uses ISIL. Which, of course, we’re not.

President Obama wisely is not buying into President Hollande’s thinking that an increase in military power in Syria is the proper response. His first responsibility is to keep Americans safe, and that includes those who defend the country.

Complicating the view from the ground, at least for the United States and its allies, is Iran’s involvement. The Islamic State doesn’t hate refugees as a matter of principle. “They’re harder to find than you would like”. The overwhelming majority of Muslims detest, denounce and feel themselves threatened by ISIS and its subsidiaries and partners. More than 130 people were killed. This is not Nazi Germany, where a state was co-opted by an extremist fascist movement, and willingly followed along.

In August, it was confirmed that Kurds fighting ISIS in northern Iraq were exposed to mustard gas. In no places would they. The British newspaper said ISIS sells most of its crude to independent traders at oil fields, and that Syrian and Iraqi buyers can wait with their trucks for weeks to fill up.