ISIS – Capitol Hill Blue

Trump ignored his generals, didn’t tell Congress but Putin approved Syria withdrawal

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 by DOUG THOMPSON

Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump (Credit: AP/Andrew Harnik/Nati Harnik/Photo montage by Salon)

Donald Trump originally packed his administration with retired generals and bragged about “my generals.”

Like so many of Trump’s favored aides, the generals found loyalty is a one-way street with the president who demands it but offers nothing in return.

Latest example: Retired four-star Marine general Jim Mattis, the last remaining member of the once-large “my generals” group of aides to Trump.

As Defense Secretary, Mattis runs the Pentagon and the armed forces of the United States — at least in title.

Trump ignored Mattis’ advice and warnings that the president’s sudden pull out of Syria would lead to chaos and serious problems for the United States but the man with no prior government or military experience ignored him.

Mattis, in recent months, found himself left out of meetings and discussions with Trump on national security issues. Mattis opposed Trump’s decision to deploy troops to America’s border with Mexico.

Trump used to brag about his cadre of retired military brass. He said it proved he was serious about a get-tough national security approach.

But all but Mattis is either gone or on the way out, including former national security advisers Michael Flynn and H.R. McMaster and Chief of Staff John Kelly.

Mattis may be gone soon. He rarely meets with Trump — a change from his early days in the post — and seldom attends key white house meetings.

But he and others within the military says America’s job in Syria is “far from done.”

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there,” Trump said in his surprise announcement for withdrawal.

Says Pentagon Dana W. White: “The coalition has liberated the ISIS-held territory, bt the campaign against ISIS is not over.”

Administration special envoy on Islamic State affairs, Brett McGurk, adds: “It would be reckless if we were just to say, ‘Well, the physical caliphate is defeated, so we can just leave now. I think anyone who’s looked at a conflict like this would agree with that.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton say the goal in Syria “is broader than simply countering the Islamic State.”

Republican members of Congress reacted with anger when they learned about Trump’s decision — not from him but in news reports.

“I don’t know what it is. I haven’t been briefed. I am completely blindsided, and I think there will be a lot of bipartisan concern,” responded Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.). ““ISIS has been dealt a severe blow but are not defeated. If there has been a decision to withdraw our forces in Syria, the likelihood of their return goes up dramatically.”

At a Republican lunch Wednesday, Senators angrily confronted Vice President Mike Pence and demanded to know why they were left in the dark. Pence appeared unaware of the withdrawal, announced by Trump in a Twitter tweet.

“We did not appreciate reading about this decision in the paper,” Graham told Pence.

Trump, however, did get public support from Russian president Vladimir Putin, who called the withdrawal “the right decision.”

“Donald’s right, and I agree with him,” Putin said.

Given Trump’s embrace of Russia and its dictator, that may have been the only approval he wanted.

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American soldier pledges support to ISIS

July 12, 2017July 11, 2017 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/audrey-mcavoy-and-lolita-c-baldor" rel="tag">AUDREY McAVOY and LOLITA C. BALDOR</a>

The exterior of the condo complex where Ikaika Kang, a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army, lives in Hawaii. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

An active duty U.S. soldier was arrested on terrorism charges after authorities say he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and said he wanted to “kill a bunch of people.”

The FBI arrested Sgt. 1st Class Ikaika Kang, 34, in a suburb of Honolulu over the weekend after a yearlong investigation involving multiple undercover officers and confidential informants. He made an initial appearance in federal court on Monday.

Kang’s court-appointed defense attorney, Birney Bervar, said it appears his client may suffer from service-related mental health issues of which the government was aware but neglected to treat. Bervar declined to elaborate.

He said Kang was “a decorated veteran of two deployments” to Iraq and Afghanistan.

A 26-page affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jimmy Chen filed in court Monday detailed how Kang thought he was dealing with people working for Islamic State but who were actually undercover agents.

Paul Delacourt, the FBI special agent in charge of the Hawaii bureau, said Kang gave military documents to people he believed would give them to Islamic State, but none of them got to the organization. He told reporters the FBI believed Kang was a lone actor and wasn’t affiliated with anyone who poses a threat.

On Saturday, agents arrested him after he pledged loyalty to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said he wanted to “take his rifle, his magazines and kill ‘a bunch of people.'”

Kang and the agents together made combat training videos he believed would be taken to the Middle East to help prepare the group’s soldiers to fight American forces, according to the affidavit. Kang had received the highest level of combat training available in the Army and was a mixed martial arts enthusiast.

Also on Saturday, Kang and an undercover agent allegedly went shopping for a drone to give to Islamic State fighters.

Kang said the drone would allow the fighters to view the battlefield from above “to find tank positions and avenues for escape” from U.S. soldiers, the affidavit said. He used his debit card to pay nearly $1,400 for the drone, Go-Pro camera, and related equipment. The agent paid him $700 to split the cost.

Kang, a trained air traffic controller based at Hawaii’s Wheeler Army Airfield, had his military clearance revoked in 2012 for making pro-Islamic State comments while at work and on-post and threatening to hurt or kill fellow service members.

His clearance was reinstated a year later after he completed military requirements.

However, the affidavit says the Army believed Kang was becoming radicalized in 2016 and asked the FBI to investigate.

Kang has two firearms registered in his name, an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun. After the shooting last summer at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, he told a confidential source that the “shooter did what he had to do and later said that America is the only terrorist organization in the world,” according to the affidavit.

The document alleges he also later told the same source that “Hitler was right, saying he believed in the mass killing of Jews.”

He told the source he was angry at a civilian who had taken away his air traffic controller’s license and that he wanted to torture him, the affidavit said.

“Kang said that if he ever saw him again, he would tie him down and pour Drano in his eyes,” the affidavit said.

Kang is from Hawaii, Delacourt said.

He enlisted in the Army in December 2001, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. He served in South Korea in 2002-2003. He deployed to Iraq from March 2010 to February 2011 and Afghanistan from July 2013 to April 2014.

Kang was scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing on Thursday.

Red tape with the word “evidence” on it covered part of the door to the Kang’s apartment in the Honolulu suburb of Waipahu.

Pua Edayan, the office manager at the condo complex, described Kang as “a quiet person.”

Dee Asuncion, a real estate agent who represented Kang when he bought his home less than a year ago, said he came across as a “very respectful guy.” She said he was “on the shy, quiet side.”

But looking back she said there was one conversation that seemed strange to her. He talked about having respect for the ideology of Islamic terrorist groups.

“It sounded like he was just curious,” she said, adding that in the same conversation he talked about helping his dad renovate his home.

“I feel very sad,” Asuncion said. “I feel bad for him that he went down that road. I don’t know exactly what he did.”

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Baldor reported from Washington. Jennifer Sinco Kelleher contributed to this report from Waipahu, Hawaii.
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Bomb blast death toll up to 94

April 18, 2017April 15, 2017 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/rahim-faiez" rel="tag">RAHIM FAIEZ</a>

U.S. forces and Afghan commandos are seen in Asad Khil near the site of a U.S. bombing in the Achin district of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

The number of militants killed in an attack by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military has risen to 94, an Afghan official said Saturday.

Ataullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor in Nangarhar, said the number of Islamic State group dead was up from the 36 reported a day earlier. A Ministry of Defense official had said Friday the number of dead could rise as officials assessed the bomb site in Achin district.

“Fortunately there is no report of civilians being killed in the attack,” Khogyani said.

The increased death toll in Nangarhar was announced as officials in southern Helmand province reported at least 11 civilians were killed and one wounded in two roadside bomb blasts overnight.

The U.S. attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Nangarhar province near the Pakistan border killed at least four IS group leaders, Khogyani said. He said a clearance operation to assess the site of the attack was continuing.

The strike using the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, or MOAB, was carried out Thursday against an Islamic State group tunnel complex carved into the mountains that Afghan forces had tried to assault repeatedly in recent weeks in fierce fighting in Nangarhar province.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Saturday criticized both the Afghan and U.S. governments for the attack in Nangarhar. Addressing a gathering in capital Kabul, Karzai said that allowing the U.S. to carry out the bombing was “treason” and an insult to Afghanistan.

Current President Ashraf Ghani’s office said Friday there was “close coordination” between the U.S. military and the Afghan government on the operation, and they were careful to prevent any civilian casualties.

The U.S. estimates 600-800 IS fighters are in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated on fighting them while also supporting Afghan forces against the Taliban. The U.S. has more than 8,000 US troops in Afghanistan, training local forces and conducting counterterrorism operations.

In Helmand province, at least 11 civilians were killed and one wounded in two roadside bomb blasts late Friday evening, said Omar Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.

“All victims of the attack were innocent civilians including women and children,” said Zwak. The 11 died in a blast in Nawa district when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb. Another person was wounded when a second bomb exploded in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, he said.

Also on Saturday, Khogyani said a district leader and three others were wounded when their vehicle was targeted by a bomb. One of the wounded was Ghalib Mujahid, Bati Kot district chief, he said.

“The district chief and others are out of danger and are not in life-threatening condition,” he said.

Last November, Mujahid was attacked by a sticky bomb attached to the vehicle and he was wounded and his driver was killed.
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Massive bomb kills 36 ISIS fighters

April 14, 2017 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/amir-shah" rel="tag">AMIR SHAH</a>

GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast (MOAB) weapon, on display at the Air Force Armament Museum on Eglin Air Force Base. (Mark Kulaw/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

The attack on a tunnel complex in remote eastern Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military left 36 Islamic State group fighters dead and no civilian casualties, Afghanistan officials said Friday.

The Ministry of Defense said in a statement that several IS caves and ammunition caches were destroyed by the giant bomb, which terrified villagers on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with its “earsplitting blast.”

The U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said the bomb was dropped at about 7:30 p.m. local time Thursday on a tunnel complex in Nangarhar province, where the Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group has been operating. The target was close to the Pakistani border.

“I want a hundred times more bombings on this group,” said Hakim Khan, 50, a resident of Achin district, the site of the blast.

Pakistani villagers living near the Afghan border said the explosion was so loud they thought a bomb ad been dropped in their village by U.S. warplanes targeting terrorists in Pakistan.

“I was sleeping when we heard a loud explosion. It was an earsplitting blast,” said Shah Wali, 46, who lives in the village of Goor Gari, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the border with Nangarhar. “I jumped from my bed and came out of my home to see what has gone wrong in our village.”

Wali said dozens of other villagers also came out of homes and later he went near the border, where he met with other residents. He said he could see smoke in the sky.

The U.S. estimates 600 to 800 IS fighters are present in Afghanistan, mostly in Nangarhar. The U.S. has concentrated heavily on combatting them while also supporting Afghan forces battling the Taliban. President Donald Trump called Thursday’s operation a “very, very successful mission.”

The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives.

Inamullah Meyakhil, spokesman for the central hospital in eastern Nangarhar province, said the facility had received no dead or wounded from the attack.

District Gov. Ismail Shinwari said there is no civilian property near the airstrike location.

There was no immediate comment from the Islamic State group or other militants regarding the U.S. bomb attack.

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Associated Press writers Anwarullah Khan in Khar, Pakistan, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.
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ISIS wants to send operatives to U.S.

June 16, 2016June 16, 2016 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/deb-riechmann" rel="tag">DEB RIECHMANN</a>

FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2016, file photo, CIA Director John Brennan speaks at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington. Brennan will tell Congress on June 16, that Islamic State militants are training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for its territorial losses. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) — CIA Director John Brennan speaks at a House Intelligence Committee hearing on world wide threats on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

CIA Director John Brennan will tell Congress on Thursday that Islamic State militants are training and attempting to deploy operatives for further attacks on the West and will rely more on guerrilla-style tactics to compensate for their territorial losses.

In remarks prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee, Brennan says IS has been working to build an apparatus to direct and inspire attacks against its foreign enemies, as in the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels — ones the CIA believes were directed by IS leaders.

“ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West,” Brennan said, using another acronym for the group. He said IS probably is working to smuggle them into countries, perhaps among refugee flows or through legitimate means of travel.

Brennan also noted the group’s call for followers to conduct so-called lone-wolf attacks in their home countries. He called the attack in Orlando a “heinous act of wanton violence” and an “assault on the values of openness and tolerance” that define the United States as a nation.

He said IS is gradually cultivating its various branches into an interconnected network. The branch in Libya is likely the most advanced and most dangerous, but IS is trying to increase its influence in Africa, Brennan said. The IS branch in the Sinai has become the “most active and capable terrorist group in Egypt,” attacking the Egyptian military and government targets in addition to foreigners and tourists, such as the downing of a Russian passenger jet last October.

Other branches have struggled to gain traction, Brennan said. “The Yemen branch, for instance, has been riven with factionalism. And the Afghanistan-Pakistan branch has struggled to maintain its cohesion, in part because of competition with the Taliban.”

He called IS a “formidable adversary,” but said the U.S.-led coalition has made progress combating the group, which has had to surrender large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and has lost some of its leaders in airstrikes. IS has struggled to replenish its ranks of fighters, Brennan said, because fewer of them are traveling to Syria and others have defected.

“The group appears to be a long way from realizing the vision that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi laid out when he declared the caliphate two years ago in Mosul,” Iraq, Brennan said.

He said the group’s ability to raise money has also been curtailed, although the group still continues to generate at least tens of millions of dollars in revenue each month, mostly from taxation and from sales of crude oil.

“Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,” he said.

“In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.”

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‘Human catastrophe’ in Falluja

May 31, 2016May 31, 2016 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/maher-nazeh-and-saif-hameed" rel="tag">MAHER NAZEH and SAIF HAMEED</a>

A member of the Iraqi security forces fires artillery during clashes with Islamic State militants near Falluja, Iraq, May 29, 2016. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani — A member of the Iraqi security forces fires artillery during clashes with Islamic State militants near Falluja, Iraq, May 29, 2016. (REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani)

Islamic State militants fought back vigorously overnight and parried an onslaught by the Iraqi army on a southern district of the city of Falluja, the group’s bastion near Baghdad, officers said on Tuesday.

An aid official warned of a “human catastrophe” unfolding in the city, with residents unable to escape.

Soldiers from the elite Rapid Response Team stopped their advance overnight about 500 meters (yards) from the al-Shuhada district, the southeastern part of city’s main built-up area, an army commander and a police officer said.

“Our forces came under heavy fire, they are well dug in trenches and tunnels,” said the commander speaking in Camp Tariq, the rear army base south of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

A staff member of Falluja’s main hospital said they received reports of 32 civilians killed on Monday. Medical sources had reported that the death toll in the city stood at about 50, 30 civilians and 20 militants, during the first week the offensive which started on May 23.

Falluja has been under siege for more than six months. Foreign aid organization are not present in the city, but are providing help to those who manage to exit and reach refugee camps.

The latest offensive is causing alarm among these organizations as more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped with limited access to water, food and health care.

“HUMAN CATASTROPHE”

“A human catastrophe is unfolding in Fallujah. Families are caught in the crossfire with no safe way out,” said Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the organizations helping families displaced form the city.

“For nine days we have heard of only one single family managing to escape from inside the town,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. `Warring parties must guarantee civilians safe exit now, before it’s too late and more lives are lost.”

Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Falluja on May 22 after a spate of bombings that killed more than 150 people in one week in Baghdad, the worst death toll so far this year. A series of bombings claimed by Islamic State also hit Baghdad on Monday, killing over 20 people.

Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi’ite-led Baghdad government that took over after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003.

It was the first city to fall under Islamic State control, in January 2014.

It would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after Saddam’s home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s vast western Anbar province.

Falluja is also in Anbar, located between Ramadi and Baghdad. Capturing it would give the government control of the major population centers of the Euphrates River valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years.

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Obama: “We will defeat ISIS’

December 7, 2015December 7, 2015 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/julie-pace" rel="tag">JULIE PACE</a>

President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Sunday night, Dec. 6, 2016. The address comes as recent attacks in Paris and California have raised concerns that the U.S. and other countries arent doing enough to prevent terror attacks. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP) — President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Sunday night, Dec. 6, 2016. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)

In a rare Oval Office address, President Barack Obama vowed Sunday night the U.S. will overcome a new phase of the terror threat that seeks to “poison the minds” of people here and around the world, as he sought to reassure Americans shaken by recent attacks in Paris and California.

“I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure,” he said, speaking from a lectern in his West Wing office. “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” he declared.

The president’s speech followed Wednesday’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and wounded 21. Authorities say a couple carried out the attack and the wife pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and its leader in a Facebook post.

Obama said that while there was no evidence the shooters were directed by a terror network overseas or part of a broader plot, “the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization.”

“This was an act of terrorism designed to kill innocent people,” he said in the 13-minute address.

In speaking from the Oval Office, Obama turned to a tool of the presidency that he has used infrequently. His decision to speak in prime time reflected the White House’s concern that his message on the recent attacks hasn’t broken through, particularly in the midst of a heated presidential campaign.

Yet Obama’s speech was likely to leave his critics unsatisfied. He announced no significant shift in U.S. strategy and offered no new policy prescriptions for defeating IS, underscoring both his confidence in his current approach and the lack of easy options for countering the extremist group.

“Nothing that happened in the speech tonight is going to assuage people’s fears,” Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate, said on Fox News.

Obama did call for cooperation between private companies and law enforcement to ensure potential attackers can’t use technology to evade detection. He also urged Congress to pass new force authorization for military actions underway against IS in Iraq and Syria, and also to approve legislation to bar guns from being sold to people on a no-fly list.

And he implored Americans to not turn against Muslims at home, saying the Islamic State is driven by a desire to spark a war between the West and Islam. Still, he called on Muslims in the U.S. and around the world to take up the cause of fighting extremism.

The spread of radical Islam into American communities, he said, is “a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse.”

The president’s most specific policy announcement was to order the departments of State and Homeland Security to review the fiance visa program that the female shooter in California used to enter the U.S. In his remarks, Obama referred to a visa waiver program that Congress is also reviewing, but the White House later clarified he meant the fiance program

He also reiterated his call for broader gun control legislation, saying no matter how effective law enforcement and intelligence agencies are, they can’t identify every would-be shooter. He called it a matter of national security to prevent potential killers from getting guns.

“What we can do, and must do, is make it harder for them to kill,” he said.

Obama stands little chance of getting the Republican-led Congress to agree to any gun control measures. On Thursday, the Senate rejected legislation barring people the government suspects of acts of terror from purchasing firearms. Gun rights advocates say such a ban would violate the rights of people who haven’t been convicted of crimes.

Congress also has been unable to coalesce behind any plan to authorize more force against IS, and the administration’s proposal has languished since February.

Obama repeated his long-standing opposition to an American-led ground war in the Middle East and made no mention of the more aggressive action others have suggested, including a enforcing a no-fly zone and safe corridors in Syria.

“Our success won’t depend on tough talk, or abandoning our values or giving in to fear,” he said. “Instead, we will prevail by being strong and smart, resilient and relentless.”

After the speech, the president appeared as previously scheduled at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute in Washington.

The president’s critics — and increasingly, some members of his own party — have questioned his strategy. Hours before he spoke, Hillary Clinton — his former secretary of state and the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination — said the U.S. is “not winning” the fight against IS.

Obama has insisted that the Islamic State is contained in Iraq and Syria. However, the group has set its sights elsewhere in the world, launching attacks in Lebanon and Turkey and downing a Russia airliner over Egypt.

The Nov. 13 attacks in Paris marked the group’s most aggressive actions in Europe, a coordinated effort that left 130 people dead and wounded hundreds more.

Last week, the terror threat drew even closer for Americans when a couple — a 29-year-old woman originally from Pakistan and her 28-year-old American-born husband — launched an attack on a holiday luncheon in San Bernardino.

The FBI is investigating the massacre as an act of terror that, if proved, would be the deadliest by Islamic extremists on American soil since Sept. 11, 2001.

The woman pledged allegiance to IS and its leader in a Facebook post, according to U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. A Facebook official said the post came about the time the couple stormed the San Bernardino social service center.

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AP writers Donna Cassata and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Kerry: NATO ready to step up to fight ISIS

December 2, 2015 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/bradley-klapper" rel="tag">BRADLEY KLAPPER</a>

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends a session on Ukraine at the NATO ministerial meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Wednesday Dec. 2, 2015. (Jonathan Ernst / Pool via AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends a session on Ukraine at the NATO ministerial meetings at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. (Jonathan Ernst / Pool via AP)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that NATO members stood ready to step up military efforts against the Islamic State and held out hope of broadening cooperation between the West and Russia to end Syria’s protracted civil war.

After two days of meetings at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels, Kerry said several alliance members were bringing more to the battle or would do soon. He didn’t outline any fresh commitments specifically, saying plans would be announced only after foreign ministers first consult their governments at home.

These steps would come on top of Germany’s recent approval for sending forces and materiel for a non-combat support role near the Middle East, and a British vote Wednesday that could authorize expanded airstrikes by that country against IS in Syria.

Kerry said he called on each of the other 27 members of alliance to do more to strike at the extremist group’s core in Iraq and Syria and strangle its international networks. He said U.S. partners in the region, including NATO member Turkey, should receive defensive assistance.

Kerry said military assistance wouldn’t mean ground troops or direct fighting for some countries. The effort to expand operations, which has gained steam since last month’s attack in Paris, will require more medical facilities, intelligence gathering, military support structure, refueling operation, greater aerial defenses and other action, he said.

“There are a number of things countries can do,” Kerry told reporters.

On Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress that the American military will deploy a new special operations force to Iraq to step up the fight against IS militants who hold territory there and in Syria. President Barack Obama previously announced he was sending fewer than 50 special operations forces to Syria.

Kerry said Iraq’s government was briefed in advance of the U.S. announcement. He said Washington would work with Baghdad on what types of forces deployed, where they go and what types of missions they conduct. He expressed “full and total respect” for al-Abadi’s leadership, and said plans would go forward “in full consultation and with full consent of the Iraqi government.”

Kerry repeated Obama’s argument from a day ago that no peace in Syria would be possible while its president, Bashar Assad, remained in power. But he said an international mediation effort that now includes Assad’s backers — Russia and Iran — recognizes the need to maintain the Syrian state and key services such as health and education. Seeing those dismantled, as happened after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, would be “disastrous,” Kerry said.

He added that Russia and Iran continue to have a different view on Assad.

But Kerry also said that Russia, if its focus on fighting IS is “genuine,” could have a constructive effect in bringing peace.

He didn’t address whether the U.S. might be willing to bring Russia into its military effort against IS, as some members such as France have been proposing.

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Christie calls Obama ‘naive/dangerous’

November 26, 2015November 25, 2015 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/jill-colvin" rel="tag">JILL COLVIN</a>

Republican presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, on strengthening U.S. intelligence capabilities and other topics. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) — Republican presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie says President Barack Obama continues to underestimate the threat posed by Islamic State militants despite the Paris attacks.

“This is a cult of evil, everyone,” he said of the Islamic State group in a speech Tuesday to the Council on Foreign Relations. Christie called the Obama administration’s approach to the threat “naive and gravely dangerous.”

The New Jersey governor has long highlighted his resume as he tries to stand out in the Republican presidential field. He was sworn-in as the state’s U.S. attorney within months of the 9/11 attacks and oversaw terrorism investigations, experience he drew from during the heated debate over the expiration of the Patriot Act.

His arguments have found new urgency after the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more, stoking new fears about potential attacks in the United States and a fierce debate about how the country should handle Syrian refugees. He is hoping the renewed focus on national security will help him revive his lagging campaign.

Christie is against allowing Syrian refugees into the country, even saying orphans under 5 should not be permitted. And he’s dismissed Obama’s assurances that Syrian refugees are subjected to a rigorous, years-long process, citing congressional testimony from FBI Director James Comey that information available on those seeking entry is often limited.

“We cannot allow ourselves at a time of great peril to put ourselves voluntarily at even greater risk just because there are some folks who believe that it’ll make our country look better,” Christie said. And he argued that Muslim-Americans will support his approach.

“What I’ll tell you is that Muslim-Americans are not nearly that sensitive, not nearly as sensitive as some of the people in opinion places here in Washington or in the White House believe they are,” he said. “They’re Muslim-Americans and they understand that the safety and security of their family is at risk just the way the safety and security of Catholics are at risk, Protestants are at risk, Buddhists are at risk, when the American homeland is not safe and not secure.”

He also said he’d be willing to reconsider his approach to the refugees— if Comey can convince him the vetting is thorough.

Like so much of Christie’s approach, he also got personal, speaking emotionally of his own experience on Sept. 11, 2001, when he spent five-and-a-half hours desperately trying to reach his wife, Mary Pat, who worked in lower Manhattan. He also spoke about friends he lost that day.

“The goal and the intent of the American president has to be first and foremost to prevent another generation of those widows and orphans on American soil,” he said.

Without referring by name to rival political outsiders like Donald Trump, or first-term senators like Florida’s Marco Rubio, Christie also warned about electing a candidate who is untested to the White House, as appealing as something new may seem.

“New seems fabulous until the moment comes when you need experience,” he said.

A super PAC promoting Christie is broadcasting ads contrasting Christie’s approach to foreign policy with that of Obama and Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton. The group, America Leads, has reserved $6.5 million in commercial airtime this week through the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, adding to $7.2 million it had already spent on TV, advertising tracker Kantar Media’s CMAG shows.

Associated Press writer Julie Bykowicz contributed to this report.

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This story has been corrected to show that Christie was sworn-in as U.S. attorney in New Jersey within months of the 9/11 attack, he did not hold that office at the time of the attacks.

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U.S. wants more help from allies on ISIS

November 24, 2015November 24, 2015 by <a href="https://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/byline/kathleen-hennessey" rel="tag">KATHLEEN HENNESSEY</a>

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets staff of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan before their meeting at Mina Palace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Monday, Nov. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greets staff of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan before their meeting in Abu Dhabi. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

The White House urged allies on Monday to do more in the campaign against the Islamic State, while President Barack Obama faced pressure in return to show the U.S.-led coalition will intensify efforts in response to the Paris attacks, even without a major shift in strategy.

Requests for more counterintelligence, military and humanitarian assistance came a day before French President Francois Hollande was to arrive at the White House to discuss the fight against the extremists believed to be behind the Nov. 13 attacks that killed 130 people. Hollande, who next visits Russian President Vladimir Putin, is expected to seek more coordinated military operations that would include both the U.S. and Moscow.

Obama has shown no inclination to rethink the U.S. strategy or significantly expand America’s commitment, despite pressure from Hollande, Republican critics and some members of his own Democratic Party. However, Secretary of State John Kerry said in Abu Dhabi that both he and the president would like to see progress against the Islamic State “go faster.”

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. may step up efforts supporting strategies believed to be working — airstrikes and train-and-assist missions in Syria and Iraq — but he played down the possibility of any surge of new American resources into the fight.

The U.S. is “pulling more than our weight” in the coalition, Earnest said. “And we believe that there is more that can be done if countries are willing to contribute additional resources.”

Vice President Joe Biden sought those resources from allies at a meeting with ambassadors from 59 of the 65 countries in the coalition. The discussion focused on what more the countries could do to cut off financing for the Islamic State’s global network and how to stem the flow of fighters crossing into Syria and Iraq to join the group, the State Department said.

Biden spoke separately Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The White House said Biden highlighted “ongoing U.S. efforts to mobilize increased support for Iraq among the 65-member counter-ISIL coalition.”

Separately, the U.S. military said it had destroyed 283 tanker trucks used by IS militants to transport oil from producing fields in eastern Syria to smuggling points, an acceleration of attacks aimed at crippling the group’s oil revenues. The attack by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships was carried out Saturday at a site near Deir el-Zour and al-Hasakah but not made public until Monday.

After meeting with Obama, Hollande is headed to Moscow to meet with Putin, who has also expressed his intention to ramp up a campaign against the Islamic State.

The White House has not ruled out greater cooperation with Russia, but has expressed skepticism that Putin will focus the fight on the common enemy rather than use its airstrikes to undermine the moderate forces fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. Earnest said Monday the U.S. would “continue the conversation” with Putin but suggested Obama would make no promises to Hollande during Tuesday’s visit.

Rather, the meeting would be focused on the U.S. showing support, he said.

“This is a time when the French people are grieving and knowing that they can count on the most powerful country in the world to have their back,” Earnest said. “I think it will be a source of significant comfort to the French people.”

Kerry, meanwhile, suggested the U.S. was exploring some new ideas. Between meetings with Arab officials in Abu Dhabi, the chief American diplomat told reporters Obama was asking everyone in the U.S. government for new concepts to speed up the fight.

Some steps were in motion before the Paris attack, he said, such as a decision to deploy a small number of U.S. special forces to Syria and the continuing efforts toward a cease-fire between Syria’s government and rebel groups.

“The key is to destroy Daesh rapidly in Syria and in Iraq,” Kerry said, using an alternative term for the Islamic State.

“I’d like to see us go faster,” he said. “The president would like to see us go faster.”

But neither Kerry, nor the White House, outlined any specific post-Paris additions to the strategy.

Criticism of the U.S. strategy to this point has begun to grow louder. On Sunday, both Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and former Obama Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. effort wasn’t measuring up. Feinstein called for more aggressive action and addition special operations forces in Syria.

“I don’t think the approach is sufficient to the job,” Feinstein said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

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Associated Press Writer Bradley Klapper contributed from Abu Dhabi and National Security Writer Robert Burns from Washington.

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