Free Republic

Nearly 70 percent of Americans say they lack confidence that the U.S. will achieve its goals in fighting the terrorist group ISIS, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Annenberg poll. The findings come in the wake of President Barack Obama’s national address announcing new measures to combat the Sunni militants. The poll – conducted before the latest execution emerged – showed that a combined 68 percent of Americans say they have “very little” or “just some” confidence that Obama’s goals of degrading and eliminating the threat posed by ISIS will be achieved. Just 28 percent said they had “a...

A month after declaring an Islamic state-like caliphate in Northeastern Nigeria, Boko Haram militants have reportedly surrounded the Borno state capital Maiduguri, where residents expect an attack on what could be the group's largest and most symbolic seizure yet. ...

The United States is at war with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL), the White House and Pentagon said Friday, a day after Secretary of State John Kerry repeatedly declined to use that phrase. “In the same way that we are at war with Al Qaeda and its affiliates around the globe, we are at war with ISIL,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at the White House. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby echoed that sentiment, telling reporters that while the effort was "not the Iraq war," they should "make no mistake, we know we...

The use of the W-word could have both legal and political implications. Top Obama Administration officials have publicly given conflicting accounts in recent days over a fundamental question of the new U.S. military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria: Is the nation at war? With 158 airstrikes carried out on ISIS targets and more than 1,600 troops deployed to Iraq in various capacities, Secretary of State John Kerry told ABC News Thursday that the nation was not in fact at war with the militant group. But by Friday afternoon, the White House and the Pentagon were...

I could have sworn we were going to war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). But the president, a well-known theologian, has informed us that despite what the Muslims of ISIS say, the Islamic State “is not Islamic.” So I guess we’re in a war against SIS — the State of Iraq and Syria. But it still is a war, isn’t it, Mr. Secretary Kerry? “I think that’s the wrong terminology,” he sniffed yesterday. “What we are engaging in is a very significant counterterrorism operation.” Does that make it … a police action? Will we have to...

ANKARA--U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday played down chances of an imminent broad coalition against Islamic State militants, illustrating the difficulty Washington faces winning commitment for a military campaign in the heart of the Middle East. Kerry met Turkish leaders to try to secure support for U.S.-led action against Islamic State, but Ankara's reluctance to play a frontline role highlighted the challenges of building a willing coalition to wage what will likely be a tough offensive. Kerry has been touring the Middle East to build support for President Barack Obama's plan, announced on Wednesday, to strike both sides...

President Obama’s strategy to “degrade and destroy” ISIS comes with an additional 475 American troops gearing up to go to Iraq, bringing the total number of U.S. service members there to over 1,600 – but don’t call those “boots on the ground.” Like the hundreds of American soldiers already in Iraq, the new crop has not been assigned to any combat duties, the military says, and Thursday that’s how the White House told ABC News it defines “boots on the ground” in this context: “U.S. military service members serving in combat roles.”

ISIS is hoping to carry out major attacks on the West that could wreak major havoc—and they could do it from anywhere in the world. Islamic State militants are planning the creation of a 'cyber caliphate' protected by their own encryption software - from behind which they will launch massive hacking attacks on the U.S. and the West. Both Islamic State and Al Qaeda claim to be actively recruiting skilled hackers in a bid to create a team of jihadist computer experts capable of causing devastating cyber disruptions to Western institutions. […] Large numbers of Islamic State fighters are young,...

... For more than a year, the CIA has run a limited training program in Jordan for small numbers of vetted fighters. The military program would expand on that model and train larger numbers of fighters. U.S. officials familiar with details of the proposed program say that it is slated to last for one year from the time that Congress authorizes it and passes the funding request. A senior administration official revealed Wednesday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to host the train-and-equip program. A U.S. official told ABC News that Saudi Arabia will host multiple training sites for Syrian rebel...

The U.S. is not at war with ISIS, Secretary of State John Kerry insisted today. Kerry was asked today whether the U.S. was at war with ISIS. "No. Look, we’re engaged in a counterterrorism operation of a significant order," the secretary responded. "And counterterrorism operations can take a long time, they go on. I think 'war' is the wrong reference term with respect to that, but obviously it involves kinetic military action."

President Obama just announced that he is bringing a counter-terrorism strategy to an insurgency fight. He was at pains to repeat the phrase “counter-terror” four times in a short speech. Noting that ISIL is not a state (partly because the international community thankfully does not recognize it), he declared, “ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.” Neither of those sentences, unfortunately, is true. ISIL is an insurgent group that controls enormous territory in Iraq and Syria that it governs. It maneuvers conventional light...

Secretary of State John Kerry plunged into an intensive series of meetings here with Arab officials on Thursday to coordinate strategy against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The meetings are being hosted by Saudi Arabia, which has agreed to provide bases for the training of moderate Syrian rebels who are battling the Sunni militants and the Assad government in Damascus. The talks will also include the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. The Obama administration is eager for the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, to...

Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday airstrikes against Islamist militants in Syria without a UN Security Council mandate would be an act of aggression, Interfax news agency reported. "The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces against ISIL positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government," ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. "This step, in the absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law."

President Barack Obama told Americans on Wednesday he had authorized U.S. airstrikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in a broad escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State militant group. Obama's decision to launch attacks inside Syria, which is embroiled in a three-year civil war, marked a turnabout for the president, who shied away a year ago from airstrikes to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against his own people.

As Prepared for Delivery “So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.” … “But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless...

Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant was on the “radar screen” when she served in the Obama administration ... in September 2013. “Yes, they were on everybody’s radar screen.” ... the biggest concern ISIL presents for national security is the so-called foreign fighter problem, in which citizens of the United States and United Kingdom have traveled to the Middle East to join the militants. “The No. 1 threat to the homeland,” Napolitano said, “are Americans or Europeans who have passports who have been over there and who are...

According to a new web piece, President Obama is using “code speak” to send a message to his Muslim leaning contacts, assuring them that he does not recognize the State of Israel. “In one press conference after another, when referring to the Muslim terror super-group ISIS, [Obama] will use the term ISIL,” instead of Islamic State of Iraq, or the current designation of Islamic State. (1) In an article entitled “Decoding Obama’s Speech Reveals Some Startling Revelations,” we are directed to analysis of the geographical term “Levant,” a land bridge between Turkey in the North and Egypt in the South....

Terror group ISIS, which is active in Iraq and Syria, is reportedly strengthening its ties with Boko Haram in Nigeria, offering the militants advice on how to build an African caliphate. "Unless swift action is taken, Nigeria could be facing a rapid takeover of a large area of its territory reminiscent of ISIS's lightning advances in Iraq," The Nigeria Security Network warned. The Independent noted that intelligence agencies have been raising concern that what initially looked like symbolic links between ISIS and Boko Haram have now developed "into a practical relationship" with the former offering advice on strategy and tactics....

President Barack Obama is set to hit rewind on his approach to foreign policy when he addresses the nation Wednesday. A president who rode opposition to the Iraq War to the White House will try to convince the American people that, this time, the U.S. must wade back into the much-despised quagmire to eliminate the threat from jihadist group ISIS. It’s not the first time Obama has retreated from some of his most frequently-played sound bites regarding the terror threat in the Middle East. But with the ISIS threat feeling ever closer to home since the terror group beheaded two...

Is it ISIL, ISIS or Islamic State? Whatever you call the jihadist group known for killing dozens of people at a time, carrying out public executions, beheadings, crucifixions and other brutal acts, there is no denying they have captured the world's attention. On the eve of President Barack Obama's speech outlining Washington's strategy against the group, in which he will likely refer to it as ISIL, we ask: What's in a name?