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The Obama administration has never described the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) as a “ragtag” group, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Thursday, after describing the fall of Ramadi to the jihadist group as a “serious setback” but also saying that any conflict will have “ebbs and flows.” During a press briefing days after ISIS seized Ramadi in Iraq and Palmyra in Syria, Harf sparred with an Arab reporter over ISIS’ advances, differing with him over how much territory it now controls, how the administration views the group, and the relative strategies of ISIS and the U.S.

The Islamic State (Isis) group has released a new issue of its slick propaganda magazine Dabiq, featuring articles justifying the enslavement of Yazidi girls and condemning conspiracy theorists, as well as a report by British hostage John Cantlie. The publication also featured an article suggesting that the terror group is losing militants to conspiracy theories. Titled Conspiracy Theory Shirk (Sin) the piece implies that some fighters have grown delusional because of conjectures saying that IS is a puppet in the hands of western intelligence agencies. "If the mujahedeen liberated territory occupied by the kuffar [infidels], they would say that the...

The Islamic State (IS) group says it was behind a suicide bombing on a Shia mosque in Saudi Arabia that killed at least 10 people. The attack in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province is the first to be claimed by the Saudi branch of IS, which was formally established last November. The claim was posted on Twitter with an image of the bomber by an account that is a reliable source on the group. IS has previously threatened to attack Shia Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Witnesses reported a huge blast at the Imam Ali mosque in the village of al-Qadeeh, in...

House Foreign Relations Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) recently briefed members of the Israel Allies Caucus on Capitol Hill. He spoke to supporters about Iran. Leading off with a question from decades ago: "What distinguishes the United States' nuclear missile arsenal from that of the Soviet Union?" That question was asked of President John F. Kennedy. And that young President answered succinctly: Attitude. Exactly right. The attitude of the United States is not one of dominance and aggression, whereas that of the USSR was undeniably so. President Kennedy had only to point to the Berlin Wall--a ugly spike driven through the heart of...

When Western radicals who support terrorists and rogue states meet their demise, it’s only sometime after they lose their lives for the cause when we learn about their background and motivations. Such was the case with Rachel Corrie and Kayla Mueller, who were praised by the US media for being dedicated lovers of peace and tranquility for the poor and downtrodden in the Middle East. It was only through the new media we later learned about their radical, anti-US and Israel activities at home and abroad.

President Barack Obama said Friday he “forcefully” objects to suggestions that policy differences between his administration and the Israeli government signal his lack of support for the longtime U.S. ally. Speaking at one of Washington’s most prominent synagogues, Obama said the U.S. and Israel should not be expected to paper over differences on Israel's settlement building or the frozen peace process with the Palestinians. “That’s not a true measure of friendship,” Obama said during remarks to a crowd of about 1,200 gathered at Congregation Adas Israel. […] Obama defended the framework deal that negotiators are seeking to finalize by the...

Speaking at a Commencement Ceremony for the Naval Academy today, Vice President Joe Biden warned graduates that they would have to be prepared for the devastating effects of climate change. “We’ll rely on you, the United States Navy, to lead in solving these emerging problems,” he said,.......

Iraq roils in a maelstrom: ISIS now controls Ramadi, a new prime minister is in charge, Shiite-Sunni bloodshed flows, and a U.S.-led coalition is back, this time executing airstrikes in Iraq. The saga of Iraq is, as an analyst put it, "a rather straightforward but sad story" since the U.S. military left the country at the end of 2011, only to find itself returning in a smaller way. The fall of Ramadi to ISIS this week strikes many as a milestone because the city is the capital of Iraq's biggest province and because U.S. troops heroically fought insurgents there in...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Almost a year after Islamic State's shock capture of Mosul, Iraq's second city, the black flags of the jihadis have been raised over Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province to the west of Baghdad, seat of IraqÂ’s increasingly theoretical central government. Nobody talks of Mosul or recapturing it from Islamic State. It is a forgotten city. Now it is all about the fall of Ramadi, the neighbouring ancient Syrian city of Palmyra in central Syria and beyond - the Libyan city of Sirte, hometown of former leader Muammar Gaddafi. To the eyes of many in the region,...

Europe is now being flooded with immigrants, chiefly from Africa or the Arab world, those least likely to assimilate well. As Europe confronts rapidly escalating migration crisis driven by war, persecution and poverty in an arc of strife from West Africa to Afghanistan, even high-level European officials are beginning to admit the obvious. -- The Washington Post Europe is being overrun. Now, this would not necessarily be a disaster, if the immigrants were assimilable en masse. As one who scours old history books, there was a massive scare around 1900 that the United States was accepting too many non-Anglo-Saxons. Chinese...

Depending on the Iraqi government to act as a partner in the fight against the expansion of the Islamic State is not working, and it is time “to go back to basics,” Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass said Friday. “The caliphate is not just verbiage; it’s real,” Haass said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program. “We have not had a strategy in Syria … and the administration thought we had a strategy in Iraq, and I think what we’re seeing increasingly exposed is that we don’t.” Part of the problem is, Haass said, is that the “border’s irrelevant” when...

Washington (CNN)Assessing his war on ISIS after the group overtook the key Iraqi city of Ramadi, President Barack Obama said in an interview this week his strategy against the terrorists isn't failing. "I don't think we're losing," Obama said in the Tuesday interview with The Atlantic magazine, which posted online Thursday. Calling the fall of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a "tactical setback," Obama pinned the blame on poorly trained and organized Iraqi Defense Forces. "The training of Iraqi security forces, the fortifications, the command-and-control systems are not happening fast enough in Anbar, in the Sunni parts of the...

This is the new reality: not only is anyone who stands for the freedom of speech excoriated, mocked and shunned, but the emboldened thugs also now issue threats even to teenagers in high school. France and the West are in for a troubled, bloody future.

Ramadi falls. The Iraqi army flees. The great 60-nation anti–Islamic State coalition so grandly proclaimed by the Obama administration is nowhere to be seen. Instead, it’s the defense minister of Iran who flies into Baghdad, an unsubtle demonstration of who’s in charge — while the U.S. air campaign proves futile and America’s alleged strategy for combating the Islamic State is in free fall. It gets worse. The Gulf States’ top leaders, betrayed and bitter, ostentatiously boycott President Obama’s failed Camp David summit. “We were America’s best friend in the Arab world for 50 years,” laments Saudi Arabia’s former intelligence chief....

Paris's iconic Eiffel Tower was shut to tourists on Friday as staff walked off the job to protest a surge in gangs of pickpockets roaming around the monument. ... They said they wanted "formal guarantees from management that lasting and effective measures will be taken to end this scourge to which numerous tourists fall victim every day". One of the striking workers told AFP that pickpockets "form a gang of 4 to 5 people ... sometimes there can be around 30"... the pickpockets sometimes "fight among themselves". Another worker said he had been threatened while chasing away a pickpocket. "He...

Barack Obama says,“We’re not losing,” the war against ISIS in Iraq. Posted by Jim Hoft on Thursday, May 21, 2015, 10:54 PM Barack Obama says,“We’re not losing,” the war against ISIS in Iraq. Baghdad Barack Tell that to the Ramadi refugees. After ISIS takes Ramadi, Iraq and Palmyra, Syria, Barack Obama insists we are not losing. Yahoo reported: US President Barack Obama has described the loss of key Iraqi territory to Islamic State as a tactical setback, while insisting the war against the jihadist group is not being lost. “I don’t think we’re losing,” Obama said in an interview with...

Why Scott Walker FLip-Flopped. One of the few intelligent and worthwhile things that John Maynard Keynes contributed to society is the following quote “When my information changes, I alter my conclusions. What do you do, sir?” Governor Scott Walker’s information has recently changed. Remember that Governor Walker had the guts to back down the Progressive Establishment in The Democratic Party of Wisconsin. It thus comes as no surprise that he also has the guts to take on the increasingly progressive and less pro-American pro-immigration caucus in the GOP. Walker explains his qualms concerning this headlong rush to replace domestic American...

Judicial Watch announced today that it "obtained more than 100 pages of previously classified "Secret" documents from the Department of Defense (DOD)and the Department of State, revealing that DOD almost immediately reported that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was committed by the al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood-linked "Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman" (BCOAR), and had been planned at least 10 days in advance." Judicial Watch added what has been proven and obvious for years—that "Benghazi attack" was "not about a response to an anti-Muhammad video" or was it "the protests at the U.S. Embassy in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States vowed on Thursday to keep up air and sea patrols in international waters after the Chinese navy repeatedly warned a U.S. surveillance plane to leave the airspace over artificial islands China is creating in the disputed South China Sea. The Chinese navy issued eight warnings to the crew of a U.S. P8-A Poseidon, the U.S. military's most advanced surveillance aircraft, when it conducted the overflights on Wednesday, according to CNN, which was aboard the U.S. aircraft. When the American pilots responded by saying the plane was flying through international airspace, a Chinese radio operator...

KENT has been hit by an earthquake measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale which shook homes for 10 seconds and woke up scores of residents.The east of the county was hit by tremors just before 3am. The epicentre was said to be two miles west of Ramsgate, with the tremors felt as far as Canvey Island, Essex. Local resident Simon Moores told Express.co.uk: "At just after 3am there was a dramatic violent jarring and jolting of the house for about 10 seconds. "The seagulls launched into air with tremendous noise outside, dogs started barking, crockery moving, furniture jarring about a...