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Newser) – You might think that giving a green light to Edward Snowden and Aaron Alexis and allegedly fraudulently submitting 660,000 other background checks without actually completing them would prevent you from getting future government contracts. But you'd be wrong, because the Department of Homeland Security has awarded a $190 million contract to US Investigations Services, the Wall Street Journal reports. Why? Because USIS hasn't actually been suspended, and, as one immigration official explained, unless there is such a suspension in place, "by law and policy, we have to go with the lowest bidder." USIS isn't barred, the Office of...

... Now the ISIS killers are slaughtering them. -excerpt- The Sahwa's decision to ally with us was the primary contributor to the calming of central Iraq from 2007-09. Without the Sahwa, I suspect the outcome of the vaunted military "surge" would have been vastly different. The number of Iraqis in the Sahwa movement grew into the tens of thousands, as U.S. forces' outreach to small groups of armed men evolved into larger circles of family members, friends and tribal groups. " -excerpt- Still, the goal of our office was to find ways to foster life after the fight with the...

Islamic fundamentalists abducted the freelance reporter in August 2008, and she was released 460 days later. Just months after surviving the ordeal, she established a non-profit to provide education to girls in Somalia. "The fact that they know about the work I'm doing now," she said. "That I have chosen compassion, that they could see that they didn't break me — that's the best justice I could have." A Hollywood production company announced last week that it bought the rights to Lindhout's bestselling memoir, "A House in the Sky."

[Subtitle]"After Northeast Philly’s Michael Strange was killed in Afghanistan in 2011, his father, Charles Strange, went on a quest for answers. It’s a journey that’s brought him face-to-face with Congress, the military bureaucracy, the NSA, a lawyer who believes Barack Obama is a Muslim, and the very dark heart of America in 2014." ***** "They had a whole long list of concerns, but most of them can be boiled down to one word: vulnerability. In reading about how the helicopter went in and went down, the families saw how vulnerable their loved ones had been. They were vulnerable, it seemed,...

An apparent suicide bomber blew up a section of a Beirut hotel on Wednesday, killing one and severely injuring several Lebanese security officers involved in a raid on the hotel in search of terrorists believed tied to Islamic State of Syrian and al-Sham (ISIS), officials said.

A gang of men attacked an American student while he was drinking in the street - grabbing a glass bottle from his hands and smashing it over his head, a court was told. Francesco Hounye, 23, from Florida, had been in Britain for just three days when he was set upon by the men while he was walking home with a friend in Shadwell, east London. Shaleem Uddin, 20, Shadhat Hussain, 19, Kamrul Hussain, 22, and Massom Rahman, 22, targeted Mr Hounye when they saw him swigging from a bottle of Jagermeister. (VIDEO) They then chased him, beat him, and...

As the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) continued its advance toward Baghdad this weekend, the group released a new video that shows that it has a wide reach far outside the borders of Syria and Iraq. On Sunday, ISIS militants took overtook the majority of Anbar province, giving the group control of most of Iraq’s western border. The group advanced quickly, with four towns in the province falling in just two days and Iraqi soldiers fleeing before ISIS arrived. The fall of Anbar, Iraq’s larger province, now gives ISIS the platform to launch an assault against Baghdad. Secretary...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida-inspired militants who have violently seized territory in Iraq could grow in power and destabilize other countries in the region, President Barack Obama said. The Iraqi public will ultimately reject the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the extremist Sunni group threatening Iraq's government, but the group still represents a medium- and long-term threat to the United States, Obama said. "We're going to have to be vigilant generally. Right now the problem with ISIS is the fact that they're destabilizing the country," Obama said, using a common acronym for the group. "That could spill over into...

ANBAR Iraq (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader condemned U.S. intervention in Iraq on Sunday, accusing Washington of seeking control as Sunni insurgents drove toward Baghdad from the Syrian border and consolidated positions in the north and west. The statement by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the clearest statement of opposition to a U.S. plan to dispatch of up to 300 military advisers in response to pleas from the Iraqi government and runs counter to speculation that old enemies Washington and Tehran might cooperate to defend their mutual ally in Baghdad. "We are strongly opposed to U.S. and other intervention in Iraq,"...

More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a year-long Washington Post investigation. Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned in myriad ways, plummeting from the sky because of mechanical breakdowns, human error, bad weather and other reasons, according to more than 50,000 pages of accident investigation reports and other records obtained by The Post under the Freedom of Information Act.

Was George W. Bush wrong about the Iraq War? Because of recent events, some in the media have taken pot shots at the former U.S. President by claiming the younger Bush, and not President Obama, is responsible for an unsuccessful “mission accomplished.” In a related report by The Inquisitr, with the ISIS in Iraq having found Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons stockpiles, some people are saying that George W. Bush was right to have pushed for the Iraq War since the original stated goal was to prevent terrorist groups from getting their hands on any WMD materials. Of course, people say...

As for Obama’s foreign policy plan it really is quite simple…by shaming America in the world’s eye he hopes our collapse will surely follow. But least we forget that Barack HUSSEIN Obama’s driving force and allegiance was clear right from the start…never hidden from view but one people chose to ignore…from the his book “The Audacity of Hope” page 261…“I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” Sadly, those words say it all…and sadly he has done just that.

CAIRO - An Egyptian court on Saturday confirmed death sentences against the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mohamed Badie, and at least 182 of his supporters, judicial sources at the court told Reuters. The court's decision came two months after it referred the case against Badie and hundreds of others to the state's highest religious authority, the Mufti, the first step towards imposing a death sentence. They were charged over violence that erupted in the southern Egyptian town of Minya in July in the aftermath of the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, a senior Brotherhood member, after...

Already swamped by domestic and foreign crises, Obama finds that even his self-proclaimed successes are at risk. That's just about the last thing he needs now. Of all the things to rise up and bedevil President Obama again, Iraq seemed to be low on the list. But now the White House must live with the reality that, almost three years after the war was declared over, American blood could be spilled anew in a conflict that could readily escalate. Obama's announcement that up to 300 military advisers would be sent to Iraq marks a brutal moment in a brutal stretch...

Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney StrongerAmerica.com Dear Friend, We stand, right now, at a critical moment in the life of our nation. The policies of the last six years have left America diminished and weakened. Our enemies no longer fear us. Our allies no longer trust us. Empty threats, meaningless redlines, leading from behind, retreat, and "engagement" with rogue regimes have put America on a path of decline. Threats to America's security are on the rise. Al Qaeda is resurgent, establishing new safehavens across the Middle East, including in Iraq, where President Obama withdrew all American forces with no stay...

[This is] what ISIS would like to happen, in their ideal world. Their ideas on this front are derived from late "al-Qaida in Iraq" founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's thoughts on creating "a vast war inside Islam" that would ultimately eradicate all Shiites: ...for Zarqawi and his network, savagery—particularly when directed at other Muslims—was the whole point. The break between ISIS and al-Qaida over the former's brutality is well-known; Wright's piece puts it in context of the two groups' views of history. Al-Qaida was fighting the West; ISIS is fighting Shiites, and a vengeance that goes back more than a thousand...

An Army veteran who served alongside Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan said Wednesday that the long-captive soldier was deeply frustrated with the mission and had lodged false allegations that their unit had carried out atrocities. Bergdahl “didn’t understand why we were doing more humanitarian aid drops, setting up clinics, and helping the populous instead of hunting the Taliban,” former Spec. Cody Full told lawmakers during a hearing on the exchange of Bergdahl for five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “He wanted to hunt and kill.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Taliban released Bergdahl to U.S. Special Operations forces May 31 after he had...

Terror Group ISIS Declares Guns Illegal in Parts of Iraq They Control June 16 2014 by Dan Cannon Share This Post isis If you’re a terror group attempting a coup of an unstable country what’s the last thing you want to see? Probably citizens gathering and taking up arms against you. You may be able to scare some uniformed members of Iraq’s military who may not believe in their cause anyway, but eventually enough people are going to get fed up, organize, and fight back. ISIS (The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) looks like they are attempting to nip...

<p>Attorneys for a 20-year-old man accused of trying to ignite a bomb in Chicago will not be allowed unprecedented access to secret intelligence court records, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday, reversing a trial court and handing a victory to the federal government.</p>

IIT Turkey News ‏@_TurkeyNews Photo shows ISIL commander Abu Muhammad taking medical treatment in Turkey’s Hatay State Hospital.WHO IS BEHIND ISIS? pic.twitter.com/Bq9Tg8Nwdr