Pope Francis visiting US between 22 and 27 September – security beefed up

Homeland Security has already taken care of one security threat to Pope Francis who is scheduled to visit the US between 22 and 27 September and has taken necessary measures to beef up security at outdoor events that he would be attending.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 14 September 2015.

Congressman Michael McCaul, head of the House Homeland Security Committee, has revealed that one potential threat has already been stopped and that authorities were monitoring others. He has added that the Pope is a very passionate man and likes to get out with the people which carries a large security risk.
The US Department of Homeland Security has indicated that the visit will be a National Special Security Event which means the Secret Service will head the planning of security. These security checks would include airspace restrictions, screening checkpoints and a ban on balloons, selfie sticks and backpacks at papal events.
The pontiff will get a plane-side greeting from President Barack Obama in Washington DC on 22 September, and would become the third pope to visit the White House.
His schedule is to give a speech to the Senate and House of Representatives, address world leaders at the United Nations, preside over a service at the 9/11 memorial in New York and celebrate Mass at Madison Square Garden.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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RAF readies to strike ISIS in Syria to check flow of refugees into Europe

The problem of influx of Syrian refugees into Europe has become a major issue for Europe and, there are indications that Britain could authorize airstrikes in Syria within weeks in order to take on the ISIS militants and stem the flow. Prime Minister David Cameron, Chancellor George Osborne, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond have apparently agreed that there is a 'strong case' for action in Syria and in neighboring Iraq.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 7 September 2015.

However, such an action would needed the approval of the Commons and dozens of Tory MPs could oppose the plan. In that case, David Cameron would have to rely on the support of Labour MPs. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has signaled that she could extend support to the bombing raids as part of a long-term plan to end the bloody conflict in Syria.
It may be recalled that David Cameron had tried as far back as 2013 to authorize strikes but was humiliated when Tory rebels joined with Labour to vote down a plan to launch missile strikes against the Assad regime. As a result, the PM had to retreat and it damaged relations with US President Barack Obama who had to go it alone in sending jets into Syrian airspace.
The situation is now different and the public outrage at the refugee crisis fueled by the rise of ISIS has put the issue back on the table and everyone wants positive action.
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Another security breach in White House – something is wrong somewhere

It seems someone is out there to make a point on the security setup in the White House, home to the most powerful man on this planet nzherald.co.nz. A number of incidents have been reported in the recent past regarding security failures and the latest one would force the authorities to wonder who is trying to make what sort of statement.

It happened when President Barack Obama was in the White House. Dominic Adesanya, a 23-year-old man, climbed over the White House fence last night and has been charged with felonies for assaulting two police dogs and making threats.
He is in the custody of the US Marshals Service for previous outstanding warrants – as per records, he was charged with unlawful entry at the White House complex in late July. He had admitted to an officer that a security barrier he jumped over "was easy and that the next fence to the south grounds of the White House would not be a problem as well."
Earlier, a White House fence jumper carrying a knife had sprinted across the same lawn, ran past armed uniformed agents and entered the mansion before he was felled in the East Room and taken into custody. Obviously, these incidents reveal the weak underbelly of the security.

US airdrops arms and ammunition to Kurds fighting to retain control of Kobani

The US has airdropped arms, ammunition and supplies to Kurds who are fighting to retain control of Kobani and ensure that the city does not fall into the hands of the Islamic State militants foxnews.com.

It seems C-130 cargo planes carried out a number of drops of arms and supplies provided by Kurdish authorities in Iraq and the intention was to enable the Kurds maintain continued resistance to Islamic State efforts to take full control of Kobani. The items have reached the Kurds and there was no resistance on the ground or in air from Syria.
The airdrops were of 27 bundles of small arms, ammunition and medical supplies and were the first of their kind. It came after weeks of U.S. and coalition airstrikes in and near Kobani. U.S. Central Command (CentCom) has revealed that it had launched 11 airstrikes overnight in the area.

The Turkish government had opposed any sort of assistance by the US to the Kurds because it views the Kurds as an enemy. Therefore, US President Barack Obama had called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the situation in Syria and notify him of the plan to make airdrops.
The reaction of President Erdogan is not known.

IS dares US to save American hostage Peter Kassig who is scheduled for beheading next

The Islamic State (IS) has made its intentions clear news.sky.com – no matter how many airstrikes are undertaken, it has now threatened to kill American hostage Peter Kassig next, after the beheading of British aid convoy volunteer Alan Henning.

Incidentally, Peter Kassig was in his mid-20s and hailed from Indiana – he had gone to the region to volunteer in hospitals in Lebanon after serving in Iraq. Once there, he spent time in Lebanon and then established his own charity to deliver aid to Syrians. He had named it Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA).
He was undertaking a project for SERA when he was detained on 1 October 2013 on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria. The former soldier Peter Kassig was shown in the video clip of beheading of Alan Henning – in the video, an IS fighter says - Obama, you have started your aerial bombardment in Sham. So it's only right we continue to strike the necks of your people.
Obviously, it is all about retaliation by the blood thirsty militants and, speaking on this video, President Barack Obama has strongly condemned the brutal murder of United Kingdom citizen Alan Henning by the terrorist group ISIL. In Obama’s words – Alan Henning worked to help improve the lives of the Syrian people and his death would be a great loss for not only them but also for his family and the people of the United Kingdom.

Lisa Monaco, Homeland Security adviser to the White House, has described the murder of Alan Henning as "yet another clear example of the brutality of this group" – it had, earlier, killed two American journalists - James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
The global community must join had to bring to justice the murderer of Alan Henning, Jim Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines.

Secret Service slips up – ex-convict rides in elevator with President Obama

It is a shocking revelation that President Obama, the most powerful man on Earth, had shared an elevator earlier this month with an armed security contractor who has three felony convictions relating to assault and battery foxnews.com. The incident took place in an elevator during Obama's Sept. 16 visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
It seems the individual was working as a security officer at the CDC and Secret Service agents grew suspicious when he refused to stop taking a video of the president on his phone.
The man was taken aside for questioning and it was revealed that the man was carrying a gun – running a criminal check on the man showed that he had a criminal history.
Later, the presidential security had fallen apart when a knife-wielding intruder jumped a White House fence earlier this month and sprinted untouched across the lawn and gained entry into the residence of the first family through an unlocked door. The intruder then made his way into the East Room reception area.
It may be recalled that earlier, in 2012, there had been another embarrassing scandal for the agency – it was a prostitution scandal that erupted during a presidential visit to Colombia.

Obama came in 2008 riding the wave of anti-war sentiment but wars continue in both Iraq and Afghanistan

The way things are shaping up in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is evident that while Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 on a wave of anti-war sentiment, would be passing off both the Afghanistan war and his new war in Iraq and Syria to his successor theguardian.com.
It may be recalled that in 2010, his vice-president, Joe Biden, had publicly vowed that the US would be “totally out” of Afghanistan “by 2014 but the primary explicit purpose of the latest deal between the US and Afghanistan, known as the Bilateral Security Agreement, would permit the US to continue training Afghanistan’s roughly 350,000 security forces, which the US and NATO have built from scratch.
Under the proposed agreement, the US military would enjoy access to nine major land and airbases, including the massive airfields at Bagram, Jalalabad and Kandahar, staging areas not only for air operations in Afghanistan but the US drone strikes that continue across the border in tribal Pakistan. The additional bases in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat, Helmand, Gardez and Shindand would ensure the reach of the US military throughout the whole of Afghanistan.
Moreover, with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) after the 2011 US withdrawal from Iraq, the US finds itself in a peculiar situation of rewriting history by returning to Iraq to tackle the menace of the IS while the 13 years of bloody, expensive war in Afghanistan have failed to vanquish the insurgency of the Taliban.

Iraqi Prime Minister reveals IS militants plots to attack subways in New York and Paris

Haidar al-Abadi, Iraq's prime minister, has revealed that captured Islamic State militants have indicated to Iraqi intelligence agents of plots to attack subways in the United States and Paris, however, the French and American officials apparently do not have any such information nzherald.co.nz.
No one in the US government was aware of such a plot, and it was never brought up in meetings with Iraqi officials this week in New York. French officials contacted by a section of the media were also not aware of such a plot.
Al-Abadi has clarified that the purported plot was the work of foreign fighters who had joined the Islamic State group in Iraqi, including French and US nationals. The plotters were not Iraqis but French and US nationals.
The Iraqi PM is attending the annual General Assembly and, in his words, the threat is very much alive because it is a network. President Barack Obama has met with Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi.
New York is the home to the country's largest subway system and John Miller, the New York Police Department's top counterterror official, has indicated that they were aware of the Iraqi official's statements and FBI and other federal partners are assessing the threat potentials.

Intruder caught in the White House was a major security risk for the President

It now appears that the intruder who evaded Secret Service and bolted into the White House on Friday was a danger to the President Barack Obama because he had 800 rounds of ammunition in his car in addition to two hatchets and a machete.
42-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez already had two prior run-ins with the law this year itself foxnews.com – the man is believed to be homeless, and had been arrested in July for evading police. At the time, he was in possession of a sawed-off shotgun, apart from a map of the D.C. area with the White House and Masonic Temple circled.
Details of the July 19 incident mentions that he had two powerful rifles, four handguns and other guns and ammunition in his Ford Bronco when troopers stopped him in southwestern Virginia. He made attempts to flee the troopers by weaving and driving off the road into a highway median.
When the troopers finally caught up with him, the illegal shotgun was found in his car along with the ammunition and a tomahawk.
Incidentally, Gonzalez is an Army veteran from Copperas Cove, Texas – he had been in service from 1997 until his discharge in 2003, and again from 2005 to December 2012, when he retired due to disability.
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Iran tries to exploit the situation created by ISIS

US President Barack Obama wanted to take Iran into the folds for battling the ISIS and Iran wants to exploit the situation created by the ISIS news.sky.com – it wants concessions in its nuclear programs from the US before joining hands in the fight against the ISIS.
However, the Obama administration has rejected the proposal from Iran to cooperate in the fight against Islamic State (IS) militants in exchange for nuclear program concessions. As White House spokesman Josh Earnest has clarified, nuclear talks with Tehran were "entirely separate" from Barack Obama's attempts to build a coalition to destroy IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Hence, the United States will not be in the position of trading aspects of Iran's nuclear program to secure its support to take on ISIL.
It seems senior Iranian officials had indicated in a section of the media that Iran was seeking flexibility on its uranium enrichment program in exchange for Tehran's cooperation in fighting IS.
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Man with a knife breaches security in the White House

The White House is one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world and the Secret Service chief has stepped-up security outside the White House following an incident of a man with a knife breaching the security nzherald.co.nz.
He had jumped the fence and made it into the presidential residence before being apprehended, and the incident against the background of another man being recently arrested outside the White House does raise questions – of course, the two incidents are not believed to be related.
It seems President Barack Obama and his daughters had just left the White House by helicopter when the 42-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez scaled the fence and darted across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers finally tackled him.
Initially Gonzalez was thought to be unarmed but he had a small folding knife with a serrated blade at the time of the arrest and would face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.
In the second incident, a man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle while agents shut down nearby streets.
The President has insisted that he still has confidence in the beleaguered agency's ability to protect him and his family.
In view of these breaches, Secret Service Director Julia Pierson has issued orders to enhance officer patrols and surveillance along the North Fence of the compound just after the incident which triggered a rare evacuation of the White House as well as renewed scrutiny of the Secret Service. Julia Pierson had also ordered a comprehensive review of what happened.
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White House takes up cudgels to fight sexual assaults on campus

In a bid to raise awareness about sexual assaults on campus, the White House has roped in Hollywood stars including Jon Hamm of Mad Men and Connie Britton of Nashville to help fight the growing menace theguardian.com.
President Barack Obama and Vice-president Joe Biden are unveiling the “It’s On Us” campaign at a White House event and the website features a public service announcement with Obama, Biden and other familiar faces telling viewers that it is their responsibility to stop sexual assault.
The star power assisting in the promotion also includes NBA all-star Kevin Love, actresses Kerry Washington, Rose Byrne and Mayim Bialik, comedian Joel McHale and musicians Randy Jackson and Questlove.
Statistics reveal that one on five women are attacked and the campaign encourages everyone on the campus to make sure that their friends are safe and to intervene before an assault happens.
Research has revealed that most of the victims know their attackers, alcohol or drugs are often involved and only 12 percent of college women who are attacked report it to police.
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British PM David Cameron unnerved by latest beheading video

The latest ISIS video showing the beheading of 44-year-old British aid worker David Haines has unnerved British PM David Cameron and he has taken a vow to work with allies to defeat the terrorist group Islamic State foxnews.com.
Describing the coldblooded murder of Haines as "an act of pure evil", he has also added that countries must “drain this poison from our society.”
The PM was attending a wedding and raced back to London overnight to chair a meeting of his security Cabinet, including his advisers, officials and intelligence chiefs. He has reiterated that Islam is a religion of peace, and the militants were not Muslims but were monsters.
President Obama has condemned the murder as "barbaric" and has strongly condemned the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines by the terrorist group ISIL.
David Haines had been abducted in Syria in 2013 while he was engaged in working for an international aid agency and the British government had managed to keep his kidnapping secret out of concern for his safety until another video recently released by Islamic State, also known as ISIS, identified him as a captive.
The Islamic State militants had earlier beheaded two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, apart from Kurdish and Lebanese fighters, and posted the video evidence online. After the last video showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, the ISIS had threatened to kill Haines next and briefly showed him on camera.
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Britain gifts £1.6million worth machine guns and ammunition to Kurdish forces in Iraq

Britain is gifting heavy machine guns and ammunition worth nearly £1.6million to help Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Iraq dailymail.co.uk. This is based on deliberations at the NATO summit in Wales where Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama had prepared the ground for multi-national air strikes against Islamic State and for sending troops to form a NATO training force in Iraq.
Moreover, in Britain, cross-party support for joining US military action was increasing.The weapons being gifted would be used by the Kurdish forces to battle the extremist army, which is believed to include hundreds of Britons.
In the opinion of Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, the Kurdish forces are comparatively less well equipped than the ISIS, hence Britain is trying to help them defend themselves, protect citizens and push back advances.
This gifting of military equipment to the Government of Iraq (GoI), including the Kurdish regional government, is being undertaken at the request of the GoI.
David Cameron has said if President Obama announces further military action against the jihadists beyond the air strikes that have taken place and Britain is required to join in that action, the British MPs would have to a vote on the decision. However, the Government could take action without the approval of Parliament in case of an immediate humanitarian catastrophe or if British interest are threatened or needs urgent protection.
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US troops in Iraq appear to be a confused lot since US policy is still not clear

The whole world looks upon US president Barack Obama to take a decision on how best to tackle the growing menace of the ISIS – the President himself is not in favor of US boots on the ground in Iraq while vice President Joe Biden has vowed to chase the murders of the two US journalists “to the gates of Hell" foxnews.com. The question bothering the US troops who have arrived in Iraq is how they'll accomplish the mission when they cannot even leave the front gate of their base.
The position of President Obama is a delicate one – he had received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and had himself ordered the evacuation of US troops from Iraq and had decided never again to enter into such a situation. How, then, can he order another direct confrontation with terrorists on a foreign soil?
However, with the beheading of two US journalists and threats of ISIS attacking the US, the President has to decide one way or the other. He has to judge what is best for not just the US bit for the whole world and act accordingly.
The Department of Defense has made its position clear – it will continue to plan and prepare further military options depending on necessity, and we will remain ready to protect the US diplomats, its citizens, and its interests in Iraq. It will also continue to work with the Iraqi government to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Moreover, with reports of 11 commercial aircraft missing from ‘terrorist-held’ Tripoli airport ahead of 9/11 anniversary metro.co.uk, the situation is one of worry – it seems the planes were being held by a group called the Masked Men Brigade, and it plans to use them in future terror attacks.
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NATO pushing Russia to the brink with new sanctions

Despite mounting pressure on Russia to bring normalcy to the disturbed regions in east Ukraine, and the adamant attitude of Russia, NATO is formulating tough new measures that would be designed to halt Russian aggression in Ukraine news.sky.com. These would be unveiled on the second and final day of a NATO summit in Wales.
It is expected that both the United States and European Union would join hands and come together to announce a new round of coordinated economic sanctions against Russia. This has been reported by US and British government sources.
The proposed sanctions would include restrictions on some of the country's all important energy firms apart from travel restrictions.
Speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit, the Deputy White House national security adviser Ben Rhodes has indicated that the key point is that Russia must continue to face costs for its own escalation. Or, in short, if Russia escalates, the others would also escalate their pressure.
The conflict in Ukraine is set to top the agenda for the second day of the NATO summit, with western leaders accusing Russia of sending thousands of troops into the east of the country.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has cautioned that Russia's incursion into Ukraine poses the most serious security threat to Europe since the Cold War – of course, Moscow has consistently denied about any direct military involvement in Ukraine.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama and other senior NATO leaders have already met Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko who has announced plans to order a ceasefire. His condition is that a peace plan should be agreed upon during separate talks in Minsk which would be attended by representatives from Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian rebel forces.,br> Incidentally, Russian President Vladimir Putin has also expressed hopes that a truce will come into force later, two days after he unveiled his own seven-point peace plan.
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