Ohio man had planned to shoot President Barack Obama in the head

#pipebombs #ISIS #FBI #USCapitol #Ohio 20-year-old Christopher Cornell of Ohio has admitted that if he had not been arrested by FBI agents in January, he would have gone ahead and shot President Barack Obama in the head. He would also have carried out an alleged plot to plant pipe bombs on the Capitol and at the Israeli Embassy.
He has sympathies with the Islamic State militants and appeared to be nonchalant about the whole thing – that is what he has told in a TV interview from his prison cell over the telephone. This has been reported in zeenews.india.com dated 7 March 2015.
He was arrested and is being held without bail after he researched how to make pipe bombs, purchased a rifle and ammunition and made plans to travel to Washington to carry out the plot. This has been revealed in a court testimony from an informant of FBI.
The charges against him are of attempted murder of government officials, possession of a firearm to commit a crime and solicitation to commit a violent crime.
In the interview he has said that he would have released more bullets on the Senate and the House of Representative members, and also attacked the Israeli Embassy and various other buildings full of kafir.
Kafir is the name given by Muslims to an infidel.
His logic was that the kafirs want to wage war against us Muslims and shed their blood. He has gone on to say that he gets his orders from his brothers overseas in Syria and Iraq. They had apparently asked him to carry out jihad in the West.

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Iraq trying to confirm if al-Baghdadi has been killed in air strike

The whole world wants to see the last of ISIL chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and, with rumors floating around that he has been killed in airstrikes by coalition warplanes, Iraq was investigating the matter. The coalition warplanes had been targeting the group’s leaders.
In case the rumors turn out to be true, it would be a major victory for the US-led coalition of countries who are relentlessly carrying out airstrikes against ISIL and providing assistance to Iraqi forces who are fighting to regain large areas of Iraq that the militants have overrun.
Already President Barack Obama has unveiled plans to send up to 1,500 more US troops to Iraq to advise and train the country’s forces, deepening Washington’s commitment to the open-ended war against ISIL. As President Obama has said, it was time to go on the offensive against the militants after blunting their advance.
Regarding rumors about al-Baghdadi, a senior Iraqi intelligence official said there was no “accurate information” on whether he was killed but that authorities were investigating.
US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East, on Saturday said that coalition aircraft had carried out a “series of airstrikes” against “a gathering of [ISIL] leaders near Mosul” but there was no confirmation on whether [ISIL] leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi was among those present.
General Nicholas Houghton, the chief of staff of the British armed forces, has said that it will take some days to have absolute confirmation. On whether the ISIL leader has been killed.
Incidentally, Washington has offered a $10 million reward for his capture.
It may be noted that of the five main Al Qaeda offshoots in Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, the Sahel and Yemen, none has recognized the authority of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi - at the end of June he had proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria, and had also proclaimed himself as “leader for Muslims everywhere”.

Obama admits that there is no quick-fix solution to fight the IS militants

While speaking with military chiefs from more than 20 nations, President Barack Obama has admitted to setbacks in the war against the Islamic State with reference to the fierce fighting for control of a Syrian border town. Moreover, there appears to be fresh concerns over Turkey’s cooperation foxnews.com.

President Obama has made note of the negative developments in the fight against the Islamic State and has remarked that there would be days of progress as also “periods of setback” and that there are no “quick fixes.”
The relationship with Turkey is another problem because Turkey has gone in for airstrikes against Kurdish rebels inside its borders – this defies the pleas from the U.S. to instead focus on the Islamic State.

The U.S. has been wanting Turkey to take a more active role in the campaign to destroy the Islamic State group since the Islamic State group is an enemy that the Turkish government shares with the Kurds. But, Turkey’s stand is that it won't join the fight unless the U.S.-led coalition also targets the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U S Military admits that airstrikes alone would not be able to rein in the IS militants

The US military has admitted that only airstrikes may not be sufficient to stop the advance of Islamic State fighters in Syria news.sky.com.

President Barack Obama met military commanders to discuss the campaign against IS in Syria and Iraq as there are apprehensions hat ground troops would also be needed on the ground. As Rear Adm Kirby has remarked, troops would be needed to defeat IS because the US does not have any force inside Syria with whom they could co-operate and work with. The President has admitted that while US strikes continue, alongside its partners, it continues to remain a difficult mission. It is not something that can be solved overnight.

US-led airstrikes have continued on Kobani. The IS militants have been fighting a fierce battle with Kurdish forces and, senior commanders have warned the Islamists could still take the strategic border town.
Incidentally, the US military's Central Command have revealed that American-led forces have carried out 14 coalition strikes on Wednesday and 19 bombing raids near Kobani since Tuesday, in an attempt to help Kurdish militia.
As informed by activists, the strikes killed at least 45 IS militants since Monday evening, forcing them to withdraw from some parts of the town.

Iraqi ground forces backed by air power arrest the advance of Islamic State militants

The advancing Islamic State (IS) militants in Amariya al-Falluja, 40-Km from Baghdad have been checked by Iraqi ground forces who, backed by air strikes, appear to have halted IS militants, who have been making gains towards the capital Baghdad bbc.com.
Amariya al-Falluja is believed to be a key strategic town and the attacks by Iraqi forces appear to have come as a US-led coalition continues to carry out air strikes on IS targets in Syria and Iraq.
The area around Amariya al-Falluja is now reported to be calm, but there is a standoff along the main road to Falluja to the north, which is controlled by IS.
The Pentagon has confirmed that US air strikes overnight had targeted other IS positions in Anbar province, 80-Km from Baghdad.
In Syria US war planes also struck four more oil fields controlled by IS militants near the group's stronghold in Raqqa. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which monitors the conflict in Syria, has revealed that casualties in US airstrikes were mostly civilians.
The air strikes in Syria appear to be focused on cutting off IS's revenue by targeting oil fields and, US President Barack Obama has indicated that a political solution to the crisis can come only when Sunni and Shia populations come together to defeat the IS jihadists.

U S boots could return to the ground in Iraq

President Barack Obama has admitted that the US intelligence agencies had not only underestimated the threat from Islamic State militants but had also overestimated the ability and will of Iraq's army to fight nzherald.co.nz.
House Speaker John Boehner has expressed an opinion that the US may have "no choice" but to send in American troops in case the preset strategy of a mix of US-led airstrikes and a ground campaign reliant on Iraqi forces, Kurdish fighters and soon-to-be trained Syrian rebels fails to reap any benefits.
Boehner has agreed that President Obama did have the power to order airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but he feels that Congress should consider a resolution authorizing the use of force for this specific mission. In order to do this, Boehner has indicated that he would bring lawmakers back to Washington - they are not set to return until after the November 4 election - if Obama did want to seek such a resolution.
Boehner has made the position quite clear - if no one else was able to step up, America would have no choice but to send in Americans because the IS are barbarians. They intend to kill Americans and if they are not destroyed first, the world would have to pay the price.

US, Britain and now it is France – Islamic militants behead a French hostage

After the merciless beheading of two American journalists and a British aid worker, a Frenchman has now fallen victim to the bloodthirsty Islamist militants and has been beheaded by them in Algeria nzherald.co.nz.
An Algerian splinter group from al-Qaida has beheaded a French hostage 55-year-old Herve Gourdel, a mountaineering guide from Nice. He was seized while he was hiking in the Djura Djura Mountains of northern Algeria. His captors released his Algerian companions.
This barbaric act is believed to be due to France's airstrikes on the Islamic State group and is indicative of the possible widening of the crisis in Iraq and Syria to the rest of the region. French President Francois Hollande has termed the killing as a "cowardly assassination," and has vowed to continue the military operation.
President Barack Obama has said that people around the world had been "horrified by another brutal murder … these terrorists believe our countries will be unable to stop them. The safety of our citizens demands that we do…"
The beheading has reportedly been carried out by a splinter group of the ISIS – this group identifies itself as Jund al-Khilafah, or "Soldiers of the Caliphate". It had split from al-Qaida and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group two weeks ago and seized Gourdel in response to the call to kill the "spiteful and filthy French." It gave an ultimatum of 24 hours to France to end its air campaign.
Reports indicate that nearly 1,000 French radicals have joined or are trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria and in Iraq – this number is more than the number of fighters from any other Western country and the authorities are worried that they will return home and stage attacks on French soil.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warns that war with ISIS will not be easy or brief

As authorized by President Barack Obama, the US has taken the fight with ISIS extremists to its doorstep in Baghdad and, instead of being defensive till now, has turned offensive. US warplanes struck an Islamic State target southwest of Baghdad to show that the US has stepped up the offensive against the terrorist group news.sky.com.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has warned that the war would not be easy or brief. AS he has remarked - victory will come only when the mission of degrading, destroying and defeating ISIL is completed.
Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has indicated to the senators that the US was ready to strike the extremists in Syria and it will not be 'shock and awe' because that is not how ISIL is organized – rather, it will be persistent and sustainable.
Similar sentiments were echoed by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond who said the UK Government was doing all it could to save British hostage Alan Henning, and warned it would not be deterred from its goal of "crushing" the Islamic State fighters who were behind his abduction.
ISIS have threatened Britain that Alan Henning, an aid convoy volunteer, would be next to be killed after David Haines. Incidentally, while US Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to drum up support with Middle East and Gulf state allies to show a united front, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has revealed that he had rejected a request from the US to join the fight against IS because Washington's intentions were unclean.
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US hardens its stand on eradicating Evil – warns Syria over ISIS missions

President Barack Obama has authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria as part of a broad campaign to root out the Islamic State militant group news.fox.com. Of course strikes have not yet been launched but the United States has made it clear that it would retaliate against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's air defenses in case he decided to go after American planes that would be launching airstrikes in his country.
Officials have indicated that the U.S. is aware of location of Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, and if Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would mean inviting trouble and would put his air defenses at risk.
Incidentally, the rise of the Islamic State group to prominence has put President Obama on the brink of being drawn into a Syrian conflict that he has long sought to avoid. The situation is complex for the US to take direct action in foreign soil where the country is locked in an intractable civil war. Obviously, the conflict has created odd alliances, because both the U.S. and the Assad regime are now fighting a common enemy namely, the Islamic State militant group.
However, Obama does not want to strengthen Assad’s hand – rather, he wants to side with the rebels. He wants to train and arm the Western-backed rebels in Syria hoping that they can both fight the Islamic State and, ultimately, the Assad regime.
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IS extremists behead second US journalist Steven Sotloff – warns Obama of more such deaths

The Islamic State extremists have beheaded a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and released its video with a warning to President Barack Obama that such deaths will continue as long as US keeps up its airstrikes against the militant group nzherald.co.nz. The video is ‘A Second Message to America’ and the message is - "our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people." The video footage was posted two weeks after the release of an earlier video that revealed the brutal killing of James Foley and days after Sotloff's mother pleaded for his life. The Sotloff family has confirmed the death of the 31-year-old Steven who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines. He had vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online last month that showed Foley's beheading. It seems the IS has threatened to kill another hostage who has been identified as a British citizen named David Cawthorne Haines. In order to keep up its strangling of civilization, the IS extremist group has been publishing graphic photos and gruesome videos of everything from bombings and beheadings to mass killings – its aim is to keep terrorizing people from all walks of life.
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