Marco Rubio Bought Gun to Be 'Last Line of Defence between ISIL and My Family'

Republican presidential candidate< Senator Marco Rubio

THE TELEGRAPH: Republican presidential candidate says he bought a gun on Christmas Eve in part to protect his family from Isil

Senator Marco Rubio has said he bought a gun on Christmas Eve because he is "the last line of defence between Isis [Isil] and my family".

The Republican presidential candidate said "millions of Americans" buy guns so they will be prepared to fend off attacks from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), or otherwise protect their families.

He suggested in an interview on Sunday that Isil had provided some of the impetus for his most recent gun purchase.

"I have a right to protect my family if someone were to come after us," he said on CBS' Face the Nation. "In fact, if Isis were to visit us or our communities at any moment, the last line of defence between Isis and my family is the ability I have to protect my family." » | David Lawler, Washimgton | Monday, January 18, 2016

Islamic State Leader Baghdadi Goads West in Rare Audio Statement

THE TELEGRAPH: In what is believed to be his first public message in seven months, Isil chief warns Israel attacks are imminent

The leader of Islamic State has released an alternative Christmas message goading the West, saying [the] do not dare send troops to their territory.

In a rare audio statement - his first in seven months - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said Western countries have "learned from" previous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Crusaders and Jews don't dare to come on the ground because they were defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said in his 23-minute statement.

The leader, who has rarely been pictured and has not been heard from since he was believed to have been injured in an airstrike by Iraqi forces in October, Russian or US-led airstrikes had failed to weaken the group, which was only "expanding and getting stronger".

"Be confident that God will grant victory to those who worship him, and hear the good news that our state is doing well. The more intense the war against it, the purer it becomes and the tougher it gets," he said.

He also called on Saudi citizens - the biggest contributor to Isil ranks - to "rise up" against their government as he dimissed the kingdom's newly formed Muslim coalition against the caliphate.

He also said Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) would soon be in Palestine to establish an Islamic state there. "Jews, soon you shall hear from us in Palestine which will become your grave," the voice, purporting to be Baghdadi, is heard saying. » | Josie Ensor | Saturday, December 26, 2015

Ex-Muslim to Obama: Islam Is the Disease, Terrorists Are Just Symptoms

Ex-Muslim to Obama: Islam is disease, terrorists are just symptoms, face the fact and speak the truth! A college educated Moroccan ex-Muslim under the pseudonym of "Brother Rasheed" confronts Mr. Hussein Obama's lies and delusion about Islam and ISIS with plenty of common sense and brutal facts, based on his education in "Religion Studies" for undergraduate and "Terrorism" for graduate programs, and his own personal experience as a Muslim (for more than 20 years, before converting to Christianity), and as a son of an imam dad.

"Brother Rasheed" says Islam is the root of problem, and terrorist organizations (ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab) are just the symptoms, and until one goes after the root of the problem and not the symptoms, the never-ending cycle will just continue. Yesterday it was Al-Qaeda, today it is ISIS, tomorrow will be some other terror group.

Quite a few rhetorical questions ... ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. How can ISIS not be Islamic? ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi got a PhD in Islamic Studies (from Baghdad University). How could he not know more about ISIS and Islam than Obama? ... If Islam is not the reason for the bloodshed, why don't we see non-Muslims commit terror or suicide bombings, even in Muslim countries, living in the same economic condition as (if not worse than) the Muslims? If Islam is not the reason for the bloodshed, why do we see Muslim converts suddenly commit terrorist acts? ...

One liner at the end ... "By the way, I do NOT give out my full (real) name, because Islam is the religion of peace."

France Says Fight against Isil Will Extend to Libya

THE TELEGRAPH: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says the threat of further attacks like Paris remains "because we have hundreds, even thousands of young people who have succumbed to radicalisation".

France has suggested it will extend its military operation against jihadists to Libya, where extremists increasingly have a strong hold.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Friday for International efforts to crush the Islamic State jihadist group (Isil) to extend to Libya.

"We are at war, we have an enemy, Daesh, that we must fight and crush in Syria, in Iraq and soon in Libya too," Valls said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Speaking four weeks after Isil gunmen and suicide bombers attacked Paris, Valls told France Inter radio the threat of further outrages remained "because we have hundreds, even thousands of young people who have succumbed to radicalisation".

French planes carried out surveillance flights over Libya last week. » | AFP | Friday, December 11, 2015

UK Air Strikes against ISIL in Syria Will Fuel the Rise of Terror, Says Bashar al-Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad giving an interview to a
British journalist in his Damascus residence

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Europe is the incubator of terror and not Syria, the president says in Damascus, as he claims the West is to blame for thousands of dead Syrians

The UK's bombing campaign against Isil fighters in Syria is "illegal" and will only cause the “cancer” of terrorism" to spread, Bashar al-Assad has said in an interview published on Sunday.

The Syrian president mocked Britain’s decision to launch air strikes, blaming the West for the rise of the terror group, as well as for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.

Speaking from the tranquil surroundings of his Damascene palace, shielded from the distant thuds of war in the suburbs, Assad said the UK's actions would "support terrorism".

“It will be harmful and illegal and it will support terrorism, as happened after the coalition started its operation a year or so [ago] because this is like a cancer,” Assad said. » | Louisa Loveluck | Sunday, December 6, 2015

'We Are Increasing Terrorism by Bombarding IS' - BBC News

Jürgen Todenhöfer is a German journalist and former MP who spent 10 days with IS last year - the first Western journalist to do so. He spoke to Ros Atkins about what he believes would be the most effective way to deal with IS.

Vladimir Putin: Terrorists Use Money Made in Turkey to Launch Attacks against West and Africa

THE TELEGRAPH: Russian president says God is punishing the ruling elite of Turkey by taking away their sanity after the deaths of Russian servicemen when Turkey shot down its warplane

Vladimir Putin has launched another scathing attack on Turkey, vowing not to forget its shoot down of a Russian plane, as he opened his annual state of the nation address to parliament, discussing security and Syria.

The Russian president pulled no punches and claimed God was punishing Turkey's leaders by "stripping" away their insanity [sic].

"We will not forget this complicity with terrorists. We always considered and will always consider treachery to be the ultimate and lowest act. Let those in Turkey who shot our pilots in the back know this," Mr Putin told politicians in his address.

Mr Putin told the country that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was a "barbaric ideology", suggesting the group were like Nazis that the world must come together and fight against.

"In the 20th century, when people were not willing to join forces to fight Nazism they had to pay for that with tens of millions of innocent lives. Today we face this barbaric ideology, and we should set aside our differences and unite in one anti-terrorist front under international law and the United Nations."

He added: "Terrorists in Syria pose a special threat. They receive money and weapons, build up their forces, and if they win there sooner or later they will come back to Russia and we will have to fight them here.

"Our forces fight in Syria for Russia - for the security of our people, first and foremost. In fighting terrorism Russia is acting with extreme responsibility."

Mr Putin then addressed the escalating war of words with Turkey, claiming yet again that Ankara let Isil terrorists sell oil, an allegation Turkey denies strongly.

"We know who it is who profits in Turkey by letting terrorists sell oil there. Terrorists use that money to plan attacks against us, France, Mali and others. It was in Turkey that terrorists from the north Caucasus used to find refuge, and some of them are still there." » | Roland Oliphant, Moscow | Thursday, December 3, 2015

Hilary Benn Speech in Full: 'We Must Now Confront This Evil'

Wednesday’s Commons debate will be remembered for Hilary Benn’s extraordinary wind-up speech, in which he powerfully (but politely) challenged his own leader and asserted Labour’s claim to be the party of activist, hard-edged internationalism. Towards the end, he compared the imperative to bomb Isis in Syria to ‘why this entire House stood up against Hitler and Mussolini’

Obama & Hollande Speeches, Press Conference after ISIL Talks

U.S. president, Barack Obama, speaks after talks with Francois Hollande, the President of France, to discuss strategy against ISIL in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. The talks took place at the White House in Washington, D.C.

France Is Trying to Create a Coalition to Destroy Isil, But President Obama Isn't Interested

THE TELEGRAPH: Will the leader of the free world please stand up?

Tell me: What’s a suicide bomber doing with a passport? He’s not going anywhere. And, though I’m not a religious scholar, I doubt that a passport is required in paradise for a martyr to access his 72 black-eyed virgins.

A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the terrorists. Why was it there? Undoubtedly, to back up the Islamic State boast that it is infiltrating operatives amid the refugees flooding Europe. The passport may have been fake, but the terrorist’s fingerprints were not. They match those of a man who just a month earlier had come through Greece on his way to kill Frenchmen in Paris.

If the other goal of the Paris massacre was to frighten France out of the air campaign in Syria -- the way Spain withdrew from the Iraq War after the terror attack on its trains in 2004 -- they picked the wrong country. France is a serious post-colonial power, as demonstrated in Ivory Coast, the Central African Republic and Mali, which France saved from an Islamist takeover in 2013.

Indeed, socialist President Francois Hollande has responded furiously to his country’s 9/11 with an intensified air campaign, hundreds of raids on suspected domestic terrorists, a state of emergency and proposed changes in the constitution to make France less hospitable to jihad.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, titular head of the free world, has responded to Paris with weariness and annoyance. His news conference in Turkey was marked by a stunning tone of passivity, detachment and lassitude, compounded by impatience and irritability at the very suggestion that his Syria strategy might be failing.

The only time he showed any passion was in denouncing Republicans for hardheartedness toward Muslim refugees. One hundred and twenty-nine innocents lie dead but it takes the GOP to kindle Obama’s ire. » | Charles Krauthammer | Friday, November 20, 2015

The Children Brainwashed To Become Jihadis

Children Of The Caliphate: A look at the horrific cruelty of Islamic State as they recruit a new generation of Jihadis.

Related video »

Obama Says Russian Strategy in Syria Is ‘Recipe for Disaster’

Barack Obama speaks to reporters in the White House:
'[Putin] doesn't distinguish between Isil and a moderate
Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go.'

THE GUARDIAN: US president’s comments follow coalition’s expression of deep concerns over targeting in Russian bombing campaign

Russia’s failure to distinguish between Islamic State fighters and moderate opposition forces battling against Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, is a “recipe for disaster,” Barack Obama has said, as more evidence emerged that Moscow is targeting anti-regime rebels and not just Isis.

The US president said his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “doesn’t distinguish between Isil [Isis] and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr Assad go. From their perspective, they’re all terrorists. And that’s a recipe for disaster.”

A statement released earlier on Friday by the US-led coalition fighting Isis expressed deep concern about attacks by the Russian air force on Hama, Homs and Idlib. The attacks did not hit the jihadi group but caused civilian casualties.

“These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalisation,” said the statement by France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the US and Britain. “We call on the Russian federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting Isil.” » | Shaun Walker in Moscow Lauren Gambino in New York Ian Black in London and Kareem Shaheen in Beirut | Friday, October 2, 2015

Children of the ‘Caliphate’

WARNING! This Channel 4 video contains gruesome, disturbing, graphic images. ISIS is the embodiment of EVIL.

Syria Blame-game: Obama Slams Russian Air Strikes, Says They Strenghten ISIS

Barack Obama lashes out at the Russian anti-ISIS campaign in Syria, claiming its air strikes are strengthening Islamic State. Retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski believes Barack Obama is basing his judgements on Russia's actions in Syria on the results of the American-led campaign.

Police Raid Berlin Mosque as 'Isil' Jihadists Try to Recruit Refugees

THE TELEGRAPH: Several raids in German capital as officials fear Islamic terrorists are trying to recruit Syrian refugees flooding into the country.

Police raided a mosque and several apartments in Berlin in the early house [hours] of Tuesday morning as German intelligence warned Islamic extremists are trying to recruit Syrian refugees flooding into the country.

“We are very concerned that Islamists in Germany are trying, under the cover of humanitarian assistance, to exploit the situation of the refugees for their own ends and to proselytise and recruit among asylum-seekers,” Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany’s domestic security service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV), said. » | Justin Higgler, Berlin | Tuesday, September 22, 2015

US-Russia Military Talks on Syria as Kremlin Says It 'Will Consider Sending Troops to Help Assad'

Vladimir Putin warned earlier this week that Isil's influence
has spread "far beyond" the borders of Iraq and Syria, but
that it is as yet "too early" to talk about air strikes in support
of Assad against Isil

THE TELEGRAPH: Kremlin gives clearest indications to date that troop deployments in Syria to help regime fight Islamic State jihadists may be imminent.

US and Russian defence chiefs spoke for the first time in over a year on Friday, breaking their silence to discuss the crisis in Syrian as Moscow's increasing military buildup raised the prospect of coordination between the former Cold War foes.

The Pentagon said the call lasted about 50 minutes and included an agreement for further US-Russian talks about ways to keep their respective militaries out of each other's way.

Washington last year cut off high-level military talks with Moscow after Russia's annexation of Crimea and intervention in Ukraine.

But Russia's military buildup in Syria has raised the possibility of simultaneous US and Russian air combat missions in Syrian airspace.

A US officials said Friday that Russia has recently deployed four fighter jets to Latakia airbase in Syria where it has been building up forces in recent weeks.

The talks came as Russia said it will consider any request from the embattled Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad to send its troops to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

With concerns already growing over Russia’s military presence in war-torn Syria, the comments are one of the clearest indications to date that troop deployments in Syria may be imminent. » | Howard Amos, Moscow | Friday, September 18, 2015

Isil Terrorists Could Infiltrate Europe by Hiding among Refugees, Warns Pope Francis

Pope Francis has warned that Isil terrorists could be hiding among
the tens of thousands of refugees who are entering from war-torn
countries such as Syria and Libya

THE TELEGRAPH: Pope Francis warns of dangers of terrorists slipping into Europe alongside refugees

Pope Francis has warned that Isil terrorists could try to “infiltrate” Europe, hiding among the tens of thousands of refugees and migrants streaming to the continent from war-torn countries such as Syria and Libya.

He said Italy in particular found itself in a vulnerable position, with Isil having established a presence just a few hundred miles south on the desert coastline of Libya.

"It's true, nowadays, territorial security conditions are not the same as they were in other periods (of mass migration)," the Jesuit Pope told a Portuguese radio station in a wide-ranging interview, days before he embarks on a gruelling tour of Cuba and the United States.

"The truth is that just 400 kilometres (250 miles) from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true." » | Nick Squires, Rome | Monday, September 14, 2015

Dutch Sergeant Joins Isil in First Such Desertion

THE TELEGRAPH: A 26-year-old Dutch air force sergeant is believed to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

A serving member of the Dutch air force may have joined Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in Syria, the Netherlands Defence Ministry has said.

The 26-year-old air force sergeant has been suspended from service and his access to “information, systems and military sites” has been revoked, the ministry said in a statement.

"The case is currently being investigated by the Public Prosecutor," it said. "The defence ministry will of course investigate any risks or damage associated with the sergeant's position and take any necessary and appropriate measures."

Dutch authorities said on Thursday that this is the first time a serving member of the country’s armed forces is known to have joined Isil. » | Louisa Loveluck | Thursday, September 3, 2015

Islamic State Fights Syrian Rebels and 'Moves Closer to Central Damascus'

THE TELEGRAPH: Isil militants and Islamist rebels are fighting in Asali, part of the capital's southern Qadam district

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) battled Syrian rebel forces in a Damascus neighbourhood on Monday, bringing the extremists closer than ever to the centre of the capital, a monitoring group said.

Isil militants fought street battles against Islamist rebels in Asali, part of the capital's southern Qadam district, after seizing two streets there over the weekend, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"This is the closest Isil has ever been to the heart of Damascus," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. » | AFP | Monday, August 31, 2015

Isil 'Blows Up Temple of Bel' in Ancient Syrian City of Palmyra

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: It is the second of the city's ancient temples to be destroyed in a week as jihadist groups continues its programme of "cultural cleansing"

Violent jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) have partially destroyed the the most famous landmark in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra.

The Temple of Bel was damaged on Sunday, according to messages posted on the Twitter account of a local activist group, the Palmyra Co-ordination Council.

Although the extent of the destruction was unclear, a Palmyra resident, Nasser al Thaer, said that a huge blast had echoed through the area on Sunday afternoon.

"The bricks and the columns are on the ground," he told the Associated Press. » | Louisa Loveluck | Sunday, August 30, 2015