ET CETERA

NIGHT CAP

Morally Bankrupt

By Harry Kirsbaum

n Aug. 6, 2001, President George W.
Bush received the now famous Pres-
ident's Daily Brief from the Central
Intelligence Agency, entitled "Bin Laden
Determined To Strike in the U.S:'
Some say that Bush ignored the warn-
ing.
Thirty-six days later, 9-11 changed the
world.
On Aug. 19, 2014, the world received
a now infamous video from the terrorist
group Islamic State (ISIS).
"So any attempt by you, Obama, to
deny the Muslims of living in safety
under Islamic caliphate will result in the
bloodshed of your people:' said a British-
accented ISIS terrorist, dressed in black,
just before he beheaded American pho-
tojournalist James Foley with a knife.
Then, pointing at another captured
journalist, Steven Soltoff, seen kneel-
ing in an orange jumpsuit, the terrorist
says,"The life of this American citizen,
Obama, depends on your next decision:'
We cannot ignore this warning.
Foley disappeared in November 2012,
and Soltoff in September 2013, both in
Syria. The video was released on Aug.

O

19, but the beheading could have oc-
curred at any time, which means that
Soltoff's fate may have been already
met.
ISIS has wreaked havoc across Iraq,
beheading children, then sticking their
heads on fence posts; raping and killing
women; and killing Muslims who don't
agree with the ISIS brand of Islam, which
translates to"Kill Everyone: Sunni, Shia,
Christian, Jewish, Everyone
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is
the self-proclaimed caliph, the successor
to Muhammad, the absolute monarch
of the Islamic State in western Iraq and
northeastern Syria.
AI-Baghdadi was reportedly captured
in Iraq in 2005 and held in a detention
camp until his release in 2010.
"I'll see you in New York7 he said to his
captors as he walked to freedom.
Watching the Foley video brings back
memories of Daniel Pearl, who was simi-
larly slaughtered by Al Qaida terrorist
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2002.
While KSM is occupying a cell in
Gitmo, British authorities are trying to
locate Foley's executioner. And ac-

cording to British Prime Minister David
Cameron, there's a good chance he's
from London.
Some 800 French nationals, 400 Brit-
ish, 100 Austrians and countless others
from Europe and North America are
feared to have joined ISIS and are now
fighting in Syria.
And when they are finished in Syria,
they are coming home to fight.
With more than $450 million in cash
and gold bullion stolen from Mosul's
central bank, ISIS has more money than
Al Qaida ever had to spend for arms
and paying fighters. And remember: Al
Qaida expelled the ISIS group because
they were Too. Radical. For. Al Qaida.
The Department of Justice opened a
criminal investigation into the behead-
ing on Aug. 21, and on Aug. 18, the
State Department banned two men
— ISIS spokesman, Abu Mohammed
al-Adnani, a Syrian, and Said Arif, an
Algerian member of the rival Nusra
Front — from financial dealing with the
United States.
Adnani was one of the first foreigners
to fight against coalition forces in Iraq,
and Arif has been convicted in a plot
to assault French malls and destroy the
Eiffel Tower.
At a news conference on Aug. 20,

President Obama said,"No just God
would stand for what they did yester-
day, and for what they do every single
day.
"ISIS has no ideology of any value to
human beings. Their ideology is bank-
rupt," he added. "They may claim out of
expediency that they are at war with the
United States or the West, but the fact is
they terrorize their neighbors and offer
them nothing but an endless slavery to
their empty vision and the collapse of
any definition of civilized behavior.
"From governments and peoples
across the Middle East there has to be
a common effort to extract this cancer,
so that it does not spread:' he said. "One
thing we can all agree on is that a group
like ISIS has no place in the 21st century"
The world is truly on the side of
whoever is fighting ISIS, and the hope
is that Obama backs up his strong talk
with action, even if includes siding with
governments that are not usually our
allies.
Don't want to see another 9-11 attack
or even an American version of the inti-
fada? Take the fight to them and use the
approach that works best:"The enemy
of my enemy is my friend:'
The caliph can't make it to New
York.

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RED THREAD I September 2014 45