'Small Handful' of Americans Believed to Be Fighting With ISIS in Iraq

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

A small handful” of Americans are believed to be fighting with ISIS in Iraq, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

U.S. intelligence, law enforcement and military officials have for months declined to discuss the possibility that Americans had joined the Islamic extremist group blamed for beheading 40-year-old New Hampshire journalist James Foley as well as atrocities against Iraqis. But they now acknowledge it is likely that one or more Americans – but no more than a “small handful” — have joined the fray.

The officials, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, say they base that opinion on analysis and a string of recent arrests and investigations of U.S. citizens who have sought to join the group that is simultaneously fighting government forces in both Iraq and Syria.

“It stands to reason that one or some of those Americans who have gone to Syria may have linked up with ISIS. It would not be surprising,” said one senior U.S. intelligence official. “In general, we have found that Western fighters, not just those from the U.S., are joining the biggest game in town and the biggest game in town is ISIS.”

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Benghazi: When America Switched Sides In The War On Terror And Armed Al-Qaida (+video)

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Photo Credit: FrontPagMag

Photo Credit: FrontPagMag

The Center for Security Policy’s Vice President for Research and Analysis, Clare Lopez, says in this exclusive video interview with The Daily Caller that very few have seemed to care that America switched sides in the global war on terror when President Obama deposed an erstwhile ally in the Middle East and provided weapons to al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Focusing on this under-reported, critical shift in American foreign policy, Clare Lopez discusses how an American ambassador and others were killed in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11 because the Obama administration decided to promote and defend their narrative that “al-Qaida was on the run,” even as we were outright arming militants affiliated with the terrorist group.

Lopez spent 20 years as an undercover operations officer for the CIA. Believing she can now best serve her country in the policy arena, she has found a natural fit at a non-partisan non-profit that promotes American national security and foreign policy based on the principle of “peace through strength.”

This week, we feature part 1 of 2 of our video interview with Lopez on the topic of the Benghazi attacks. Lopez, who’s also a member of the Citizens Commission on Benghazi, says, “Benghazi is symbolic of more than just a disastrous foreign policy or a disastrous attack on our mission that took the lives of four Americans serving there and injured many more. Benghazi is not just what happened on September 11, 2012 either. Americans really need to care about Benghazi and what happened there because that is the place, and 2011 and 2012 was the time, when America switched sides in the war on terrorism.”

To her, the American decision to overthrow the head of a sovereign government, Muammar al-Gaddafi, and to instead support al-Qaida and the Muslim Brotherhood laid the important framework for a resurgence of global jihad.

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Iraqi TV Host Weeps Over Plight of Christians

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Photo Credit: Hussein Malla/AP

Photo Credit: Hussein Malla/AP

Nahi Mahdi, an Iraqi TV host, broke down in tears while discussing the desperate plight of Christian refugees in Iraq.

“They are our own flesh and blood,” Mahdi said after regaining his composure. “Some of them have left for Sweden or Germany. Who does (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) think it is to drive out our fellow countrymen?”

The Asia TV program was aired in Iraq in late July, according to a video and translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“This is one genuine Iraqi we have here,” another panelist commented at the sight of Mahdi in tears.

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Fast and Furious Documents Must be Provided to Congress, Judge Rules

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with a list of documents that are at the center of a long-running battle over a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious.

In a court proceeding Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson set an Oct. 1 deadline for producing the list to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Justice Department says the documents should remain confidential and President Barack Obama has invoked executive privilege in an effort to protect them from public disclosure.

The House panel says the Justice Department documents might explain why the department took nearly a year to admit that federal agents had engaged in a controversial law enforcement tactic known as gun-walking.

The Justice Department has long prohibited the risky practice. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used it with disastrous results in a federal law enforcement probe in Arizona, Operation Fast and Furious.

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High School Student Claims She Was Suspended For Saying ‘Bless You’ After Classmate Sneezed

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Photo Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP / Getty Images

Photo Credit: KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP / Getty Images

A high school student was allegedly suspended after breaking a class rule of saying “bless you” after a classmate sneezed.

Kendra Turner, a senior at Dyer County High School, said bless you to her classmate who sneezed and the teacher told her that the term was for church.

“She said that we’re not going to have godly speaking in her class and that’s when I said we have a constitutional right,” Turner told WMC.

When she defended her actions, the teacher told Turner to see an administrator. The student said that she had to finish the class period in in-school suspension.

The girl’s parents were told by school leaders that their daughter shouted “bless you” across the room and that it was a classroom distraction.

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Congrats To Texas Dems For Turning Rosemary Lehmberg’s Drunk-Driving Conviction Into National News

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Indicting Rick Perry seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, he’s a Republican who might run for president in 2016!

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Liberia's Ebola Clampdown Turns Violent as Official Evacuated

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Photo Credit: AFP / Zoom Dosso

Photo Credit: AFP / Zoom Dosso

Violence erupted in an Ebola quarantine zone in Liberia’s capital Wednesday when soldiers opened fire and used tear gas on crowds as they evacuated a state official and her family.

Four residents were injured in the clashes that flared in Monrovia’s West Point slum which has been contained as part of new security measures aimed at containing the deadly virus.

The crackdown in Liberia comes as authorities around the world scramble to stem the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 1,200 people across west Africa this year.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf quarantined West Point and Dolo Town, to the east of the capital, and imposed a night-time curfew as part of new drastic measures to fight the disease.

Residents of West Point, where club-wielding youths stormed an Ebola medical facility on Saturday, reacted with fury to the crackdown, hurling stones and shouting at the security forces.

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The 35.4 Percent: 109,631,000 on Welfare

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

109,631,000 Americans lived in households that received benefits from one or more federally funded “means-tested programs” — also known as welfare — as of the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.

The Census Bureau has not yet reported how many were on welfare in 2013 or the first two quarters of 2014.

But the 109,631,000 living in households taking federal welfare benefits as of the end of 2012, according to the Census Bureau, equaled 35.4 percent of all 309,467,000 people living in the United States at that time.

When those receiving benefits from non-means-tested federal programs — such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and veterans benefits — were added to those taking welfare benefits, it turned out that 153,323,000 people were getting federal benefits of some type at the end of 2012.

Subtract the 3,297,000 who were receiving veterans’ benefits from the total, and that leaves 150,026,000 people receiving non-veterans’ benefits.

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Almanac Predicts Colder Winter, Hotter Summer

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Photo Credit: Rob Shenk

Photo Credit: Rob Shenk

The Old Farmer’s Almanac, the familiar, 223-year-old chronicler of climate, folksy advice and fun facts, is predicting a colder winter and warmer summer for much of the nation.

Published Wednesday, the New Hampshire-based almanac predicts a “super-cold” winter in the eastern two-thirds of the country. The west will remain a little bit warmer than normal.

“Colder is just almost too familiar a term,” Editor Janice Stillman said. “Think of it as a refriger-nation.”

More bad news for those who can’t stand snow: Most of the Northeast is expected to get more snowfall than normal, though it will be below normal in New England.

Before unpacking the parka, however, remember that “colder than average” is still only about 2 to 5 degrees difference.

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Have Republicans Given Up On Attacking Obamacare? Doubtful.

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Photo Credit: thefederalist.com

Photo Credit: thefederalist.com

In a bit of dubious cherry-picking, a new Bloomberg piece concludes that the Affordable Care Act is losing its effectiveness as a political issue for Republicans. Working off this premise, Greg Sargent at the Washington Post reasons that this tells us Obamacare is “disappearing” as a major issue. And Paul Krugman followed up with his characteristic level-headed analysis.

How do we know the end is near-ish? Well, so many Americans are “benefiting from the law,” theorizes Heidi Przybyla, that political ads are simply not doing the job anymore. This news is somewhat unexpected – and unpersuasive – when you consider a Kaiser Family Foundation poll recently found that only 15 percent of Americans believe Obamacare has directly helped them, while 28 percent say it has directly hurt them. (Fifty-six percent say it has had no effect on their lives.)

Somewhat more convincingly, Przybyla offers this bit of evidence: “Those seeking to unseat the U.S. Senate incumbent in North Carolina,” she writes, “have cut in half the portion of their top issue ads citing Obamacare, a sign that the party’s favorite attack against Democrats is losing its punch.” Then again, that’s quite an extrapolation, as well – especially when you consider that in her very own story Przybyla tells us that GOP groups have plans to re-focus on ACA as soon as premium increases for 2015 are announced. Like any issue, the political impact of Obamacare is hitched to events surrounding the law. An ebb is not a capitulation. And there will be more Obamacare events.

But even if there weren’t, consider that a quarter of all political ads running in North Carolina attack Obamacare specifically. This seems to suggest that it’s still a comparatively “major issue.” Or, let’s put it this way: Is there any other law in the United States that eats up more political space?

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