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Top White House Official Says US Strategy to Beat ISIS is Working; General Disagrees

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By Fox News. Secretary of State John Kerry and a top White House official claimed Sunday that the U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State is working – despite warnings from other corners of the Obama administration that the terror network is in fact spreading.

Following the purported deaths last week of two ISIS hostages and concerns about the U.S. needing to do more, Kerry told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S.-led coalition was “on the road” to defeating the Islamic extremist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, in Iraq and Syria.

He argued that coalition forces have recaptured 22 percent of the populated areas that ISIS once held in the region “without launching what we would call a major offensive.”

The claim came just days after Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, delivered a grim assessment of the group’s evolution in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. He described how the group was surfacing in North Africa.

“With affiliates in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, the group is beginning to assemble a growing international footprint that includes ungoverned and under governed areas,” Stewart testified. (Read more about the claims that the strategy to beat ISIS is working HERE)

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ISIS ‘Sentenced’ US Hostage to Death Last Year, Activist Says

By The Jerusalem Post. The young American hostage who Islamic State says was was killed in a Jordanian air strike was condemned to death by the militant group last year, according to an American Muslim activist.

Islamic State seized aid worker Kayla Mueller in 2013 in northern Syria and initially gave her a “life sentence” in retaliation for the jailing in Texas of a Pakistani woman whose case is a well-known cause among Islamist militants, said activist Mauri Saalakhan, who leads a US campaign to free the Pakistani.

The militant group said on Friday that Mueller, a 26-year-old from Prescott, Arizona, was killed when Jordanian fighter jets bombed a building where she was being held. Jordan expressed doubt about the claim and US authorities said they could not confirm it. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Poll: See Who Was Voted the Least Effective Secretary of State in 50 Years

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John Kerry has been named by American academics as the least effective secretary of state in the past 50 years, a new survey finds.

The survey, conducted by Foreign Policy Magazine, polled professors at the top 25 foreign policy schools across the country.

Henry Kissinger, who served in the role under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, topped the list, scoring 32.21 percent, which is “extraordinary in such a large field,” according to Washington Post political bloggers Al Kamen and Colby Itkowitz . . .

After Baker come Madeleine Albright and Hillary Clinton (8.70 percent); George Shultz (5.65 percent); Dean Rusk, who served in the Kennedy-Johnson years, and came in seventh at 3.51 percent; Warren Christopher and Cyrus Vance (1.53 percent); Colin Powell (1.07 percent); Condoleezza Rice (0.46 percent); and Lawrence Eagleburger with only 0.31 percent.

Kerry is “dead last” on this list, Kamen and Itkowitz wrote. He got a total of two votes of the 660 scholars who responded and actually tied with Eagleburger’s 0.31 percent, the magazine lists him at 13th. (Read more about the least effective secretary of state HERE)

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John Kerry French Faux Pas: I Just Want to ‘Share a Hug’ With You (+video)

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By Our Foreign Staff and AFP. When top US diplomat John Kerry rushed towards the French president, arms open, to warmly embrace him on Friday, what followed was a cringeworthy culture clash that has befuddled many a visitor to France.

The French are just not that into hugging.

Kerry had given fair warning to his French counterparts that some American-style affection was on the cards.

“My visit to France is basically to share a big hug for Paris and express the affection of the American people for France and for our friends there who have been through a terrible time,” he said on the eve of his trip.

The phrase alone sparked confusion in the media who struggled to pin down a translation for the word hug. (Read more about John Kerry’s “share a hug” moment HERE)

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Singer Helps John Kerry Show Solidarity With France After Delayed U.S. Response to Terror Attacks

By Rachelle Blinder. “You’ve got a friend,” France.

James Taylor crooned the message in Paris Friday to help Secretary of State John Kerry apologize for the U.S.’ late show of solidarity following last weeks’ terror attacks.

The American music legend and Kerry pal opened with the melody of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, before launching into the English hit, “You’ve Got a Friend” to a crowd of survivors, victims’ families and first responders.

At the end of the 3-minute performance at Paris city hall, he reassured in French, “Your friend is here.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Kerry: Extremism Exploits a ‘Beautiful Religion’

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Photo Credit: AP / Carolyn Kaster, PoolThe response to Islamist extremism, which “exploits a legitimate and beautiful religion,” must include offering alternatives to young people who lack opportunities and “feel oppressed,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.

“The challenge of our generation is going to be to deal with religious radical extremism, which exploits a legitimate and beautiful religion that is being totally distorted, has nothing to do with what they purport to be pursuing, and nevertheless captures the minds of some of our young people – even in America,” Kerry told staff at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa.

He noted that more than 100 Americans have traveled to the region to fight with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL), while more had done so from European countries, Australia and elsewhere.

“And so we have to push back. We’re not going to win this exclusively through our efforts on the ground in this coalition with kinetic efforts,” he said, referring to the U.S.-led coalition’s military operations against the jihadist group. “We’re going to win this with ideas.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / KUNAUS Envoy: To Defeat ISIS, We Must Highlight ‘Our Profound Respect’ for Islam

A global effort to counter claims by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) that it is acting in the name of Islam must include a counter-narrative that highlights “our profound respect” for the religion, the administration’s point man in the anti-ISIS coalition said this week.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. John Allen was speaking in Kuwait, where representatives of more than a dozen Islamic and Western met to discuss using public communications to combat ISIS (also known as Da’esh – an acronym for the Arabic rendering of the group’s name, ad-Dawlah al-Islamiyah fil-Iraq wa ash-Sham).

“As we seek to expose Da’esh’s true nature,” Allen told the gathering on Monday, “we must also tell a positive story, one that highlights our respect – our profound respect for Islam’s proud traditions, its rich history, and celebration of scholarship and family and community.”

“We must work with clerics and scholars and teachers and parents to tell the story of how we celebrate Islam, even as we show that Da’esh perverts it.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry, Campaigning Against ISIS Ideology, Meets With Muslim Leader Who Enforces Shari'a Punishments

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Photo Credit: Brunei government / InfofotoSecretary of State John Kerry met with several Southeast Asian leaders on Monday to promote the anti-ISIS campaign including the need to delegitimize its ideology. The people he met with include a Muslim ruler who less than six months ago introduced the death penalty for apostasy, stoning for adultery and limb amputation for theft.

The controversial shari’a-based penal code was enacted by the Sultan of Brunei on May 1. Invoking the same shari’a obligations, the jihadist group calling itself the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) enforces similar punishments in areas under its control.

President Obama, Kerry and other administration officials repeatedly contend that there is nothing “Islamic” about ISIS or the atrocities it is committing in Syria and Iraq.

Kerry’s meeting with Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was one of several bilaterals held in Jakarta on the sidelines of the inauguration of Indonesia’s new leader, President Joko Widodo.

The sultan’s office said in a brief statement afterwards that the two had “discussed bilateral issues and cooperation between Brunei and the United States, and exchanged views on regional and international matters of mutual concern.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Islamic State to John Kerry: You’re An ‘Old Uncircumcised Geezer’

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Photo Credit: AP / Julie JacobsonBy Cheryl K. Chumley.

Islamic State terrorists have released a new video calling on lone wolf attacks in the United States — and taking potshots at America’s leaders, characterizing President Obama as the “mule of the Jews” and labeling Secretary of State John Kerry as out-of-touch and ineffective.

Specifically, Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammad al-Adnani labels Mr. Kerry in the video as an “old uncircumcised geezer,” the Daily Mail reported. He then slings the phrase of “mule of the Jews” at Mr. Obama, before calling on those of Muslim faith to take action and wage war on those who of non-Islam belief.

“If you can, kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State … kill him in any manner or way, however that may be,” Al-Adnani said, the Daily Mail reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP / Susan WalshObama launches airstrikes in Syria as war against Islamic State dramatically expands

By Maggie Ybarra and Guy Taylor.

President Obama on Monday night authorized a major escalation of the war against the Islamic State, sending missiles and warplanes on bombing missions for the first time into Syria to strike the terrorist group’s strongholds in that country.

The Pentagon announced that both U.S. and allied pilots, along with missile-firing U.S. ships, launched their first airstrikes inside Syria after a sweeping diplomatic push by the Obama administration had secured dozens of verbal commitments from leaders around the world and in the Middle East to join the fight against the Islamic State.

The missiles and bombs began flying into Islamic State-held areas early Tuesday local time and was expected to last for the next few days, a senior Pentagon official told The Washington Times.

“We will continue to attack Islamic State targets whether they’re in Iraq or in Syria,” the official said.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry: Threat From Climate Change is Just Like ISIS

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Photo Credit: TownHallBy Katie Pavlich.

Secretary of State John Kerry, the world’s top diplomat, is warning that global warming climate change poses as much of a threat to the world as ISIS. More from The Hill:

Secretary of State John Kerry said the threats posed by climate change should be addressed with as much “immediacy” as confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the Ebola outbreak.

During a meeting with foreign ministers on Sunday, Kerry said global warming is creating “climate refugees.”

“We see people fighting over water in some places. There are huge challenges to food security and challenges to the ecosystem, our fisheries and … the acidification of the ocean is a challenge for all of us,” Kerry said.

“And when you accrue all of this, while we are confronting ISIL and we are confronting terrorism and we are confronting Ebola and other things, those are immediate,” he added, using an alternate acronym for the terrorist group.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Antonio Heredia / BloombergGoogle severs ties with conservative group over climate change stance

By Evan Halper.

Google is breaking ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a prominent network of conservative state legislators that, among other projects, works to roll back laws that promote solar and wind power, the company’s chairman said Monday.

The decision marks a major victory for a campaign by environmentalists, union activists and other liberal groups that have pushed companies to drop support for ALEC. Microsoft ended its ties to the group a few weeks ago.

“The consensus within the company was that that was some sort of mistake,” Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said, referring to the initial decision to support ALEC.

Read more from this story HERE.

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UN climate change: Obama gives cash to developing nations without any strings attached

By Richard Grenell.

This week, President Obama and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will frame the discussion at the U.N. as a simple way to confront the rising tides effecting coastal and island countries. There will be much talk from wealthy and developed nations about not ignoring these problems while poor and underdeveloped countries will eagerly agree to any action plan that includes money. But the two sides have very different goals.

American and European liberals see the climate change debate, as well as the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) discussion, as an altruistic response to their global public POLICY concerns. United Nations officials and leaders from developing nations, however, see the climate change discussion and the fight over MDGs as their future revenue source.

The money from wealthy nations to confront some very real global poverty and economic issues is largely given out of guilt. Sadly, there is little emphasis with the climate change discussion on requiring developing nations to meet certain governance or environmental standards first; and even less concern for listening to what the people living in poverty want or need to change their dreadful circumstances.

Ironically, many poorer countries have neither the capacity nor political will to change their priorities to combat rising tides. They just want the money.

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: ‘The Real Face of Islam is a Peaceful Religion’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP / Lucas Jackson

Photo Credit: AP / Lucas Jackson

By Brittany M. Hughes.

One day after the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) released a video showing the brutal beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff–the second American journalist ISIS has decapitated on video–Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech saying that Islam is a “peaceful religion based on the dignity of all human beings,” and that ISIS is not “the real face of Islam.”

“I want to take advantage of this podium and of this moment to underscore as powerfully as I know how, that the face of Islam is not the butchers who killed Steven Sotloff. That’s ISIL,” Kerry said at a ceremony honoring Shaarik Zafar, who was just appointed as the State Department’s special representative to Muslim communities.

“The face of Islam is not the nihilists who know only how to destroy, not to build,” he said. “It’s not masked cowards whose actions are an ugly insult to the peaceful religion that they violate every single day with their barbarity and whose fundamental principles they insult with their actions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Does Obama have the guts to stop tyrants and Islamist terrorists?

By Michael Goodwin.

A friend who somehow remains a supporter of Barack Obama believes the president soon will announce major pushbacks against Russia and the Islamic State.

“I think he’s going to surprise people with how strong he is,” the friend says.

Alert the media. After years of delay and denial, a strong pushback would come as a surprise not just to Americans, but to our allies and adversaries around the world.

It was probably no coincidence that North Korea paraded three Americans it is holding before TV cameras. Who knows what their fate will be?

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry, Aides Undergo Metal Detector Screening Before Meeting With Egyptian President

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Photo Credit: ABBAS MOMANI / AFP / Getty

Photo Credit: ABBAS MOMANI / AFP / Getty

Secretary of State John Kerry defied a Federal Aviation Administration ban and flew into Israel’s main airport Wednesday in a sign of sheer will to achieve a cease-fire agreement in the warring Gaza Strip despite little evidence of progress in ongoing negotiations aimed at halting fighting that’s left at least 31 Israelis and 650 Palestinians dead.

Kerry’s arrival in Israel came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants near a southern Gaza Strip town as dozens of Palestinian families trapped by the fighting scrambled to flee the area.

It also came as Israel closed the border crossing into Gaza at Erez “until further notice,” citing the heavy fighting.

Kerry planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during what appeared to be a crucial day in the flailing talks.

Kerry reported some progress, reports the Reuters news agency, which quotes him as saying soon after he got to Jerusalem for a meeting with Ban,”We have certainly made some steps forward. There is still work to be done.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry: Foreign Gov’ts Must Accept Same-Sex Spouses of US Personnel Stationed Abroad (+video)

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Photo Credit: AFPThe U.S. is leading by example in promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) rights at home and around the world, Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday.

He said the federal government recognizes same-sex marriages of foreign diplomats stationed in the U.S., and it expects all other countries to do the same in their treatment of U.S. personnel deployed abroad.

“Let me be clear: We oppose any effort by any country to deny visas for spouses of American staff,” he said. “It’s discriminatory, it’s unacceptable, it has no place in the 21st century.”

Read more from this story HERE.