David Cameron's Press Conference: "We are in a generational struggle against a poisonous ideology."

[ScottL]

On Friday, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron described the grave threat posed by the Islamic State that needed to be rooted out and destroyed.

“What we're facing in Iraq now, with ISIL, is a greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before,” he explained during a press conference.

Cameron announced that the United Kingdom raised the terror threat level to “severe” after conferring with the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center.

Cameron defied the notion that the rise of ISIS was the result of the Iraq war.

“Let's be clear about the source of the threat that we face,” he said. “The terrorist threat was not created by the Iraq war ten years ago. It existed even before the horrific attacks on 9/11.”

Cameron added that the threat had to be addressed militarily.

“This threat cannot be solved simply by dealing with the perceived grievances over Western foreign policy, nor can it be dealt with by addressing poverty, dictatorship or instability in the region, as important as these things are,” he explained.

Instead, Cameron described the brutal terrorist threat as a direct result of Islamic extremism which needed to be rooted out as soon as possible.

“We cannot appease this ideology,” he stated. “To do this, we need a tough comprehensive approach to defeat the terrorist threat at its source.”

The fight, he explained, would be long, but he dedicated the British government to the task.

“We are in the middle of a generational struggle between a poisonous and extremist ideology that I believe that we'll be fighting for years, and probably decades,” he said. "We must take whatever action necessary to keep the British people safe here at home."

 

[superbeets]

He is da man

 

[ScottL]

 

[superbeets]

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Theresa May said an attack on the UK was 'highly likely' after the terror threat level was increased to severe

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[superbeets]

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Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan Howe earlier this week claimed the 'drum beat' of terror had increased


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[superbeets]

[h=3]FIVE TERROR THREAT LEVELS[/h]Critical - an attack is expected imminently
Severe - an attack is highly likely
Substantial - an attack is a strong possibility
Moderate - an attack is possible but not likely
Low - an attack is unlikely

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[superbeets]

[h=1]Influence of ISIS spreads to Egypt as militants decapitate four Israeli 'Mossad spies' in copycat video that echoes recent Islamic State beheadings in Iraq[/h]

• WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
• Sinai-based militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis releases beheading video
• Militant group claims the men had been spying for Mossad
• Security source said headless corpses found in Sinai earlier this month
• Men had reportedly been abducted two days earlier in Sheikh Zuwaid

Militants in Egypt claim to have beheaded four men they had accused of being Israeli Mossad spies in a video which appears to have been inspired by the tactics of the Islamic State.
Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has been described as Egypt's most dangerous militant group, released the video, in which it accused the four Egyptians of spying for Israel's Mossad agency.
In the video, the captives can be seen kneeling on the floor with armed men in black masks standing behind them as one of the militants reads out a statement. Minutes later the four men have been beheaded.

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Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has been described as Egypt's most dangerous militant group, has released a shocking new video in which four men, accused of being Israeli Mossad spies, are beheaded

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In the video, the captives can be seen kneeling on the floor with armed men in black masks standing behind them as one of the militants reads out a statement. Minutes later the four men have been beheaded

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Security sources have said four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula earlier this month

Security sources said four headless corpses were found in the Sinai Peninsula earlier this month - the first time any decapitations had been made public in Egypt.
The men had reportedly been abducted by gunmen two days earlier while driving in the town of Sheikh Zuwaid, which is just a few miles from the Gaza Strip.
The filmed killings are reminiscent of images posted online by militant group Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria.

This has led to suggestions that Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis might have been inspired by the group, notorious for beheadings and executions.The Sinai militants are not believed to be officially linked to Islamic State insurgents.
However, Egyptian intelligence officials say the group has influenced Egyptian militants who are based just over the border with Libya, Reuters has reported.
The officials say the Libya-based fighters have also established contacts with Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.

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In the video, militant group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis presented what it said were confessions by the men

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Two of the men said they had spent time in Israeli jails for smuggling. The other two said Mossad had paid them for information

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The group said the men provided intelligence used in an airstrike on July 23 in northern Sinai that killed three of its fighters

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Militants in the Sinai have stepped up attacks on policemen and soldiers since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013

Though the four dead men were civilians, security sources had said initially that they might have been targeted for their perceived allegiance to the police and army.
In the video, Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis presented what it said were confessions by the men. Two of them said they had spent time in Israeli jails for smuggling. The other two said Mossad had paid them for information.
The group said the men provided intelligence used in an airstrike on July 23 in northern Sinai that killed three of its fighters. At the time, the Egyptian army said no Israeli aircraft or drones had crossed into Egyptian airspace.
Militants in the Sinai have stepped up attacks on policemen and soldiers since then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July 2013.

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The filmed killings are reminiscent of images posted online by militant group Islamic State (pictured), which has seized parts of Iraq and Syra

The attacks initially targeted security forces in Sinai - a remote but strategic part of Egypt located between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal - but they have since extended their reach, with bombings on the mainland.
It was reported today that Islamic State had released a new decapitation video, threatening America for the second time and urging the Kurds to break from their alliance with the West against the caliphate.
Just hours after Islamic State released shocking footage of the mass execution of 300 Syrian national army soldiers in the Syrian desert, the group issued a second warning to the United States.
The grainy video, accompanied by the hashtag '2ndAmessagetoAmerica', shows the vicious beheading of a Kurdish soldier, who was part of a group of 15 fighters likely to have been captured by Islamic State during the fighting in Iraq.

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It was reported today that Islamic State had released a new decapitation video, threatening America for the second time and urging the Kurds to break from their alliance with the West against the caliphate

The group's first warning ten days ago was entitled 'A Message to America' and showed the decapitation of American journalist James Foley.
In the latest video, the captors first issue a warning they will continue to decapitate prisoners should America continue to support the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State.
They then behead one of the captives on a sandy roadside in Iraq, where the Great Mosque of Mosul can be seen in the background.


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[superbeets]

[h=1]Hours after shocking world with desert execution of 300 Syrian soldiers, ISIS parade captured Kurds then behead one on video[/h]

• IS issues second 'warning' to the U.S in video showing another decapitation
• Footage shows captured Kurdish peshmerga dressed in orange boiler suits
• It then cuts to one of the captives being beheaded before a Mosul mosque
• They are thought to have been captured while fighting IS in Iraq
  
• Comes hours after startling footage of mass summary execution in Syria
• Men in only their underwear form a long line stretching across the desert
• Islamic State fighter said men were from Tabqa air base, captured this week

Islamic State have released a new decapitation video, threatening America for the second time and urging the Kurds to break from their alliance with the West against the caliphate.
Just hours after Islamic State released shocking footage of the mass execution of 300 Syrian national army soldiers in the Syrian desert, Islamic State have issued a second warning to the United States.
The grainy video, accompanied by the hashtag '2ndAmessagetoAmerica', shows the vicious beheading of a Kurdish soldier, who was part of a group of 15 fighters likely to have been captured by Islamic State during the fighting in Iraq.

The group's first warning ten days ago was entitled 'A Message to America' and showed the decapitation of American journalist James Foley.

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Footage of another fifteen members of Kurdish militia captured by the brutal jihadists has been released

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Video of the beheading comes hours after footage emerged of the execution of 300 Syrian soldiers

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Jihadists issue their warning that the beheadings will continue if the U.S. continues to support the Kurds




.In the latest video, the captors first issue a warning they will continue to decapitate prisoners should America continue to support the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State.
They then behead one of the captives on a sandy roadside in Iraq, where the Great Mosque of Mosul can be seen in the background.
Kurdish forces have been in fierce fighting with Islamic State since June and their militias have been beginning to receive considerable amounts of armaments from Western powers including the USA and UK.
It is the latest front line in a brutal power struggle taking place through Syria and Iraq as the Islamic State attempts to extend its influence and impose Sharia law across the region.

While the captives and executors are dressed in similar fashion to those seen in the James Foley execution 10 days ago, it is unclear if the two incidents were carried out by the same people.
The production of the propaganda video also differs - with the beheading shown alongside still images of American and Kurdish officials in an attempt to help convey the executioner's message.


In the six minute video, which has not been independently verified, the prisoners, who are are seen wearing orange boiler suits similar to those worn by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, confirm that they had been fighting for the Peshmerga, and had been captured by the jihadist group.
The video includes one earlier shot of the Kurdish soldiers, appearing to still be wearing their Peshmerga uniforms, shortly after they were captured. Speaking in Kurdish, one of the prisoners, Hassan Mohammed Hashin, reads out a carefully pre-prepared statement, lambasting the Kurdish leaders: 'You have made a huge mistake by joining hands with America.'

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A still image taken from the video which purports to show a surrendering Kurdish soldier

It then shows one of the prisoners kneeling in the sandy ground of what appears to be a roadside square near Mosul, believed to be al-Saed. In the background, the Great mosque of Mosul can be seen, where Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, now self-proclaimed caliph Ibrahim, made his speech in early July.
Three Islamic State fighters stand behind the Kurdish soldiers wearing an almost identical black uniform to the British jihadist who executed American journalist James Foley last week.
Speaking in Arabic, one of the masked fighters standing in the centre begins to deliver his hateful message to the Americans: 'In the name of God, peace be upon him. I have two messages: the first one is for the dog of Roman, the jerk Obama, how did you send your nation and soldiers again to Iraq, did you forget the thousands of dead Americans who you gave them as a sacrifice for wars. Did you forget thousands of images of corpses, deformed and those people who still suffer?
'Did the economy of America recovered from its crises to get into a new one? But the second message is for the servant of the Jewish Mas'od, this is the destiny of one of the militant and others who you sent to Muslims unless you finish your work with the Jewish and your allied with the Crusaders.'

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The victim is thought to be a member of the Kurdish militia, who have been fighting with Islamic State since June

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The captors threaten to continue beheading the prisoners should Obama's (right) assistance continue

The jihadist condemns Obama’s decision for America’s support for the Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State, insisting that 'by God's will your intervention and your offence to Muslims will finish you and your America.' As well as threatening America again, the second part of the jihadist's speech was to condemn the alliance between Iraqi Kurdistan and America’s military support.
Unsheathing a large knife from his belt, the jihadist grabs hold of the prisoner’s dark hair, tilts his head back and begins to cut off the head. Like the terrifying video of James Foley’s execution, the camera cuts away to only later show a brief shot of the decapitation.
The Islamic State executor vows to keep beheading more of the prisoners if America and the Iraqi Kurdistan continue to work together, warning 'this is the destiny of all the other prisoners if you don’t stop your alliance with the crusaders.'
The video ends with Islamic State fighters parading near Mosul in armoured personnel carriers, waving flags and brandishing their weapons in the air. Since the video was released by social media users supporting Islamic State, it has been accompanied by the hashtags '2ndAmessagetoAmerica' and 'AmessagetoBarzani'.

[h=3]SYRIA: THE ISLAMIC STATE SAFE HAVEN[/h]The United States has launched humanitarian aid packages and scores of bombing attacks on Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Iraq in a bid to assist Kurdish and Iraqi forces in their fightback.

But discussion has now shifted to whether the strikes should extend into Syria, where the militants have a safe haven and recently executed 300 Syrian soldiers.

President Barack Obama at first seemed to largely rule out that option, a decision that came as little surprise, given his long opposition to plunging the U.S. military into Syria, a country ravaged by civil war.
But staying out of Syria got more complicated after the extremists announced last week that they had killed American journalist James Foley and threatened to kill additional U.S. hostages in Syria.
Joint Chief of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey has said unequivocally that the Islamic State can only be defeated if the U.S. were to go after the group in Syria as well as Iraq.
Obama said Thursday that he was weighing the prospect of military action in Syria, but yesterday tamped down any suggestion that such a move was imminent. And he said that even if he were ultimately to authorize strikes, they would have to come in conjunction with a broader regional strategy that addresses political turmoil in both Iraq and Syria.




Yesterday it was also being reported that the first soldier fighting for the Lebanese Armed Forces in Syria has been beheaded by Islamic State. Photos on social media have been released by IS, allegedly showing the head of a Lebanese Shiite soldier.
Kurdish fighters have been in fierce fighting with Islamic State since last June. Their latest counter attack against the jihadists has forced Islamic State fighters to retreat from the lucrative oil fields of Ain Zalah.
The Peshmerga, literally meaning 'those who face death', further enhanced these recent successes by regaining control of parts of Zumar and Rab’ia in Ninevah province, bringing them closer to their target of re-taking Sinjar.
The Kurdish militias have been beginning to receive considerable amounts of armaments from Western powers including the USA and UK as well as several local neighbours like Iran.

Meanwhile, the video released earlier yesterday shows Islamic State militants parading around 300 captured soldiers through the desert in their underwear before they are killed and their bodies piled on the bare earth.
An Islamic State fighter claimed the men were from the Syrian government's Tabqa air base which extremists seized on Sunday, potentially handing them warplanes, tanks, artillery and ammunition.
The video, which has not been independently verified, is too graphic to be published in full.
It begins by showing dozens of men being marched through the desert wearing only their underwear. It then fades to black, resuming with a pile of bloodied bodies stacked on top of one another.

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'Another ISIS war crime': Footage and photographs have emerged of Islamic State fighters marching more than 200 soldiers across the desert to their deaths in only their underwear after capturing Syria's Tabqa air base

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Horror: The video, too graphic to be published in full, fades to black before revealing a chain of men's bodies

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Slaughter: A separate image showed masked gunmen preparing to shoot seven men from the same air base. The chilling photograph was released by the Raqqa Media Center yesterday and tallies with other reporting

As the horrific footage progresses it pans slowly across a vast line of men who appear to be dead, and whose bodies have been laid out one by one.
The line forms a slow crescent across the desert, seemingly stretching to the horizon as militants stand beside it. Eventually, after more than a minute, the cameraman reaches the end of the line.
Its description on Youtube said it showed the execution of Army officers and Nusayri people, a significant minority of Shia Muslims in Syria.
A caption to another version of the video said: 'The 250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State from Tabqa in Raqqa have been executed.' Shabeeha is the Islamist name for soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
An Islamic State fighter in Raqqa told Reuters: 'Yes we have executed them all'.

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Marched: Earlier stills from the video showed men being paraded in their underwear and ordered to chant

Before they were killed, the men's captors chanted 'Islamic State' - to which they replied: 'It will remain'.
Islamic State won a week-long battle on Sunday to capture the Tabqa base, which is 25 miles from their Syrian stronghold in Raqqa.
Syria's authorities insisted at the time that their soldiers had 'successfully regrouped' - suggesting they were later hunted down by the militants and executed.

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The captured men were escorted closely by Islamic State militants dressed in black and waving flags

Despite heavy losses on the Islamic State side, the base's capture prompted fresh fears that the fighters have got hold of advanced military technology which will allow them to cement their self-declared regime.
Video footage has already suggested Islamic State fighters have drones which were used to shoot reconnaissance footage of an army base.
Today's reported mass killing also underscores how the group uses images of violence as much as violence itself to terrorise its opponents, as it sweeps further into Syria and Iraq.
Nadim Houry, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for the Middle East, described the video as 'another ISIS war crime'.
And yesterday a UN commission accused the extremist group of committing crimes against humanity in Syria, similar to those it has already committed in Iraq.
Yet the extremists are also in touch with modern ideas of PR, releasing glossy magazines in English which feature mutilated bodies to promote their cause in the West.
The Home Secretary has sounded fresh warnings over the radicalisation of young Brits, with authorities fearing around 500 have joined an array of jihadi groups in Iraq and Syria.
Extremists have declared a self-styled caliphate, a Sunni regime ordering its subjects to operate under an extreme interpretation of Sharia law.
It has opened up three fronts in the fighting in Syria, which is already home to a bloody and long-running civil war between President Assad's forces and anti-government rebels.

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Captured: A resident of Tabqa waves the Islamic State flag on Sunday after militants seized the nearby air base

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Death march: Another video appearing to show the same march through the desert was put on social media

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There were chants of 'Islamic State', to which the men replied 'It will remain', their hands behind their backs

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Tormented: At one point the men appeared to be taunted by their captors as some turned towards the camera

Today CNN claimed the militants in Iraq have also been burning oil wells near the town of Zummar, which is crucial because it is near a road which links Mosul to the Syrian border.
The network suggested fighters are attempting to 'cover their tracks' as Kurdish Peshmerga fighters draw closer.
The Islamic State extremists now control roughly a third of Syria, mostly areas in the north and east of the country, as the U.S. threatens air strikes similar to those already used in Iraq.
But the situation is complicated as Washington has claimed the Syrian government - embroiled in a bloody civil war - is part of the problem despite offering itself as a force against extremism.
French President Francois Hollande added today that President Assad, whose forces used brutal force to crush what began as a peaceful uprising three years ago, was no ally in the fight against Islamic State.

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Sprawling: An image of what is believed to be the air base, just south of the city of Tabqa, shows its long fence

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Arsenal: Campaigners say the base contained weapons and jets which may now be used by the militants

[h=3]UN PEACEKEEPERS CAPTURED [/h]Some 43 UN peacekeepers have been detained by gunmen in the Golan Heights, near Syria's border with Israel, where fighting has raged between rebels and government forces.
The identity of the armed group is not known. Several rebel groups operate in the Golan, but the Islamic State group has no known presence there.
The UN said another 81 peacekeepers are 'currently being restricted to their positions' as the Syrian government denounced the 'kidnapping'.
In a statement issued by the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the government said it holds 'the terrorist groups and those who support them fully responsible for the safety of the UN peacekeepers, and calls for their immediate release.'
The troops are part of UNDOF, the mission that has been monitoring a 1974 disengagement accord between Syria and Israel after their 1973 war. As of July, UNDOF had 1,223 troops.


Today Syrian warplanes hit Islamic State targets in the eastern stronghold of Deir al-Zor and killed some of the group's commanders, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Observatory, run by a Syrian emigrant from his terraced house in Coventry, said the planes struck a building used as an Islamic State headquarters during a meeting of its commanders.
Syrian state TV reported that the army 'eliminated more than 10 terrorists' in an attack east of Deir al-Zor military airport, including two Islamic State leaders, and destroyed 14 armoured vehicles.
Another video posted online today appeared to show at least one Syrian soldier being interrogated before a group of other captured men in their underwear.
The soldier identifies himself as a Shia Muslim officer from the same sect as many high-ranking military officers and President Assad. Islamic State members are Sunni Muslims.
'How many have you killed? How many have you raped?' the interrogator shouts. The soldier replies: 'None. I've been stationed here in the airport.'
The interrogator asks why the soldier had been fighting on behalf of Assad and did not defect, adding: 'We're going to send you right back to hell by slaughter'.


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[superbeets]

Analysis by Dominic Casciani, BBC home affairs correspondentThe raised threat level may not lead to visible signs of change on the streets - but it is a sign of the increased concern and security activity behind the scenes involving all of the UK's intelligence and security bodies.
The last time the level was this high was between January 2010 and the summer of 2011. This may have been linked to attempts by an al-Qaeda affiliate to smuggle bombs on to planes heading out of the Middle East.
The highest level is "critical"- meaning an attack is expected imminently. Officials have twice put the country on such an alert - in 2006 after the discovery of liquid bombs aimed at airliners and then the following year when extremists attempted to bomb Glasgow Airport and London's West End.
In other words - if security chiefs had knowledge of a clear threat they could not contain, the level would already be one notch higher.

 

[ScottL]

I am glad we have the firepower that we possess. Because we are damn well going to be forced to use it. ISIS SCUM have taken terrorism to an unimaginable level of barbarism. No longer a need to draw lines in the sand. ISIS has scrubbed out that line with its cruelty and blackmail and is bragging to the world about it. We are a year past the point of when we should have responded but we're out of options now. It's time to fight. L or R, America will act to destroy this subhuman shit and the good people of the world will join us.