Sky News reported Tuesday: “In the five-minute video, posted on social media sites by Islamic State sources, the group declares that Mr Foley was killed after Barack Obama ordered airstrikes against IS positions in northern Iraq. The group also claimed to be holding another American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and said his life depended on the US President’s next move.” How could this be “not about the United States and what we do”? Does Obama really think he is fooling anyone?
Actually, the answer to that one is yes. With the mainstream media eagerly carrying water for him, Obama is fooling millions. But the Islamic State jihadis must laugh with contempt when they see statements like this. And how they must laugh when they hear Harf say: “ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion.” Obviously it does. Its name is the Islamic State. Harf and Obama and Kerry are sure that it is misunderstanding Islam, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it is operating in the name of Islam. This denial is ridiculous, and it endangers people, as we will never defeat an enemy we refuse to understand.
“State Dept. on Beheading of U.S. Journalist: ‘This Is Not About the United States,'” by Brittany M. Hughes, CNS News, August 21, 2014:
(CNSNews.com) – Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf on Wednesday condemned the beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic terrorists, but she also stated that the ISIS threat “is not about the United States and what we do.”
Harf spoke after President Obama told the nation that “governments and peoples across the Middle East” should come together in a “common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread.” He then went golfing.
“I think ISIL wants to make this about the United States and our actions. And I think what the President was trying to say was that this is not about the United States and what we do. This is about countries in the region coming together to fight a shared threat, and this is not about us.”
Foley, captured in Syria in 2012, was brutally murdered by the militant Islamic group ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who then posted a video showing the beheading on YouTube and threatened to kill more Americans if the United States tries to intervene in Iraq.
Obama said Foley’s murder “shocks the conscience of the entire world.”
Harf told reporters there was “no justification” for Foley’s murder, but she couldn’t say how President Barack Obama plans to respond to ISIS now that they have murdered a U.S. citizen.
When pressed by reporters for details on what the United States expects from the other governments in the Middle East, Harf refused to go into specifics on how the administration is working with other countries to eliminate the threat posed by ISIS.
“Clearly there’s more we can all do to fight ISIL,” she said.
Harf also emphasized the administration’s view that ISIS does not accurately represent the religion of Islam as a whole.
“ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better,” Harf said.
John C. Barile says
Mr. Obama and the State Department are contemptible.
By all means, the proper U.S. response is to make this quite unambiguously about these United States.
Jay Boo says
John C. Barile said
“By all means, the proper U.S. response is to make this quite unambiguously about these United States.”
Sorry John but I must strongly disagree.
While I understand the point this article is trying to make that Obama and his crew are guilty of conspiring with Islam’s goons I must fully give credit this time for Obama at least saying the correct thing to ISIS and indirectly to Islam.
The major ploy of Islam is to always shift the responsibility of Muslim’s filthy behavior onto others. It would be a very dangerous to play into this game just for the momentary satisfaction of criticizing Obama.
John C. Barile says
I speak about making it absolutely clear that the US and other free nations consider the aims and actions of the Islamic State intolerable acts of war–this has everything to do with countering their attacks with an all-out war waged on our terms, not theirs.
John C. Barile says
It’s all about the cherished freedoms and humane universal values we embrace; it’s all about our future and the future of multitudes. It’s all about what the United States of America stands for in the world. It is all about us. About our continued existence as a free people.
Jay Boo says
Mr Spencer’s article said
[ the group declares that Mr Foley was killed after Barack Obama ordered airstrikes against IS positions in northern Iraq. The group also claimed to be holding another American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and said his life depended on the US President’s next move.” How could this be “not about the United States and what we do”? ]
John I understand your points and see no fault there.
The main point I was trying to address was the root cause of this beheading.
The first paragraph misses the big picture and plays right into the enemies hands.
Obama with all his faults did not cause this.
ISIS did.
Muslims need to be held accountable for (their) actions and not be given yet another excuse — (and by association the ideology of Islam as well).
It is not about the US bombing;
it is about a filthy ideology that allows kidnapping in the name of Islam in the first place.
It is not about the US refusing to pay a ransom which would only spawn more kidnappings.
It is not about Islamophobia
It is not about a cheap film
It is not about burning a Qur’an
It is not about Obama’s next move not to piss off ISIS
It is all about the filthy sense of intolerance and entitlement of many Muslims and the appeasement path they wish us to follow.
If Obama was smart he would throw their game right back at them by rubbing Islam’s nose deep into its stink (by implication) while playing it up innocently without even needing to call Islam out on the carpet. A few carefully chosen words to his chummy MSM stooges could put Islam’s stink out in the open for the world witness.
All the CAIR scallywags would go running for cover to hide Islam’s culpability and be operating in defense mode.
Islam is to blame
that in this context the
not about the United States
John C. Barile says
I understand, Jay. Points well taken.
paddy says
Well said Jay…though your second paragraph is a bit vague.
Questioning our elected lawmakers and forcing them to recognise and legislate against ideas or beliefs such as islam because islam simply serves no purpose other than the death or destuction of that which is not.
These muslims who feel they have some god given right, seek to leech off the non-muslim, productive world and undermine or exterminate the value of freedom that the we in the West cherish.
Ultimately, islam and religion WILL fail and humanity,reason and science WILL succeed
Jay Boo says
Also as I stated in the previous article:
By asking for such a huge ransom they attempt to shift the responsibility of their crime onto others. They obviously intended to kill him to flaunt their power. Surely they must have known that even Obama would not fail to realize that giving them such a huge sum of money would only open the floodgates to more kidnapping. They didn’t get the ransom, so they beheaded him. Wrong, they beheaded him because they are cowardly Qur’an following Muslims behaving like spiteful piggy prophet Muhammad.
paddy says
touche
John C. Barile says
I fear for our country and our world, especially during the next 30 months.
Don McKellar says
Somebody somewhere needs to come up with a phrase that will encapsulate the remaining 30 months to come of the Obama fiasco. After all, the disasterous state in which the world is in is just ramping up.
Remarkable. Somehow Obama is headed for a worse legacy than Bush the Idiot. How is this even possible???
Jay Boo says
We all know that Obama is a mess.
But this time he said they right thing to ISIS and indirectly to Islam.
MUSLIMS must be held accountable for their own behavior.
umbra says
Obomination?
Jay Boo says
Hooray Obama!
He is finally waking up
click on link in article (CNS News) or click below
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/brittany-m-hughes/state-dept-beheading-us-journalist-not-about-united-states
SallyA says
@ Jay Boo. Hooray, Obama? It’s a joke, right?
POTUS’s critical omissions and pro-Islam executive branch appointments in service to himself and his brother Malik Obama’s pro-terrorist Islam leanings — in service also to global oligarchic objectives of billionaires with ill-gotten gains from petrodollars and exploitation — are on track to destroy this country for all but Muslim-Americans and their oligarchic supporters.
“Radical” Islam is the perfect way for oligarchs to get rid of patriots, as the rulers sit sociopathically at the sidelines and let jihadists do the dirty work.
Whenever the outcry from today’s patriots becomes too great, Obama will take a step like limited and largely ineffectual bombing of IS (aka ISIS) in the former Iraq. Even that step, however, can be later used by the pro-Islam oligarchic powers including POTUS (also including today’s propaganda press with petrodollar ties from investors in the 21st century globalist media corporations) as a purported excuse when Muslim terrorists attack the US. Expect the attack, because it’s coming.
Obama has boosted his side for the coming war (HSA’s new “army,” Brennan running CIA, cutbacks to the regular US Army and other career military-led armed forces, selling off ships of the US Navy base in San Diego near the unsecured CA-MX border). I’ve now read the archives here and cross-validated the better of the news reports.
Later the IS-and-Imam-recruited jihadists who are “Muslim-American” with unrevoked US passports will be returning to inspire to American jihad their fellow Muslims now scheming behind the walls of over 2,000 American mosques — that’s my opinion along with the rest of this comment, grounded in (1) Islam’s history since the 7th century, (2) the Quran’s prescriptions for Muslim deception of non-Muslims (stealth jihad) until Muslims have gained sufficient military strategic power to conquer non-Muslims (violent jihad), and (3) what’s been happening since 9/11.
If today’s IS garners global outrage sufficient to mobilize civilized governments to stop its open-and-obvious terrorist agenda, and if IS accordingly fails its test as vile and violent Islamic conquering Caliphate candidate to the satisfaction of the 50-plus Islamic nations in the UN, then in another name the hydra-headed Islamic terrorism will rise up in its place, because there’s time — Obama will be in office until 2017. Expect the Islamist attack in the US, because it’s coming. Obama’s been paving the way. He’s a master of deception, trickster moves and counter-moves whenever patriotic attention gets too close to his traitorous agenda. Say what you want. No hooray to it.
Champ says
Hmm, is “Sally A” the infamous “Jan Fourowls”? …methinks so!
Tell us the truth, Sally, and you also Jan? Truth, now! Christians don’t lie.
Champ ✿ says
typo: *ARE* you also Jan?
Champ says
Ok “Sally A” is being silent, so that says it all …
“Jan Fourowls” is back as “Sally A” and your cover is blown.
shrugger says
Instead of meaningless talk the proper response should have been, double the bombing. When they behead the second Journalist, and you know they will. The proper response should be quadruple the bombing.
Don’t come back from the Golf Course Barry!
Beagle says
“Harf spoke after President Obama told the nation that “governments and peoples across the Middle East” should come together in a “common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread.” He then went golfing.”
If only there was an office which had almost plenary control over foreign policy, command of our armed forces, and executive power. That would really come in handy to make something like this happen.
Jay Boo says
Why wait and play their game
Give them an ultimatum 48 hours to release unharmed or we help Assad target them in Syria and destroy the infrastructure of their Sunni supporters in Iraq.
Beagle says
Unbelievably I heard McCain (the very same own who wants to fight IS) this morning still banging the drums for the FSA to overthrow Assad. He never learns anything from anything. THIS TIME when we pull the lid off a Middle Eastern country good things will happen, I just know it. After years of sectarian violence I’m sure they’ll quickly assemble a civil society…
Not.
He even suggested Assad using barrel bombs was uniquely evil. The guy who wants to bomb everything.
Beagle says
own = one
umbra says
mccain appears to be senile. he does not know what he is talking about. he no longer understands what is going on in the middle east.
Northern Eagle says
The Spokespuppet is right. It’s not about the U.S. It’s about Alabama, Alaska, Arizona….all the way down to Wyoming. There isn’t a corner of this country that’s these scum don’t want to infiltrate.
vlparker says
And despite their own journalist being beheaded and others under threat, the left wing media will still deny, deny, deny that this is true islam. They will sacrifice every one of their reporters before they will tell the truth. Disgusting, corrupt sickos aiding and abetting evil.
dumbledoresarmy says
Oddly enough, that bit is true enough.
it *isn’t* about the USA, as such. The USA is, basically, targeted because it is similar to what Byzantium was in the 8th-14th century: big, rich and beautiful, a pirate’s dream of plunder, an iconic “infidel” state. (China and Russia, though just as rampantly infidel, don’t form such a “target of opportunity” at the moment; India and Israel get a different kind of hate, the hatred reserved for those whom Islam once attacked and ruled and bullied, but who *got out from under*).
But jihad was going on – *exactly* as waged by ISIS, Boko Haram and all their ilk, with beheadings, mass murders, torturings, enslavement, extortions, drivings-out, robberies, destruction of artefacts and of anything good, holy or beautiful, kidnapping-and-holding-to-ransom, mutilations, and in short, to sum the whole thing up, ecstatic orgies of sadism on the grand scale, on three continents – for 1100 years before the USA even came into existence.
Rojm says
The US helped create this mess. They invaded Iraq in 2003, and supported rebels in Syria. This created a vacuum and chaos so in comes extremists with Saudi Arabia support and US supporting rebels who later become extremists. In Libya, a similar thing happened. So three places in chaos that are the US’s creation.
The Ukraine seems to the next stop for chaos. There is a huge humanitarian crisis in the Eastern Ukraine. Civilians are being bombed, starved and killed in a civil war overlooked by our media. The Western Ukrainians think of the Eastern Ukrainians as others so they have no mercy on the civilians. This crisis was also caused because of US interests and this time for oil shale. Biden’s son plans to head oil shale in the Ukraine.
JIMJFOX says
Hang on- you forgot to blame the JOOOOOZZZZ!!
Rojm says
We are all one is my philosophy. There are no others. Love your enemies. We all came from one source East Africa. Thinking people as others as extremists Islamists or extremists nationalists also do is what causes innocents do die without remorse by perpetrators. This is all I saying. The world has stop thinking people as others. The world has to start believing in the oneness of humanity and love for all humanity. The belief in oneness of God is worthless without a belief in the oneness and love of all of humanity. IS is a glaring example of this fact.
Seadog says
Why are Obama and Kerry insisting that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam? Shouldn’t Islamic clerics be telling us that instead of non-Islamic politicians? We are waiting to hear from the clerics. Uh, still waiting. Crickets chirping.
JIMJFOX says
“is not about the United States and what we do.”
No, its about Andorra… ISIS really HATES Andorra
No Fear says
There was even a discussion on Australian radio about Obama playing golf while all this is happening. One commentator said Obama had every right to play golf. The other commentator said that it was a disgrace that the POTUS played golf while all this was happening.
Gappetto says
“ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better,” Harf said.
This is the idiocy plague that has infected the minds of the entire western culture because they find it impossible to acknowledge what has been obvious since before 9/11. By any objective analysis of world history over the past 1400 years Islam has not been a perpetual victim but a determined aggressor actively engaged in attempting to dominate the world by violent Jihad, a tactic of butchery, torture, rape, murder and mayhem, in a word, terror, all sanctioned as the holiest of holies by their revered deity, Allah. Sever James Foley’s head and get a ticket to paradise where the bastard who committed this unspeakably savage act and all his “JV” IS cohorts should be sent as quickly as possible.
Of course Ms Harf’s pronouncement regarding Obama’s clarity on this issue should come as no surprise to anyone taking an objective view of American history since January, 2009.
Leith Wood says
Ms Harf, please stop talking such arrogant, brainwashing garbage. You are as embarrassing as your boss, BO. Start studying the truth or remain quiet. Thank heavens for MUTE.