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Summer 2014, ugliness in America
9/3/2014 10:39:24 AM
- Errol Louis says racial divisions in America were again exposed by the shooting of Michael Brown
- Black Americans lag behind when it comes to economic and educational opportunities, studies show
- Even with a black president, suspicions of racial profiling will remain a live, lingering concern, says Louis
- Louis predicts more flashpoints like what happened in Ferguson
Editor's note: Editor's note: Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The name "Ferguson" will enter America's political vocabulary alongside cities like Detroit, Harlem and South Central Los Angeles -- places where black Americans rioted in the streets following the violent mistreatment of unarmed black men at the hands of police.
Despite amazing progress in some areas of race relations -- notably, the election and re-election of Barack Obama as President -- the United States also harbors a deep, durable strain of racism that occasionally flares into public consciousness, sometimes with explosive results.
The summer of 2014 was one of those times the curtain was pulled back and the ugliness emerged.
On July 17 in New York City, half a dozen police confronted a man named Eric Garner for allegedly selling cigarettes on the street without a license to do so. A bystander's phone camera captured video of the police pushing Garner to the ground using a chokehold as Garner, a father of six, repeatedly said "I can't breathe." He died shortly afterwards.
A few weeks later on August 5, in Beavercreek, Ohio, a man named John Crawford was shot to death inside a Walmart store after police responded to an emergency call about a man waving a weapon. Crawford turned out to be holding a pellet-shooting BB gun he'd picked up from a shelf inside the store (which sells the gun).
On August 9 in Ferguson, Missouri, police killed a teenager named Michael Brown and left his body uncovered in the street. Witnesses say Brown had his hands up when an officer fired six shots into his body. A week of demonstrations and violence followed.
On August 11, a 25-year-old man named Ezell Ford was shot to death in Los Angeles. Police say Ford attacked an officer after his car was stopped; other witnesses say he was not resisting and was killed while lying down in the street.
All around America, demonstrations have taken place to protest what some call a national epidemic of police brutality toward black men.
There's no sure way of knowing whether there is a pattern of police imposing deadly force on blacks, but civil rights organizations have long complained about racial profiling -- the practice of assuming members of a racial minority group are engaged in criminal activity and detaining or arresting them for that reason alone.
Such practices are illegal under the U.S. Constitution.
"Racial profiling continues to be a prevalent and egregious form of discrimination in the United States," says the website of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This unjustifiable practice remains a stain on American democracy and an affront to the promise of racial equality."
America has fought a long battle to ensure equal opportunity and legal treatment for descendants of the African slaves who spent centuries in bondage until the practice was outlawed in 1863.
But many stories show black Americans lagging far behind when it comes to economic and educational achievement.
Studies show that white families, for instance, had an average of $113,149 in household wealth in 2009 compared with only $5,677 for blacks.
Educators have discovered a persistent gap between black and white students on standardized English and math tests.
These gaps have existed for decades, but they seldom result in the kind of street demonstrations and riots that followed the recent killings in Missouri and elsewhere. That's because poverty and ignorance are social ills that people can battle gradually.
Racial profiling and police violence, on the other hand, represents a form of injustice that is impossible to ignore. History suggests that grinding poverty and discrimination create social dynamite -- but it's police violence that triggers the explosion.
Adam Serwer of Buzzfeed recently described some of this history, accurately, as 80 years of Fergusons.
In 1935, a false rumor swept through Harlem that a 16-year-old, arrested for shoplifting, had been killed by police. It touched off two days of rioting.
In 1962, riots went off in St. Louis -- a stone's throw from Ferguson -- when a teenager was shot to death while running from a policeman who claimed the boy had tried to grab his gun.
After riots broke out in Detroit in 1967 -- five days of chaos that left 41 dead -- a presidential commission found that police aggression, along with racism and discrimination, was to blame.
In 1980, the Liberty City section of Miami went up in flames after a man named Arthur McDuffie died in police custody after a motorcycle crash. One responding officer later testified that his fellow cops had beaten McDuffie with flashlights; when the officers were acquitted, rioters took to the streets.
Miami burned again in 1989, after an officer shot a motorcyclist to death (the officer ended up convicted of manslaughter, although the conviction was later overturned).
And in Los Angeles in 1992, the acquittal of officers who'd been videotaped beating a motorist named Rodney King led to riots that left more than 50 people dead.
Then, as now, the social unrest reminds many black Americans of a time when violence -- including violence by police -- was used as a tool of social and political intimidation.
In the 1960s, at the same time urban riots were taking place, police were also used to attack and brutalize African-Americans seeking the right to vote. A famous series of protests in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, led by Martin Luther King Jr., led to mass arrests and attacks by police using dogs, fire hoses and clubs on nonviolent demonstrators.
A similarly brutal attack on demonstrators followed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
Black political leaders are making a connection between the politically-motivated police violence of the past and the current cases of possible profiling. It was significant that two of King's children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, attended Mike Brown's funeral, along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at King's side the day he was assassinated.
The biggest difference between past violence and the current cases is that African-Americans now have much greater political influence -- most notably, a black president.
Obama sent high-ranking aides to Brown's funeral, and the nation's top law-enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder, made a personal appearance in Missouri, wrote an open letter to the town and deployed 40 FBI agents to investigate the killing of Brown.
The nightly violence involving citizens and police in the days following Brown's killing have stopped for now, but the national debate over the politics of policing will continue long into the future.
Even with a black president, this summer's cases show that suspicions of racial profiling will remain a live, lingering concern from coast to coast as long as cops apply outsized levels of force that rarely, if ever, get applied outside of black communities.
Will we see more Fergusons? My guess would be yes.
80 years of history suggest that the inequality and discrimination that continue to plague black communities around America are still a kind of factory creating vast amounts of social dynamite.
Those tensions can be detonated by a single clash between police and citizens in a country where encounters take place thousands of times every day.
So the odds suggest there will be more times when America pays the price for maintaining a gap between the American dream and the very real nightmare of poverty and racism in our midst.
Saudi 'religious police' assault couple
9/2/2014 11:10:57 AM
- Video shows Saudi Arabia's religious police attacking British man and his Saudi wife
- The couple reportedly used a women-only cashier line at a supermarket in Riyadh
- Office of head of religious police (CPVP) says video is authentic, condemns attack as "unacceptable"
- CPVP says four of its members have been transferred to administrative jobs outside Riyadh
(CNN) -- A video of a British man and his Saudi wife being assaulted by members of Saudi Arabia's religious police has gone viral across the Arab world.
The video, which shows a man in a headscarf leaping off a car to attack another man in a parking lot, was filmed after the couple reportedly used a women-only cashier line at a supermarket in Riyadh.
In a statement published on the website of a well-known Saudi writer and blogger, the British man said that while he and his wife were shopping, they noticed three young men who looked "religious" following them. As they were going through the cashier line reserved for women and families, he said the men "started pushing and shoving" and verbally abusing them.
The men followed the couple out to the parking lot, where a crowd of people gathered as the argument continued. The British national said the three men "attacked" him after he took a photo of them on his phone, according to the online statement attributed to him.
"While I was on the ground all three of them proceeded to kick me repeatedly in the head and back," he said in the statement. He said that his wife got out of the car to defend him and was kicked in the stomach after hitting one of the men. In the short mobile phone video, the British man can be heard screaming, "Get off of my wife! That's my wife, how dare you!"
He said they called the British Embassy and locked themselves in their car until "embassy security arrived" and they were escorted home.
The man has been named by Saudi newspapers, but the British Embassy in Riyadh would not confirm his identity. He did not sign his name to the online statement but Ahmed Al Omran, the blog's owner, wrote: "I know the man and I have met him a couple of times before. He is British, married to a Saudi woman and they have been living in Riyadh for years."
The office of the head of the religious police, officially known as the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVP), concluded that the video was authentic and condemned the attack on the couple as "unacceptable" in a statement Tuesday.
The CPVP's investigation found that the men acted beyond their remit in approaching the couple inside a private shopping center, and that they lied in their accounts of events, according to the statement. Four members of the religious police have been transferred to administrative jobs outside Riyadh.
A British Embassy spokesman said they were providing consular assistance to the British national and "welcome the undertaking taken by the head of the [CVPV] Sheikh Abdullatif Al ash-Sheikh to investigate the incident fully."
The incident has been heavily covered in Saudi and Arab press and generated much discussion online. The YouTube video has been viewed more than 400,000 times.
In an apparent reference to the incident, one member of Saudi Arabia's Consultative Assembly, or Shura Council, addressed the "lack of discipline" among religious police field workers and their "flawed judgment" in a session on Monday, according to the body's official website.
Did Al-Shabaab leader survive strike?
9/2/2014 5:34:21 PM
- NEW: Pentagon spokesman: U.S. used manned, unmanned aircraft in Somalia attack
- NEW: It was launched based on "actionable intelligence," targeted group's leader, he says
- NEW: No details on whether Al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane is dead or alive
- The U.S. has targeted Al-Shabaab leaders in Somalia at least twice in the past year
Mogadishu, Somalia (CNN) -- The U.S. military went into Somalia with one goal in mind: Kill Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of Al-Shabaab.
One day later, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said flatly, "We certainly believe that we hit what we were aiming at."
What he did not say is whether Godane is dead.
The United States is "assessing the effectiveness right now" of the attack launched hours earlier, Kirby said Tuesday, including who, if anyone, was killed.
He did acknowledge that U.S. Special Operations forces flew aircraft that, along with unmanned aircraft, "destroyed an encampment and a vehicle using several Hellfire missiles and laser-guided missiles." No American troops were on the ground.
The attack was directed at Al-Shabaab and, specifically, its leader Godane. He has headed the network as it has terrorized East Africa, killing Somali officials, aid workers and others in a spate of suicide bombings. Godane allegedly was behind 2013's brazen, ghastly siege of a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping mall.
It's not just what Godane, who has pledged his group's allegiance to al Qaeda, has done that made him a target. It's what Al-Shabaab was planning to bring through more bloodshed, chaos and terror to the region.
The U.S. government can't say yet whether Godane survived the attack in south-central Somalia.
But if he did not, Kirby surmised, East Africa is now a safer, better place.
"If he was killed, this is a very significant blow to their network, to their organization," the Pentagon spokesman said, "and we believe their ability to continue to conduct terror attacks."
An Al-Shababb Twitter account said one person was killed in the attack, but it wasn't Godane.
"'Ahmed Abdi Godane' is alive and doing fine," the tweet from HSM Press Office said, calling itself an "official mujahedin account" in the Islamic land of Somalia.
CNN was unable to verify the authenticity of the report.
Somali official: 'Never heard such a huge ... blast'
Tipped off by what Kirby called "actionable intelligence ... strong enough" to suggest Godane's whereabouts, U.S. commandos flew -- aided by drones overhead -- into an area south of the African nation's capital Mogadishu around 6:20 p.m. (11:20 a.m. ET) Monday.
Lower Shabelle Gov. Abdikadir Mohamed Nur Sidii characterized the attack near the port city of Barawe as so ferocious. "It jolted the entire region."
"I never heard such a huge and deafening blast as the result of the airstrike," Sidii said.
Kirby didn't elaborate on exactly how much firepower was used, beyond that there were multiple Hellfire and laser-guided missiles. Somali intelligence officials counted at least four such missiles.
The targets were what the Pentagon spokesman described as "an encampment" and a vehicle inside it, not to mention Al-Shabaab leaders believed to be there.
Kirby said that he expects the attack -- like others U.S. forces have conducted against terror groups -- sends a message.
"The operation that we've conducted, we believe, is an example of the U.S. government and our allies and partners' commitment to the people and the government of Somalia," he said, "to detect, deter, disrupt and defeat violent extremists who threaten progress in the region, as well as threaten to conduct terrorist attacks against innocent people around the world."
To figure out if the operation achieved its goals, the U.S. military will need help.
That's because, Kirby explained, no American forces were on the ground before or after the mission.
He didn't specify who would get to the bottom of what happened, saying simply, "We continue to work with partners in the region."
U.S. has gone after Al-Shabaab before
The United States has previously gone after Al-Shabaab in Somalia. That includes at least two strikes this past year ordered by President Barack Obama's administration.
That's part of a long-running, multinational effort targeting the group, including an operation launched last week to cut off the group's supply lines along the Somali coast.
Al-Shabaab has been on the defensive of late. Its militants have started to withdraw from the port city of Barawe in recent days. On Monday, the African Union Mission in Somalia announced that military forces had retaken several important towns in the Middle Shabelle and Hiiran regions.
But no one is counting Al-Shabaab out quite yet.
The group has shown its audacity and violent ways before. It has been blamed, and taken responsibility, for attacks on city streets, at markets, at prisons and a United Nations compound in Mogadishu.
It's most high-profile attack came last year at Nairobi's upscale Westgate mall, when terrorists casually walked into the mall, pulled out weapons and began gunning down shoppers. The gunmen were accused of torturing some hostages before killing them.
As many as 67 people died in the siege, and parts of the mall were destroyed.
That and many of these other attacks occurred under Godane's watch.
If he's now gone, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said, it would be a serious blow to Al-Shabaab.
"Ahmed Godane is a very ruthless figure in the group, he dominates the group," Cruickshank said. "You could see a kind of leadership struggle emerge if, indeed, he was killed."
But it wouldn't necessarily be a fatal one. Godane rose to power in 2008, after all, when a U.S. airstrike killed then-leader Aden Hashi Ayrow.
"It's a network, and we understand that," Kirby said Tuesday. "We are mindful that there remain other leaders of the organization, at large."
What is Al-Shabaab?
CNN's Greg Botelho and Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta; Omar Nor reported from Mogadishu. CNN's Barbara Starr, Michael Pearson, Elise Labott, Brian Walker, Susanna Capelouto and Nana Karikari-apau also contributed to this report.
'Drop ban on transgender military'
9/3/2014 7:39:42 AM
- Shannon Minter: "Don't ask, don't tell" gone, but military still bans transgender people
- Minter: 15,500 transgender people in the military must hide or they will get kicked out
- Minter: Careers are ruined; talent and training lost. Policy change would not be difficult
- Minter: Obama could end the firing of transgender service members and drop the ban
Editor's note: Shannon Minter is legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and co-chair of the Planning Commission on Transgender Military Service. The opinions in this commentary are solely those of the writer. The CNN film, "Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story" is about a transgender woman who served for 20 years as a male U.S. Navy SEAL. Join Beck on Thursday, September 4, from 10:30 a.m. to noon ET for a Reddit AMA. Follow her on Twitter @TheLadyValor, and watch the film on CNN Thursday night at 9 ET/PT.
(CNN) -- Three years after the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the now-defunct law prohibiting gay men, lesbians and bisexuals from serving openly in the armed forces, many Americans might not know that a significant form of discrimination still exists: The U.S. military bans transgender people.
Military recruiters are required to turn down attempts by transgender Americans to enlist. If, after joining the military, service members are discovered to be transgender, they are fired. No other federal agency operates this way.
Because of the Pentagon's ban, an estimated 15,500 transgender people serving in the military have to hide and lie about who they are. This has devastating consequences for them, and makes it impossible to access medically necessary health care without risking discharge. Careers are ruined, and the military wastes resources training competent service members and then firing them when their gender identity is discovered.
That's just what happened to Landon Wilson, a transgender man who served as a Navy cryptologist in Afghanistan last year. Landon was so good at his job that his superiors put him up for a promotion. But in the course of preparing the paperwork, a colleague discovered that Landon was born a girl, so he was sent home and ushered out of the Navy.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced three months ago that he is open to reviewing the ban, and the White House expressed support. However, since Hagel's announcement, no progress has been made toward a resolution, and some observers have questioned whether the military could include transgender personnel without difficulty.
Transgender ex-Navy SEAL: Here's a question for you
To answer that question, a commission of leading legal, military and medical experts, including the U.S. Army's former chief medical officer, has completed a study on how to implement inclusive policy. The commission, which I co-chair, conducted an analysis of foreign military forces, as well as U.S. military experiences of previously excluded populations.
Our research indicates that allowing transgender personnel to serve will be neither burdensome nor complex. We found that as with any policy change, the implementation of an inclusive approach should be handled in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. That said, we found that the administrative and regulatory changes needed to implement inclusive policy are minimal, and that strong leadership will be sufficient for avoiding any potential problems.
Before implementing the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the Pentagon created an internal working group that took a year to formulate advice about how to repeal the ban. Its guidance was based on extensive research, including a survey it administered to 400,000 service members. Additionally, the military commissioned the RAND Corporation to complete a simultaneous study on the same implementation questions the internal Pentagon working group was considering.
While the working group and the RAND report produced useful recommendations, the snail's pace approach to implementation was based on the need to build political support, not by any complexities involved in lifting the ban. Because "don't ask, don't tell" was a congressional statute, the administration had to persuade a bipartisan coalition in Congress to support repeal, and the extensive research on implementation helped those efforts. But eliminating the restrictions on transgender service members—and embracing them as equal and respected members of our nation's armed forces—does not require the repeal of any law.
Since the ban can be lifted without waiting for Congress, there is no reason for delay: The Obama administration should immediately announce a moratorium on firing transgender service members, and begin implementing a policy of inclusion. President Obama has made it clear that when Congress will not help him solve the nation's problems, he can and will take executive action to get meaningful work done. Lifting the military's transgender ban is a win-win opportunity because the policy will strengthen both the armed forces and our democracy.
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Flight diverted over legroom fight
9/2/2014 11:31:03 AM
- Delta Air Lines flight diverted after seat recline issue
- Airline passengers who recline their seats are facing blowback in the air
- It's the third diversion over seat reclining in two weeks
(CNN) -- Another day, another fight about reclining seats on a U.S. airline flight.
In the third serious airline legroom incident in two weeks, an angry passenger caused yet another flight to divert Monday night.
Delta Air Lines Flight 2370 from New York's LaGuardia Airport to West Palm Beach, Florida, was rerouted to Jacksonville, Florida. A passenger became irate about the traveler in front of her trying to recline her seat, a fellow passenger told CNN affiliate WPTV.
"This woman who was sitting next to me knitting actually just tried reclining her seat back," passenger Aaron Klipin said. "The woman behind her started screaming and swearing and then a flight attendant came over and that just exacerbated what was going on and then she demanded that the flight land."
Delta confirmed the diversion.
"Delta flight 2370 from New York-LaGuardia to West Palm Beach was re-routed to Jacksonville International Airport due to a passenger disruption," Delta said in a statement. "Out of an abundance of caution, the Captain elected to divert to the closest airport."
Local law enforcement removed the passenger and the flight continued to West Palm Beach, Delta said.
It's been a tense couple of weeks for passengers on both sides of the right-to-recline debate.
Another reportedly irate passenger caused a flight from Miami to Paris to divert to Boston on August 27 after someone allegedly tried to recline in front of him.
Paris resident Edmund Alexandre, 60, was charged in U.S. federal court August 28 with interfering with an airline flight crew. Interfering with flight crew members is a violation of federal law and carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison. (The passenger's name has also been spelled "Edmond" Alexandre in court documents.)
A United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Denver was diverted on August 24 after two passengers argued over one passenger's use of a "Knee Defender," a device that blocks reclining.
Should the Knee Defender be banned?
Water was thrown and the passengers, both 48, were removed from the flight in Chicago, according to a federal law enforcement source, speaking on background. The passengers were not arrested.
It seems at least one of the passengers was not completely satisfied with the extra space in the Economy Plus section where they were seated, which provides United passengers up to 5 inches of extra legroom compared with standard coach seats.
Aviation blogger Benet Wilson is surprised there haven't been more incidents in the air as travelers face long security checkpoint lines at more crowded airports as well as less space and fewer amenities on planes.
"As airlines try and squeeze as many seats into economy as possible, that decreases seat pitch which can be uncomfortable for someone like me, who is 5'3"," wrote Wilson via e-mail.
"But imagine being a foot taller squeezed into that same space. It doesn't help that the (Federal Aviation Administration) doesn't have an official rule on using (seat-blocking devices), instead deferring to passengers and airlines. So I feel the situation will get worse before it gets better."
The core problem is definitely the airlines packing too many seats too close together into a tight space, said veteran flight attendant Heather Poole, author of "Cruising Attitude: Tales of Crashpads, Crew Drama, and Crazy Passengers at 35,000 Feet."
"That said, this doesn't give anyone the right to act childish," Poole wrote via e-mail. "To react in such a way that the crew feels the need to divert a flight to have a passenger removed is a really big deal."
What do you think of this recent spate of airline seat recline incidents? Please share in the comments section below.
Obama: We will not be intimidated by ISIS
9/3/2014 10:31:10 AM
- NEW: "This is a recruitment video," analyst says of the beheading
- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slams "unfathomable brutality"
- "Our reach is long and ... justice will be served," Obama says
- ISIS video released Tuesday shows second beheading of a U.S. journalist in two weeks
(CNN) -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the killers of two American journalists will be brought to justice, and their barbaric acts will do nothing to intimidate the United States.
The ISIS terror group released a video Tuesday showing the apparent beheading of journalist Steven Sotloff. A day later, U.S. officials said the video is authentic.
The killing is the second beheading of an American journalist in two weeks, and the militant group said it's a result of Obama's decision to conduct airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS, which also calls itself the "Islamic State."
In the video, Sotloff kneels in the desert, dressed in an orange prison-style jumpsuit. A masked "executioner" lords over him, wielding a knife.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the latest video shows ISIS' "unfathomable brutality."
"For so many who worked so long to bring Steven and the other Americans home safely, this was not how the story should've ended," he said in a statement Wednesday.
"It's a punch to the gut. The U.S. government has used every military, diplomatic and intelligence tool we have, and we always will. Our special operations forces bravely risked a military operation to save these lives, and we've reached out diplomatically to everyone and anyone who might be able to help. That effort continues, and our prayers remain -- as they always are -- with the families of all hostages who remain trapped in Syria today."
This summer, several dozen of the most elite U.S. commandos flew into Syria but couldn't find the hostages, including Sotloff and fellow journalist James Foley, a U.S. official told CNN last month.
The video of Sotloff's execution is similar to one released two weeks ago showing Foley's killing.
The journalist speaks; the executioner speaks. Then the victim is beheaded.
In the video released Tuesday, a British hostage is shown after the beheading of Sotloff, just as Sotloff was shown in Foley's video.
Obama said the United States "will not be intimidated" by the killers.
"Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget ... that our reach is long and that justice will be served," the President said.
He addressed his much criticized statement last week that he has no strategy on ISIS. He said he was referring to a military strategy in Syria that "might" require congressional approval.
"Our objective is clear. That is to degrade and destroy (ISIS) so it's no longer a threat," he said. "We can accomplish that. It's going to take some time, it's going to take some effort."
ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, refers to itself as the "Islamic State."
Obama said the world needs a regional strategy to defeat the group.
"We've been putting together a strategy that was designed to do a number of things. ... What we have to make sure is we have a regional strategy in place," he said.
In addition to the Americans' deaths, the British hostage showed at the end of the latest video appears to be in danger.
British rescue attempt
The UK said it attempted to rescue its citizen "some time ago" but failed.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond provided scant details of the rescue attempt or any other plans in the works.
"You wouldn't expect me to discuss various options that we will be considering," he said. "But I can assure you that we will look at every possible option to protect this person."
Britain echoed the same sentiment as Obama.
"This country will never give into terrorism ... a country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers," UK Prime Minister David Cameron said.
"Our thoughts are with the British hostage and his family," Cameron said Wednesday in the House of Commons.
The video
The video of Sotloff's killing has eerie similarities to the one released by ISIS last month of Foley's execution.
"It is almost the exact same choreography," said Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College London.
The executioner appears to be the same person, and the location of the two killings also appears to be similar. Neumann suspects they took place in or around the Syrian city of Raqqa, one of the safest areas for ISIS.
"This is a recruitment video," Chris Voss, a former FBI international hostage negotiator, said Wednesday about the latest release.
CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said it was an awful but calibrated response to U.S. airstrikes.
"This is ISIS doing the minimum possible to satisfy the blood lust of their supporters around the world," he said.
'I'm back, Obama'
Sotloff's executioner speaks in what sounds like the same British accent as the man who purportedly killed Foley.
He's dressed identically in both videos, head to toe in black, with a face mask and combat boots. He appears to be of similar build and height. He waves a knife in his left hand, as did the militant in the video of Foley's death.
And then, there are his actual words.
"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State," the executioner says in the second video. "Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."
The SITE Intelligence group says there's no question the same masked fighter appears in both videos.
After Foley's death, the British ambassador to the United States said that experts in his country were close to identifying the killer. He has not yet been named.
A public memorial service has been scheduled for Sotloff on Friday in Miami.
READ: How will Obama respond to ISIS?
READ: Remembering Steven Sotloff
MAPS: Where do jihadis come from?
CNN's Jim Acosta and Dana Ford contributed to this report.
ISIS defeat 'unlikely' under Obama
9/3/2014 11:25:09 PM
- NSA's Tony Blinken says ISIS "probably" won't be defeated under Obama's watch
- "It will probably go beyond even this administration to get to the point of defeat," he tells CNN
- Obama says U.S. has a clear objective against ISIS
(CNN) -- The extremist group ISIS "probably" won't be defeated under the current Obama administration, Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday.
"This, as the President has said, is going to have to be a sustained effort," Blinken said. "It's going to take time, and it will probably go beyond even this administration to get to the point of defeat."
Who is the ISIS?
After the beheading of journalist Steven Sotloff by ISIS militants, Obama faced a chorus of bipartisan calls from Congress to act more aggressively and come up with a concrete strategy to combat ISIS, beyond the ongoing targeted airstrikes in Iraq.
Nudges from Congress
Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson announced on Tuesday that he plans to introduce legislation making it clear the President has the authority for airstrikes against ISIS in Syria.
Rep. Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said he plans to offer an even broader measure that gives the President the power to use military force against international terrorists.
Last week, the Senate's top Republican told CNN that he would support congressional authorization for a new, broadened strategy to go after ISIS.
"In all likelihood, it would make sense for (President Obama) to get our support," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. "It's pretty clear ISIS is a serious threat. They have the potential to hit us here at home."
Still, House Speaker John Boehner is putting the onus on the President to present a strategy before Congress acts.
"The President is the commander in chief ... and it's his responsibility as the chief executive to outline a plan that will protect American interests, protect American lives -- both at home and abroad," Boehner said in a radio interview this week.
"Until the President is willing to lay out a plan, the Congress has very few options ahead of it," Boehner said.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy echoed the Speaker's concerns.
"First and foremost ... the President has to have a strategy.," McCarthy said Wednesday on the Hugh Hewitt radio show. "I mean what is our foreign policy? I don't know what it is and if we don't know what it is and our allies don't know, and our enemies don't know so they are pushing the envelope."
Why it took Obama so long to address his no ISIS strategy comments
Clarifying his position
Speaking Wednesday, Obama addressed his much criticized statement last week that he has no strategy on ISIS in Syria. He said he was referring to a military strategy in Syria that "might" require congressional approval.
"Our objective is clear. That is to degrade and destroy (ISIS) so it's no longer a threat," he said. "We can accomplish that. It's going to take some time, it's going to take some effort."
Biden warns ISIS: 'We will follow them to the gates of hell'
The President said the world needs a regional strategy to defeat the group.
"We've been putting together a strategy that was designed to do a number of things... What we have to make sure is we have a regional strategy in place," he said.
Opinion: We need to think outside the box on ISIS
CNN's Deirdre Walsh and Dana Bash contributed to this report
ISIS struggles to control oil riches
9/3/2014 9:59:30 AM
- ISIS controls several oil fields in Iraq and Syria, which it is using to finance its terror operations
- However running refineries is difficult and ISIS has suffered setbacks in areas such as Baiji
- It is estimated to be earning more than $3 million a day in black market oil sales
- It may be struggling to increase that -- but the funds are plenty to finance its terror operation
Editor's note: John Defterios is CNN's Emerging Markets Editor and anchor of Global Exchange, CNN's business show focused on the emerging and BRIC markets. Follow John on Twitter.
(CNN) -- ISIS videos are part of today's new reality. One of the many to hit social media has the viewer hearing a recitation of Quranic verses describing a jihad in the battle for Syria's Al Omar energy facility. Syria's largest oil field is one of a handful now under the firm grip of the terrorist organization.
ISIS may not be operating the type of polished pipeline infrastructure one would find in southern Iraq around Basra, but Iraqi oil ministry officials say an old fashioned truck network for this crude is active and serving distribution needs.
And now, after nearly three months of heated battle in Iraq, one can see a clearer picture of where ISIS stands as an energy player.
It popped up on the global radar in June by seizing assets in Iraq, but building on those early gains, according to a number of energy sources, is proving difficult. August was not a good month for ISIS.
It lost its battle for one of Kirkuk's big fields, with potential production of 600,000 barrels a day, and could not keep control of Iraq's largest refinery at Baiji, on the main road to Mosul.
What they do hold, Iraqi officials suggest, will need maintenance. So far, it is getting that work done only through intimidation of on-site engineers who are not loyal to the ISIS cause. ISIS' income from oil is falling as they struggle to control the personnel within refineries, according to Assim Jihad, a spokesman at Iraq's Oil Ministry.
"At first they got a large sum of money by seizing inventories, but this cannot last," he added.
The Iraq Energy Institute estimates ISIS is producing about 30,000 barrels a day in Iraq and 50,000 daily in Syria. On a black market price of $40 a barrel, it is earning $1.2 million a day in Iraq and $2 million in Syria.
Energy traders and regional security specialists tell me supplies are being funneled into regional oil importing countries of Jordan, Turkey, and Syria.
"They use oil tank trucks instead of oil pipes. There are about 210 oil tank trucks smuggling oil to Turkey and other places every day," Hussein Allawi, senior consultant at Iraq's oil ministry told me.
The transport may be rudimentary, but this network of black market traders stretches back to the days of Saddam Hussein, when Iraq was under UN sanctions in the 1990s.
"We are not talking about people who own a couple of trucks and tanker trucks," said Kate Dourian, senior editor at the Middle East Economic Survey. "We are talking about certain market-oriented people who have organizations that trade in illegal oil."
ISIS has taken a page from Hussein's war playbook, when he left Kuwait. Still pictures of fields torched have emerged this week of fields outside of Mosul when it was pushed out by Iraqi forces.
Oil strategists say Iraq's national military and the Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish region are trying to strike a fine balance. They want to keep ISIS out of their prized fields and refineries, but they don't want to destroy infrastructure which would take years and millions of dollars to rebuild.
While ISIS has clearly suffered setbacks, there is also a stark reality.
The organization may be falling short of designs to become a "state" oil company, but revenue of over $3 million a day can certainly finance its operation of terror.
READ MORE: How Iraq's black market in oil funds ISIS
READ MORE: Sotloff's courage praised
READ MORE: Obama: ISIS killers will not intimidate U.S.
British PM weighs in on ISIS
9/4/2014 4:05:38 AM
CNN's Nic Robertson speaks with British Prime Minister David Cameron on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales.
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Ebola victim 'stared death in face'
9/3/2014 8:57:17 PM
- Dr. Kent Brantly went to West Africa to work for a Christian relief organization
- He recalls feeling "a little off" on July 23, then testing positive for Ebola virus
- Brantly says he had "no reserve," didn't know if he could continue breathing
- He did and -- after time at an Atlanta hospital -- was declared symptom-free
(CNN) -- Dr. Kent Brantly had stared death in the face many times, doing all he could against frightful odds to save Ebola victims in West Africa.
Until death stared back.
In his first extensive on-camera interview since contracting the virus, Brantly recalled to NBC News on Tuesday how close he had come to being one more of the over 1,500 people the World Health Organization says have lost their lives to Ebola in the current outbreak.
Doctors never told him outright he might not survive as he lay in a bed in Liberia, an ocean away from his family. They didn't have to.
"I felt like I was about to die," Brantly told NBC's Matt Lauer. "And I said to the nurse taking care of me, 'I'm sick. I have no reserve, and I don't know how long I can keep this up.'"
He'd been well schooled on how to treat disease, from his days at Indiana University's medical school to his residency at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. If he'd contacted Ebola back in the United States, there would have been many more machines and assets available to help him get better.
Brantly didn't have all those tools at his disposal this summer in Liberia, where hospitals shut down after becoming "incubators for the disease," according to Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
He did, however, have his ardent faith and whatever strength that his body could muster.
Relying on both was his best, only hope of someday reuniting with his wife and two children, who had returned to the United States a few days before his diagnosis.
"I thought, 'I'm not going to be able to continue breathing this way,' and they had no way to breath for me if I quit breathing," he said.
Yet he didn't stop. Brantly kept fighting Ebola and -- unlike many of those he'd treated -- he won.
Drawn to mission work since youth
Wife 'scared,' knowing how deadly Ebola is
The thing is, while Brantly would never have chosen to contract Ebola, he did choose to go to West Africa. His reasoning was simple: People there needed help and, feeling it was God's calling, he wanted to help.
So, in 2013, he began a two-year fellowship through the Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse. Brantly started off practicing general medicine but, when Ebola began spreading, he took on the role of medical director for the group's Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia.
That was his job when he woke up the morning of July 23.
"I just felt a little off, I felt a little warm, a little under the weather," Brantly told NBC, adding he then discovered he had a temperature not too much above the 98.6 degree baseline.
His only relief was that his wife, Amber, and their children hadn't woken up next to him, that he didn't have to carry "an overwhelming mental burden" of worrying if they too had come down with the disease. For while Ebola can take days to incubate, it's only contagious when a sufferer is symptomatic -- something Brantly didn't have to worry about with his family.
Yet the family had plenty of reason to worry for Brantly after he tested positive for Ebola.
"I'd seen him treat these people who had already been diagnosed, and I knew how it ends," his wife Amber told NBC. "... I had the disadvantage of having the knowledge of the course of the disease. I was scared."
She wasn't the only one. According to his hometown newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, Kent Brantly himself told a fellow doctor at John Peter Smith Hospital that he was "terrified."
"I'm praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease," Brantly said in an email to Dr. David McRay, the newspaper reported.
Beats odds and survives
Somehow, he did.
According to WHO, more than half of those afflicted with Ebola in this current outbreak have died -- a function of how devastating the disease can be as well as a function of where it struck the hardest, a place without widespread high-quality health care options and cultural and social factors that may have contributed to its spread.
Yet Brantly made it through those first few trying weeks. On August 2, he was whisked back on a medical plane to the United States, walking into Atlanta's Emory University Hospital in a white, full-body protective suit.
Ebola patient walks into Atlanta hospital
His new home was Emory's special isolation unit, where his interactions with others were strictly restricted to prevent the virus from spreading. Amber visited him, for example, though she could only see him through a glass wall and talk to him via an intercom.
By August 21 -- two days after Nancy Writebol, an American missionary who had worked with Brantly who also came down with Ebola and got treatment at Emory -- it was a different story.
He hugged and shook hands with nurses and doctors who he, just a few days earlier, hadn't been able to touch. Dr. Bruce Ribner, the head of Emory's Infectious Disease Unit, declared that he posed "no public health threat" and could go free.
"Today is a miraculous day," Brantly said then. "I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family."
Still, he realizes the fight against Ebola is far, far from over. And it's still personal. Brantly said that he learned Tuesday morning that a doctor he'd worked with in Liberia -- another American, like him and Writebol -- had tested positive for the virus.
After hearing the news, Brantly told NBC, "I spent a good, long while in tearful prayer."
American Ebola patients released
Human trial of experimental Ebola vaccine begins this week
CNN's Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.
Russia's 'aggression against Ukraine a wake-up call'
9/4/2014 7:03:31 AM
- NEW: Ukrainian President Poroshenko says a peace plan may come into force Friday
- NATO chief: "We are gathered here in Wales at a pivotal moment for our security"
- "Russia's aggression against Ukraine has been a wake-up call," Rasmussen says
- 837 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since conflict began, military official says
Newport, Wales (CNN) -- World leaders met Thursday for a "critical" NATO summit staged against the backdrop of the spread of brutal Islamist terror across Iraq and Syria and hundreds of deaths in a bloody struggle over Ukraine's future.
"We are gathered here in Wales at a pivotal moment for our security," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.
"We will take important decisions to keep our nations safe, to keep the vital bond between Europe and North America strong and to help build stability in a dangerous world."
The two-day summit comes at a time of global turmoil, with tensions between Russia and the West at their highest since the end of the Cold War. At the same time, the rise of ISIS threatens to further destabilize the Middle East and export terror to the streets of Western nations.
Rasmussen began by paying tribute to the hundreds of thousands of troops from the NATO alliance who have served in Afghanistan, helping to ensure that "those who resort to terror and violence will not succeed."
As its combat role comes to an end, NATO will build its partnership with Afghanistan, including a new mission to train and advise Afghan security forces once security agreements are in place, Rasmussen said.
"We want to ensure we retain the gains we have made and open a new chapter in our relationship with Afghanistan," he said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, as host of the summit in Newport, said those present were meeting "at a solemn moment for our alliance" when the world faces many "dangerous and evolving threats."
"NATO is the anchor of our security, and over the next two days, we must refocus and reinvigorate the alliance," he said, adding that it was as vital now and in the future as it has been in the past.
Force and blood
A peace plan discussed by Ukraine and Russia is expected to be implemented Friday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on his Twitter account Thursday.
A day earlier, Poroshenko's office said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed in a phone call on a process that could lead to a truce between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels. Putin also presented a seven-point road map to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, although Russia denies having any involvement in the conflict.
Poroshenko met with U.S. President Barack Obama, Cameron and the leaders of Germany, France and Italy before the summit began. He's also due to hold talks over the crisis in Ukraine with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk dismissed Putin's road map as a rescue plan for the rebels and pointed to previous agreements he said had been broken by Moscow.
NATO and the United States have also greeted Russia's latest moves with skepticism. Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in March and is accused of sending its troops into eastern Ukraine in support of pro-Russian rebels, a claim that Moscow denies.
"Russia's aggression against Ukraine has been a wake-up call," Rasmussen said in remarks earlier Thursday.
"It has ... reminded all of us that our freedom, security and prosperity cannot be taken for granted, that some are trying to redraw dividing lines in Europe with force and in blood."
The current dangers mean this "is a critical summit at a critical time," he said, requiring leaders to "forge a stronger NATO for a more complex and chaotic world."
The transatlantic defense bloc must adapt to meet new challenges, he said, including a reemerging threat from the east that will require the repositioning of NATO forces.
"We will adopt a readiness action plan that will make our forces faster, fitter and more flexible, ready to address any challenges whenever they come and from wherever they come."
NATO members will be urged to prioritize defense, amid concern that defense spending is declining and some member states are not pulling their weight.
Cameron: Bring killers to justice
Cameron told CNN ahead of the summit that the leaders would discuss the "poisonous ideology" of Islamist extremism and that NATO members should agree on how to help Middle Eastern nations tackle the ISIS threat.
The world faces a "generational struggle" against the threat of Islamist extremism, and ISIS should be "squeezed out of existence," he said.
Any request by Iraq to NATO for aid in fighting against ISIS would be "considered seriously," Rasmussen said.
NATO has not yet received such an invitation from Baghdad, Rasmussen said, but help could come in the form of new military training programs such as ones the alliance has held with Iraq in the past.
Cameron declined to rule in or out the possibility of the UK military carrying out airstrikes against ISIS forces, as U.S. forces have done in Iraq.
He said Britain had been "working exhaustively to identify all the people that are potentially involved" in two ISIS videos showing the beheading of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff but would not give any further detail.
"We share our information with our key allies and (are) making sure we do everything we can to bring these absolutely horrific people to justice," he said.
A British hostage was threatened at the end of the latest execution video, which features a militant with an English accent.
'Russia needs America and Europe'
Cameron also had stern words for Russia. He said it was "positive" that Putin was "at least making noises about peace."
But, he said, trust has been eroded by Putin's consistent denials that Russian troops are on Ukrainian soil, when "everyone can see that that is the case."
The Western nations that have already imposed sanctions against Putin over Russia's actions need to make clear that if Putin does not allow Ukraine to choose its own future, Russia's relationship with the United States and Europe will be very different, he said.
"And let's be frank, Russia needs America and Europe more than America and Europe need Russia. We need to make that relationship pay."
Ukraine is not part of NATO, but the alliance has said it will support Kiev in the face of what it calls Russian aggression.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that a push by some in Kiev for Ukraine to join NATO was a bid to undermine the peace process in eastern Ukraine, Russia's state-run ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Lavrov said it was not coincidental that calls for Ukraine to end its nonaligned status and join NATO were voiced after Putin and Poroshenko held talks on possible ways to resolve the conflict.
"This is an obvious attempt to derail all efforts to initiate a dialogue aimed at providing national security," Lavrov is quoted as saying.
Ukraine: Russian shelling across the border
Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko told reporters in Kiev on Thursday that continued fighting included shelling from Russia into Ukraine and incursions by Russian reconnaissance drones.
In the town of Debaltsevo, Ukrainian troops are being shelled and are nearly surrounded, Lysenko said.
Since the conflict began in mid-April, 837 Ukrainian troops have been killed and 3,044 have been injured, he said.
A CNN team in Mariupol saw a large plume of smoke from artillery fire less than 3 miles from the main Ukrainian checkpoint heading out of the southeastern port city toward the border town of Novoazovsk, which Kiev said last week was seized by Russian troops.
Another CNN staffer with a Ukrainian spotter unit about 6 miles east of Mariupol witnessed sustained artillery bombardment of the area, with firing on a wide front and coming from the Russian border area.
This indicates that the rebel positions are now are much closer to the city than they were previously.
Opinion: NATO's moment of truth on Ukraine
'Russia has ripped up the rulebook'
Obama arrived in Wales for the summit after a visit to Estonia aimed at reassuring nervous Eastern European nations that NATO's support for its member states is unwavering.
In a joint opinion piece published in the Times of London on Thursday, Obama and Cameron warn against isolationism.
"We meet at a time when the world faces many dangerous and evolving challenges," they write.
"To the east, Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal, self-declared annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening a sovereign nation state. To the south, there is an arc of instability from north Africa and the Sahel to the Middle East."
The two leaders say that those who argue against addressing these threats fail to understand 21st century reality, adding, "the problems we face today threaten the security of British and American people, and the wider world."
NATO chief: Time running out in Afghanistan
The summit was originally expected to focus on Afghanistan, NATO's biggest overseas commitment of troops, before events elsewhere in the world seized the headlines.
The role of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in the country will shift at the end of the year from leading Afghan troops in the fight to supporting Afghans in an advisory and training role.
While votes in the contested presidential election are still being audited, Rasmussen said that "time is of the essence" for the Afghan government to finalize a Status of Forces Agreement to protect NATO forces there.
But he did say he was "encouraged" that both candidates in the runoff vote, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, have agreed on the need for a new agreement.
READ: NATO summit: What should we expect?
READ: Ukraine crisis: NATO to create 'high-readiness force'
READ: Why NATO is such a thorn in Russia's side
CNN's Nic Robertson reported in Newport, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote and reported in London. CNN's Brian Walker contributed to this report.
Will Hong Kong toe China line?
9/4/2014 2:24:12 AM
- Beijing recently said no to Hong Kong voting for its leaders without approval
- One pro-democracy leader in Hong Kong admitted support for their campaign may be sliding
- In 1997 Hong Kongers were frantic to get a passport before China reclaimed the territory
- Others talked about Hong Kong helping to encourage democracy in the mainland
Hong Kong (CNN) -- Borrowed place, borrowed time. That was the mantra in Hong Kong as the clock ticked down to the British colony being handed back to China in 1997.
And as the handover loomed, Hong Kongers were frantic to make money to get a passport before the communist mainland reclaimed the territory. They feared an end to the free-wheeling ways of capitalism where money brought power, prestige -- and if needed, an escape route.
But there was a small, vocal minority who talked instead about the tail wagging the dog. Far from being subsumed by China's political system, Hong Kong would in fact lead it towards democracy.
Why? Because, if this handover worked, it could lure a much bigger prize in the form of Taiwan. If democracy, prosperity and personal freedoms flourished in this territory, Taiwan could be induced to rejoin China after its seminal split in 1949.
Opinion: Why Beijing is courting trouble
But events of the past week have been a watershed in Hong Kong's political development. The ultimate goal of universal suffrage -- one person, one vote -- has been subverted. Yes, there will be one person, one vote, but Beijing has said they want to control who Hong Kong's voters are allowed to vote for.
China's leadership has made it crystal clear that any form of democracy will only come attached to very powerful Chinese characteristics.
Hong Kong's first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, who stepped down early after massive protests against his leadership, this week called Beijing's move towards democracy "real and substantive."
It's hard to see how. If anything, Beijing has slammed the door on a true democratic process, one that allows anyone to stand for election.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy politicians have said they will veto any proposal that doesn't allow for full suffrage, leaving the Special Administrative Region back at square one.
Muted reaction
Yet Hong Kong has hardly exploded in anger or frustration. In fact the reaction has been almost muted.
Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a protest group committed to true universal suffrage, had threatened a campaign of bringing business in downtown Hong Kong to a standstill if China didn't allow for a more democratic process.
In June, it conducted an unofficial referendum on the issue. Nearly 800,000 people out of a population of seven million took part despite, or perhaps because of, repeated and sophisticated cyber-attacks and overt criticism from Beijing.
But the strategy of trying to win concessions from Beijing failed. And in an extraordinary admission just after Beijing made its ruling on Sunday, a leader of the Occupy movement, Benny Tai, in an interview with Bloomberg, conceded support for their cause was sliding.
"The number of people joining us (for a long-planned sit-in protest) will not be as big as we expect, because of the very pragmatic thinking of Hong Kong people," he admitted.
Read: Hong Kong activists: Democracy isn't dead
In many ways it comes back that same mindset in the run-up to the handover. Pragmatism wins over idealism. Before 1997, the pragmatists were doing what they could to have a Plan B -- a way of getting out of Hong Kong if they needed to -- or working hard to ingratiate themselves with Beijing.
Game of 'chicken'
Today they are apparently not prepared to take on Beijing in an eyeball-to-eyeball standoff. As David Zweig, a professor of political science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said, "If this was a game of chicken, the mainland has said: 'we'll drive straight through this' and Occupy Central has pulled aside and replied, 'we aren't willing to destroy Hong Kong.'"
But it may not be over yet.
Hong Kong street demonstrations have a habit of morphing into a general protest against a range of issues from politics to working conditions to environmental concerns. Economics remain a powerful driving force.
If the economy starts to fade, if unemployment starts to rise, it can become a catalyst for a much broader range of protesters. And neither Beijing nor Hong Kong's leadership can ill-afford to ignore them.
Read: Beijing's no open elections in Hong Kong
'Where is your mercy?': Journalist's family speaks out
9/4/2014 2:06:15 AM
- Effort to defeat ISIS will take time and go beyond this administration, official says
- "We will not allow our enemies to hold us hostage," the Sotloff family says
- The U.S. goal is to "degrade and destroy" ISIS, U.S. defense secretary says
- ISIS video released Tuesday shows second beheading of a U.S. journalist in two weeks
(CNN) -- The family of American Steven Sotloff had a message Wednesday for the notorious leader of the terror group ISIS, asking him to answer for the sin he committed with the beheading of the journalist.
Sotloff's family broke its silence the same day U.S. intelligence officials said the videotaped execution was authentic.
"I have a message for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi," family spokesman Barak Barfi told reporters in Arabic, reading from a statement. "Where is your mercy?"
"Wayluk," Barfi said, using an Arabic phrase that roughly translates to committing a great sin.
The statement went on to cite passages from the Quran, asking al-Baghdadi why he violated the tenets.
"I am here debating you with kindness. I don't have a sword in my hand, and I am ready for your answer," according to the statement read by Barfi.
In English, Barfi told reporters gathered outside the Sotloff family's home in Miami: "Today, we grieve. This week, we mourn. But we will emerge from this ordeal ... We will not allow our enemies to hold us hostage with the sole weapons they possess, fear."
'We will not forget'
The statement came just hours after President Barack Obama said the United States will not be intimidated by the killers of two American journalists.
"Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget ... that our reach is long and that justice will be served," Obama said during a news conference in Estonia, where he was meeting with leaders of the Baltic nations.
The killing is the second beheading of an American journalist in two weeks, and the militant group said it's a result of Obama's decision to conduct airstrikes in Iraq against ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State.
The goal of the United States is to "degrade and destroy" the capabilities of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, "it's not contain," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told CNN's Jim Sciutto.
"It makes you sick to your stomach, but it again reminds you of the brutality and barbarism that is afoot in some places in the world," Hagel said. "... It won't just recede into the gray recesses of history until we stop it."
Hagel: Options on the table
All options -- with the exception of a ground invasion -- are on the table to address the threat posed by ISIS, Hagel said.
Those options include possible airstrikes in Syria, where ISIS has established a stronghold in and around the northeastern city of Raqqa.
But there is a question of just how long it will take to defeat ISIS.
"This, as the President has said, is going to have to be a sustained effort. And it's going to take time, and it will probably go beyond even this administration to get to the point of defeat," Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
Vice President Joe Biden added his own voice to the calls for justice, saying the United States will pursue the killers "to the gates of hell."
"As a nation, we are united, and when people harm Americans, we don't retreat, we don't forget," he said at an appearance near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
"We take care of those who are grieving. And when that's finished, they should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice, because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside."
The video
The video of Sotloff's execution was posted online Tuesday.
In a scene eerily similar to an earlier video of the death of U.S journalist James Foley, Sotloff kneels in the desert, dressed in an orange prison-style jumpsuit. A masked "executioner" lords over him, wielding a knife.
"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State," the executioner says. "Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."
The executioner appears to be the same person, and the location of the two killings appears to be similar, probably in or around Raqqa, one of the safest areas for ISIS, said Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College London.
"It is almost the exact same choreography," Neumann said.
The journalist speaks; the executioner speaks. Then the victim is beheaded.
In the video released Tuesday, a British hostage is shown after the beheading of Sotloff, just as Sotloff was shown in Foley's video.
British rescue attempt
The UK said it attempted to rescue one of its citizens held by ISIS "some time ago" but failed.
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond provided scant details of the rescue attempt or any other plans in the works.
"You wouldn't expect me to discuss various options that we will be considering," he said. "But I can assure you that we will look at every possible option to protect this person."
Britain echoed the same sentiment as Obama.
"This country will never give into terrorism ... a country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers," Prime Minister David Cameron said.
This summer, several dozen of the most elite U.S. commandos flew into Syria but couldn't find the hostages, including Sotloff and Foley, a U.S. official told CNN last month.
'Degrade and destroy'
Speaking Wednesday, Obama addressed his much-criticized statement last week that he has no strategy on ISIS. He said he was referring to a military strategy in Syria that "might" require congressional approval.
"Our objective is clear. That is to degrade and destroy (ISIS) so it's no longer a threat," he said. "We can accomplish that. It's going to take some time, it's going to take some effort."
Obama said the world needs a regional strategy to defeat the group.
"We've been putting together a strategy that was designed to do a number of things. ... What we have to make sure is we have a regional strategy in place," he said.
How will Obama respond to ISIS?
Remembering Steven Sotloff
Maps: Where do jihadis come from?
CNN's Susan Garraty, Carol Jordan, Ali Younes, Michael Pearson, Jim Acosta and Dana Ford contributed to this report.
Why Muslims must challenge ISIS
9/3/2014 9:03:30 PM
- West outraged at beheading of second U.S. hostage by ISIS militants
- Cooper: gruesome videos must not "eclipse ISIS's other inhumane actions"
- Every time an ISIS video is shown, the group gets what it wants: publicity
- "The time has passed when we can allow ISIS to popularize itself unchallenged"
Editor's note: Charlie Cooper is a researcher on the Middle East at Quilliam, a think tank formed to combat extremism. The opinions in this commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- Last night, a video emerged of the execution of American journalist Steven Sotloff, at the hands of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ISIS, the extreme jihadist group that has illegitimately declared the establishment of a militant "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq.
This latest execution video follows that of a similar crime committed against another U.S. journalist, James Foley, a fortnight ago. Like the first "Message to America," this latest video ended with the executioner threatening to behead another captive non-combatant, this time a Briton.
First and foremost, it is imperative that we do not allow the traction that these videos have gained in the West to eclipse ISIS's other inhumane actions.
In years gone by, ISIS -- which refers to itself as the Islamic State -- and its forebears have consistently and persistently committed the most atrocious of war crimes against communities in the Middle East.
In the last month alone, it has been held responsible for attempting a genocide against the Yazidi minority sect, as well as the extermination of the Turkmen Shia Muslims of Amerli.
These come on top of the wholesale massacre it committed against the Sunni peoples of the Shu'aytat tribe in East Syria in August, as well as countless other summary executions of people it deems to be its enemies.
We must not be fooled into thinking that ISIS only beheads its Western captives; last week, a Kurdish man - unarmed, of course - was executed in front of a mosque in Mosul in a video entitled "A message written in blood." But because it was directed at the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, this particular piece of propaganda did not receive widespread coverage in the international media.
A cursory glance at ISIS propaganda suggests that the West is its primary target. While this may be the case in terms of the group's long-term ambitions, events on the ground in Syria and Iraq paint a very different picture, with ISIS predominantly killing those it deems to be "apostate", including its co-religionists.
In light of events in Syria and Iraq, the international community must react robustly and swiftly. This week's NATO summit is fortuitously timed, and one would hope that the ISIS crisis takes its place at the top of the meeting's agenda.
However, as I've said before, a strategy of solely Western intervention would play right into the ISIS ideology. Indeed, it would be exactly what the group wants. As such, it is paramount that other states -- particularly those within the region -- step up to the plate as well. Countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia must actively respond instead of leaving it to others.
It is not just the international community that has a responsibility, though: the media must act as well. It is paramount that it carefully considers its treatment of ISIS propaganda, with its twin aims of intimidation and recruitment.
Every time a still or clip from an ISIS video is shown, the group gets what it wants: the oxygen of publicity. Of course, it is necessary that people the world over are aware of the atrocities occurring at the hands of ISIS, but journalists must be careful not to do the jihadists' job for them.
This also involves establishing a firm no-platform policy for al-Baghadi's stooges in the West. These insidious individuals thrive on media attention, which they use to amplify their otherwise ostracized voices.
As Quilliam's last report, which looked at extremist content online, showed, it is an unfortunate truth that online censorship does not work.
Any attempts at censorship in the aftermath of the Foley killing were always doomed to failure. Simply put, corporations and governments are unable to remove propaganda from the internet at the rate that it is uploaded. More effective than government-led censorship was the "ISIS media blackout," in which users across the internet resolutely refused to publicize ISIS material. After all, videos like these have minimal propaganda value if they have no audience.
At the same time, instead of publicizing what ISIS wants, we must popularize what it doesn't.
The anti-ISIS fatwa recently released by prominent Sunni British imams would be a good place to start, because it dismantles any sense of legitimacy for the self-proclaimed "caliphate" and directly calls for Muslim communities to take an active stance in opposing this appalling group.
More initiatives like this must emerge. That they have not materialized already is testament an untenable situation in which the vast majority of Muslims, who are invariably moderate, are largely silent, something which leaves extremists to dominate the discourse on Islam.
The time has passed when we can allow ISIS to popularize itself unchallenged. Challenging ISIS propaganda must be at the forefront of international policy towards Syria and Iraq. And it is not just something for governments to deal with. People all over the world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are responsible too.
HK protesters: 'Democracy isn't dead'
9/3/2014 7:14:04 PM
- China announced Hong Kong will not have open elections on Sunday
- Hong Kong democracy activists say they will stage mass sit-in protest
- Hong Kong legislators will veto China's reform proposal, resulting in gridlock
Hong Kong (CNN) -- The struggle for democracy is not dead, say Hong Kong's pro-democracy activists, who have pledged to continue opposing Beijing despite setbacks.
The activist group Occupy Central had hoped that their threats of a mass sit-in in Hong Kong's downtown Central district would convince China to approve open democratic elections for Hong Kong's next leader.
But on Sunday, the Chinese government said the elections should only consist of candidates approved by a Beijing-backed committee, dealing a blow to democracy supporters.
Even the leader of the movement seemed deflated.
"Up to this point, we failed," Benny Tai, the co-founder of Occupy Central, told Bloomberg Tuesday. "Beijing refused to back down."
But Chan Kin-man, a fellow co-founder, told CNN on Wednesday that Tai's remarks did not mean surrender.
"We may not have attained that specific goal," he said, referring to the hoped-for reforms. "But we want to create a resistant movement in Hong Kong. As long as the democratic spirit continues in Hong Kong, we will not give up."
'We will occupy Central'
Chan said Occupy will proceed with its mass sit-in "soon," bringing downtown Hong Kong to a halt.
It's the culmination of years of pent-up unhappiness.
When Hong Kong, a former colony of the United Kingdom, was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, the two countries struck an agreement promising Hong Kong the democratic election of its own leader, known as the chief executive.
But the democratic reforms have not materialized. Seventeen years after the handover, the city's chief executive is chosen by a committee filled with Beijing loyalists, leading to frustration among pro-democracy Hong Kongers who want the city's leader to be chosen by local people, not China.
That's why many of them see China's recent proposal as a bitter sham. The National People's Congress (NPC) proposed Sunday the Hong Kong public be given the right to vote for its next leader — but only on up to three candidates approved by a Beijing-backed committee.
Read: Beijing says no to open elections in Hong Kong
Democracy's activists' chosen response, civil disobedience, is similarly controversial.
Chinese officials have repeatedly said occupying Central would be an illegal act that would jeopardize Hong Kong's economic security. Hong Kong's own security chief has warned the protest could turn violent, and "things could get out of control."
In August, an "anti-Occupy" march organized by pro-government activists drew tens of thousands. "We want universal suffrage, but not at any cost," said its organizer Robert Chow.
'Ungovernable'
Hong Kong streets aren't the only thing that'll be paralyzed.
A group of 26 pro-democracy legislators has said they will vote down any undemocratic proposal. Without their votes, Beijing's reform proposal will not have the necessary votes to become Hong Kong law, resulting in gridlock.
"We are going to veto it to show our determination that we are not going to accept this fake democracy," said Albert Ho, a pro-democracy legislator who is involved with Occupy Central.
Li Fei, China's deputy secretary-general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, has said Hong Kongers only have themselves to blame for lack of reform if they veto Beijing's proposal.
This has effectively set up a standoff between Hong Kong and Beijing.
Alan Leong, another pro-democracy legislator, said Hong Kong is becoming "ungovernable." Without a popular mandate, the next chief executive will face serious challenges as he or she tries to control an increasingly upset civil society.
Chan Kin-Man, Occupy Central co-founder
"There will be a new age of civil disobedience and non-cooperation across the board," Leong told CNN.
But, he added, Hong Kong spiraling into chaos may also persuade Chinese leaders that robust democratic reforms are what's needed to regain stability.
"It's like a phoenix rebirth sort of thing. We're getting worse in order to get better."
International support
In recent days, Western governments have spoken up in defense of Hong Kong's democracy activists.
British lawmakers have announced plans to visit Hong Kong to conduct an inquiry into whether its handover treaty is being violated by China's actions.
But China's National People's Congress has responded angrily, calling the inquiry a "highly inappropriate act which constitutes interference in China's internal affairs."
In the United States, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. government "supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong in accordance with the Basic Law and the aspirations of the Hong Kong people."
"We believe that an open society with the highest possible degree of autonomy and governed by rule of law is essential for Hong Kong's stability and prosperity."
But Hong Kong's democracy activists doubt the United States or United Kingdom can make a big difference.
"I do not have much hope on these two governments in particular," said Ho. "Of course they should say something, if they still have the moral fiber to stand up to the strong economic pressure of China. They should know what is right and what is wrong... if they have the guts to do it."
Ho said he and other legislators are currently requesting an "urgent appeal" with the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations and the Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to examine whether the rights of Hong Kongers are being violated.
Opinion: Why Beijing is courting trouble in Hong Kong
Justin Bieber on assault charge
9/2/2014 7:43:54 PM
- NEW: Bieber's alleged victims hire Los Angeles Lawyer Gloria Allred
- Paparazzi was chasing Bieber when the incident happened, his lawyer says
- Bieber and a mini-van driver "engaged in a physical altercation," police say
- The alleged incident happened on a road in Perth County, Ontario, police say
(CNN) -- Justin Bieber was arrested on assault and dangerous driving charges stemming from an alleged fight after his ATV collided with a mini-van in Canada Friday, a police spokesman told CNN Tuesday.
The alleged incident happened on a road in Perth County, Ontario, the community where Bieber, 20, lived as a child.
"Investigation revealed that after colliding, the driver of the ATV and an occupant of the minivan engaged in a physical altercation," Ontario Provincial Police spokesman Kees Wijnands said.
Bieber's lawyer said the singer was being chased by people with cameras when the incident happened.
Bieber was enjoying a "peaceful retreat" at his father's home when it was interrupted by paparazzi, the lawyer said.
Online photos showed Bieber and girlfriend Selena Gomez cruising on an ATV Friday.
Bieber, who is already facing an assault charge in Toronto, was released on "a promise to appear" and ordered to answer the charges at a hearing in Stratford, Ontario, on September 29, Constable Wijnands said.
The alleged victims of Bieber's assault wasted no time in lawyering up against the singer. They hired Los Angeles lawyer Gloria Allred, who also represents a woman who complained to police that Bieber assaulted her at a Hollywood tourist spot when she tried to take a photo of him with her cell phone.
"This is a serious matter that could have an impact on Mr. Bieber's probation status in California," Allred said in a statement to CNN Tuesday. "I have also made contact on my clients' behalf with the Hollywood Branch of the Los Angeles police department to make them aware of these new charges."
The young singer is on probation in Los Angeles for a vandalism conviction that resulted from his admission that he egged a neighbor's home last January. It would be up to a California judge to decide if the Canadian arrest warrants a probation revocation hearing, according to the spokeswoman for the Los Angeles prosecutor.
Justin Bieber pleads no contest in egging case, gets probation
Bieber made a $50,000 donation to a youth charity as part of a plea deal to settle a Miami drunken driving case last month.
Bieber v. Bloom: Feud fuels buzz
CNN's Marlena Baldacci contributed to this report.
Saudi seizes 88 'on verge of attacks'
9/2/2014 9:47:44 AM
- Saudi authorities arrested 88 men, the Interior Ministry says
- They were "on the verge" of implementing plotted attacks, the ministry says
- Most are Saudi, but three are Yemeni
- 59 were arrested previously
(CNN) -- Saudi Arabia has arrested 88 men who were part of a terrorist network, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
They were "on the verge of implementing" plotted attacks inside the country and abroad, the ministry said in a statement.
They came from six terror cells in four regions of the country, including Mecca, said Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, a ministry spokesman.
Some of those arrested are "family members who have sent their sons to terrorist organizations abroad," al-Turki said. Some of the others were trying to travel abroad "to join terrorist groups to conduct terrorist operations."
Most are Saudi citizens, but three are Yemenis, and one person has yet to be identified, al-Turki said.
Fifty-nine of the men had been arrested previously. They were rounded up after months of surveillance.
The arrests are part of a nationwide security operation, the ministry said.
Why Muslims must challenge ISIS
9/3/2014 3:09:19 PM
- West outraged at beheading of second U.S. hostage by ISIS militants
- Cooper: gruesome videos must not "eclipse ISIS's other inhumane actions"
- Every time an ISIS video is shown, the group gets what it wants: publicity
- "The time has passed when we can allow ISIS to popularize itself unchallenged"
Editor's note: Charlie Cooper is a researcher on the Middle East at Quilliam, a think tank formed to combat extremism. The opinions in this commentary are solely his.
(CNN) -- Last night, a video emerged of the execution of American journalist Steven Sotloff, at the hands of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's ISIS, the extreme jihadist group that has illegitimately declared the establishment of a militant "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq.
This latest execution video follows that of a similar crime committed against another U.S. journalist, James Foley, a fortnight ago. Like the first "Message to America," this latest video ended with the executioner threatening to behead another captive non-combatant, this time a Briton.
First and foremost, it is imperative that we do not allow the traction that these videos have gained in the West to eclipse ISIS's other inhumane actions.
In years gone by, ISIS -- which refers to itself as the Islamic State -- and its forebears have consistently and persistently committed the most atrocious of war crimes against communities in the Middle East.
In the last month alone, it has been held responsible for attempting a genocide against the Yazidi minority sect, as well as the extermination of the Turkmen Shia Muslims of Amerli.
These come on top of the wholesale massacre it committed against the Sunni peoples of the Shu'aytat tribe in East Syria in August, as well as countless other summary executions of people it deems to be its enemies.
We must not be fooled into thinking that ISIS only beheads its Western captives; last week, a Kurdish man - unarmed, of course - was executed in front of a mosque in Mosul in a video entitled "A message written in blood." But because it was directed at the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, this particular piece of propaganda did not receive widespread coverage in the international media.
A cursory glance at ISIS propaganda suggests that the West is its primary target. While this may be the case in terms of the group's long-term ambitions, events on the ground in Syria and Iraq paint a very different picture, with ISIS predominantly killing those it deems to be "apostate", including its co-religionists.
In light of events in Syria and Iraq, the international community must react robustly and swiftly. This week's NATO summit is fortuitously timed, and one would hope that the ISIS crisis takes its place at the top of the meeting's agenda.
However, as I've said before, a strategy of solely Western intervention would play right into the ISIS ideology. Indeed, it would be exactly what the group wants. As such, it is paramount that other states -- particularly those within the region -- step up to the plate as well. Countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia must actively respond instead of leaving it to others.
It is not just the international community that has a responsibility, though: the media must act as well. It is paramount that it carefully considers its treatment of ISIS propaganda, with its twin aims of intimidation and recruitment.
Every time a still or clip from an ISIS video is shown, the group gets what it wants: the oxygen of publicity. Of course, it is necessary that people the world over are aware of the atrocities occurring at the hands of ISIS, but journalists must be careful not to do the jihadists' job for them.
This also involves establishing a firm no-platform policy for al-Baghadi's stooges in the West. These insidious individuals thrive on media attention, which they use to amplify their otherwise ostracized voices.
As Quilliam's last report, which looked at extremist content online, showed, it is an unfortunate truth that online censorship does not work.
Any attempts at censorship in the aftermath of the Foley killing were always doomed to failure. Simply put, corporations and governments are unable to remove propaganda from the internet at the rate that it is uploaded. More effective than government-led censorship was the "ISIS media blackout," in which users across the internet resolutely refused to publicize ISIS material. After all, videos like these have minimal propaganda value if they have no audience.
At the same time, instead of publicizing what ISIS wants, we must popularize what it doesn't.
The anti-ISIS fatwa recently released by prominent Sunni British imams would be a good place to start, because it dismantles any sense of legitimacy for the self-proclaimed "caliphate" and directly calls for Muslim communities to take an active stance in opposing this appalling group.
More initiatives like this must emerge. That they have not materialized already is testament an untenable situation in which the vast majority of Muslims, who are invariably moderate, are largely silent, something which leaves extremists to dominate the discourse on Islam.
The time has passed when we can allow ISIS to popularize itself unchallenged. Challenging ISIS propaganda must be at the forefront of international policy towards Syria and Iraq. And it is not just something for governments to deal with. People all over the world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, are responsible too.
Summer 2014, racial ugliness in U.S.
9/4/2014 2:48:03 AM
- Errol Louis says racial divisions in America were again exposed by the shooting of Michael Brown
- Black Americans lag behind when it comes to economic and educational opportunities, studies show
- Even with a black president, suspicions of racial profiling will remain a live, lingering concern, says Louis
- Louis predicts more flashpoints like what happened in Ferguson
Editor's note: Editor's note: Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- The name "Ferguson" will enter America's political vocabulary alongside cities like Detroit, Harlem and South Central Los Angeles -- places where black Americans rioted in the streets following the violent mistreatment of unarmed black men at the hands of police.
Despite amazing progress in some areas of race relations -- notably, the election and re-election of Barack Obama as President -- the United States also harbors a deep, durable strain of racism that occasionally flares into public consciousness, sometimes with explosive results.
The summer of 2014 was one of those times the curtain was pulled back and the ugliness emerged.
On July 17 in New York City, half a dozen police confronted a man named Eric Garner for allegedly selling cigarettes on the street without a license to do so. A bystander's phone camera captured video of the police pushing Garner to the ground using a chokehold as Garner, a father of six, repeatedly said "I can't breathe." He died shortly afterwards.
A few weeks later on August 5, in Beavercreek, Ohio, a man named John Crawford was shot to death inside a Walmart store after police responded to an emergency call about a man waving a weapon. Crawford turned out to be holding a pellet-shooting BB gun he'd picked up from a shelf inside the store (which sells the gun).
On August 9 in Ferguson, Missouri, police killed a teenager named Michael Brown and left his body uncovered in the street. Witnesses say Brown had his hands up when an officer fired six shots into his body. A week of demonstrations and violence followed.
On August 11, a 25-year-old man named Ezell Ford was shot to death in Los Angeles. Police say Ford attacked an officer after his car was stopped; other witnesses say he was not resisting and was killed while lying down in the street.
All around America, demonstrations have taken place to protest what some call a national epidemic of police brutality toward black men.
There's no sure way of knowing whether there is a pattern of police imposing deadly force on blacks, but civil rights organizations have long complained about racial profiling -- the practice of assuming members of a racial minority group are engaged in criminal activity and detaining or arresting them for that reason alone.
Such practices are illegal under the U.S. Constitution.
"Racial profiling continues to be a prevalent and egregious form of discrimination in the United States," says the website of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This unjustifiable practice remains a stain on American democracy and an affront to the promise of racial equality."
America has fought a long battle to ensure equal opportunity and legal treatment for descendants of the African slaves who spent centuries in bondage until the practice was outlawed in 1863.
But many stories show black Americans lagging far behind when it comes to economic and educational achievement.
Studies show that white families, for instance, had an average of $113,149 in household wealth in 2009 compared with only $5,677 for blacks.
Educators have discovered a persistent gap between black and white students on standardized English and math tests.
These gaps have existed for decades, but they seldom result in the kind of street demonstrations and riots that followed the recent killings in Missouri and elsewhere. That's because poverty and ignorance are social ills that people can battle gradually.
Racial profiling and police violence, on the other hand, represents a form of injustice that is impossible to ignore. History suggests that grinding poverty and discrimination create social dynamite -- but it's police violence that triggers the explosion.
Adam Serwer of Buzzfeed recently described some of this history, accurately, as 80 years of Fergusons.
In 1935, a false rumor swept through Harlem that a 16-year-old, arrested for shoplifting, had been killed by police. It touched off two days of rioting.
In 1962, riots went off in St. Louis -- a stone's throw from Ferguson -- when a teenager was shot to death while running from a policeman who claimed the boy had tried to grab his gun.
After riots broke out in Detroit in 1967 -- five days of chaos that left 41 dead -- a presidential commission found that police aggression, along with racism and discrimination, was to blame.
In 1980, the Liberty City section of Miami went up in flames after a man named Arthur McDuffie died in police custody after a motorcycle crash. One responding officer later testified that his fellow cops had beaten McDuffie with flashlights; when the officers were acquitted, rioters took to the streets.
Miami burned again in 1989, after an officer shot a motorcyclist to death (the officer ended up convicted of manslaughter, although the conviction was later overturned).
And in Los Angeles in 1992, the acquittal of officers who'd been videotaped beating a motorist named Rodney King led to riots that left more than 50 people dead.
Then, as now, the social unrest reminds many black Americans of a time when violence -- including violence by police -- was used as a tool of social and political intimidation.
In the 1960s, at the same time urban riots were taking place, police were also used to attack and brutalize African-Americans seeking the right to vote. A famous series of protests in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, led by Martin Luther King Jr., led to mass arrests and attacks by police using dogs, fire hoses and clubs on nonviolent demonstrators.
A similarly brutal attack on demonstrators followed in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.
Black political leaders are making a connection between the politically-motivated police violence of the past and the current cases of possible profiling. It was significant that two of King's children, Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, attended Mike Brown's funeral, along with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was at King's side the day he was assassinated.
The biggest difference between past violence and the current cases is that African-Americans now have much greater political influence -- most notably, a black president.
Obama sent high-ranking aides to Brown's funeral, and the nation's top law-enforcement official, Attorney General Eric Holder, made a personal appearance in Missouri, wrote an open letter to the town and deployed 40 FBI agents to investigate the killing of Brown.
The nightly violence involving citizens and police in the days following Brown's killing have stopped for now, but the national debate over the politics of policing will continue long into the future.
Even with a black president, this summer's cases show that suspicions of racial profiling will remain a live, lingering concern from coast to coast as long as cops apply outsized levels of force that rarely, if ever, get applied outside of black communities.
Will we see more Fergusons? My guess would be yes.
80 years of history suggest that the inequality and discrimination that continue to plague black communities around America are still a kind of factory creating vast amounts of social dynamite.
Those tensions can be detonated by a single clash between police and citizens in a country where encounters take place thousands of times every day.
So the odds suggest there will be more times when America pays the price for maintaining a gap between the American dream and the very real nightmare of poverty and racism in our midst.
Who is emir of Al-Shabaab?
9/3/2014 7:00:38 PM
- Al-Shabaab chief Mukhtar Abu Zubayr has a reputation for being secretive, merciless
- Zubayr wants his group to be able to deliver devastating attacks beyond Somalia
- He formally declared Al-Shabaab an affiliate of al Qaeda
- Zubayr's tactics have led to dissent in his group, which he has ruthlessly suppressed
Editor's note: This report was originally published last year after an attack on a Kenyan mall. It has been updated to include recent events involving terrorist group Al-Shabaab and its leader.
(CNN) -- He is merciless toward opponents, secretive to the point of being a recluse and a true believer in the cause of global jihad.
And from his hideout somewhere in southern Somalia, Mukhtar Abu Zubayr, the emir of Al-Shabaab, has planned numerous terror attacks, including the deadliest in Kenya since the U.S. Embassy bombing in 1998.
Zubayr, who is also known as Ahmed Abdi Godane, already has a price on his head. In 2012, the U.S. State Department authorized a reward of up to $7 million for information on his whereabouts. But he has 15 years on his terror resume, and according to information provided by a well-placed source in Mogadishu who has extensive knowledge of Al-Shabaab, he "is ruthlessly eliminating real and imagined rivals" within the group.
U.S. manned and unmanned aircraft set out on Monday to end his campaign of terror, though the fate of Zubayr or a deputy, Abu Abdalla, was still unclear a day later.
U.S. attacks Al-Shabaab leader in Somalia
Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the attack was directed at the Al-Shabaab leader and that "we certainly believe that we hit what we were aiming at."
But he didn't say who, if anyone, died in the attack.
Read: Al-Shabaab's American allies
Zubayr's vision has been to transform Al-Shabaab from an insurgent outfit focused on Somalia into a terrorist group capable of devastating attacks beyond Somalia. He has already directed at least two: suicide bombings against bars in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010, and last year's Westgate mall siege in Nairobi, Kenya. After the Uganda attacks, which killed more than 70 people, Zubayr warned: "What happened in Kampala was just the beginning."
One key suspect in the Kampala attacks, known as Jabir, allegedly was an explosives instructor and answered directly to Zubayr. Jabir is known to have visited Uganda at least four times before the July 2010 attack.
The source in Mogadishu told CNN last year: "Zubayr is creating Al-Shabaab 2.0."
Read: Al-Shabaab grew amid Somalia's lawlessness
For Zubayr, the struggle has always been a global confrontation with "disbelievers" rather than just about Somalia. He also vowed that his group would launch a direct attack against the United States.
Zubayr is 37, according to most accounts, and originally from Somaliland, now a vaguely autonomous part of northern Somalia. He is slim to the point of wispy, as shown in the few photographs of him, and prefers recording audio messages to appearing in public.
As a teenager, he studied at a Pakistani madrasa, thanks to a grant from a wealthy Saudi, and he returned home with militant beliefs. He was thought to have been involved in the abduction and killings of foreign aid workers in Somaliland, including the death of Italian aid worker Annalena Tonelli in 2003.
Read: Al-Shabaab breaks new ground with complex Nairobi attack
Among his close associates in Al-Shabaab's early days was Aden Ayrow, a towering force in the group and a ruthless and mercurial pro-al Qaeda hard-liner. After Ayrow's death in May 2008 in a U.S. strike, Zubayr asserted his leadership of Al-Shabaab and immediately pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden. According to a U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks in 2009, he once refused to discuss a military offensive against government forces in Mogadishu with Al-Shabaab's allies until one of them apologized for remarks he had made critical of bin Laden.
But bin Laden was wary of an al Qaeda merger with Al-Shabaab. About a year before his death, he wrote to Zubayr that enemies would "escalate their anger and mobilize against you. This is what happened to the brothers in Iraq or Algeria."
Bin Laden's deputy at that time, Ayman al-Zawahiri, took a different view. A letter dated December 2010, which was recovered from bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and was thought by researchers to have been written by al-Zawahiri, was critical of bin Laden's decision to rebuff entreaties by the Somali militant group.
"I see it to be very essential for al Qaeda to confirm and declare its linkage with its branches. ... Please reconsider your opinion not to declare the accession of the brothers of Somalia," the author wrote.
In February 2012, Zubayr formally declared Al-Shabaab an affiliate of al Qaeda with a long message to al-Zawahiri in which he said: "We will go with you as loyal soldiers until doom and injustice disappear from Islam."
Zubayr has always rejected any negotiations with Somalia's transitional federal government. According to another U.S. diplomatic cable unearthed by WikiLeaks, Zubayr rejected an initiative in 2009 by Libya's Moammar Gadhafi to mediate in Somalia, telling him that once a true Islamic government was established in Somalia, he would move on to other countries, including Libya.
He opposes elections, saying, "The reality is that democracy is something Allah made unlawful, and someone else cannot make it lawful."
As Al-Shabaab came under greater pressure from the African Union force stationed in Mogadishu, Zubayr turned to suicide bombings against civilians. In December 2009, an Al-Shabaab bomber killed 23 people at a university graduation ceremony in Mogadishu.
Some factions inside Al-Shabaab disowned the attack, but Zubayr was unmoved. As a northerner, unlike other Al-Shabaab commanders, he did not belong to a clan in the areas controlled by the group and was therefore less concerned about civilian casualties. According to a confidential U.N. assessment, Zubayr demanded more suicide attacks to supplement conventional fighting.
At least two such suicide attacks have come this year: a May attack on a restaurant popular with foreigners in the city of Djibouti and failed attacks on a presidential compound in Mogadishu.
Read: How Al-Shabaab picks its targets
Zubayr's rejection of negotiations, poor management of military campaigns and the clan system soon led to dissent in Al-Shabaab. According to diplomatic cables in 2009, Zubayr wanted to declare an Islamic caliphate in areas controlled by Al-Shabaab, which included much of central and southern Somalia.
Others in Al-Shabaab's leadership disagreed, saying the group had to gain greater public support before such a move. But fearful of assassination, they kept their counsel. The imposition of brutal Taliban-like law eventually alienated large sections of the population in southern and central Somalia.
One prominent Al-Shabaab member, the American Omar Hammami, said in a video in 2012 that other elements in the group were trying to kill him. He followed up with a series of tweets attacking Zubayr.
"Abu Zubayr has gone mad. He's starting a civil war," he tweeted.
Zubayr responded by ordering the killing of Hammami, who was wounded by a gunshot in April 2013. His intelligence wing caught up with Hammami months later and killed him, just days after he told the Voice of America that Zubayr had "turned Al-Shabaab into an organization that oppresses Muslims in an effort to win control of Somalia."
Even longtime supporters and friends, such as Ibrahim al Afghani, turned against Zubayr, and paid with their lives. Al Afghani was killed in a shootout in June 2013 in the southern town of Barowe.
The Mogadishu source told CNN that prominent figures in Al-Shabaab -- including Sheikh Mukhtar Robow and Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys -- now fear for their lives. Zubayr's purge accelerated during the summer of 2013, leading Aweys to negotiate his surrender to authorities, apparently for his own protection.
After a Kenyan-led military operation pushed Al-Shabaab out of population centers in 2011, pro-al Qaeda hawks within the group gained the upper hand. The loss of the port city of Kismayo, the source of much of Al-Shabaab's income, weakened arguments that the group had too much to lose by embracing al Qaeda's global jihad.
One reason Zubayr has emerged triumphant in these internal battles is that he controls Al-Shabaab's intelligence wing, known as Amniyat, a ruthless entity organized in cells and commanded by Mahad Mohamed Ali, also known as "Karate."
Counterterrorism analysts say that as other units in the group have been weakened, Zubayr has come to rely heavily on Amniyat, which he sees as the kernel for Al-Shabaab's transformation into a regional al Qaeda affiliate.
Zubayr's reliance on force in an organization that has long worked as a loose collective has made him a legion of enemies inside Somalia, and even led to criticism on some jihadist forums sympathetic to al Qaeda.
After the Westgate attack, Kenyan and Western intelligence agencies stepped up efforts to end Zubayr's reign of terror, but it remains unclear if this week's airstrike against him succeeded.
Amanpour blog: What is al-Shabaab's aim in Kenya attack?
CNN's Eliott C. McLaughlin contributed to this report.
Man freed from death row: I forgive
9/3/2014 5:49:27 PM
- "Ain't no anger in my heart. I forgive those people," says Henry McCollum
- DNA evidence frees both him and his half-brother, Leon Brown
- The brothers had been convicted in the rape, murder of an 11-year-old child
(CNN) -- Henry McCollum and Leon Brown walked out of prison free men Wednesday after DNA evidence implicated someone else in the rape and murder of a North Carolina child some 30 years ago.
McCollum, 50, was 19 at the time of his arrest. He was sentenced to death in 1984 and was North Carolina's longest-serving death row inmate. His half-brother, Brown, who is four years younger than McCollum, was initially sentenced to death as well but later had it reduced to life in prison.
"Ain't no anger in my heart. I forgive those people," McCollum told reporters, CNN affiliate WRAL reported.
"I don't like what they done to me and my brother because they took 30 years away from me for no reason, but I don't hate them," he said.
WRAL reported that McCollum left Central Prison, in Raleigh, while Brown left Maury Correctional Institution in Greene County, North Carolina.
The siblings were just teenagers when they were arrested in 1983 and charged with the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in Red Springs, about 30 miles southeast of Fayetteville in rural Robeson County.
Buie's body was found in an area of Red Springs known as something of a "lovers' lane," according to Joe Freeman Britt, the district attorney who prosecuted them in the '80s. The ground was littered with "beer cans, condoms and cigarettes," Britt said.
It was one of those cigarette butts that ultimately set the men free.
DNA found on a cigarette "matched another individual named Roscoe Artis, a convicted rapist and murderer who lived less than 100 yards from where the victim's body was found," said a statement from McCollum's and Brown's attorneys.
Artis is serving a life sentence in a North Carolina prison on a separate conviction. It was not immediately clear whether prosecutors would bring charges against him for Buie's murder.
CNN's Kevin Conlon and Suzanne Presto contributed to this report.
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