Syria

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United States Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, March 27, 2014. The draft resolution of the U.N. General Assembly on Ukraine is "confrontational in nature", Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said on Thursday, March 27. "Russia&#8217;s attitude towards the proposed draft resolution is negative. It is confrontational in nature," he said before the vote in the U.N. General Assembly. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Obama needs no U.N. approval to order airstrikes in Syria, ambassador says

By Valerie Richardson - The Washington Times

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with members of the National Security Council in the Situation Room of the White House, Sept. 10, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama’s war advisers not instilling confidence on Islamic State strategy

By Rowan Scarborough - The Washington Times

President Lyndon B. Johnson (right) confers with his secretary of defense, Robert McNamara. (AP Photo/ File)

FEIN: Obama echoes LBJ on Vietnam

By Bruce Fein

FILE - In this undated file image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, a Syrian opposition group, on Monday, June 30, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, fighters from the Islamic State group sit on a tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. The Islamic State group is often described as the most fearsome jihadi outfit of all: a global menace outweighing al-Qaida, with armies trembling before its advance. But while the group has been successful at seizing parts of Iraq and Syria, it is no unstoppable juggernaut. (AP Photo/Raqqa Media Center, File)

Canada begins revoking passports of citizens who join Islamic State

By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times

Wolf Blitzer (Getty Images) **FILE**

CURL: Islamic State a deadly threat to America? More like politics as usual

By Joseph Curl

President Obama speaks before the United Nations. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Obama vows to ‘rally the world’ against Islamic State at U.N. in ‘moment of American leadership’

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times

Freed Turkish hostages arrive at the airport in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Dozens of Turkish hostages seized by Islamic militants in Iraq three months ago were freed and safely returned to Turkey on Saturday ending Turkey&#8217;s most serious hostage crisis. The 49 hostages were captured from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Iraq on June 11, when the Islamic State group overran the city in its surge to seize large swaths of Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo)

Islamic State releases 49 hostages from Turkey

By Suzan Fraser - Associated Press

In this Sept. 10, 2014 photo, Ana and John Conley, parents of defendant Shannon Conley, exit the U.S. Federal courthouse following their daughter's plea hearing, at the U.S. Federal Courthouse, in Denver. Shannon Conley, a 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who federal authorities say intended to wage jihad has pleaded guilty under a deal that requires her to give authorities information about others with the same intentions. With foreign fighters from dozens of nations pouring into the Middle East to join the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations, U.S. officials are putting new energy into trying to understand what radicalizes people far removed from the fight and into prodding countries around the world to do a better job of keeping them from joining up. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

A look at American jihadis: Why do they fight?

By DEB RIECHMANN - Associated Press

This Monday, Sept. 15, 2014, photo shows bas-relief inscriptions at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. When the Islamic State group overran the northern city of Mosul and surrounding Ninevah province in June, they captured a region were nearly 1,800 of Iraq’s 12,000 registered archaeological sites are located. They snapped up even more as they pushed south toward Baghdad. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Militants threaten ancient sites in Iraq, Syria

By Sinan Salaheddin - Associated Press

LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Defeat of ISIS requires working with Syria

By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

FILE- This undated image posted by the Raqqa Media Center, a Syrian opposition group, June 30, 2014, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, shows fighters from the al-Qaida linked Islamic State group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. President Barack Obama presses ahead with his campaign to diminish and defeat Islamic State group extremists in Iraq and Syria, but the list of radical Islamic elements the United States and many of its coalition allies are fighting does not stop there. (AP Photo/Raqqa Media Center- File)

White House says Syrian rebels require ‘many months’ to train

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times

FILE - This June 18, 2014 file-pool photo shows U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers waiting for new arrivals in the intake area where hundreds of mostly Central American immigrant children are being processed and held at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Nogales Placement Center in Nogales, Ariz. The Obama administration has released into the U.S. an untold number of immigrant families caught traveling illegally from Central America in recent months _ and although the government knows how many it&#8217;s released, it won&#8217;t say publicly. Senior U.S. officials directly familiar with the issue, including at the Homeland Security Department and White House, have so far dodged the answer on at least seven occasions over two weeks, alternately saying that they did not know the figure or didn&#8217;t have it immediately at hand. &#8220;We will get back to you,&#8221; the Homeland Security deputy secretary said Friday. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File-Pool)

ISIS could use ‘loose’ immigration system to enter U.S.: Immigration officer

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Minutes after the Senate voted to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against the Islamic State militant group, the administration signaled that it is poised to expand its air campaign into Syria, opening a new geographic front in the war on terrorism. President Obama said, "These terrorists thought they could fight us, or intimidate us, or cause us to shrink from the world, but today they're learning the same hard lesson of petty tyrants and terrorists who've gone before." (Associated Press)

Obama given green light to battle ISIS in renewed war on terrorism

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Hagel reiterated that if the Islamic State militants are left unchecked, they will threaten the United States and its allies. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Hagel: Obama has ‘constitutional and statutory authority’ to wage war on ISIL

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

In this Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014 photo, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Speaking to a small group of reporters after meeting with his French counterpart on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014 in Paris, Dempsey said it will take three or four months to begin the $500 million training program, which the House approved on Wednesday and sent to the Senate, where members of both parties predicted easy passage. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

US: Syrian rebel training may take 12 months

By ROBERT BURNS - Associated Press

John Kerry takes go-slow approach on revoking passports

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

President Barack Obama addresses the nation from the Cross Hall in the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. In a major reversal, Obama ordered the United States into a broad military campaign to &#8220;degrade and ultimately destroy&#8221; militants in two volatile Middle East nations, authorizing airstrikes inside Syria for the first time, as well as an expansion of strikes in Iraq. (AP Photo/Saul Loeb, Pool) **FILE**

O’DONNELL: Russia is the phantom foe in Syria

By Christine O’Donnell

FILE- In this June 2, 2014, file photo provided by the Monroe County Sheriff's Office Mufid Elfgeeh, of Rochester, N.Y., is shown. Elfgeeh, who was accused of plotting to kill members of the U.S. military and others, is now facing new charges that he tried to aid the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo/Monroe County Sheriff's Office, File)

NY man denies plotting to aid Islamic State group

Associated Press

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 22, 2014, file photo, a sign is posted at a checkpoint belonging to the Islamic State group, captured from the Iraqi Army, at the main entrance of Rawah, 175 miles (281 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, Iraq. Arabic reads, "Islamic State, the Emirate of Anbar, City of Rawah." The U.S. and its allies are trying to hammer out a coalition to push back the Islamic State group in Iraq. But any serious attempt to destroy the militants or even seriously degrade their capabilities means targeting their infrastructure in Syria. That, however, is far more complicated. If it launches airstrikes against the group in Syria, the U.S. runs the risk of unintentionally strengthening the hand of President Bashar Assad, whose removal the West has actively sought the past three years. Uprooting the Islamic State, which has seized swaths of territory in both Syria and Iraq, would potentially open the way for the Syrian army to fill the vacuum. (AP Photo, File)

Seeking war powers, Obama now ties Islamic State to al Qaeda

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times

White House Press secretary Josh Earnest speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014. Earnest spoke about French President Francois Hollande's agreement to provide air supporter in Iraq to bolster its fight against the Islamic State group fighters. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Obama: Troops in Iraq will shoot back if fired upon by Islamic State

By Dave Boyer - The Washington Times