Good day my friends and welcome to the briefing……

Item 1–Recently a story showed up that ISIS was kidnapping Syrian Christians…..

The Islamic State group released at least 19 Christians today who were among the more than 220 people the militants took captive in northeastern Syria last week, activists and a local leader said. The news provided a modicum of relief to a Christian Assyrian community that has been devastated by the abductions, which saw ISIS fighters haul off entire families from a string of villages along the Khabur River in Hassakeh province. But fears remain over the fate of the hundreds still held captive. A senior official in the Assyrian Democratic Organization said the 16 men and three women arrived safely today at the Church of the Virgin Mary in Hassakeh. He said the 19—all of them from the village of Tal Ghoran—had traveled by bus from the ISIS-held town of Shaddadeh.

The question to ask now is…..To what end is this offer of humanity?

Item 2–Seems that US backed rebels are not fairing well in Syria……

The first of several US-armed Syrian rebel groups to show off their newly acquired heavy weaponry to the CIA, the Hazm Movement has today announced its dissolution.

The Hazm fighters had been a target of al-Qaeda in recent months, with al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front targeting them in retaliation for US airstrikes. The group had lost virtually all of its bases and is now simply giving up outright.

The statement says that what fighters remain and intend to continue their involvement in the rebellion will be joining the Shamiyah Front, which is an alliance of several Islamist factions active in Aleppo.

Hopefully this does not crap on the plan to arm “moderate” rebel groups…..

Item 3–Iraq and the Us are at odds about the Tikrit offensive…….

Tensions between Iraq and the United States over how to battle the Islamic State broke into the open on Tuesday, as Iraqi officials declared that they would fight on their own timetable with or without American help, and as United States warplanes conspicuously sat out the biggest Iraqi counteroffensive yet amid concerns over Iran’s prominent role.

On Monday, Iraq launched a politically sensitive operation to oust Islamic State militants from Tikrit, the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, without seeking American approval, officials said. Even as Iraq was taking a first step into a bigger battle to oust the Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, it was also signaling that its alliance with the United States might be more fraught than officials had let on.

This could be a bigger issue as the fight against ISIS gets larger and more intense.

Item 4–US is losing most of its ‘moderate’ rebel groups….but there is a plan to change that…..

The dissolution of the Hazm Movement, one of the last US-armed “moderate” rebel factions in northern Syria, has created a paucity of factions for the US to throw weapons at, at a time when the Pentagon is talking up the creation of a huge moderate force.

Enter al-Qaeda? It’s hard to imagine, but Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper is insisting now that moderates are “anyone who is not affiliated with ISIS,” and that the only obstacle to arming such groups are the international rules of law.

AQ  a moderate rebel group?  I want whatever it is they are smoking.

Item 5–All the talk in DC and the American people seldom get to hear the proposals…..here is one the MSM should have reported but did not……

Testifying today at the House Appropriations Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said it was likely that US ground troops would “eventually” be needed in the ISIS war inside Syria.

Gen. Dempsey, who has been talking up the idea of US combat forces on the ground in Iraq, insisted that “moderate” Syrian rebels might need direct US military backing, with special forces as well as close-air support, to challenge ISIS.

Hang on to your cajones……yet another Middle East country that we may need to occupy…..sound good to you?

Item 6–Finally….ISIS is chomping at the bit to engage US troops…….this newest offensive may give them an excuse…….

IS appears to be planning, or hoping, to challenge the United States in a ground fight in the vast areas of Iraq and Syria. IS believes that no matter how strong and numerous US regular forces are, they will not be able to win against its trained irregular fighters who have been confronting Iraqi forces in northwestern Iraq. The organization wants a repeat of the battle of Fallujah in 2004, when the United States failed to overwhelm the militia fighters in the city and lost a number of Marines before retreating. With the quantitative and qualitative progress it has made, IS envisions causing even greater losses among US troops.

Direct participation by US forces in a war against IS would be used to provide legitimacy to IS propaganda portraying the fighting as evidence of the ongoing Western crusade against Islam. This could help the group mobilize more supporters in majority Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in the West. It could also help expand the combat zone by activating IS cells to carry out attacks in the West and eventually lead Western states to withdraw from the region, enabling IS to impose its will.