RSN: You Won't Like It, but Here's the Answer to ISIS

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FOCUS: Peter Van Buren | You Won't Like It, but Here's the Answer to ISIS 
 
Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch 
Van Buren writes: "How can we stop the Islamic State? Imagine yourself shaken awake, rushed off to a strategy meeting with your presidential candidate of choice, and told: 'Come up with a plan for me to do something about ISIS!' What would you say?" 
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RSN: Only Sanders, Not Clinton or Trump, Has Right Plan to Defeat ISIS

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FOCUS: Only Sanders, Not Clinton or Trump, Has Right Plan to Defeat ISIS

H.A. Goodman, The Hill
Goodman writes: "There's a reason Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says 'I'll be damned' if the U.S. leads the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The repercussions of perpetual wars upon American veterans and their families have resulted in tremendous sacrifice. This sacrifice unfortunately has not led to a decrease in terror or stability in the Middle East."
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here's a reason Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says "I'll be damned" if the U.S. leads the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The repercussions of perpetual wars upon American veterans and their families have resulted in tremendous sacrifice. This sacrifice unfortunately has not led to a decrease in terror or stability in the Middle East, so before addressing why Sanders has the right plan to destroy ISIS, let's analyze the costs of war.

Because of his work as chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee, Sanders witnessed how the military conflicts espoused by President George W. Bush, and Democrats like Hillary Clinton, continue to affect American soldiers and their families. In Congress, Sanders has fought for the same people whom we send to fight America's enemies. For this reason, he recently won the Congressional Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The human cost of both the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars have been paid by a small percentage of Americans within an overstretched U.S. military. Multiple tours of duty and Americans fighting longer than ever before have resulted in a "higher than believed" suicide epidemic, as USA Today noted. Thus far, 4,494 Americans have died in Iraq, while 32,223 Americans have been wounded. Ignoring his stance prior to winning the White House, President Obama recently sent more Americans to Iraq in order help Iraqis fight ISIS.

As for Afghanistan, Obama decided to prolong the war that already resulted in 2,372 Americans dead and 17,674 wounded. Rebecca Ruiz of Forbes explains the magnitude of both conflicts in a piece titled "A Million Veterans Injured In Iraq, Afghanistan Wars."

How much did both wars cost? Both wars might easily exceed $6 trillion.

What's been the cost of fighting ISIS thus far? We've already spent $2.4 billion fighting ISIS, and now Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump both want to increase spending and resources. Trump is open to more U.S. ground troops in Syria, but has yet to elaborate on the cost and impact upon our military. Clinton has called for America to "intensify and broaden" efforts, but ignores the legacy of her Iraq War vote or bombing of Libya.

Failed policies and tough rhetoric from Republicans and Democrats like Clinton have led to foreign policy disasters. These debacles helped foster the creation of groups like ISIS. When Clinton unveiled her strategy to defeat ISIS at the Council on Foreign Relations, she failed to mention the consequences of her Iraq vote.

As noted by the Council on Foreign Relations, "[Abu Musab al-]Zarqawi's successors rebranded AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] as the Islamic State of Iraq and later, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) ... reflecting broadened ambitions as the 2011 uprising in Syria created opportunities for AQI to expand." Al Qaeda in Iraq was "rebranded" ISIS, and while Clinton's supporters simply point out that she's called her vote a "mistake," it's clear that our invasion of Iraq resulted in a great many unintended consequences.

Most importantly, Sanders wants to ensure that our battle against terror doesn't create even more instability, or an increase in the number of terrorist organizations. Sanders understand how ISIS and similar groups wage war. The primary goal of groups like ISIS is to lure America into asymmetric wars that mitigate our military advantages; submarines and nuclear weapons can't defeat improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or insurgents hiding in apartment buildings. The willingness of Sanders to move beyond the traditional American paradigm of continual war, in the hopes of ending continual terror, is why Sanders has the right formula to defeat ISIS.

In contrast, Clinton helped further the structural roots of regional instability by accepting $10 million to $25 million from Saudi Arabia for the Clinton Foundation, even with the country's human rights abuses and Saudi links to terror groups. What's even more baffling is that Clinton herself has already acknowledged the Saudi links to funding terror. According to a CBS News article, "WikiLeaks: Saudis Largest Source of Terror Funds," Clinton clearly acknowledged Saudi support for the same groups we've been targeting for years:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged U.S. diplomats to do more to stop the flow of money to Islamist militant groups from donors in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi government, Clinton wrote, was reluctant to cut off money being sent to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan.

"More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," according to the memo signed by Clinton.

Although Clinton supporters will no doubt ignore the relevance of this State Department memo, the fact remains that the Clinton Foundation accepted millions from Saudi Arabia. These donations were accepted, even as Clinton believed Saudis had a link to funding terrorist organizations.

As for Clinton's willingness to overlook Saudi funding of terrorism, another troubling aspect of this relationship pertains to weapons deals. According to Mother Jones, the former secretary of State oversaw weapons deals to various nations shortly after they donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation:

In 2011, the State Department cleared an enormous arms deal: Led by Boeing, a consortium of American defense contractors would deliver $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite concerns over the kingdom's troublesome human rights record. In the years before Hillary Clinton became secretary of [S]tate, Saudi Arabia had contributed $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, and just two months before the jet deal was finalized, Boeing donated $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to an International Business Timesinvestigation released Tuesday.

The Saudi transaction is just one example of nations and companies that had donated to the Clinton Foundation seeing an increase in arms deals while Hillary Clinton oversaw the State Department.

While the FBI's investigation of Clinton’s emails has dominated news, it's the curious timing of donations to the Clinton Foundation (as well as subsequent weapons deals) that undermine her overall plan to defeat ISIS. Defeating ISIS can't be done when a president has financial ties to a country that's linked to its creation. The Guardian's Patrick Cockburn explains Saudi links to ISIS in "Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country." Former MI6 agent Alistair Crooke also explains the Saudi/ISIS link in his piece titled "You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia."

In contrast, Sanders calls for Middle Eastern nations to lead the fight against the terrorist groups in their backyard. Sanders is also the only presidential candidate to criticize Saudi Arabia for suggesting U.S. troops against ISIS and states, "With the third largest military budget in the world and an army far larger than ISIS, the Saudi government must accept its full responsibility for stability in their own region of the world." Focusing the responsibility of destroying ISIS upon regional powers is the right thing to do, especially since American wars have resulted in numerous unintended consequences.

After the horrific attacks in Paris, Sanders explained that "the fight against ISIS is a struggle for the soul of Islam, and countering violent extremism and destroying ISIS must be done primarily by Muslim nations." While Hillary Clinton echoed the same talking points (in a slightly less bellicose tone) as Trump, Ben Carson and other Republicans candidates, Sanders focused on long-term strategy.

As for Syria, the same people who advocated the Iraq War are at it again. Clinton and others have called for the ouster of Bashar Assad in Syria, but nobody has explained who will replace Assad once he's gone. In addition, nobody has explained why we've sent Americans to Syria, even though America has recently scrapped a $500 million program (that Clinton once supported) to arm the Syrian rebels. Like Iraq after Saddam Hussein, and Libya after Moammar Gadhafi, Clinton continues to ignore the lessons of history.

Bernie Sanders rightfully states that Americans shouldn't continue to be sent to "quagmires in the Middle East." In terms of overall strategy, only Sanders demands that Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries intensify their fight against ISIS. It's this road map that will defeat ISIS, not the hawkish rhetoric of Clinton or Trump, and Sanders is once again on the right side of history. It's time to let Middle Eastern nations lead the fight against terror, and with Sanders as president, America won't repeat the mistakes of the past, or succumb to a reactionary foreign policy. After all, the primary goal of ISIS, al Qaeda and other terrorists is to lure us into endless Middle Eastern quagmires.

 http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/34002-focus-only-sanders-not-clinton-or-trump-has-right-plan-to-defeat-isis

RSN: Who Pays the Real Cost of Exxon's Climate Deception?, Protests Erupt After Black Man Shot by Police in Minneapolis, There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS

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Charles Pierce | There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS 
 
Charles Pierce, Esquire 
Pierce writes: "These are things that will not solve the terrible and tangled web of causation and violence in which the attacks of Friday night were spawned. A 242-ship Navy will not stop one motivated murderous fanatic from emptying the clip of an AK-47 into the windows of a crowded restaurant." 
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We must hold accountable our Middle Eastern "allies"—the states and bankers and political elites—who persist in funding mass murder.

here was a strange stillness in the news on Saturday morning, a Saturday morning that came earlier in Paris than it did in Des Moines, a city in Iowa, one of the United States of America. The body count had stabilized. The new information came at a slow, stately pace, as though life were rearranging itself out of quiet respect for the dead. The new information came at a slow and stately pace and it arranged itself in the way that you suspected it would arrange itself when the first accounts of the mass murder began to spread out over the wired world. There has been the predictable howling from predictable people. (Judith Miller? Really? This is an opinion the world needed to hear?) There has been the straining to wedge the events of Friday night into the Procrustean nonsense of an American presidential campaign. There will be a debate among the three Democratic candidates for president in Des Moines on Saturday night. I suspect that the moderators had to toss out a whole raft of questions they already had prepared. Everything else is a distraction. It is the stately, stillness of the news itself that matters.

The attacks were a brilliantly coordinated act of war. They were a brilliantly coordinated act of pure terrorism, beyond rhyme but not beyond reason. They struck at the most cosmopolitan parts of the most cosmopolitan city in the world. They struck out at assorted sectors of western popular culture. They struck out at sports, at pop music, and at simple casual dining. They struck out at an ordinary Friday night's entertainment. The attacks were a brilliantly coordinated statement of political and social purpose, its intent clear and unmistakable. The attacks were a brilliantly coordinated act of fanatical ideological and theological Puritanism, brewed up in the dark precincts of another of mankind's monotheisms. They were not the first of these. (The closest parallel to what happened in Paris is what happened in Mumbai in 2008. In fact, Mumbai went on alert almost immediately after the news broke.) They, alas, are likely not going to be the last.

The stillness of the news is a place of refuge and of reason on yet another day in which both of these qualities are predictably in short supply. It is a place beyond unfocused rage, and beyond abandoned wrath, and beyond unleashed bigotry and hate. It is a place where Friday night's savagery is recognized and memorialized, but it is not put to easy use for trivial purposes. The stillness of the news, if you seek it out, is a place where you can think, sadly and clearly, about what should happen next.

These are a few things that will not solve the terrible and tangled web of causation and violence in which the attacks of Friday night were spawned. A 242-ship Navy will not stop one motivated murderous fanatic from emptying the clip of an AK-47 into the windows of a crowded restaurant. The F-35 fighter plane will not stop a group of motivated murderous fanatics from detonating bombs at a soccer match. A missile-defense shield in Poland will not stop a platoon of motivated murderous fanatics from opening up in a jammed concert hall, or taking hostages, or taking themselves out with suicide belts when the police break down the doors. American soldiers dying in the sands of Syria or Iraq will not stop the events like what happened in Paris from happening again because American soldiers dying in the sands of Syria or Iraq will be dying there in combat against only the most obvious physical manifestation of a deeper complex of ancient causes and ancient effects made worse by the reach of the modern technology of bloodshed and murder. Nobody's death is ever sacrifice enough for that.

Abandoning the Enlightenment values that produced democracy will not plumb the depths of the vestigial authoritarian impulse that resides in us all, the wish for kings, the desire for order, to be governed, and not to govern. Flexing and posturing and empty venting will not cure the deep sickness in the human spirit that leads people to slaughter the innocent in the middle of a weekend's laughter. The expression of bigotry and hatred will not solve the deep desperation in the human heart that leads people to kill their fellow human beings and then blow themselves up as a final act of murderous vengeance against those they perceive to be their enemies, seen and unseen, real and imagined. Tough talk in the context of what happened in Paris is as empty as a bell rung at the bottom of a well.

Francois Hollande, the French president who was at the soccer game that was attacked, has promised that France will wage "pitiless war" against the forces that conceived and executed the attacks. Most wars are pitiless, but not all of them are fought with the combination of toughness and intelligence that this one will require. This was a lesson that the United States did not learn in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001. There are things that nations can do in response that are not done out of xenophobic rage and a visceral demand for revenge. There are things that nations can do in response that do not involve scapegoating the powerless and detaining the innocent.  There is no real point in focusing a response on the people whose religion makes us nervous. States should retaliate against states.

It is long past time for the oligarchies of the Gulf states to stop paying protection to the men in the suicide belts. Their societies are stunted and parasitic. The main job of the elites there is to find enough foreign workers to ensla…er…indenture to do all the real work. The example of Qatar and the interesting business plan through which that country is building the facilities for the 2022 World Cup is instructive here. Roughly the same labor-management relationship exists for the people who clean the hotel rooms and who serve the drinks. In Qatar, for people who come from elsewhere to work, passports have been known to disappear into thin air. These are the societies that profit from terrible and tangled web of causation and violence that played out on the streets of Paris. These are the people who buy their safety with the blood of innocents far away.

It's not like this is any kind of secret. In 2010, thanks to WikiLeaks, we learned that the State Department, under the direction of then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, knew full well where the money for foreign terrorism came from. It came from countries and not from a faith. It came from sovereign states and not from an organized religion. It came from politicians and dictators, not from clerics, at least not directly. It was paid to maintain a political and social order, not to promulgate a religious revival or to launch a religious war. Religion was the fuel, the ammonium nitrate and the diesel fuel. Authoritarian oligarchy built the bomb. As long as people are dying in Paris, nobody important is dying in Doha or Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest source of funds for Islamist militant groups such as the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba – but the Saudi government is reluctant to stem the flow of money, according to Hillary Clinton. "More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups," says a secret December 2009 paper signed by the US secretary of state. Her memo urged US diplomats to redouble their efforts to stop Gulf money reaching extremists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. "Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," she said. Three other Arab countries are listed as sources of militant money: Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The cables highlight an often ignored factor in the Pakistani and Afghan conflicts: that the violence is partly bankrolled by rich, conservative donors across the Arabian Sea whose governments do little to stop them. The problem is particularly acute in Saudi Arabia, where militants soliciting funds slip into the country disguised as holy pilgrims, set up front companies to launder funds and receive money from government-sanctioned charities.

It's time for this to stop. It's time to be pitiless against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west. Money trails should be followed, wherever they lead. People should go to jail, in every country in the world. It should be done state-to-state. Stop funding the murder of our citizens and you can have your money back. Maybe. If we're satisfied that you'll stop doing it. And, it goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway – not another bullet will be sold to you, let alone advanced warplanes, until this act gets cleaned up to our satisfaction. If that endangers your political position back home, that's your problem, not ours. You are no longer trusted allies. Complain, and your diplomats will be going home. Complain more loudly, and your diplomats will be investigated and, if necessary, detained. Retaliate, and you do not want to know what will happen, but it will done with cold, reasoned and, yes, pitiless calculation. It will not be a blind punch. You will not see it coming. It will not be an attack on your faith. It will be an attack on how you conduct your business as sovereign states in a world full of sovereign states.

And the still, stately progress of the news from Paris continues. There are arrests today in Brussels, of alleged co-conspirators. The body count has stabilized. New information comes at its own pace, as if out of respect for the dead. In the stillness of the news itself, there is refuge and reason and a kind of wounded, ragged peace, as whatever rolled up from the depths of the sickness of the human heart rolls back again, like the tide and, like the tide, one day will return.

Protests Erupt After Black Man Shot by Police in Minneapolis
Amy Forliti, Associated Press 
Forliti writes: "A Minnesota agency is investigating the shooting by a Minneapolis police officer of a black man suspected in an assault, an incident that sparked protests and prompted a community forum with the mayor and police chief." 
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Mosque Protests Turn Vicious: After Paris Attacks, Muslims Brace for a Backlash They Always Knew Was Coming 
Ismat Sarah Mangla, International Business Times 
Mangla writes: "For many Muslims living in the United States and Europe, it has become an all-too-familiar scenario: A terrorist organization like ISIS or al Qaeda commits a savage act claiming hundreds of lives, people in both mainstream and social media finger Islam as the ultimate culprit." 
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Close Guantanamo and Return It to Cuba 
Marjorie Cohn, teleSUR 
Cohn writes: "President Obama has yet to fulfill the promise he made in his January 22, 2009 executive order to shutter Guantanamo 'no later than one year from the date of this order'- but he has the constitutional power to shut down the prison and return Guantanamo to Cuba." 
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Syrian Refugee Puts Paris Attacks Into Perspective in One Simple Sentence 
Beenish Ahmed, Think Progress 
Ahmed writes: "According to conservative estimates, about 210,060 people have died in Syria since civil war engulfed the country four years ago. That means that an average of 144 people in Syria have died each day, at least half of them civilians." 
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Missouri State Senator Seeks to Block University of Missouri Student's Dissertation on Abortion Regulations 
Jonathan H. Adler, Washington Post 
Adler writes: "Sen. Kurt Schaefer seeks to block a University of Missouri student's dissertation on abortion regulations. Missouri law currently prohibits the use of tax dollars to encourage a woman to have an abortion unless it is 'necessary to save her life.'" 
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Who Pays the Real Cost of Exxon's Climate Deception? 
Dr. Keely Bloom, EcoWatch 
Bloom writes: "New York state attorney general Eric T. Schneiderman is investigating ExxonMobil to determine whether the corporation lied to the public about climate change, or to investors about the risks to the oil industry. A subpoena was issued last Wednesday, demanding extensive financial records, emails and other documents." 
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RSN: Suppressed EU Report Could Have Banned Pesticides Worth Billions

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Andy Borowitz | Obama's New Popularity Could Force Congressional Democrats to Admit to Knowing Him

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "After months of denying ever having been in the same room as the President, some Democrats are tentatively rethinking that position now that his approval rating has hit fifty per cent, the staffer said."
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Venezuela: A Coup in Real Time
Eva Golinger, CounterPunch
Golinger writes: "There is a coup underway in Venezuela. The pieces are all falling into place like a bad CIA movie."
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Defeating ISIS is 'Unattainable' and 'Unrealistic', Says Former Pentagon Chief Robert Gates
Ben Kamisar, The Hill
Kamisar writes: "Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Sunday called President Obama's goal to destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) 'unrealistic' and warned that ground troops may be needed to 'roll back ISIS.'"
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Egyptian Court Sentences 183 People to Death, Including 34 In Absentia
Reuters
Excerpt: "An Egyptian court has sentenced 183 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death as authorities continue to crack down on Islamists."
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Commission: Mexico has 'Serious Problem' with Disappearances
Maria Verza, AP
Verza writes: "Mexico has a 'serious problem' with disappearances and lacks a comprehensive national list of the missing to effectively deal with the problem, according to a report the country's National Human Rights Commission will present Monday to the U.N."
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John B. Geer Had Hands Up When Shot by Police, Four Officers Say in Documents
Tom Jackman, The Washington Post
Jackman writes: "John B. Geer stood with his hands on top of the storm door of his Springfield, Va., townhouse and calmly said to four Fairfax County police officers with guns pointed at him: 'I don't want anybody to get shot ... And I don't wanna get shot, 'cause I don't want to die today.'"
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Suppressed EU Report Could Have Banned Pesticides Worth Billions
Arthur Neslen, The Guardian
Neslen writes: "As many as 31 pesticides with a value running into billions of pounds could have been banned because of potential health risks, if a blocked EU paper on hormone-mimicking chemicals had been acted upon, the Guardian has learned."
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RSN: Goal to End Fossil Fuels by 2050 Proposed at Lima Climate Talks, Why the Founding Fathers Thought Banning Torture Foundational to the US Constitution, Palestinian Minister Killed by ISF at Protest in West Bank

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Juan Cole | Why the Founding Fathers Thought Banning Torture Foundational to the US Constitution

Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "The Bill of Rights of the US Constitution is full of prohibitions on torture, as part of a general 18th century Enlightenment turn against the practice."
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I Can't Be Forgiven for Abu Ghraib
Eric Fair, The New York Times
Fair writes: "I was an interrogator at Abu Ghraib. I tortured."
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Tens of Thousands Protest Against Irish Water Charges
Padraic Halpin, Reuters
Halpin writes: "At least 30,000 people marched on the Irish parliament on Wednesday in a third day of mass protests against new water charges that have spurred the biggest opposition movement since the financial crisis erupted in 2008."
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Kerry: Don't Block Ground Troops vs. ISIS
Martin Matishak, The Hill
Matishak writes: "Secretary of State John Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that any measure authorizing the use of military force (AUMF) against Islamic militants should not ban the use of U.S. ground forces."
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Palestinian Minister Killed by ISF at Protest in West Bank
Al Jazeera America
Excerpt: "A minister in the Palestinian Authority, Ziad Abu Ein, has died after being beaten by Israeli security forces and inhaling tear gas during a protest in the occupied West Bank, witnesses say."
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Two-Thirds of Americans Want Congress to Grant States "Safe Haven" from Federal Marijuana Enforcement
Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post
Ingraham writes: "Americans overwhelmingly want the federal government to keep its hands off of state-level marijuana regulations."
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Goal to End Fossil Fuels by 2050 Proposed at Lima Climate Talks
Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch
Pantsios writes: "A draft negotiating text was circulated yesterday at the UN climate summit in Lima, Peru that would cut carbon emissions to zero by 2050, earlier than many other proposals, and could spell the end of the fossil fuel industry. It's one of the most ambitious proposals to come out of the conference."
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RSN: St. Louis Protests Tensions Run High

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WHO WILL STEP UP FOR READER SUPPORTED NEWS? The October fundraiser is lagging badly. Who is going to step up here? We need your help. In Peace and Solidarity. Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

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Andy Borowitz | North Korean Government Reassures Citizens it Has Deep Bench of Brutal Madmen

Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker
Borowitz writes: "As the mystery surrounding the absence of dictator Kim Jong-un deepens, the North Korean government on Wednesday issued an official statement reassuring its citizens that it had 'a deep bench of brutal madmen.'"
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GOP Voter ID Law Gets Crushed: Why Judge Richard Posner's Ruling Is so Amazing
Brad Friedman, The Brad Blog
Friedman writes: "If you read just one top-to-bottom dismantling of every supposed premise in support of disenfranchising Photo ID voting restrictions laws in your lifetime, let it be this one."
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Registers at 1,200 Kmart Stores Infected With Malware That Collected Card Info for a Month
BBC News
Excerpt: "In a statement, Kmart said the security breach was discovered on 9 October and that the malware had been operating since early September."
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St. Louis Protests Tensions Run High
Chris McGreal, Guardian UK
McGreal writes: "Frustration and anger among young black Americans at an older generation’s apparent failure to adequately respond to the killing of Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson upended a key event at a weekend of mass protest on Sunday."
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Kurds Describe Fierce Battles on Streets of Kobani
Ryan Lucas, Associated Press
Lucas writes: "They have been battered by tanks shells and mortars, and picked off by snipers using American-made rifles. They have no answer for the heavy weapons that Islamic State fighters have looted from Iraqi and Syrian army bases."
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Left-Wing Israeli Public Figures Urge British Parliament to Recognize Palestine
Tovah Lazaroff, The Jerusalem Post
Lazaroff writes: "Some 363 Israeli left-wing public figures including former Knesset members called on the British Parliament to recognize the state of Palestine when it debates the matter in London on Monday."
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Leonard Pitts Jr. | Public's Rights Getting Slowly Pared Back
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald
Pitts writes: "One’s sense of righteous vindication is tempered by the fact that police felt free to try this absurd stratagem in the first place -- and by the fact that this was hardly the only recent example of police using the Constitution for Kleenex."
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RSN: Why the Current Approach Against ISIS Will Fail, Colorado School Board Scraps Plan to Teach Students Whitewashed View of U.S. History After Uproar

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James Bamford | The NSA and Me

James Bamford, The Intercept
Bamford writes: "My goal was to draw attention to the dangers the agency posed if it is not closely watched and controlled-dangers that would be laid bare in stark detail by Edward Snowden years later."
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Colorado School Board Scraps Plan to Teach Students Whitewashed View of U.S. History After Uproar
Jack Healy, The New York Times
Healy reports: "A battle over teaching American history that stirred student protests and kindled a debate about censorship in schools reached an emotional climax on Thursday night."
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Scott Ritter | Why the Current Approach Against ISIS Will Fail
Scott Ritter, Reader Supported News
Ritter writes: "The key to victory over the Islamic State is to be able to get at what is, figuratively and literally, inside the building."
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Tweet: Ferguson Grand Jury, 'No Evidence to Indict Darren Wilson'
Associated Press
Excerpt: "Prosecutors are investigating a Twitter post claiming that grand jurors hearing evidence in the police shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old near St. Louis haven't seen enough evidence to justify prosecuting the officer."
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Atul Gawande | The Ebola Epidemic Is Stoppable
Atul Gawande, The New Yorker
Gawande writes: "What is disturbing, though, is that the hospital's initial mistake is hardly unusual in our health system. Other hospitals might not have been any better prepared to avoid it."
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Pope Francis Expected to Win Nobel Peace Prize Over Poverty Focus
Mikael Holter, Bloomberg News
Holter reports: "A Japanese group seeking to preserve pacifism in the Asian nation's constitution and Pope Francis, who has made the fight against poverty a focus of his tenure, are among the top contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize."
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Japan Braces for 300-Mile-Wide Typhoon
Sky News Weather
Excerpt: "And after dozens of deaths following three previous typhoons in Japan this year, forecasters say further devastation is possible."
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RSN: How to Make ISIS Fall on Its Own Sword, Republicans Unanimously Block Equal Pay for Women Bill

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Chelsea Manning | How to Make ISIS Fall on Its Own Sword

Chelsea Manning, Guardian UK
Manning writes: "Based on my experience as an all-source analyst in Iraq during the organization's relative infancy, Isis cannot be defeated by bombs and bullets - even as the fight is taken to Syria, even if it is conducted by non-Western forces with air support."
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Pentagon: US Ground Troops May Join Iraqis in Combat Against ISIS
Spencer Ackerman, Guardian UK
Ackerman writes: "The Pentagon leadership suggested to a Senate panel on Tuesday that US ground troops may directly join Iraqi forces in combat against the Islamic State (Isis), despite US president Barack Obama's repeated public assurances against US ground combat in the latest Middle Eastern war."
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Millions of Americans' Wages Seized Over Credit Card and Medical Debt
Chris Arnold, NPR and Paul Kiel, ProPublica
Excerpt: "Millions of Americans are still grappling with debt they've accumulated since the recession hit. And new numbers out Monday show many are having a tougher time than you might think. One in 10 working Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 are getting their wages garnished. That means their pay is being docked - often over an old credit card debt, medical bill or student loan."
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Detroit Leaves Water on in Abandoned Homes, Cuts It off for Families With Children
Joel Kurth, The Detroit News
Kurth writes: "Water from the house next door ran for more than two years before it was turned off in the burned out, boarded building on Monica near Fenkell. Its bill: $25,708. 'How in the world do you allow a bill to build like that? Then to go after me for less than $190?' asked Foster, 52, who paid his $188 bill and avoided a shutoff. 'It's totally ludicrous the way Detroit runs its water system.'"
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Here's What Happened When 13 States Raised the Minimum Wage (Hint: Job Growth Didn't Implode)
Danny Vinik, New Republic
Vinik writes: "It's very rare these days to hear any good news about wages of low-income Americans. But Elise Gould, of the Economic Policy Institute, delivered exactly that in a report at the end of August."
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Republicans Unanimously Block Equal Pay for Women Bill
Bryce Covert, ThinkProgress
Covert writes: "After allowing the Paycheck Fairness Act to move forward last week, Senate Republicans turned around on Monday evening and unanimously voted to block the bill, which would ban salary secrecy and tighten rules to try to narrow the gender wage gap."
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Fighting the Fracking Barons
Nina Bunker Ruiz, YES! Magazine
Ruiz writes: "Energy companies are seeking permits to explore natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Mora County. But the area's traditional livelihoods, farming and ranching, rely on clean, healthy rivers and streams."
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