The untold story of Majority leader Aden Duale

Majority leader of National Assembly Republic of Kenya  Hon Aden Duale

To many Kenyans, Leader of Majority in Parliament Aden Duale is the Jubilee government’s foremost defender.

The Garissa Township MP takes on opponents of Jubilee – from the civil society to CORD leaders and governors pushing for more funding for the counties through a referendum – head-on.
His recent spat with Mr Isaac Ruto, the chairman of the Council of Governors, is the latest demonstration of his determination to defend the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

For Kenyans who remember the Kanu regime, Duale is a stark reminder of the sycophants of those days. The likes of politician Peter Oloo Aringo, who at some point referred to then President Daniel arap Moi as the “Prince of Peace”, a title Christians reserve for Jesus Christ.
Duale recently said he was ready to take the bullet for President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto.
But, beneath the sycophancy is a man whose reputation, together with that of some members of his family, is blotted with scandal and accusations. Duale stands accused of land-grabbing and nepotism, while at least one member of his family has been linked to terrorism.
In a story complete with the intrigues of attempted murder, Duale is accused of grabbing a piece of land belonging to Garissa Primary School where he has now built a four-storey building called Lillac Centre.
Those familiar with the story say that sometime in the 1990s, a group of Islamic scholars requested the board of Garissa Primary School for a piece of land to put up a mosque. However, in 2009, Duale asked the mosque’s management to sell him a part of the land.
The mosque’s management committee was split on the issue but a majority of the members opposed the idea, noting that the land still belonged to the school.
One of those who opposed the request was the committee’s chairman, Mr Yussuf Jama, the brother of Garissa County Governor Nathif Jama.
While negotiations were ongoing, Jama was shot outside the mosque by a lone gunman early last year on his way home from evening prayers. He resigned his position soon after.
Who replaced Jama? Mr Dubow Bare Duale, a brother of the Majority Leader. Soon after, the land matter was resolved and Duale allowed to lease the land.
The school has appealed to the National Land Commission to revoke the lease and asked the Ethics the Anti-Corruption Commission to institute proceedings against Duale. But the complaints have not been acted on for Duale has threatened the officers with censure motions if they dare open files against him.
The second questionable deal involves Duale’s acquisition of a piece of land in Nairobi’s Eastleigh, where he has set up the Nomad Hotel.
The land belonged to the Ministry of Livestock where Duale served as an assistant minister and it remains unclear how it changed hands.
Another dark secret Duale has successfully hidden from his Jubilee benefactors and Kenyans is the suspicion that his family could be involved in supporting terrorist activities in North Eastern region and beyond. In fact some in Jubilee tellingly refer to him as the terror donor within the government, a moniker which is pregnant with innuendo.
In April 2013, armed gunmen attacked Kwa Chege Kiosk and killed 10 people. Kwa Chege was an informal eatery, popular with the up-country people and employees of development organisations.
Soon after this incident security officers in the town questioned Duale’s older brother Hassan Bare Duale.
An officer involved in the investigations, but who requested not to be named for fear of his personal security, said:
“There were too many coincidences, which we simply could not ignore. Our intelligence showed that whenever he traveled to a place, say Mombasa, an attack would occur soon after he left. People came to us and told us to connect the dots. We did but we did not come up with any solid proof to charge him. But it is quite telling that after we questioned him, the attacks abated, at least for a while.”
According to security officers, Hassan, a former Administration Police officer, is shielded by his brother Aden’s political clout.
As was reported recently by a section of the local press, a low-level but sustained campaign of intimidation and ethnic cleansing against non-Somalis is under way in Garissa town and neighbouring villages.

Duale is the MP of Garissa Township where most of these attacks have occurred. However, he has never condemned this systematic targeting of a section of Kenyans in his constituency.
In the past, Duale has accused CORD leader Raila Odinga of nepotism for appointing close family members to public positions of influence while he was Prime Minister.
But those who know him well say he is guilty of the same: He is said to have influenced the nomination of his niece, Mariam Hassan, as a Member of County Assembly on his United Republican Party (URP) ticket.
He is also said to have arm-twisted the National Land Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Housing to hire another of his nieces, Fatuma Borrow, as the Lamu County Lands Secretary.
She did not apply for the job in the first place, but her name was on the short list.  She is said to have failed the interview, answering only three out of 10 questions asked by the panelists.
However, Uncle Aden Duale came to her rescue and she got the job that pays her more than Sh400,000 per month.
The Leader of Majority is said to be currently lobbying for another of his brothers, Noor Bare Duale, to be appointed the chairman of the Kenya Revenue Authority. Noor is a businessman with a lucrative tender to supply drugs to government hospitals in the North-Eastern region.
Other accusations revolve around his alleged role in influencing tenders. Mr Duale is accused of ensuring major contracts in his county by the national government are issued to him and his family members.
These include the construction of five polytechnics in Garissa at a cost of Sh150 million each, construction of Garissa Livestock market, which was funded by the World Bank under the Kenya Municipal Program at a cost of Sh125 million. However, the project stalled due to variation of costs by the contractor.
Last year, another company associated with his family, Hagar Construction Company, was given a contract to fence the Garissa Provincial Hospital at a cost of Sh40 million. However, the project which was awarded under the former Ministry of Northern Kenya Development is yet to be completed after the company varied the cost of the contract.
The Duale family has spread its interests beyond the Kenyan borders. Duale’s sister Arfon is a member of Jubaland Parliament in Somalia.
Jubaland is the region in southern Somalia which was created by the Kenyan government as a buffer zone against Al Shabab militants.
Arfon is a close associate of Professor Mohammed Abdi Mohammed, popularly known as Professor Gandhi, the first president of Jubaland and now Somalia’s ambassador to Canada.
She went to the United States around 2008 on a Somali passport as a refugee but came back when the Jubaland government was being put in place.
The family is said to have lobbied Prof Gandhi and the current President of Jubaland Sheikh Ahmed Madobe to have Arfon appointed to the region’s Parliament for its own interests.
The Leader of Majority hails from a wealthy merchant family that owns a plethora of businesses and properties in Garissa, Nairobi and beyond.

But having achieved financial muscle, the family is now keen on consolidating its political clout, not only in Garissa County but also in the former North Eastern province.
Duale’s position as Leader of Majority in Parliament has given him and the family an important platform to establish grassroot links throughout the North Eastern region for future political endeavors.
“The ultimate aim of Aden Duale is not to stick with Jubilee but someday break out from it and form a strong political party for the Somali community and bargain for a higher post in subsequent governments. That is what his family members tell people in public,” said our source.
The question nagging many people is why the President and his deputy are still indulging Duale at the heart of government despite being linked to terrorism, corruption and ethnic profiling of Kenyans. Could he be hiding behind the bravado of being Jubilee’s foremost defender to pool wool over the eyes of his benefactors? And if so, why aren’t the intelligence forces outing him? So many question, so few answers. But hey, this is digital Kenya. Karibu.

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Terror Leader Ahmed Abdi Godane Killed in U.S. Strike: Somali PM

Ahmed Abdi Godane, the leader of the Islamic militant organization behind the siege on a mall in Kenya last year, was killed in a U.S. military strike earlier this week, the prime minister of Somalia said Friday on Facebook. A source also confirmed the death to NBC News.

The U.S. strike on Monday targeted Godane, the leader of al Shabab, but U.S. officials said later they did not know whether he had been killed. The siege last September at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi left 67 people dead and about 200 injured.

“We tell the Somalis that Godane is dead,” Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheik Ahmed said on Facebook, Reuters reported.

A U.S. source earlier this week described Godane as “operationally savvy and ideologically driven, with aspirations off the charts.” The United States in 2012 offered a $7 million reward for his arrest. Godane took leadership of al Shabab after his predecessor was killed in an American airstrike in 2008.

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Alleged mastermind of 3 teens’ killing indicted

The Shin Bet released on Thursday further information about the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in June, including the transfer of money from Gaza to Hebron to fund the triple killing and the failed escape to Jordan of Hussam Kawasme, who allegedly helped bury the three teens on his land and was indicted Thursday in a military court.

Kawasme, 40, was arrested on July 11. He later admitted to his role in the attack and fingered other family members and acquaintances, detailing their role in the June 12 killing of Gil-ad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel, and Eyal Yifrach, after the three Israeli teens were abducted from a hitchhiking post in Gush Etzion in the central West Bank.

The disappearance of the three triggered a massive search operation and crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, with hundreds of members being arrested. Tensions were further ratcheted up after the teens’ bodies were found outside Hebron in late June, and an East Jerusalem teen was allegedly killed by a Jewish Israeli, sparking a 50-day battle between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The two men suspected of carrying out the murders, Marwan Kawasme and Amer Abu-Ayshe, are still at large.

“They’ll make their mistake and we’ll get to them, too,” a senior Shin Bet officer said in a briefing.

Marwan Kawasme (left) and Amer Abu Aysha (right), suspected by Israel of kidnapping and killing three Israeli teens

The officer revealed that the terror attack is believed to have been a local initiative rather than a directive from above, and that, according to Hussam Kawasme’s confession, Marwan Kawasme arrived at his house at one in the morning on the night of the attack and said: “We wanted to kidnap one, we kidnapped three. We got tangled up. We killed them.”

The two men at the heart of the attack were the brothers Hussam and Mahmoud Kawasme. The latter, who lives in Gaza, was released from a 20-year sentence in an Israeli prison for his role in a 2004 suicide attack in Beersheba and exiled, as part of the Gilad Shalit deal, to the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave.

Hussam, whom the Shin Bet said played a “staff officer role” in the attack, asked his brother for, and received, NIS 220,000 ($61,000) in cash in order to fund an attack, the Shin Bet said.

With the money, which was allegedly hand-delivered to Hussam’s mother in envelopes, he bought two rifles and two handguns from Adnan Zaro, 34, of Hebron, and two cars – one for the abduction and one for the escape.

After disposing of the bodies and torching the newly stolen Hyundai i-35 used for the kidnapping, the Shin Bet said, Marwan Kawasme arrived at Hussam’s house and explained the complications in the plan. The two then allegedly decided to retrieve the bodies and to bury them on a plot of land that Hussam had recently purchased.

The Shin Bet said that the land had not been bought for this purpose, 

Hussam helped Marwan and Amar Abu-Aysha, who was not involved in the burial of the bodies, escape and hide on land belonging to Arafat Kawasme, 50, of Hebron, who was initially told that the men were wanted by the Palestinian Authority.

The two reportedly hid in a sewage pit in a field in Hebron for several days and then, after spending a night in the open air under an oak tree, disappeared.

On June 30, once the bodies were found by an Israeli search team, Hussam, the owner of the land, was forced to go on the lam. “He planned to flee to Jordan on a forged document, along with two other family members,” the Shin Bet said. But in an intelligence operation “he was found and arrested in his [East Jerusalem] hiding spot in the refugee camp of Shuafat.”

All told, eight operatives and accomplices allegedly directly related to the crime were arrested. The information they revealed was passed on to the military court system.

Eyal Yifrach, 19, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, 16, the three Israeli teenagers who were seized on June 12 and whose bodies were found on June 30

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More Palestinian land is "appropriated" by Israel, and the world makes the usual excuses

Israel’s ‘land for lives’ is theft. Pure and simple

World View: Israel takes land, Palestine loses land; that’s the way it works

So a bit more of Palestine has slidden down the plughole. A thousand more acres of Palestinian land stolen by the Israeli government –for “appropriation” is theft, is it not? – and the world has made the usual excuses. The Americans found it “counter-productive” to peace, which is probably a bit less forceful than its reaction would be if Mexico were to bite off a 1,000-acre chunk of Texas and decided to build homes there for its illegal immigrants in the US. But this is “Palestine” (inverted commas more necessary than ever) and Israel has been getting away with theft, albeit not on quite this scale – it is the biggest land heist in 30 years – ever since it signed up to the Oslo agreement in 1993.

The Rabin-Arafat handshake, the promises and handovers of territory and military withdrawals, and the determination to leave everything important (Jerusalem, refugees, the right of return) to the end, until everyone trusted each other so much that the whole thing would be a doddle – no wonder the world bestowed its financial generosity upon the pair. But this latest land-grab not only reduces “Palestine” but continues the circle of concrete around Jerusalem to cut Palestinians off from both the capital they are supposed to share with Israelis and from Bethlehem.

It was instructive to learn the Israeli-Jewish Etzion council regarded this larceny as punishment for the murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. “The goal of the murders of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right [sic] to the land,” the Etzion council announced. “Our response is to strengthen settlement.” This must be the first time that land in “Palestine” has been acquired not through excuses about security or land deeds – or on God’s personal authority – but out of revenge.

And it raises an interesting precedent. If an innocent Israeli life – cruelly taken – is worth around 330 acres of land, then an innocent Palestinian life – equally cruelly taken – must surely equal the same. And if even half the 2,200 Palestinian dead of Gaza last month – and this is a conservative figure – were innocent, then the Palestinians presumably now have the right to take over 330,000 acres of Israeli land, in reality much more. But however “counter-productive” this might be, I’m sure America would not stand for it. Israel takes land, Palestinians lose land; that’s the way it works. And thus it has been since 1948, and that is how it will continue.

There will never be a “Palestine” and the latest territorial robbery is merely another small punctuation mark in the book of sorrow which the Palestinians must read as their dreams of statehood wither. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian “President”, Mahmoud Abbas, said his boss and the “moderate forces” in Palestine had been “stabbed in the back” by the Israeli decision, which is putting it mildly. Abbas has a back covered in knife wounds. What else did he expect when he wrote a book about Palestinian-Israeli relations without once using the word “occupation”?

So we’re back to the same old game. Abbas cannot negotiate with anyone unless he speaks for Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority. As Israel knows. As America knows. As the EU knows. But each time Abbas tries to put together a unity government, we all screech that Hamas is a “terrorist” organisation. And Israel says it cannot talk to a “terrorist” organisation which demands the destruction of Israel – even though Israel used to say the same of Arafat and, in those days, helped Hamas to build more mosques in Gaza and the West Bank as a counterweight to Fatah and all the other “terrorists” up in Beirut.

Of course, if Abbas speaks only for himself, Israel will tell him what it has told him before: that without his control of Gaza, Israel has no one to negotiate with. But does it matter any more? There should be a special strap headline above all reports of this kind: “Goodbye, 

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US reportedly targets leader of al-Shabaab with Somalia drone strike

Members of al Shabaab, al Qaeda-linked insurgents, ride in their pick-up trucks after distributing relief to famine-stricken people outside Mogadishu, Somalia

A U.S. drone reportedly targeted the leader of the Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab group in a strike in southern Somalia Monday.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby provided few details about the nature of the operation, the results of which he said were being assessed.

"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," he said in a statement.

A senior Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that a U.S. drone targeted al-Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane as he left a meeting of the group's top leaders. The official told AP that intelligence indicated Godane "might have been killed along with other militants."

The official said that the strike took place in a forest near Sablale district, 105 miles south of Mogadishu, where the group trains its fighters. The governor of Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, Abdiqadir Mohamed Nor, told The Associated Press that as government and African Union forces were heading to a town in Sablale district, they heard something that sounded like an "earthquake" as drones struck al-Shabaab bases.

"There was an airstrike near Sablale, we saw something," Nor said.

The U.S. action comes after Somalia's government forces regained control of a high security prison in the capital that was attacked Sunday by seven heavily armed suspected Islamic militants who attempted to free other extremists held there. The Pentagon statement did not indicate whether the U.S. action was related to the prison attack.

Somali officials said all attackers, three government soldiers and two civilians were killed. Mogadishu's Godka Jilacow prison is an interrogation center for Somalia's intelligence agency, and many suspected militants are believed to be held in underground cells there.

The Somali rebel group al-Shabaab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack that shattered a period of calm in Mogadishu after two decades of chaotic violence. The attack started when a suicide car bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of the prison, followed by gunmen who fought their way into the prison.

It was al-Shabaab gunmen who attacked the upscale Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, with guns and grenades last September, killing at least 67 people. Al-Shabaab had threatened retaliation against Kenya for sending troops into Somalia against the extremists. Godane said the attack was carried out in retaliation for the West's support for Kenya's Somalia invasion and the "interest of their oil companies."

 

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SOMALI WARLORD AGREES TO TALKS, BOOSTS GOVERNMENT PEACE EFFORTS

MOGADISHU - A Somali clan leader who fought for years to retake a strategic southern port city he once controlled has laid down arms and joined talks, bolstering government efforts to show it can restore order to a chaotic nation.

The fate of the city of Kismayu and the surrounding region of Jubbaland is seen as a test of Mogadishu's skill in building a federal system of government and pacifying a nation fought over for more than two decades by warlords and Islamist rebels.

Dozens of people were killed in clashes last year when Barre Hirale's forces battled to regain control of Kismayu from the Ras Kamboni militia loyal to Ahmed Madobe, who had been chosen in May by a regional assembly to preside over Jubbaland.

Hirale and Madobe have for years fought to control the port, which generates valuable revenues from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.

The African Union force AMISOM, which has been involved in reconciliation efforts, said Hirale and nearly 100 members of his militia gave up their weapons on Saturday after discussions with clan elders and Somali federal government delegations.

AMISOM said Hirale also shook hands with Madobe.

The United Nations, the regional African group IGAD and European Union envoys which have supported Mogadishu in brokering a deal welcomed Hirale's agreement to join a reconciliation conference due to take place in coming weeks.

"It is an important step forward in the path towards peace- and state-building for all Somalis," they said in a joint statement on Sunday, when the news about Hirale was announced.

"DEVIL IN THE DETAIL"

Fighting in Kismayu last year raised worries it could re-ignite broader clan warfare across Somalia, where several regions such as Somaliland and Puntland have split away from central government control.

Analysts say breakaway regions may be reassured if the government can show skill in ending the battle for Kismayu and reaching a power-sharing deal to integrate the Jubbaland region into a federal structure.

"While this is significant and important, and certainly a step in the right direction, the devil is in the detail," said Abdi Aynte, director of the Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute for Policy Studies. "There are many potential roadblocks that could eventually see this progress stall."

Some of Kismayu's residents, worn down by years of fighting, were also cautious. Several said many more of Hirale's militia were still hiding in the countryside and could regroup.

"Why did he leave hundreds of his forces and weapons in the forests?" said local elder, Aden Ahmed. "Now it is too early to say if the so-called surrender will improve or worsen the political situation," he told Reuters by telephone from Kismayu.

Hirale ruled Kismayu in the 1990s and into the 2000s until he was unseated by Madobe, who was at the time aligned to the Islamic Courts Union, which ruled Somalia until 2006.

The Islamist militant group al Shabaab then ruled the southern region of Somalia until 2011, when the movement was thrown out of Mogadishu by African troops. It has continued to launch attacks on the capital and elsewhere since then.

Al Shabaab militants attacked a national-intelligence site in Mogadishu on Sunday, an assault that left 12 people dead, including seven of the attackers

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Why radical jihadists are cropping up in Minnesota, leaving to join terrorist groups

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, home of the Twins and the Timberwolves — and the unlikely incubator for a growing number of radical jihadists.
As many as 15 Somali-American men from Minneapolis-St. Paul left home in recent months to enlist with radical groups and join the fighting in Syria, according to the FBI.
“They all had the same issues,” said Mohamud Noor, acting executive director for the Confederation of Somali Communities in Minnesota. “They are young men who are looking and looking for their identity.”
Two of them reportedly turned up dead last week on the same Syrian battlefield far from home: Douglas McAuthur McCain and Abdirahmann Muhumed.
McCain, 33, was a convert to Islam who became increasingly radicalized in the years before enlisting with the terrorist forces of the Islamic State (ISIS), authorities said.
Muhumed, a 29-year-old father of nine, was apparently involved in the same firefight with Free Syrian Army fighters that left McCain dead.
“Allah loves those who fight for his cause,” Muhumed posted on his Facebook page earlier this year. The homegrown terrorist bolted Minnesota in 2012.
But authorities say the issue dates back at least seven years in the region. The most notorious cased involved local man Troy Kastigar converting to Islam and joining the terrorist group al-Shabab.

The group was behind the September 2013 attack that killed 67 people inside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi.
U.S.-born Kastigar, killed in 2009 in Mogadishu, was among the first wave of local men who answered the call to join the jihad in Somalia.
Kastigar was the son of a Native American mom, and changed religions about three years before his death.
“We are concerned how this radicalization and recruitment is being facilitated,” local FBI spokesman Kyle Loven told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “These questions are high priority, and we want to answer them shortly.”
Noor said there are a variety of issues, from poverty to peer pressure.
“Recruitment can happen in many ways,” he said. “This is friends of friends helping each other. That we know for sure.”
NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said last week there were more than 100 American jihadists fighting abroad. Some are from the New York area, raising concerns that radicals could bring terror to our doorstep.
“We are watching that very closely,” he said.

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SOMALIA TAKES KENYA TO U.N. COURT IN OIL RIGHTS ROW

Somalia filed a suit against Kenya at the U.N.'s highest court, seeking to resolve a long-running dispute over lucrative oil reserves in the Indian Ocean.

Somalia asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to determine the maritime boundary between the coastal nations, which disagree about the rights for exploration and collect revenue from oil discoveries.

Somalia asked the court to intervene, saying "diplomatic negotiations, in which their respective views have been fully exchanged, have failed to resolve this disagreement," a statement issued by the court early Friday said.

Somalia has said the row risks deterring multinational oil companies from exploring for oil and gas offshore east Africa.

Kenya recently identified eight new offshore exploration blocks available for licensing, and all but one of them are located in the contested area.

The row could threaten exploration rights that Kenya has granted to oil and gas companies, which have already started exploring in the area.

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Soldiers harassed us in Garissa, say two MPs from Northern Kenya

COMPLAINANT: Garissa womens rep Shukran Gure outside the Garissa police station after recording a statement on alleged harassment by millitary officers on Saturday.

TWO MPs from Northern Kenya on Saturday recorded statements at the Garissa police station over claims they were harassed by military officers manning the Madogo road-block, four kilometres from Garissa town.

Abdullahi Diriye (Wajir South) and Garissa women’s representative Shukran Gure were reportedly stopped by the officers for checking. A source said a heated argument ensued between the officers and the MPs, who said the inspection was done in an “uncivilised manner”.

Addressing the press outside the police station after recording a statement, the MPs promised to take up the matter with higher authorities. “Since when did military officers start manning our roadblocks? This is a complete violation of the Traffic Act. How can they subject us to such humiliation and harassment?” Gure said.

“As much as we support efforts to improve our security, we will not be subjected to harassment and humiliation by the officers.” Gure said the fact that Northern Kenya is a security zone should not be reason enough for the military officers to harass residents.

“If MPs can be subjected to such harassment, what about the people we represent? The government should tell us if we are second class citizens,” Diriye said.

They said their bags and other personal effects were thrown to the ground by the officers during the inspection. During the argument, an officer is alleged to have threatened to shoot the MPs and then turn the gun on himself if they continued arguing.

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ISLAMIC STATE SAYS IT BEHEADED U.S. JOURNALIST

 

Islamic State insurgents posted a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley and images of another U.S. journalist whose life they said depended on how the United States acts in Iraq. The video, titled "A Message To America," presented President Barack Obama with bleak options that could define America’s next phase of involvement in Iraq and the public reaction to it, potentially deepening his hand in a conflict he built much of his presidency on ending. Obama held back from making a public statement about the beheading until the video could be formally authenticated. "If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. The video's grisly message was unambiguous, warning of greater retaliation to come against Americans following nearly two weeks of U.S. air strikes that have pounded militant positions and halted the advance of Islamic State, which until this month had captured a third of Iraq with little resistance. Posted on social media, the video brought a chilling and highly personal tone to a conflict that for many Americans had started to become all too familiar.

 Foley, 40, was kidnapped by armed men on Nov. 22, 2012, in northern Syria while on his way to the Turkish border, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based online publication where Foley had worked as a freelancer. He had reported in the Middle East for five years and had been kidnapped and released in Libya. Steven Sotloff, who appeared at the end of the video, went missing in northern Syria while reporting in July 2013. He has written for TIME among other news organizations. The video injected an unpredictable element into Obama’s deliberations on how far to proceed with U.S. air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, though aides said his vow not to put U.S. combat forces on the ground in Iraq still held. On a Facebook page for Foley, a message from his mother Diane Foley said: "We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people. "We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world." Islamic State had not previously executed American citizens publicly. The video was posted after the United States resumed air strikes in Iraq this month for the first time since the end of the U.S. occupation in 2011.

HOSTAGE HISTORY Hostage crises have plagued U.S. presidents over the years. Jimmy Carter’s presidency sagged under the weight of the Iran hostage crisis when Americans were held captive for 444 days. Ronald Reagan’s bid to get American hostages freed from Lebanon led to an arms-for-hostages Iran-Contra scandal that plagued his second term. University of Virginia political scholar Larry Sabato said the current situation was more akin to the beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl by al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in 2002. He said it could help bolster what appeared to be a growing perception among Americans that the United States will have to be more aggressive in dealing with Islamic State militants. A USA Today/Pew Research Center poll this week showed Americans by 44 percent to 41 percent saying Washington had a responsibility to "do something" about it

"WE ARE AN ISLAMIC ARMY" The Sunni militant group, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in areas it controls, opened the video with a clip of Obama saying he had authorized strikes in Iraq. The words "Obama authorizes military operations against the Islamic State effectively placing America upon a slippery slope towards a new war front against Muslims" appeared in English and Arabic on the screen. It showed black and white aerial footage of air strikes with text saying "American aggression against the Islamic State". A man identified as James Foley, his head shaven and dressed in an orange outfit similar to uniforms worn by prisoners at the U.S. military detention camp in Guantánamo, Cuba, is seen kneeling in the desert next to a man standing, holding a knife and clad head to toe in black. "I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government, for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality," the kneeling man says. The man next to him, in a black mask, speaks in a British accent and says, "This is James Wright Foley, an American citizen, of your country. As a government, you have been at the forefront of the aggression towards the Islamic State."
"Today your military air force is attacking us daily in Iraq. Your strikes have caused casualties amongst Muslims. You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic army, and a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide." Following his statement he beheads the kneeling man. At the end of the video, words on the side of the screen say, "Steven Joel Sotloff", as another prisoner in an orange jumpsuit is shown on screen. "The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision," the masked man says. Syria has been the most dangerous country for journalists for more than two years. At least 69 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict there, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey. More than 80 journalists have been kidnapped in Syria; with frequent abductions, some of which go unpublicised, it is difficult to know exactly how many. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that approximately 20 journalists, both local and international, are currently missing in Syria. Many of them are believed to be held by Islamic State.

 'CRUSADER' AMERICA Islamic State also released a video on Tuesday that gave the strongest indication yet it might try to strike American targets. The video with the theme "breaking of the American cross" boasts Islamic State will emerge victorious over "crusader" America. See also: Islamic State executed 700 people from Syrian tribe: monitoring group It followed a video posted on Monday, warning of attacks on American targets if Washington strikes against its fighters in Iraq and Syria. Islamic State's sweep through northern Iraq, bringing it close to Baghdad and in control of the second city, Mosul, drew U.S. air strikes that helped Kurdish peshmerga fighters regain some territory captured by the Sunni militants. Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive on Tuesday to recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, due to fierce resistance from Islamic State fighters. Buoyed by an operation to recapture a strategic dam from the militants after two months of setbacks, Iraqi army units backed by Shi'ite militias launched their offensive shortly after dawn on Tikrit, a city 130 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad which is a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim minority. But officers in the Iraqi forces' operations room said by mid-afternoon that the advance had stopped. Islamic State has concentrated on taking territory for its self-proclaimed caliphate both in Syria, where it is also fighting the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, and in Iraq.
Coinciding with the Kurdish advances, Damascus government forces have stepped up air strikes on Islamic State positions in and around the city of Raqqa – its stronghold in eastern Syria. Analysts believe Assad - who is firmly in control in the capital more than three years into the civil war - is seizing the moment to show his potential value to Western states that backed the uprising against him but are now increasingly concerned by the Islamic State threat. Islamic State added new fighters in Syria at a record rate in July, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict. About 6,300 men – 80 percent of them Syrian and the rest foreigners – joined last month, Rami Abdelrahman, founder of the Observatory, told Reuter

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