Posted on 08/21/2014 9:36:12 AM PDT by markomalley
Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf on Wednesday condemned the beheading of American journalist James Foley by Islamic terrorists, but she also stated that the ISIS threat “is not about the United States and what we do.”
Harf spoke after President Obama told the nation that “governments and peoples across the Middle East” should come together in a “common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread.” He then went golfing.
"I think ISIL wants to make this about the United States and our actions. And I think what the President was trying to say was that this is not about the United States and what we do. This is about countries in the region coming together to fight a shared threat, and this is not about us."
Foley, captured in Syria in 2012, was brutally murdered by the militant Islamic group ISIS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who then posted a video showing the beheading on YouTube and threatened to kill more Americans if the United States tries to intervene in Iraq.
Obama said Foley’s murder “shocks the conscience of the entire world.”
Harf told reporters there was “no justification” for Foley’s murder, but she couldn’t say how President Barack Obama plans to respond to ISIS now that they have murdered a U.S. citizen.
When pressed by reporters for details on what the United States expects from the other governments in the Middle East, Harf refused to go into specifics on how the administration is working with other countries to eliminate the threat posed by ISIS.
“Clearly there’s more we can all do to fight ISIL,” she said.
Harf also emphasized the administration’s view that ISIS does not accurately represent the religion of Islam as a whole.
“ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better,” Harf said.
Harf reiterated the Obama administration’s ongoing stance against “boots on the ground,” saying that combating ISIS includes focusing on cutting off the group’s funding and resources. As to whether future actions would include rescue operations or the use of military personnel, Harf said she could not comment.
The day after ISIS released footage of the murder, Obama put on a jacket and appeared before the TV cameras in Martha’s Vineyard to give a brief statement condemning ISIS:
"One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL has no place in the 21st century,” the president said, adding the United States will be “vigilant” and “relentless” in pursuing justice for the slain journalist.
ISIS, now fighting to establish its own state stretching from Syria through Iraq, has left a trail of terror in dozens of cities, indiscriminately killing anyone who does not subscribe to their extremism, including fellow Muslims, Christians and ethnic minorities.
Reports of beheaded children, mass executions and thousands of displaced citizens fleeing the violence have become regular occurrences as the Islamist group works its way toward the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.
Foley is the first American to be killed by ISIS in Iraq.
In the video showing Foley’s murder, ISIS threatened to kill another captive U.S. journalist, Time magazine contributor Steven Soltoff, unless Obama halts the airstrikes he ordered this month against the group.
The video also warned Obama that his actions “will result in the bloodshed of your people.”
During his brief address, the president sought to separate the jihadist group from the larger religion of Islam.
"ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents,” the President said. “No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. People like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future is won by people who build and not destroy.”
As ISIS began closing in on the Iraqi city of Erbil, where the United States has a consulate and many U.S. personnel, President Obama ordered “limited” air strikes against the group, but he has so far refused to deploy troops on the ground to combat the ISIS threat.
So, why were the Muslim Brotherhood allied with ISIS, then?
Marie Barf is a valley girl, like, you know, all the dumb chicks in the San Fernando Valley.
If this isn’t about the US, then we can allow ISIS representatives into the US and have dinner with them, right?
I know I hate that. Obama is supposed to be brilliant, an eloquent speaker. Yet, they are always interpreting what he “tried”, or “meant” to say.
I think that is why she is tere, to make sure no one is listening. My husband does the same thing, turns the channel every time he sees her face.
Is 'Harf' a combination of "hurl" & "barf" ;?
Word is that they put lipstick on Foley’s lips, glasses over his eyes, and a brown wig on his head. They kept referring to him as “Marie” and were yelling HARF HARF HARF before beheading him.
““...And I think what the President was trying to say.”
They need to fire TOTUS.
I think what the POTUS and Ms Harf are trying to say is that those Muslims who are saying convert or die are not TRUE Muslims. They are merely Muslims in name only. So which Muslims are which and is there a special sign for identifying such?
I now know why I’ve never been inclined toward journalism. If I were in the audience and listening to this string of intentional lies, shadings and half truths, I’d be compelled to interrupt, go up onto the stage and correct every word coming out of her mouth. Shameful.
Is it not about the US State Dept ARMING the “rebels”
and ISIS?
This is so bad that even Chris “Tingles” Matthews gets it.
Tingles said the President of the US can’t allow Americans to be murdered with impunity and that this killing was an act of war by a ‘state’. He also said the President must take direct action against these people.
This may get interesting. Defending President Castrati’s position will be difficult.
Deputy State Department spokesperson Marie Harf...when the State Department hires, do they advertise “Only Idiots Need Apply”?
Never mind what the Islamonazi with the knife said in his own damn snuff video.
FUBO
Now that one of their own gets beheaded, they want to be known as American again?
Harf is the sound a cat makes when it coughs up a fur ball.
Factually inaccurate. ISIS proudly and loudly operates in the name of Islam.
If you like, you can assert that it doesn't represent "true Islam."
But in doing so you're getting perilously close to the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
““ISIL does not operate in the name of any religion. The president has been very clear about that, and the more we can underscore that, the better,” Harf said. “
BS! Obama is a Muslim and simply does not want people thinking badly about IS(IS) and Islam.
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