ISIS

Senator John McCain secretly visited Syria last weekend to meet with American military officials and discuss the campaign against ISIS. On Wednesday a spokeswoman for the Republican Senator confirmed that McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, made a visit to the Syrian town of Kobani. She said: “Senator McCain traveled to northern Syria last week to visit U.S. forces deployed there and to discuss the counter-ISIS campaign and ongoing operations to retake Raqqa” His trip comes as the Trump administration debates plans for an increased military campaign against ISIS.

Submitted by Judith Bergmann via The Gatestone Institute,

• In Sweden, comments that object to sexual violence against women in the Quran are prosecuted, but calling homosexuality a "virus" is fine.

• Antisemitism has become so socially acceptable in Sweden that anti-Semites can get away with anything, and no one even notices, as Nima Gholam Ali Pour reports.

Saudi Arabia says it is ready to support the United States in its so-called war against ISIS by sending ground troops and special forces to Syria. In an interview with the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung , the Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that other Persian Gulf Arab “countries” were also “ready to allocate forces to fight on the US side,”  adding that there were consultations with the Americans to find out what the plan was and what was needed to implement it.

Via Disobedient Media

In December 2016, Europol released a statement warning that ISIS was likely to soon enact plans to stage large scale terror attacks in multiple states across the EU. The operations have been planned since 2013 but are now being accelerated due to ISIS' territorial losses in the Middle East to coalition forces.

Submitted by Ron Paul via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity,

Just over a week into the Trump Administration, the President issued an Executive Order giving Defense Secretary James Mattis 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. According to the Order, the plan should make recommendations on military actions, diplomatic actions, partners, strategies, and how to pay for the operation.