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Monday, June 30, 2014

Cheat Sheet - ISIS Just Risked Everything

Read This, Skip That ....

June 30, 2014
ALL IN
On Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) made its boldest move yet by declaring the reformation of the caliphate, a historical religious state that once stretched across the Islamic world. The pronouncement of the caliphate may ultimately prove to be a costly one for ISIS, writes J.M. Berger.
GONE ROGUE

The State Department official tasked with investigating Blackwater's conduct in Iraq says a manager at the private security contractor threatened to murder him. In a newly published memo dated August 31, 2007, Jean C. Richter, the chief investigator, claimed that Daniel Carroll, a Blackwater project manager, told him "that he could kill" him and "no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq." While he was in Baghdad, Richter began to find serious failings in Blackwater's conduct, but he says the U.S. embassy stepped in to back up Blackwater and sent him back to America. Once home, he reported that Blackwater created "an environment full of liability and negligence" whose "contractors saw themselves as above the law." Two weeks later, Blackwater agents shot dead 17 civilians, including a child, in Baghdad's Nisour Square, a watershed shooting that has severely damaged U.S. and Iraqi relations.

CHILL OUT

The man newly tasked with taking the reins of the National Security Agency seems remarkably relaxed about the infamous Edward Snowden leaks. New director Adm. Michael S. Rogers said that despite the damage caused by the renegade NSA contractor, he was calm. "You have not heard me as the director say, 'Oh, my God, the sky is falling,'" he said. "I am trying to be very specific and very measured in my characterizations." He was also realistic about the potential for leaks in the future, saying he will never claim with "100 percent certainty" that a determined insider couldn't "compromise our systems."

FALSE PROPHET
Mark Driscoll helped found a megachurch that boasts 12,000 weekly attendees and wrote a New York Times bestseller. Now, his controversial evangelical empire is crumbling thanks to plagiarism charges, reports Warren Throckmorton.
VICTORY
The man who engineered Senator Thad Cochran's surprising victory over Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel explains how he did it. Stuart Stevens writes it wasn't black Democrats who propelled Cochran to victory but something entirely more simple.

NEW DIRECTION
Obama Taps Big Business Exec to Lead VA
No more retired generals.
SORRY NOT SORRY
Facebook Defends Experimenting on Users
Without them knowing.
NIGHTMARE VACATION
North Korea to Indict Two U.S. Tourists
For "hostile acts."
MAKING WAVES
Israel Backs Independent Kurdish State
Wants military presence in West Bank.
STICK TO SHAMU
48 Stuck in Mid-Air on SeaWorld Ride
For four hours.
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