ISIS threatens to kill Obama

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ISIS To Obama: 'We Will Cut Off Your Head In The White House'
Business Insider By Jeremy Bender
22 hours ago
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.ISIS video
Screenshot/MEMRI An ISIS militant threatening to behead President Obama.
ISIS militants have threatened to behead Obama in the White House in a video released on Jan. 26.

The video shows ISIS militants standing in the streets of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, following an artillery barrage on the city by Kurdish Peshmerga forces. In front of the militants is seated a Kurdish soldier who is executed at the end of the video.

Prior to the Kurdish soldiers execution, the ISIS executioner delivered a message in Kurdish which was subtitled into Arabic in the video.

"Know, oh Obama, that we will reach America. Know also that we will cut off your head in the White House and transform America into a Muslim province," the militant says a ccording to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The militant then continues his threat against other Western nations, saying "And this is my message to France and its sister, Belgium. We advise you that we will come to you with car bombs and explosive charges and we will cut off your heads."

The video appeared to be a response by ISIS against a multitude of setbacks it has faced in the past week. On Jan. 26, ISIS fighters withdrew from the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobani after a failed four-month siege in which the militant group lost as many as 1,500 fighters.

Simultaneously, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces have started conducting operations aimed at dislodging ISIS from Mosul, the crown-jewel of ISIS' reign in Iraq. Kurdish forces have launched rockets into Mosul in an attempt to target ISIS militants while US forces have regularly conducted airstrikes in the region outside the city.

In retaliation for the strikes, the ISIS militants ended their video by executing the Kurdish soldier.

The militants also included a warning for Kurdistan President Barzani: " This is one of your soldiers' fate, and every time you launch a missile, we will send you back the head of one of your soldiers."

[Zaune]

Yeah... good luck with that, guys.

[Ralin]

I find their confidence admirable?

[The Romulan Republic]

The threat to kill Obama is barely newsworthy. Of course they'd like to kill him, but its just empty posturing. If ISIS actually attacked the White House, they'd be slaughtered, and they'd be unlikely to ever reach Obama.

[Ralin]

I do sort of wonder what exactly the Secret Service's contingency plan for several dozen armed Islamic militants storming the White House is. I'm sure there is one.

[Broomstick]

Are these guys aware that Obama will only continue to be President until January 2016?

As for the rest - sure, they can try it. Good luck with that. Given what happened when some asshats fucked up a few acres in NYC what do you think the reaction would be if someone crashed the White House and executed the PotUS?

[The Romulan Republic]

Frankly, I'm more worried about the hyper overreaction from Americans that would likely follow such an attack (see the spying, torture, Iraq war, and Islamophobia after 911) than the damage ISIS could actually do. ISIS can certainly kill people in small scale attacks and ruin Iraq and Syria, and that's horrible, but globally they're a paper tiger.

Edit: Assholes couldn't even take Kobani.

[The Vortex Empire]

What would the US reaction to that be? Immediate re-invasion of Iraq and ISIS-held Syria?

[The Romulan Republic]

For a large-scale attack on the White House aimed at killing Obama (which would likely result in American law enforcement/Secret Service casualties and possibly dead politicians)? Quite possibly.

Which is probably what ISIS wants. It would be much easier to kill American troops when they're on the ground rather than in planes.

Edit: Of course I'm simply speculating. But their would obviously be a major response.

[Zaune]

As for the rest - sure, they can try it. Good luck with that. Given what happened when some asshats fucked up a few acres in NYC what do you think the reaction would be if someone crashed the White House and executed the PotUS?

Honestly, at this point I think there are non-negligible factions in the United States Congress who would unironically state that maybe this means ISIS aren't so bad after all.

[aerius]

You do realize that the US doesn't hold a monopoly on drone strikes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/us/wh ... .html?_r=0
Drunken dude flew a drone right onto the White House grounds.
A larger drone could probably carry enough of a payload to do the job.

[Simon_Jester]

I do sort of wonder what exactly the Secret Service's contingency plan for several dozen armed Islamic militants storming the White House is. I'm sure there is one.

Probably the same as their plan for one Islamic militant storming the White House: bullets and locked doors.

Only, have several dozen times more bullets, and several dozen times stronger locks.

There's really no way for a light infantry assault to succeed in capturing someone that well protected unless it's delivered on a scale of manpower you could never smuggle into a foreign country anyway.

You do realize that the US doesn't hold a monopoly on drone strikes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/28/us/wh ... .html?_r=0
Drunken dude flew a drone right onto the White House grounds.
A larger drone could probably carry enough of a payload to do the job.

A drone big enough to do the job with any reliability would be big enough to be a target for Stinger missile launchers (which I suspect the Secret Service has camped out on the roof), and possibly for the capital air defenses (which are pretty zealous about no-fly zones from what I recall).

[Elheru Aran]

It's quite probable there is a significant weapons supply tucked away about the White House for precisely such an event; the White House has Marine guards as well as the Secret Service. After this recent incident with a drone, don't be surprised if any recreational drones that overfly the White House's grounds get peremptorily shotgunned. Really, there are far easier and less clumsy ways to take a shot at the President. Find out somehow where he will be and set up with a scoped rifle to pull another Lee Harvey Oswald, for example-- but that depends on finding out where he will be, and good luck with that...

[Raw Shark]

Honestly, at this point I think there are non-negligible factions in the United States Congress who would unironically state that maybe this means ISIS aren't so bad after all.

Yeah, this was kind of my first thought: "Shit, how do the current Republicans in Congress and about 1/3 of my game group even respond to this without losing major face with somebody important to them?"

[Zaune]

Really, there are far easier and less clumsy ways to take a shot at the President. Find out somehow where he will be and set up with a scoped rifle to pull another Lee Harvey Oswald, for example-- but that depends on finding out where he will be, and good luck with that...

If not that, there's always the option of trying to redecorate the Oval Office with a barrack buster like the IRA tried to do to John Major in 1991.

And I'm going to shut up now for fear of giving people ideas.

[SCRawl]

I don't want to be a bummer, but we shouldn't be speculating about the best way to assassinate a head of state.

[Elheru Aran]

Realistically, the odds are quite good that this is nothing more than the usual extremist blather. Certainly ISIS wishes mortal harm to POTUS; that's part of their whole shtick. But apart from that, the odds that they actually have a potentially successful plan to actually strike at Obama or attack the White House are extremely low. While threats should always be noted, in all likelihood this is not something that would be a high priority to the current government apart from quietly increasing internal surveillance activities.

Zaune: The Oval Office is a long way away from the street. Unlike London and European cities, there are no buildings closer than a couple of blocks to the White House, and the property it's situated on is very large. Odds are quite good that the building is fairly well reinforced; the windows are definitely bulletproof. Traffic around it is severely limited, and police presence is rather robust. Suspicious vehicles would be stopped and detained quite speedily. For highly obvious reasons, this is one of the most secure properties in the United States.

[Captain Seafort]

Zaune: The Oval Office is a long way away from the street. Unlike London and European cities, there are no buildings closer than a couple of blocks to the White House, and the property it's situated on is very large. Odds are quite good that the building is fairly well reinforced; the windows are definitely bulletproof. Traffic around it is severely limited, and police presence is rather robust. Suspicious vehicles would be stopped and detained quite speedily. For highly obvious reasons, this is one of the most secure properties in the United States.

Apart from the range issue, all of these and more apply to NI during the Troubles. Unless the US army routinely has half-platoon patrols roving DC. The barrack-buster was so named because it was designed to break heavily fortified RUC GC police stations.

Of course, if ISIS has the sort of presence in DC that the Provos had in Belfast Or even the mainland) during the Troubles, then a few holes in the White House are the least of your problems.

[Themightytom]

I would imagine most of the President's political opponents would probably take the opportunity to declare a crusade against Muslims. It would probably start with just extremists, and countries known to harbor them, and I would also imagine that countries with known ISIS groups would start falling over themselves to let the US wipe them out but... it would escalate. There are very few things that i think could happen to cause Armageddon, but yeah... this is probably one of them.
Russia has been belligerent, China has been non cooperative, an enraged US on the international scene is exactly what we DON'T need.

[Broomstick]

As for the rest - sure, they can try it. Good luck with that. Given what happened when some asshats fucked up a few acres in NYC what do you think the reaction would be if someone crashed the White House and executed the PotUS?

Honestly, at this point I think there are non-negligible factions in the United States Congress who would unironically state that maybe this means ISIS aren't so bad after all.

While there are plenty of Americans who despite Obama as a person/ethnic category/Democratic/whatever else they're pissed about those same individuals would be absolutely enraged at an attack on the White House itself, and the office of the President.

[Elheru Aran]

As for the rest - sure, they can try it. Good luck with that. Given what happened when some asshats fucked up a few acres in NYC what do you think the reaction would be if someone crashed the White House and executed the PotUS?

Honestly, at this point I think there are non-negligible factions in the United States Congress who would unironically state that maybe this means ISIS aren't so bad after all.

While there are plenty of Americans who despite Obama as a person/ethnic category/Democratic/whatever else they're pissed about those same individuals would be absolutely enraged at an attack on the White House itself, and the office of the President.

However hypocritical people can be about patriotism when they're entangled in all kinds of scumminess that undermines the Constitution, there are certain highly public principles that you don't undermine without very strong reasons. The White House is a bipartisan national political and historical monument, and whatever they may think/say about Obama, the Presidency itself is still valued-- even if their only real motive for valuing it is to engage in wishful thinking about achieving the same position... but yes, if the highly improbable happened, you'd see an outpouring of "God bless Barack, we were maybe not the greatest of friends but we always stood by each other" etc. Even Fox News would find a way to say something good about him.

[Ralin]

As for the rest - sure, they can try it. Good luck with that. Given what happened when some asshats fucked up a few acres in NYC what do you think the reaction would be if someone crashed the White House and executed the PotUS?

Honestly, at this point I think there are non-negligible factions in the United States Congress who would unironically state that maybe this means ISIS aren't so bad after all.

While there are plenty of Americans who despite Obama as a person/ethnic category/Democratic/whatever else they're pissed about those same individuals would be absolutely enraged at an attack on the White House itself, and the office of the President.

I imagine their subsequent attempt to turn America into a Muslim province would help with that.