Here is a quote from Obama's speech tonight on ISIS:

“So tonight, with a new Iraqi government in place, and following consultations with allies abroad and Congress at home, I can announce that America will lead a broad coalition to roll back this terrorist threat. Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.

But I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil. This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”

According to John Kerry today, no other country has agreed to put boots on the ground in Iraq or Syria. [More...]

It's ISIS against the world as the countdown begins to Obama's speech on how the U.S. will fight ISIS. Enough details have leaked to already know the basics:

• We will arm and train Syrian rebels like the Free Syrian Army. Training is likely to be in Saudi Arabia, Jordan (and may already be underway.) Saudi Arabia confirmed its support today in a phone call with Obama. Harry Reid has asked Congress to vote on authorizing money for it. Republicans are giving him a hard time. [More...]

Barak Barfi, the spokesman for Steven Sotloff's family, is angry at the White House and speaking out about how Soltoff was kidnapped. Here's the gist of his interview yesterday with Anderson Cooper of CNN (video available at link, it's worth watching):

"For the first time, we can say Steven was sold at the border. Steven's name was on a list that he had been responsible for the bombing of a hospital," Barak Barfi said on "Anderson Cooper 360." "This was false, activists spread his name around."

"We believe that these so-called moderate rebels that people want our administration to support, one of them sold him probably for something between $25,000 and $50,000 to ISIS, and that was the reason he was captured," Barfi told Cooper.

[More...]

According to the British press, authorities are very close to publicly revealing the identification of the masked executioner in the James Foley and Steven Sotloff videos. Listening to CNN on the car radio earlier today, I heard Senator Chambliss say the same thing, and that they may or may not be the same person.

The British killer behind the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff was known to MI5 as a low-level collector for genuine Arab charities based in London. It is believed he moved on to gathering funds for Islamic State warlords before deciding to fight for the twisted cause.

So who is it? [More...]

President Obama will outline the U.S. response to ISIS in a speech on Wednesday. Today on Meet the Press:

“What I want people to understand is that over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum” of the militants, he said. “We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We’re going to shrink the territory that they control. And ultimately, we’re going to defeat them.”

Although Obama said there would be a “military element” to the strategy, he added that “this is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops."

He also said he regrets golfing after the James Foley beheading as it had the "wrong optics." You can watch his interview on the Meet the Press website.

John Kerry addressed the ISIS crisis at the NATO summit conference today, saying:

“They’re an ambitious, avowed, genocidal, territorial-grabbing, caliphate-desiring quasi-state with an irregular army, and leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us.”

But he and other officials made clear that at the moment, any ground combat troops would come from either Iraqi security forces and Kurdish fighters in Iraq, or moderate Syrian rebels opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria. “Obviously I think that’s a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground,” Mr. Kerry said.

So it's not just the U.S. ruling out ground forces, it's all of the western countries. His full statement is here.

Reuters has a really good article about ISIS today, "In Northeast Syria, Islamic State Builds a Government."

Among the many interesting points, it says Baghdadi is calling all the shots, even as to beheadings. He also still fights with the group sometimes. He fought during the Division 17 battle in July to take over a Syriran army base. (He was wounded, but is better now.)

I'll add some more articles throughout the day. What are you reading about ISIS you find worthwhile?

I'm also surprised that no major media has been writing about ISIS military chief Omar Shishani lately, or its chief enforcer, Abu Waheeb (also spelled Wahib.) And no one is trying to figure out who the executioner is any more. Either the Government knows and isn't saying, or they are still not sure. I don't think it is any of the four Brits the media has named, particularly the so-called rapper. He's much more hyper when he speaks and his speech isn't the same.

Again, this is kind of an open thread related to ISIS, and articles you have found helpful and would recommend to others.

The Pentagon announced today Obama has authorized sending 350 more military personnel to Baghdad to secure the embassy.

This builds upon previous embassy security deployments announced on June 15 and June 30 and will bring the total forces responsible for augmenting diplomatic security in Iraq up to approximately 820.

The additional joint forces will come from within the U.S. Central Command area of operations and will include a headquarters element, medical personnel, associated helicopters, and an air liaison team.

In all, 405 U.S. military personnel will be sent to Baghdad to provide a more robust and sustainable security presence to help the Department of State continue their critical mission.

British hostage David Cawthorne Haines, threatened by ISIS in the execution video of Steven Soltoff, is a foreign aid worker and former soldier.

He reportedly was kidnapped on March 12, 2013 near the Atmeh refugee camp in Idlib, Syria. It has been reported he was kidnapped with an Italian aid worker, Federico Motka. Motka was released in May, 2014, after negotiations with the Italian Government and a private security company. Motka had been working for the French non-governmental organisation ACTED. Here is ACTED's statement on his release. According to a spokesperson for a former aid group Haines worked for, he was also working for ACTED at the time of his abduction.

After his release, Motka told a Turkish news agency he had seen the ISIS flag during his captivity. He said he had been tortured and that he was moved six times.

ISIS has released a video (no link here please) that shows Steven Sotloff in the beheading position. It says he has been executed, and a British hostage, David Cawthorne Haines, will be next.

Update: I don't think the video was made at the same time as the Foley video. The executioner mentions the continued bombings "at Amerli, Zumar and the Mosul Dam." Amerli and Zumar hadn't happened when Foley was killed. Also, Sotloff had a shaved head and no beard in the Foley video. In today's video, he has hair and a beard.

President Obama has written Congress explaining his decision to conduct airstrikes on Amerli:

Dear Mr. Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

As I reported on August 8 and 17, 2014, U.S. Armed Forces have conducted targeted airstrikes in Iraq for the limited purposes of stopping the advance on Erbil by the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), supporting civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar, and supporting operations by Iraqi forces to recapture the Mosul Dam. U.S. Armed Forces have also provided humanitarian assistance to the civilians trapped on Mount Sinjar.

On August 28, 2014, I further authorized U.S. Armed Forces to conduct targeted airstrikes in support of an operation to deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians in the town of Amirli, Iraq, which is surrounded and besieged by ISIL. Pursuant to this authorization, on August 30, 2014, U.S. military forces commenced targeted airstrike operations in the vicinity of Amirli, Iraq. These additional operations will be limited in their scope and duration as necessary to address this emerging humanitarian crisis and protect the civilians trapped in Amirli.

[More...]

Via Reuters, we have been spending $7.5 million a day in Iraq since mid-June. That's a total to date of about $532 million.

U.S. military operations against Islamic State in Iraq have cost an average of $7.5 million per day since they began in mid-June, the Pentagon said on Friday, a figure that means the department has spent more than $500 million on the conflict.

Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told a briefing the expense of U.S. operations against Islamic State in Iraq had varied since U.S. forces became involved on June 16 but on average "it's costing us about $7.5 million per day."

Reuters says according to analysts, the U.S. has been spending $1.3 billion per week on Afghanistan.