US Intelligence: ISIS Not Contained

According to a Dec. 6 report in The Daily Beast, an intelligence report commissioned by the White House concluded that ISIS is not contained. Unnamed US officials said that the 8-page report predicts that the self-proclaimed Islamic State will spread worldwide and grow in numbers, unless it suffers a significant loss of territory on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria. The report stands in “stark contrast” to President Obama’s assurances that ISIS had been “contained” in Iraq and Syria, the Beast reports, adding that it’s also a “tacit admission” that ISIS’s efforts at recruiting new fighters is outpacing the US-led coalition’s efforts to contain it in Iraq and Syria. The report, produced by a team of analysts from the CIA, DIA, NSA, and other agencies, is said to be behind Secretary of Defense Ash Carter’s decision to send the “expeditionary targeting force,” made up of special operators, to Iraq that he announced, last week.

All the officials interviewed by the Beast said stepped-up raids and strikes won’t solve the problem, but may damage ISIS enough to make the group less popular and buy time for other necessary steps, such as the political deal-making underway to try to get Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. This is, of course, more of the same disastrous policy of the Obama administration that has created the current catastrophe.