Since 2011

Gabe Fleisher, Editor-in-Chief

wakeuptopolitics@gmail.com ● wakeuptopolitics.com ● @WakeUp2Politics

THIS IS YOUR WAKE UP CALL

Steven Sotloff inside Al-Fateh

Mosque in Manam, Bahrain;

October 2010. Photo from

Time.com.

Headline

ISIS Kills Second American Journalist

A video posted by the Islamic State group

Tuesday, the authenticity of which was confirmed

by President Barack Obama early this morning,

showed the beheading by the group of American

journalist Steven Sotloff, the second video of the

same gruesome scene.

The first showed Sotloff’s fellow freelance war

reporter James Foley, and was posted August 19 in

the same manner, with a black-clothed executioner

that killed both Foley and Sotloff. As with the first

video, the latest one opened with a clip of

President Obama discussing ISIS, before Sotloff

appears in an orange jumpsuit. “A Second

Message to America” then shows Sotloff speaking

to the camera criticizing U.S. intervention in the

Middle East, before the ISIS executioner blames

the president for not ending military strikes. The

first video warned of Sotloff’s killing if the United

States did not end the strikes.

Sotloff, like Foley, “went to Syria to tell a story,” said Joel Simon, the

executive director of CPJ.

“They were civilians, not representatives of any government. Their murders

are war crimes and those who committed them must be brought to justice

swiftly,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect

Journalists (CPJ), condemning the “pure barbarism” of killing those who

“went to Syria to tell a story”.

Early this morning, at a joint press conference with Estonian President

Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Estonia, President Barack Obama followed with

this theme, saying, “Overnight, our government determined that tragically,

Steven [Sotloff] was taken from us in a horrific act of violence.”

“Like Jim Foley before him, Steve’s life stood in sharp contrast to those who

murdered him so brutally,” Obama continued. “They make the absurd claim

that they kill in the name of religion, but it was Steven, his friends say, who

deeply loved the Islamic world. His killers try to claim that they defend the

oppressed but it was Steven who traveled across the Middle East risking his

life to tell the story of Muslim men and women demanding justice and

dignity.”

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) has already announced plans to introduce

legislation giving the President authority to bomb ISIS forces in Syria.

Nelson is planning to introduce the bill after Congress returns from a month-

long recess Monday.

“This will ensure there’s no question that the president has the legal

authority he needs to use airstrikes in Syria,” Nelson said Tuesday, before

the killing of Steven Sotloff was even confirmed. “We must go after ISIS

right away because the U.S. is the only one that can put together a coalition

to stop this group that’s intent on barbaric cruelty.”

In remarks this morning, President Obama made clear that further military

action was being considered, and that the United States was not intimidated

by the threats of ISIS: “Whatever these murders think they’ll achieve by

killing innocent Americans like Steven, they have already failed,” he said.

“They failed because, like people around the world, Americans are repulsed

by their barbarism, we will not be intimidated.”

Steven Joel Sotloff was 31 years old as an ISIS video showed the group

killing him Tuesday, and had already become a seasoned Middle East

reporter after years of work in the region, reporting for Time Magazine, the

Christian Science Monitor, the Daily Caller, Foreign Policy, and the World

Affairs Journal. A freelance reporter, Sotloff was cought crossing the Syrian

border from Turkey, and abducted by ISIS in August 2013. His life was

threatened in the video, one year later, showing the execution of James

Foley, telling President Barack Obama that the journalists fate would be

decided by the President’s “next move”.

Days later, the United States ramped up airstrikes against the Islamic State

Group (also known as ISIS or ISIL), and the SITE Intelligence Group

discovered the release of yet another video by ISIS today. The scene of “A

Second Message to America” was set the same as the first video, with an

ISIS executioner wearing all black. Kneeling in an orange jumpsuit the

second time, instead of James Foley, was Steven Joel Sotloff.

White House Watch

The President’s Schedule Today, the President is still in Estonia ahead of

the NATO summit in Wales.

Following Estonian local time, President Obama participate(s/d) in an

official arrival ceremony today; meets and holds a press conference with the

President of Estonia; sits down with the Estonian Prime Minister; holds

another meeting with the Estonian President, but this time along with the

Presidents of Latvia and Lithuania as well; speaks at Nordea Concert Hall;

receives a NATO Reassurance briefing; and travels to Wales.

Obama Sends 350 More Troops to Iraq President Obama has authorized

the Pentagon for 350 more troops in Iraq.

A statement last night announced that these troops would not “serve a

combat role,” but rather protect the U.S. embassy in Iraq.