democratic congresswoman and president of the woodrow wilson international center sfr scholars jayne harmon. the kill iing of jihady john, t victory in sinjar, those are significant developments, but i don t think we have to go overboard and say it s turning the tide. i agree, it s too early to put the banner that says mission accomplished on top of the aircraft carrier. and in sinjar they have to hold it. they with respearen t the domin fighters. it was the peshmerga that won the battle with our air cover. i don t know where this goes. we still have to get raqqa, ramadi and continue the raids. there s a lot of other stuff going on. sinjar is important because it s on that road from raqqa, the so-called capital of the islamic state. which they still control the second largest city in iraq.
killing of jihady john seen in the videos beheading americans and hostages? big deal. it s not confirmed. i think the cia wants to make sure we don t know what the sources and methods were of finding him, so they are reluctant to put out proof. but i don t think they would be advertising this if it weren t fairly certain. it s a big deal because he killed americans and could kill more. so stopping him personally matters, but it sends a signal we re out looking for these guys. there were plenty of others out there, rick, beyond jihady john. he spoke english well and had a flare, but there are a lot of others who could come in and fill that gap. he was the face of isis. he was that brutal face we saw