Him hostage. Shes begging them not to hold her son accountable for u. S. Government actions against isis. And the national lead, a terrible accident or terrible negligence . A 9yearold girl will have to grow up knowing she killed a man after an uzi was put in her after an uzi was put in her hands. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com good afternoon, everyone. Isis has beheaded one american and disgustingly shown it on tape. Theyre believed to be holding at least three other americans hostage. Theyve sucked still other americans into their web of sick and twisted ideology. Theyve been called, quote, beyond anything weve seen before by the defense secretary chuck hagel and now a u. S. Official has said that president obama okayed surveillance flights to gather intelligence on isis in syria, but as our pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reports, u. S. Airstrikes on isis targets in syria as weve seen in iraq, they are not a sure thing. Desperate iraqis again on the run from isis. This time minority turkmen in Northern Iraq under siege for weeks. People desperate for food, water and above all, safety. The u. S. Military is prepared to potentially expand operations to air drop humanitarian supplies and bomb isis positions to help break its grip here if president obama orders it. Across the border in syria, no decision yet by the white house on whether to begin air strikes against isis strong holds inside syria. I would not at this point set up a timeframe for a president ial decision. Reporter president obamas critics, as expected, impatient. Can i just say that with the secretary of defense and the chairman of joint chiefs talk about how this is a huge threat this is and the biggest weve ever seen, et cetera and then and theres nothing to follow that up because theres no strategy. For now, pentagon drones continue flying inside iraq looking into syria for possible future targets including isis con voice, weapons, personnel, anything that could be hit to stop the momentum as a Capable Military force. Its Critical Military intelligence needed first before the president is expected to make a decision about ordering air strikes. And if we could locate insurgent trucks, humvees, armored vehicles, tanks, mort mortars, artillery, air vibing would be most effective eliminating those pieces of the isis arse fall. The reality of the air strikes also settling in. Its not a panacea to destroying the group because it will simply melt into the areas it already controls and then comes the much more difficult problem of how to root them out. Reporter Defense Department officials are making the case that air strikes can only do so much. Generally, they can break the momentum of an enemy force, but they cannot stop it. Jake . Barbara starr at the pentagon. Thank you so much. A followup to the story we told you yesterday about the american jihady fighting for isis, Douglas Macarthur mccain. We are being told it was not just one american killed in syria whale fighting for isis. It was two. According to a group battling isis, that coalition has not named this supposed second american or offered any evidence of its claims, but it did release photos of that first american, Douglas Macarthur mccain, the california man who has become a part of this disturbing phenomenon of americans joining terrorist groups that want to kill americans. Lets bring in justice correspondent pamela brown. What are you learning about mccains life before he became radicalized . Well, jake, weve been speaking to Law Enforcement officials and authorities became aware of Douglas Mccain back in the early 2000s because he was associated with someone who authorities were interested in at that time, but we learned back then that the authorities telling us that there was nothing linking mccain to anything me fairius and we also learned, jake, that it wasnt until after mccain traveled to turkey that he was put on authorities radar most recently just in the past few months. It was just months ago that Douglas Macarthur mccain began to attract the attention of u. S. Intelligence. U. S. Law enforcement tells cnn the government was investigating his overseas connection to the brutal isis terror group, but the extent of his radical side was not evident to his american family. The 33yearold american told them just last week that he was in turkey. Last time i communicated with him was on facebook last friday. On a picture i posted and he commented about my boys growing up. Within days of his facebook post, mccain was killed in a battle between rival extremist groups near aleppo, syria. After his death a rival Opposition Group released photos of mccains body and his u. S. Passport seen here. This is so outlandish. Thats not who he was. For him to be in syria fighting for a terrorist group. That doesnt make sense. Mccain converted from christianity to islam a decade ago. Sources tell cnn it appears he radicalized gradually. His religion was very important to him, but those people the isis people, they dont they dont represent what my cousins beliefs are or were. His family tells cnn they werent alarmed by his conversion, but his recent posts on social media caught their attention. On a twitter account reported to be mccains he wrote on june 9th. I will be joining you guys soon. Im with the brothers now. On june 26th he retweeted this post which says it takes a warrior to understand a warrior. Pray for isis. Its not clear if mccain was in syria when he tweeted. Mccain grew up near minneapolis and later moved to san diego where he attended college. Between 2000 and 2008 he was arrested six times all for minor offenses. Mccains radicalization and death in syria stunned loved ones back home. Thats what hurts the most is he was a good person. Reporter and jake, we learned that after officials learned of his travel to turkey that he was put on a list of americans believed to have joined militant groups and therefore if he had tried to travel back to the u. S. He would have been subject to additional scrutiny and also, jake, in speaking to Law Enforcement officials we learned that mccain had been associated with a number of todays over the past few years, one of whom he knew from minnesota who was killed back in time apparently by committing jihad. Pamela brown, thank you so much. Lets join to rear admiral john kirby. Good to see you as always. Thank you. This Coalition Group of Opposition Groups fighting isis now claims that douglas was one of two americans that that group killed in syria. Do we have any information about the supposed second american . Any con pirmatifirmation that i . No. No con pirmation here at the the pentagon. The American People know that the American Government and the nsa conducts so much surveillance and so much study and research and intrusion into our emails and our phone calls and our travel and other personal information. I guess a lot of people knowing about this nsa story are confused as to why so many of these individuals like Douglas Macarthur mccain, like the jihady from florida who did a suicide bombing in syria earlier this year, why theyre able to slip through the cracks. Do we even have a number of americans that we know who have joined these terrorist groups . I dont know that we have a precise number, jake. I certainly have seen a number of upward of a hundred and certainly we believe several dozens are involved in this kind of activity and prankly, there could be more. These kinds of people with these kinds of intention, theyre not going to make them well known and they could be pretty good at hiding them. It is the foreign fighter threat that concerns us here in the pentagon and when we talk about the immediacy of the threat that isil poses this is one of the factors that were talking about, and its not just the United States government. We were inoff the raustralia ane concerned about people going over there and fighting for these guys and potentially coming back to their homeland to conduct attacks. Is there a process in place that these individuals would be stopped before they got on an airplane before they got to the United States. Thats a Law Enforcement issue, and im not qualified to talk about that. I know Law Enforcement agencies are taking this very seriously and the attorney general is talking about this, and i know theyre working hard on exactly that issue. Theres been criticism that theres not a strategy to defeat isis. The will daily beast reports that president obama has said he wants a plan by the end of this week, a plan finalized to attack isis in syria. Is that correct . Is the pentagon drafting a plan right now to give to president obama by the end of the week . Were a planning organization, jake. You know that. Our job is to be ready for all options and to execute all orders of the commander in chief and without getting into specifics and certainly timelines and details, i can tell you were putting a lot of time and energy in the pentagon and Central Command. Is there a strategy to go after isis . Were executing a strategy and you dont have to look at anything more than the press releases out of Central Command to see the strikes were conducting, doing them every day and we did conduct humanitarian mission on mount sinjar. More importantly, we are there in support of the Iraqi Security forces and weve upped our naval presence in the gulf and we intensified the number of surveillance flights in iraq and weve been engaged for quite some time and the engagement will continue. Whats the engagement in iraq, what about in syria . Im not going to get into decisions the president hasnt made and as secretary dempsey said and secretary hagel said we have to take a regional approach on this, and we have to look at the sanctuary they have in syria and we have to consider the free reign they have over a nonexistent border right now, but just as importantly as what they said, no military solution will be enough and you have to look at the whole situation, politically, economically, diplomatically. This is a group thats trying to create funding streams and revenue. Theyre trying to grab ground and hold it. They want infrastructure. This had is not just a normal terrorist group. One of the things thats important is Good Governance and one of the things zee we have ty to get issa eliminating and to exacerbate the tensions in the reg sxon that comes from Good Governance. Thats a healthy thing. The assad regime is doing nothing, but causing deprivations on their own people and allowing groups like isil to persist on their territory. So what is the political solution . A year ago you guys were drafting a plan to bomb assads forces and now youre talking about drafting up plans to bomb forces fighting assad. How can there possibly be a political solution in syria . There could be a political solution in syria when the assad regime steps down and you have a government in syria thats representative of all syrians and can respond to the needs of the People Living there. We are seeing a similar approach in iraq with the unity government being formed. Its important to have partners in the region and partners you can rely on, and not just willing partners, but partners you can rely on. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Coming up, they killed one american journalist and said her son will be next and now a mother is making a direct appeal to isis to let him go. And shes just 9 years old and someone thought it would be a good idea to let her shoot an uzi. A tragedy on an arizona gun range. [ male announcer ] its one of the most Amazing Things we build and it doesnt even fly. We build it in classrooms and exhibit halls, mentoring tomorrows innovators. We build it raising roofs, preserving habitats and serving americas veterans. Every day, thousands of boeing volunteers help make their communities the best they can be. Building Something Better for all of us. [ dog barks ] [ male announcer ] imagine the cars we drive. Being able to see so clearly. To respond so intelligently and so quickly, they can help protect us from a world of unseen danger. Its the stuff of science fiction. Minus the fiction. And it is mercedesbenz. Today. See your authorized dealer for exceptional offers through mercedesbenz Financial Services. See your authorized dealer for exceptional offers when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. But the energy bp produces up here creates Something Else as well jobs all over america. Engineering and innovation jobs. Advanced Safety Systems technology. Shipping and manufacturing. Across the United States, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. When we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. Thats not a coincidence. Its one more part of our commitment to america. Welcome back on the lead. Im jake tapper. Continuing in world news, it is a mothers painful plea for mercy from what until now has proven to be a merciless terror group, isis. I ask you to please release my child. As a mother, i ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no con roll over. Steven sotloff is the american journalist who appears at the end of that horrific video that isis released of the heads of another journalist they had taken hostage, james foley. Sotloff went missing last summer after entering to Northern Syria from turkey after reporting on the violent civil war. The family ried to keep his abduction quiet in hopes that that would keep him alive and now that the world has seen images of him in the hands of isis. Sotloffs mother is asking abu bakr al baghdadi, the leader of the ruthless terrorist group himself to spare her son. If you can imagine the kind of pain the sotloffs are going through or the hell that steven himself is likely enduring in captivity except my next guest, is an exception. David rode was kidnapped by the taliban and held prisoner for seven months before escaping. There are other americans being held by isis. Were not going to release their names because we hope that that will help secure their safety a little bit more. The new york times, for instance, tried to keep your capture quiet. Is it it a mistake, do you think, for sotloffs morgue to be putting this plea out well or is the genie out of the bottle after he appeared out there. I applaud her to somehow communicate with his captors and maybe save his life. Ive been home for five years and ive talked to different families, and not the sof layoffs, but the foleys and others and there is a community and they try to each other and they figure outdo you stay quiet . Do you go public some in the foley case and prior to Steven Sotloff appearing in this video, the isis captors were telling the foleys and sotloffs to not go public that if they did go public about the kidnap they would kill both of these captives, so again, i feel so badly for her and these families in these situations. Its impossible for me to even try to understand what shes going through. What do you see behind this lastditch effort as we describe it that has a chance of winning . Is it possible that somebody like al baghdadi who, by all accounts, appears to be a monster that he might be subject to the whims of some sort of public pressure . No. I think for these kidnappers its really its great street cred, if you will, to have an american hostage and so having this video released, having him addressed as the khalif, the head of this Islamic State that they declared is a good thing for him publicly to boost his standing among other jihad is and the wording was very intelligent and its exactly the right thing to do. I have no idea if it will work and its a credit that shes made this effort. Its interesting, the idea that giving him deference might work. Peter curtis is a writer that spent merely two years as a h t hostage to militants in syria. He got to go back home. What is he going through right now . You have actually been there. Hes e lated and wondering why me . Why did i survive . I still dont on know why i was lucky enough to escape with the help of this one afghan journalist and the broader point i want to make, jake, is there is a roll problem. The United States is not paying rans ransom. There was a french, danish and they were ransomed by their governments and theyre home and safe and james foley is safe and who knows what will happen to steven. This international approach is not working and there needs to be a unified approach and its spreading. A colleague of mine wrote about a new japanese captive, a mentally disturbed man who was homeless at some point and went on sort of an independent, humanitarian mission to syria. He has now been taken captive by militants there. James foleys brothers that the u. S. Government did not do enough to save him. Is he right . Well, its a difficult situation. The only way you can save an american hostage now is that is to, you know, to pay a very large ransom and the problem with these european payments there are millions of dollars is that they skew the market. The american policies that the government wont pay, but if a family or organization can pay a ransom the u. S. Government will turn away, but when millions upon millions are being paid by france and other countries it it puts the United States on an impossible situation. They should put pressureston the paymenters on there should be a unified approach. Its not going to be easy, but the captors are the killers and the actions of American Allies by ransoming these european hostages may have contributed to the death of james foley. I do recommend, if you havent read the book that david cowrot