On the record with Greta Van Susteren is up next. See you tomorrow. This is a fox news alert. The secretary of defense is warning, warning every single american about isis. Isil is as sophisticated and well funded as any group that we have seen. Theyre beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology, a sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously well funded. Oh, this is beyond anything that we have seen. So we must prepare for everything. He says we must prepare for everything, you can hear it in his voice, the pentagon is in a crisis mode. Meanwhile, across the potomac river, the lights are out at the white house. No one is home. President obama still on vacation. And today, he was back on the golf course, that is despite being slammed from the left and the right. Democrats and republicans both slamming him about playing golf yesterday, and that was just minutes after talking to the nation about the beheading of an american journalist, and john bolton joins us. Good evening, sir. The optics matter and its hard to pay a lot of attention to these issues if youre not around. I think thats an important point, but honestly, i wouldnt mind if the president played golf morning, noon, and night if he cared about the National Security of the United States. Thats the real problem. He doesnt focus on it, he doesnt understand it even after five and a half years of on the job training, he still doesnt get it. Thats why this News Conference today between secretary hagel and general dempsey is so incredibly contrasted with what the president said yesterday. The pentagon, as you say, is on
full alert. And i dont think the president yet understands the nature of the isis threat. Is it that he doesnt understand it or is he incredibly rude . The American People care about this stuff. This is a well funded, very fluid situation because they can move around the world quite quickly. We know, why isnt is it the fact they call him in jv in january, doesnt he get it . He hasnt apparently changed his mind. He said isil speaks for now religion. It has no value to human beings. Thats repudiated by the ground. If you dont understand the nature of the threat, youre never going to have a strategy to deal with it. I think we have, as the briefing said today, a real crisis. We need a strategy in response. I think the strategy ought to be to eliminate the threat, not to contain it, but to eliminate it, as secretary kerry himself has said. Is it possible, you know, a lot of people are appalled hes playing golf. I would like to see my president
pay more attention. Is it behind the scenes maybe hes doing a lot of that . I think the golf is the wrong thing to focus on. I found a picture earlier today of Dwight Eisenhower during world war ii laughing on the front green of the st. Andrews golf course in scotland. You could say what is eisenhower doing on a golf course . The answer is, life goes on. And if we had a president anywhere close to dwighti eisenhow eisenhowers capabilities, it wouldnt bother me. We should focus on what the real problem is, which is a commander in chief who is not competent to do the job. You say hes not competent. Maybe hes speaking to Prime Minister cameron six times a day, maybe hes doing these things and speaking to secretary hag hagel, general dempsey. That would not be the pattern of the last five and a half years. At some point, you have to produce a strategy. I think there is a strategy to defeat the Islamic State as they now call themselves and i think its important to do it sooner rather than later before they
consolidate territory, before they become a magnet for other terrorists. There are estimates, for example, that 500 of the terrorists they now british citizens. We dont know how many are americans. These are people who could come back to europe, come back into this country with a valid passport they already have. That is a real threat for the United States. What is president obamas strategy on isis . I dont think he has a strategy. I think thats the problem. Hes driven from one Tactical Response to another. So youre worried about 30,000 or 40,000 iia yeedys being massacred, youre worried about personnel in erbil, the mosul dam being opened and flooded the valleys down toward baghdad, so there are pinprick responses, but none of this constitutes a strategy. He hasnt defined our objectives. He hasnt tried to define how he wants to go about that. There is no evidence hes building an international
coalition. I still dont think he understands the internal political situation in iraq or irans influence there. Its just completely disconnected from the reality that is evolving minute by minute on the ground. Ambassador, thank you, sir. Thank you. Tonight, we have new information about the failed mission to rescue american hostages held in syria. Jennifer griffin life at the white house with the latest. Jennifer. Greta, defense secretary chuck hagel told reporters at the pentagon he regretted the mission to rescue foley did not succeed, adding isis is a sophisticated and well funded as any terrorist the United States has ever seen. Unusually strong words from the secretary of defense. He warned americans, to quote, get ready, without specifying what that meant. Chairman of the joint chiefs, general Martin Dempsey said air strikes alone will not destroy isis and suggested action needed to be taken against isis targets in syria, though not necessarily
he said by the United States. In terms of the failed rescue mission, u. S. Military sources tell me the special Operations Team that attempted the rescue was on the ground longer than they expected. When they got to the first compound, the hostages werent there. There was evidence they had been there just days before. They got into a firefight. One u. S. Aviator was injured. The intelligence leads for the operation came from interviews with two spanish and four french hostages released this spring. They described where they were being held in eastern syria. They said they were held by british jihadists. The executioner in the video speaks with an east london accent. The u. S. Air force helped the government retake the mosul dam, foleys captors sent his parents a venom filled rant via email suggesting they would kill foley in response to u. S. Air strikes in iraq. Previously, they had asked for 100 million gryos or 132
million in ransom according to his employer at the global post. There were additional six air strikes in iraq against isis targets and 90 since august 8th. Isis is Still Holding at least three american hostages. Their lives hang in the balance tonight. Jennifer, thank you. So whats up with the cia . Isis is clearly not jv, despite president obama saying that in january of this year. Now theres news of this dangerous operation totally botched because of bum intelligence, and the white house now facing some criticism for releasing details of the failed rescue mission. Major general bob scales joins us. Good evening. Looking at this failed effort to rescue, it seems to me that they went there to do the rescue and nobody was there, which means that we had the worst intelligence possible. Well, first of all, lets remember that saving someone is an order of magnitude more difficult than killing someone. Right, but the president has to be there to save him. So the intelligence situation for a hostage rescue is sort of like a rolling event. In fact, these guys were getting intelligence updates while they were actually flying into the target, so the intelligence gathering is much greater, but your point is well taken. This is not a failure of operations. This is a failure of intelligence. Youre risking the lives of the very Competent Team and an enormous amount of hardware to go into a site that was vacated two days before. Thats a failure of strategic intelligence to your point. What is the military saying tonight because general dempsey has said today rather terrifying things. He talk about open borders and immigration issues and its an immediate threat, isis. He also said if isis gains what it intends to gain, it creates a security environment that would certainly threaten us in many ways. He said air strikes are not enough, but we had six today. So, you know, and ambassador
bolton said we have no strategy. Whats so interesting, first of all, the response i got from my military friends was overwhelmingly negative. Negative towards whom . Towards the slagz letting out the details of this failed hostage rescue because theyre saying wait a minute, it affects our ability to gather intelligence, and it also affects surprise. Now, isis knows that were on the hunt for them, and that complicates this whole idea of surprise enormously. The reason it almost worked is isis got complacent. Theyre not going to be complacent anymore. Thats about one american and its enormously important. Its the Bigger Picture that isis is growing, that air strikes arent going to be enough. Nobody wants to say boots on the ground, and the president is away, and ambassador bolton says we have no strategy. Pretty soon the media is going to pull out because it cant have everyone beheaded and we
wont get any information at all from there. You notice dempseys body language is, look, i know what the president said, and what the ambassador said is absolutely true, but im telling you this is far more serious than the body language were getting from the administration. Im telling you those in uniform understand the threat of isis. You heard him say very important, air strikes arent enough. Was that to the president . I think it was to a degree. If air strikes arent enough, what is enough . An escalation of an american presence in iraq . Yes. Is it gives the mepesh murgy weapons . Does it mean operating forces operating not only in iraq but clandestinely in syria as well . Absolutely. Are they asking that from the president and theyre not getting it or what is it . A, theyre asking for it, and theyre pushing the limits with the administration. They want a strategy. They also want a campaign plan. After you get a strategy, then you have to have a longterm campaign plan. This is going to last years. Its not the next bombing strike or thehostage. If isis grows so fast and theyre so well funded, this is unlike any other enemy we have had because theres so much money. Absolute lay, and what the military is trying to do is get ahead of it. I think dempsey understands clearly this is a multiyear campaign that is going to have to eventually involve congress, the administration, and the American People. Hes trying to set the conditions and tell the American People, get ready. This is all starting over again. General, thank you, sir. Nice to see you. Its very difficult to think it could get worse, but it is. Right after beheading james foley in that horrific video, isis threatening that other american journalist sotloff will be next. This woman has met with the family in miami. She joins us. Good evening. Thank you, greta. Im just going to talk briefly about my limited role in this case. I had the opportunity to meet with stevens parents in miami
as well as in d. C. And had a phone conversation with them. We have kept in touch with the state department, with the fbi, cia, National Security council, the white house. They have all been keeping the family abreast. And the family has wanted to be very low key, private. They have made limited statements. The mom today said hes alive. So thats very good news. And then the boyfriend of the sister just said sign the petition and change. Org and pray. And so what i can say is that i just cant imagine as a mother and as a grandmother the kind of ordeal that this has been for the family. Its almost a year to the day when i met with them and Debbie Wasserman schultz and ted deitch have also been helping, but its very difficult to have had our agencies get the information from a terrorist organization. I would say that now, every is
really in operation to try to rescue him. And im cautiously optimistic, and i hope that your viewers will pray for his life as well. You know, i think, we all want him to come home. Were all sort of suspicious having seen or heard of the video with mr. Foley and what his family has gone through and an operation where the pentagon did try to rescue him, and i appreciate the members of the military trying to do that, but the problem we have here is were dealing with a very different, vicious, vsavage grume, and it doesnt seem, at least from the outside, it doesnt seem we have a strategy. A few air strikes and bombing them with drones is sort of maintain the status quo, but thats it. We have a far bigger situation, at least i think. Am i wrong . I think youre correct. Especially its a shame because we have a natural group, the kurds, who are willing fighters, who want to take arms against
isil. They need our help. And they need far more than these limited air strikes. They want weapons. They want the ammunition. Theyre willing to fight this terrorist organization thats going to stop at nothing, so we pray for stevens life. We pray for all the journalists being held there, and steven is sadly not alone. But i think that if we are able to help those folks in iraq and in syria who are willing to take on these guys, i think that we can turn this around. It is not hopeless, and i think that our military can do it. We have the hardware and we have drones. We have great intelligence. Dont tell me about the great intelligence. Im not big on it. I actually am deeply disturbed that cia director brennan has been spending his time spying on Senate Staffers, and then thats a shame, i agree, greta. Its a shame because this is
what he should i dont know if you could have better intelligence, but i would much rather have him paying attention to isis than what a bunch of Senate Staffers are doing on their computers. Even the german leader and the president of brazil. I mean, we have done a very bad intelligence operation, but i think in terms of getting the drones and getting to know where these folks may be, i hope that they can find steven, and i hope that they can save him. And thats my prayer every day for that family. But then youve got the whole problem with all those people who are part of isis carrying passports for western europe, and youve got a very rich organization. Are we boog truly realistic about what were dealing with. I want to get steven back, too, but are we focusing on the big picture . Are we doing that . We kept we did not keep our eye on the ball. This terrorist organization more
from what president called jv organization, that is really just a regional problem, to an international headache, a massive terrorist organization that has no respect for human life. And we let precious months go by. How could he even in january have referred to them as jv if he had good intelligence . Wheres our Intelligence Community in getting information about isis. Isis didnt suddenly become awful people six weeks ago. They have been there, they have been on the ground. I dont know, you know, i assume the president is getting his information from our intelligence, the cia and everything. Sadly, were getting back to a pre9 11 mentality and thats very dangerous. These terrorists are still there. They are our enemies. We have to defeat them. Thats what we should be focusing on every day. Agreed. Agreed. Anyway, representative, thank you. Thank you, greta. Viewers, you heard defense
secretary hagel say isis is not just well funded. Its rich. Well, its very rich. It robbed a bank in mosul in june and got 425 million. Thats just starters. It now has oil and lots of it. The former Deputy Assistant secretary of defense under president reagan joins us. I want to focus on the oil money. What do they have . Well, theyve got a number of things. In eastern syria, theyve got oil wells. In western iraq, they have oil wells and refineries. As you pointed out, they robbed a bank to the tune of half a billion with a b. Theyre thought to have roughly two billion. Theyre getting revenue from selling extra weapons, from selling antiquities and kidnappings and ransoms. Theyre getting nearly 2 million a day. That makes them not only the best equipped military because they have all of the state of the art american kwipt, but it
makes them the richest. If you take that coupled with the fact theyre somewhere near 7,000 european passport holders fighting in syria and iraq and several hundred american passport holders, in other words, those groups could come to the United States. Theyre rich. Theyve got money, seed money. They can form cells and theyre clearly not afraid of anything. In fact, the leader of isis has said in the past, see you in new york. Their goal is to bring the fight to america. Just let the viewers get a sense of this. They now control seven oil fields and two small refineries, and theyve got all this oil. Theyre selling 40,000 barrels a day, which is about 2 million a day. They sell it on the black market for anywhere from 25 to 60, when if they were selling it on the regular market, it would be 102, so people want to buy it from them. People are buying lots of oil from them. Theyre getting money. Its coming in over the transom. What are they using the money for . They used to be called al qaeda in iraq. They didnt have a very good experience. They got kicked out by the sunni tribes for being too violent and too brutal. They had a rebranding. Theyre taking over the areas and holding them. How . Because theyre paying off, theyre offering bribes to the sunni tribes, and theyre no longer violent to those people as they used to be. Theyre letting the local guys run it. Theyre saving their violence for christians, for religious minorities, for everybody who doesnt agree with them. K. T. , thank you. Yeah, thank you. And while the world focuses on the brutality of isis, another islamic extremist group, boko haram is growing and terrorizing africa. They seized control of another nigerian town, hosting their flag over the local government building, but it gets worse. Reportedly executing people, including a report of executing people just for smoking cigarettes. In april, they kidnapped more than 200 school girls. Theyre still missing and the girls are thought to have been made into sexual slaves. And straight ahead, republicans and n