Should be bombing iraq and syria simultaneously. Holds a summit on combating islamic medalists militants, we will speak to Phyllis Bennis about expanding attacks in iraq. And who is paying the prowar pundits . Regularlyem on tv pushing for war with isis. They are identified as former u. S. Generals. What is left out is who they work for now. Military contractors that stand to benefit from another war in the middle east. Then the ebola crisis deepens in west africa. In the hardest hit countries, guinea, liberia, sierra leone, the number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them. Toll nears 2500, we will speak with laurie garrett. All that and more coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. An International Summit on combating militants from the Islamic State has opened in france bringing together around 30 countries from the usled coalition. The Obama Administration says several Arab League Countries have signed on for airstrikes in iraq and syria but no sustained campaign is imminent. Speaking at the white house, josh earnest said the u. S. Is at war with isil. Way that we are at war with al qaeda and its affiliates around the globe, we are at war with isil. I am not just talking about the United States but this broader Coalition Including allies around the world who are united in confronting this threat. President obama has already asserted he does not eat congressional approval to expand airstrikes into syria. On friday, the administration said it derives Legal Authority from the war on isil both from the 2001 terror resolution and the 2002 vote authorizing the iraq war. The claimhouse made despite president obamas previous call for appealing the war authorization measure. The news comes as video was posted online showing a member of the Islamic State beheading ricocheted worker david haines. He is the third western hostage to be beheaded by the militants in less than a month. In the video, the islamic date issued Death Threats against another british captive, getty photographer alan henning. The Obama Administration has tripled its estimate of isil fighters in iraq and syria. Haveia says the group may 31,500 fighters between the two countries up from an initial estimate of 10,000. Pentagon spokesperson john kirby said the numbers to not change the mission. And thatrs got bigger has intensified the scope of the enemy you are facing. I do not think there is a direct line between that and the duration of the conflict or the difficulty of the conflict. Everybody here at the pentagon those of me are up against and is taking it seriously. President obama met with a dozen columnists and pundits ahead of his speech last week declaring expanded strikes on the Islamic State. According to the huffington post, the Group Includes david brooks and thomas friedman, george packer, and jeffrey goldberg. We will have more on the administrations expanded war on isil after headlines. In syria, dozens have reportedly been killed in government airstrikes. The attack reportedly killed at least 42 people, including seven children. A group of veterans from an elite Israeli Intelligence units have announced their refusal to spy on palestinians in the occupied territories. In a letter made public last week, 43 current and former members of the unit 8200 say israel has made no distinction between palestinians who are and are not involved in violence and uses intelligence for political persecution and harms innocent people. Spokembers of the unit about their objections on israeli television. Have come to an understanding that the right action over there is not selfdefense. The right title would be to control the palestinian population. Israel is obliged to protect itself with all Resources Available but when comes to whats happening in the territories, this is no longer selfdefense. Attemptalking about an to maintain and tighten our birth of the palestinian population to erode their ability to sustain a proper way of life. This is also not something we think contributes to israels security. The protest marks the first collective active refusal by a group of Israeli Intelligence officers. Israeli politicians across the political spectrum have denounced the dissenters and government officials have threatened legal action. Sweden have elected a leftleaning coalition after eight years are right rule. Ransocial democratic arty on a party are rejecting austerity measures and strengthening the countrys social welfare system but will face challenges after failing to win enough seats for a majority government, while the far right democrats won enough votes to emerge as the countrys third leading party. In egypt, one of the country leading activists has been released on bail as he challenges a release term. Alaa abd elfattah recently launched a Hunger Strike to protest the third imprisonment. He was sentenced to 15 years for challenging egypts antiprotest law. His father, the prominent human rights attorney ahmed seif alislam hamad died while he was in prison last month. The National Football league remains at the center of controversy amidst a new case linking a player to abuse. Adrien peterson, a star running back or the minnesota vikings, was indicted in texas on allegations of child abuse against his fouryearold son. He was released after posting bail saturday night and was deactivated for the game on sunday. Carolinativated was defensive end greg hardy, who was found guilty of threatening and assaulting an exgirlfriend. This follows the suspension of ray rice, following video showing him punching his ex fiance, knocking her unconscious. On sunday, white house chief of staff Denis Mcdonough said the rice tape shocked president obama. We have talked generally about the situation in the nfl and the president was shocked by what he saw. Lets put it that way. I do not want to characterize, ray ricenk we all know being suspended indefinitely seems to be the right thing. Nfl commissioner roger calls to resign after his handling of the case. In a statement, a group said in the league news, nfl officials have acknowledged one third of retired players will suffer from longterm cognitive issues. The disclosure came in Court Documents on a settlement with retired players who accused the nfl of concealing the dangers of concussion. The Obama Administration has taken the unprecedented step of invoking the state secrets privilege to quash a private lawsuit. On friday, the Justice Department intervened in a case against united against nuclear iran, an Advocacy Group campaigning against sanctions for the government. The government said the case should be dropped because forcing the group to disclose its files would threaten national security. The government has released the invoked the state secrets privilege to dismiss cases against cia torture and nsa more or less spying. Its use in a private case raises questions about the government ties to be group. There are suggestive the group may have obtained classified information. Another possibility is that the u. S. Is acting to protect the israeli government, which is said to have close ties with the group. An africanamerican actress is using the Los Angeles Police department of wrongly detaining her after assuming she was a prostitute. Daniele watts, who starred in the oscarnominated django said Police SuspectedIllicit Activity because she was embracing her white boyfriend inside of her car. She said she suffered injuries after please her in handcuffs. Cuba has announced it is sending 165 Health Workers to address the Ebola Outbreak in west africa. Specialists will be stationed in sierra leone for six months. President obama is expected to unveil the u. S. Response on tuesday during a visit to the cdc in atlanta. The National Institutes of health are warning that the epidemic will continue for between 12 and 18 months. A quick correction, alan henning, the british hostage, is a taxi driver who agreed to join a humanitarian message message to the areas of syria. An International Summit on combating militants from the Islamic State has opened in france with high ranking officials from 26 nations plus representatives of the united nations, and arab league. Week after comes one president obama outlined his plan to launch airstrikes against the militants in syria and to expand airstrikes in iraq. French president Francois Hollande called for International Action to tackle the Islamic State. This terrorist movement has spread in a whole territory in iraq and syria. This ignores borders and has the ambition to build the state. That is a threat, global, so there must be a global answer. Secretary of state john kerry spent the weekend meeting with leaders in the middle east trying to secure backing for u. S. Military strikes against isis. He says the nation had received ledges of assistance from the region and beyond. I have been extremely encouraged to hear from all the people i have been meeting with about their readiness and willingness to participate. I can tell you right here and now that we have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are paired to engage in military assistance in actual strikes, if that is what it requires. On saturday, video was posted online showing a member of the Islamic State beheading british aid worker david haines. He is the third western hostage to be beheaded in a month. In the video, they issued Death Threats against another captive, alan henning. Haiderqi Prime Minister alabaadi has ordered a halt to the shelling. The iraqi state had been facing criticism for bombing sunni areas. According to human rights watch, 31 civilians recently died when an iraqi airstrike hit a School Housing displaced people. The dead included 24 children. According to survivors, no fighters from the Islamic State were around the school at the time. Plans tok about the expand airstrikes in iraq, we are joined by Phyllis Bennis, who has written several books, including before after u. S. Foreign policy and the september 11th crisis. A recent piece for the nations headline the speech on diplomacy that obama should have given last night. You have come out opposed to the strikes in iraq and expanding into serious and you lay out 6. 2 why. Lay them out for us here. Would be are seeing from president obama is a plan that is almost entirely military, even when he himself is saying there is no military solution. What we need is a diplomaticallybased solution that starts with do no harm, stop the plans for airstrikes, and stop sending more troops. We already have boots on the ground. There are around 1500, there will be close to 1800 soon. That is number one, do no harm. The next upset to do with diplomacy. The u. S. Should be engaging in direct and openly with iran on the question of persuading the Iraqi Government to move toward a inclusive government. We have heard talk about it, we have heard from the new Prime Minister that he intends to do that. That is fine, but so far there is no new director of the ministries either for military or intelligence and security affairs. That is where the repression of sunnis, that has been so support, and has led to for isis, has come from. We need real pressure and that can come from the combination of the u. S. And iraq working together. Third, we need diplomacy where the u. S. Will work with russia. This is a moment when there is enormous tension over ukraine but this might be a moment for resolving some of that tension by reclaiming the good relations that were built last year between the u. S. And russia in dealing with the destruction of syrias chemical weapons arsenal. Then we need a broader diplomatic mobilization that has to go back to what was tried at the u. N. , did not work, but we need to try again, for real, regional globalization mobilization to end the war in syria. That has to come back to, number five, a Massive Campaign toward disarming this area. We need an arms embargo and that will only happen if it happens on all sides. It is either all or none. The u. S. And its allies need to opposition these forces in syria. That will give them a better position to pressure russia and iran to stop arming the syrian regime. Finally, a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian support that the u. S. Is providing. That kind of a policy is what we shouldve heard from obama the other night. Unfortunately what we heard was a military strategy which is absolutely not going to work. You think it is that this time president obama has laid out a military strategy and not consider diplomatic options, and the last year in august, following the chemical weapons attack, he backed down from his . Hreat to strike militarily what happened in the interim meeting time. Moments ofve been crisis in iraq and syria, when there was a question of would the u. S. Intervene militarily. One of the problem this we do not hear options. We hear the choice that george bush gave the nation on september 12 after the september ,1 attacks, when we were told the choice is either we go to war or we let them get away with it. Presented with those two options, the support for going to war was 80 , and that is not surprising, if the only alternative is, do nothing. The problem is all the options it have to do with it, see, disarmament, arms embargo none of that was on the table. This time around, we saw an Immediate Response partly around the humanitarian crisis that was happening on mountains and jar, although we were told that there were not 30,000 people starving on a mountain but about 3000 and most had already been safely escorted off the mountain, not because of u. S. Airstrikes, but because of the work of the syrian kurds who escorted them down the mountain through serious and then back into iraq. And then we have the political response to the horrific crime of isis when they beheaded two american journalists. Act, buta horrifying it was not a threat to the United States, and the reality was, the politics is when then came to the fore. The politics of revenge, very much like 9 11, took over. There was a fear in washington, i think, of looking like we were not doing anything, because anything is always described as anything military. So if there is going to be a response, it has to be military because we do not have another. We do not take seriously responses that are diplomatic, somehow nonmilitary. To,ink that led particularly from the press coverage, the hyped horror of this. As if it was the only time that such horrific acts have been taking place. The New York Times was only Mainstream Media that that the Free Syrian Army, the socalled moderate part of the Syrian Rebels, who the u. S. Now wants to increase aid and military support and theying and arming that had itself beheaded six cap this, six visitors that they had control of. Ht after shooting to death right after the shooting death of an american who had been caught by isis. These kindsr when of acts of brutality are taking place on all sides. The idea that in response to that there will be a military response, that we will go to war against a criminal, horrific act, simply is not going to work any better than it did in 2001. Face the nation over the weekend, john kerry emphasized the role of fighting isil. One of the regrettable things is fighting isil by itself over the course of the last couple of years and it is one of the reasons they have had a difficult battle. Now with the air support and other effort from other countries, they will be augmented in their capacity. One of the things the president put into plan is the effort to increase training, equipping, advising to the Syrian Opposition. I cant tell you whether some other country in the neighborhood will or wont decide to put people in there. That is john kerry. Excluding iran and syria. Also, stevens, sotloff, the family saidsperson, barak barfi, that the socalled moderate Syrian Rebels being discussed as the ones to support, are the ones that sold Steven Sotloff to isis. And about who gains here, interestingly, the u. S. Would go behind the scenes. Their actions may support iran and syria, excluding them from todays summit. This is politically driven, not strategically driven. ster secretary kerry statement over the weekend, the news broke yesterday that there has actually been a truce signed between isis and at least part we do not know how many of the over 1000 separate Syrian Opposition groups but a major component of the Syrian Opposition has signed a truce with isis, agreeing that as long is in power,regim