good morning, everybody. time to givee some you a quick update about the situation in iraq. meetingy, i convened a with my national security discuss the situation there and this morning i received an update from my team. days we vest several seen significant gains made by organizationrist that operates in both iraq and in syria. a terroristof offensive, iraqi security forces have proven unable to defend a which hascities allowed the terrorists to overrun part of iraq s territory danger to iraqa and its people, and, given the of these terrorists, it could pose a threat eventually to american interests, as well. is not brand new. over the last year, we have been up our security assistance to the iraqi government with increased equipping and intelligence. now, iraq needs additional momentum ofreak the extremist groups and bolster the capabilities of iraqi security forces. will not be sending u.s. troops back into combat in iraq but i have asked my national security team to pre
is the response of iraqi security forces in the last week or so in mosul or other areas, is that kind of a poor commentary on the training that the united states provided to iraqi security forces? absolutely not, no. why not? when we left iraq in 2011, we left iraqi security forces at a level of competency, particularly on counterterrorism, that we believed was appropriate to the threats that they faced. and i would remind you, not that i probably don t need to, but a lot of a lot of blood and treasure that went into giving the iraqis that opportunity. a lot of young men and women didn t come home, giving them that opportunity. and i know secretary hagel believes that that is exactly what we did, but that was three years ago and to some to a degree, the iraqi government has to speak to the proficiency of their armed forces. yes, we have a small group that s stayed in the embassy to help advise and assist but it s not an overt active training regimen. we got them to
cigarettes and destroyed tombs. we saw one of the more larger tombs or shrines in iraq being destroyed earlier this year. in terms of public works, they helped build a new market. they have an electrical office which helps train and repair electrical services throughout the town. they have had a lot of road were done in some areas where they have rehabilitated roads, whether it is in terms of putting up plants in the medians, and they have also been able to continue operating the dam. they have set up an office to provide money for the needy. they claim that this helps also with farmers and their harvests. they are now conducting a post office. on the more ideological side of things, they have a media outlet where they pass out dvd s of video releases they put out online. they have a truck which roves around with a lot of different things related to islam and their ideology. they stop in some areas to talk to children and adults to try to teach them at their interpretations o
high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to weekends with alex witt. a new line of defense is in place to prevent the spread of the deadly ebola virus. jfk airport here in new york began enhanced screening procedures for passengers arriving from west africa. jfk is the first of five major u.s. airports to screen passengers flying in from ebola hot zones. screenings begin next week at dulles, o hare, hartsfield-jackson and newark. nbc s kristen dahlgren is live at jfk where we just got an update from officials. how s it going so far? reporter: 43% of passengers from these ebola-affected countries come through jfk here. that s why this is first there was a flight that got in from guinea earlier today, originated there. so this is the first test of those enhanced screening procedures. they said what they re doing is they re separating all the passengers that come from those nations and they re doing a few things, taking their temperatures, the coast guard is
Houthis, Islamic Resistance in Iraq attack Israel's Ashdod, Haifa - World tass.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from tass.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.