Hagel: Focus on ISIS, not Assad | CNN Politics

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Hagel: ISIS has 'dynamics we've never confronted'

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Hagel: ISIS has 'dynamics we've never confronted'

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A man from Lancashire who encouraged Islamic extremists to wage jihad in the West, including targeting Prince George and injecting poison in to supermarket ice-cream, has been convicted today (31 May).
Husnain Rashid, 32, posted messages online glorifying successful terrorist atrocities committed by others while encouraging and inciting his readers to plan and commit attacks.
One of his posts included a photograph of Prince George, along with the address of his school, a black silhouette of a jihad fighter and the message ìeven the royal family will not be left aloneî.
His common theme was that attacks could be carried out by one individual acting alone. Rashid suggested perpetrators had the option of using poisons, vehicles, weapons, bombs, chemicals or knives. Rashid uploaded terrorist material to an online library he created with the goal of helping others plan an attack.
He also planned to travel to Turkey and Syria with the intention of fighting in Daesh-controlled territories. He contacted individuals he believed to be in Daesh territory, seeking advice on how to reach Syria and how to obtain the required authorisation necessary to join a fighting group.
Rashid provided one individual who had travelled to Syria and was known online as ìRepunzelî, with information about methods of shooting down aircraft and jamming missile systems.
All the offences relate to Rashidís activities online between October 2016 and his arrest in November 2017.
Rashidís trial started on 23 May at Woolwich Crown Court but he changed his plea to guilty on four counts on 31 May. He will be sentenced on 28 June.
Sue Hemming from the CPS said: ìHusnain Rashid is an extremist who not only sought to encourage others to commit attacks on targets in the West but was planning to travel aboard so he could fight himself.
ìHe tried to argue that he had not done anything illegal but with the overwhelming weight of evidence against him he changed his plea to guilty.
ìThe judge will now deci

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(FILES) This image grab taken from a propaganda video released on July 5, 2014 by al-Furqan Media allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim, adressing Muslim worshippers at a mosque in the militant-held northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The Russian army on June 16, 2017 said it hit Islamic State leaders in an airstrike in Syria last month and was seeking to verify whether IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been killed. In a statement, the army said Sukhoi warplanes carried out a 10-minute night-time strike on May 28 at a location near Raqa, where IS leaders had gathered to plan a pullout by militants from the group's stronghold.
/ AFP PHOTO / AL-FURQAN MEDIA / --/AFP/Getty Images

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Story highlights

Ex-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the United States should focus on ISIS before Syria's president

Hagel urged the U.S. to take a sharper view of how to handle Bashar al-Assad politically

Washington CNN —

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday the United States should be more focused on defeating ISIS than ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Hagel, who was President Barack Obama’s second secretary of defense, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” that “ISIS represents the real threat to our country – the world.”

Insisting that Assad must go eventually, though, puts the United States at risk of confusing its allies and adversaries, he said.

“I always thought that we needed to more clearly define our political strategy along with our military strategy,” Hagel said.

“There is no military solution to this. We are up against an ideology, we are up against a reality, a set of dynamics we’ve never seen before – sophistication of social media, the military prowess, the tactical strategic prowess that ISIS possesses, the funding,” Hagel said. “So we should more clearly define, what is our political strategies? What are our priorities? Is Assad the enemy or is ISIS the enemy?”

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Hagel said the United States shouldn’t become “captive to the differences” and should work with countries it’s at odds with – including Russia and Iran – against ISIS.

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“Let’s seize on the common interest. What is the common threat to all of those countries? What’s our common interest here? ISIS. And you build around that,” Hagel said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a resolution to Assad until you figure out how you’re going to deal with ISIS.”

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Hagel also discussed a memo he wrote to the White House in October 2014 – a month before he announced his resignation – criticizing the U.S. approach to Syria and urging a clearer view of how to handle Assad.

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“What’s happening here is completely out of control, and there’s no prospect for bringing any kind of stability, I think, on the path we’re on now, and that was what I was talking about in the memo,” Hagel said.