ISIS spreading to Afghanistan, Pakistan, CSIS director warns

ISIS is spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the head of Canada's spy agency warned at the Senate defence committee today.

At the same time, Michel Coulombe, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, urged senators not to forget longer-running foes like al-Qaeda as Canada turns its focus to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

"ISIS started in Iraq and Syria, but what we're seeing now, and you've seen it in media, it's spreading in Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan," Coulombesaid. 

"Boko Haram just pledged allegiance to ISIS. So there's also this phenomenon of ISIS spreading."

Canada's top security officials are appearing before the Senate defence committee today over the government's plans to extend the reach of CSIS overseas.

Coulombe and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney kicked off the meeting. Other top security officials, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien and former CSIS assistant director of intelligence Ray Boisvert will also be there.

CBCNews.ca is carrying the committee meeting live.

The officials discussed Bill C-44, proposed legislation that would let CSIS work outside of Canada and better protect the confidentiality of its sources.

Right now, CSIS is barred from working outside Canada.

The bill was tabled in the House five days after Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa and stormed Parliament Hill last fall.

Read the full story from CBC here

The Battle for Iraq: Shia Militias vs. the Islamic State

Last summer, the group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept from Syria into northern Iraq, routing Iraqi security forces and seizing the city of Mosul. Soon afterward, the group declared the establishment of a dubious "caliphate" in the area it controls and rebranded itself the Islamic State. With Iraq's army weakened and radical militants advancing on Baghdad, the country's Iran-backed Shia militias — which have their own history of sectarian abuses — fought back, halting the Islamic State's progress.

The militias have successfully combated Islamic State fighters on the ground with the assistance of air strikes from a US-led military coalition. But their growing influence within Iraq's government amid accusations that they have harmed Sunnis in areas that they control has led many to fear that the militias threaten the country's fragile sectarian and political balance.

VICE News traveled to Iraq in December to witness firsthand how Shia militias are taking the fight to the Islamic State, and to document the fallout of their controversial rise to power.

NP: ISIS video purports to show militants beheading 21 Coptic Christians on beach in Libya

A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages has been released by militants in Libya claiming loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The video, released late Sunday night, depicted several men in orange jumpsuits being led along a beach, each accompanied by a masked militant. The men are made to kneel and one militant, dressed differently that the others, addresses the camera in North American-accented English.

“All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together. Therefore we will fight you all together,” he said. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama Bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.”

The men are then laid face-down and simultaneously beheaded.

The militant speaker then pointed northward and said, “We will conquer Rome, by Allah’s permission.”

Militants in Libya had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians hostage for weeks, threatening them with death. The makers of the video identify themselves as the Tripoli Province of ISIS — the Islamic militant group that controls about a third of Syria and Iraq. The Associated Press could not immediately independently verify the video.

The Egyptian government declared a seven-day mourning period and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi convened an emergency national security meeting to discuss a response. El-Sissi sent condolences to “the victims of terrorism,” according to a statement released by the presidency.

Qalini Sanyout, whose two nephews were among the hostages, answered the phone Sunday night amid the sound of wailing in the background.

“What can we say? Can someone tell us if this is true.” he said repeatedly. “The whole village is in mourning. Men are covering their heads with dust and mud.”

Read more from National Post here

Obama's ISIS War Authorization Means Endless War Lives On

President Obama on Wednesday formally asked Congress to authorize a three-year military campaign against the terrorist group the Islamic State that would avoid a large-scale invasion and occupation but in addition to air power could include limited ground operations by American forces to hunt down enemy leaders or rescue American personnel.

A proposal sent by the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday would formally give the president the power to continue the airstrikes he has been conducting since last fall against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as well as “associated persons or forces.” The measure would set limits that were never imposed during the wars of the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq by expiring in three years and withholding permission for “enduring offensive ground combat operations.

“I do not believe America’s interests are served by endless war or by remaining on a perpetual war footing,” Mr. Obama said in a televised statement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Wednesday afternoon."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

*Read more here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/12/us/...