podesta_email_01005.txt

podesta-emails 6,804 words email

D6 P17 V11 P18 P22

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*[image: Inline image 1]* *Correct The Record Saturday August 9, 2014 Roundup:* *Headlines:* *Arizona Capitol Times opinion: Surprise Mayor Sharon Wolcott: “GPEC pursuing creative solutions to regional challenges” <http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/08/08/gpec-pursuing-creative-solutions-to-regional-challenges/>* “Hillary Clinton dedicates a chapter of her newly released book, ‘Hard Choices,’ to her role as an advocate for American businesses while she served as secretary of state, writing, ‘I was determined to do everything I could to help American businesses and workers seize more of the legitimate opportunities already available.’” *CNN: “Hillary Clinton's unpaid warriors” <http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/politics/clintons-unpaid-warriors/>* “Magruder is an unsalaried Clinton warrior. And he isn't alone.” *Capital New York: “The (Hillary) Beat goes on” <http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/08/8549573/hillary-beat-goes>* “Former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton has not declared any sort of candidacy for 2016, but the group of reporters dedicated full-time by news outlets to follow her and report on her keeps growing every month.” *Newsmax: “Clintons Support Brooklyn as Host of '16 Democratic Convention” <http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/DNC-Democratic-Convention-2016-Brooklyn/2014/08/08/id/587789/>* “New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has picked up some heavy-hitter support in his drive to grab the 2016 Democratic National Convention for Brooklyn — former President Bill Clinton and current Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.” *New York Magazine blog: Daily Intelligencer: “The Clintons Are Down to Party in Brooklyn for 2016” <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/clintons-down-to-party-in-brooklyn-for-2016.html>* “Madison Square Garden hosted Bill Clinton's nomination in 1992, and one could get the sense that Hillary feels — what's the word? — inevitable.” *New York Times: “Fear of ‘Another Benghazi’ Drove White House to Airstrikes in Iraq” <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/fear-of-another-benghazi-drove-white-house-to-airstrikes-in-iraq.html?_r=0>* “‘The situation near Erbil was becoming more dire than anyone expected,’ said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the White House’s internal deliberations. ‘We didn’t want another Benghazi.’” *State House News Service (M.A.): “Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she supports President Obama's decision to authorize airstrikes in Iraq” <http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/08/sen_elizabeth_warren_warns_abo.html>* “Warning against a new U.S. war in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday stood by President Barack Obama’s decision to authorize targeted airstrikes to help defend Americans in Erbil, Iraq, and provide aid to a religious minority taking refuge in the Sinjar mountains.” *Sioux City Journal (I.A.): “Iowa trip: Huckabee thinking about 2016 campaign” <http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/iowa-trip-huckabee-thinking-about-campaign/article_fc1a9e13-70e8-54cc-88ae-592a74736c4a.html>* “Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Friday said he is actively considering a 2016 presidential campaign. He's scheduled to appear in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday. “ *Articles:* *Arizona Capitol Times opinion: Surprise Mayor Sharon Wolcott: “GPEC pursuing creative solutions to regional challenges” <http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/08/08/gpec-pursuing-creative-solutions-to-regional-challenges/>* By Sharon Wolcott, mayor of Surprise, Arizona August 8, 2014, 9:06 a.m. EDT While a lot of things have changed since I entered public service 20 years ago, the American people still elect representatives for the same reason. Just like the first office I was ever elected to — and every office I’ve held in between — the people of Surprise elected me to help improve their lives. My job, pure and simple, is to make this community a better place to live and work, by making it easier for the people of Surprise to support their families, put a roof over their heads, educate and care for their children, and access health care. In a perfect world, this would be an easy task. Well-paying jobs would be widely available, high-quality housing would be affordable to all, public schools would be adequately funded and provide a top-notch education for every student, and proper health care would be accessible to anyone who needs it. Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. The reality is that people are having a hard time finding good jobs, making ends meet, and paying for the basic necessities like housing, education and health care. And while I work day in and day out to fix these problems for the people of Surprise, they are too complex to be solved by the government alone. Addressing these tricky issues requires an “all hands on deck” approach. To really make a difference, we have to put our heads together with members of the community, business leaders and the government to come up with creative, multi-faceted solutions. That is what we are doing at the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, where I serve as a member of the board. We are a private-public partnership representing 23 communities in the Maricopa County area and more than 160 private investors. Our purpose is to attract businesses to the area to grow our economy, create jobs, and make Maricopa County a better place to live, by working on behalf of businesses looking to relocate and expand. And we are not in this alone. After the 2008 financial crisis, the Obama administration made it a top priority to stimulate economic growth and create jobs. The most influential leaders in America — from the White House to the departments of State and Commerce — have become advocates on behalf of U.S. companies to create jobs here at home. Hillary Clinton dedicates a chapter of her newly released book, “Hard Choices,” to her role as an advocate for American businesses while she served as secretary of state, writing, “I was determined to do everything I could to help American businesses and workers seize more of the legitimate opportunities already available.” As she explains in the chapter, “During my travels I often made a pitch for an American business or product, like GE in Algeria. For example, in October 2009, I visited the Boeing Design Center in Moscow because Boeing had been trying to secure a contract for new planes with the Russians. I made the case that Boeing’s jets set the global gold standard, and, after I left, our embassy kept at it. In 2010, the Russians agreed to buy fifty 737s, for almost $4 billion, which translated into thousands of American jobs. And our efforts weren’t just on behalf of big companies like Boeing or GE — we also advocated for small and medium-sized businesses across our country trying to go global.” The International Trade Administration’s Advocacy Center, part of the Department of Commerce, also serves as an advocate for American businesses. Last August, the Advocacy Center helped Boeing win a $1.6 billion contract with South Korea to sell them 36 Apache helicopters made right here in the Phoenix area in nearby Mesa. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker recently visited the Boeing facility in Mesa to see this success story for herself. In the Phoenix area, these efforts have been vital to our economy, with Boeing employing so many of our friends and neighbors. The Mesa facility alone employs 4,700 people. This type of collaboration between the government and the private sector has paid off for the people of Arizona. Here in Surprise, we have become a recognizable presence at the state Capitol and a voice on economic development here at home, in the region and even in Washington D.C., thanks in part to Secretary Clinton and Secretary Pritzker and the work they have done on behalf of one of the area’s largest employers. Together, we are helping improve the lives of the people of Surprise — just as I was elected to do — as well as people across the state and this great nation. *CNN: “Hillary Clinton's unpaid warriors” <http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/politics/clintons-unpaid-warriors/>* By Dan Merica August 8, 2014, 2:25 p.m. EDT Taj Magruder has never voted for Hillary Clinton. He has no connection to her paid staff. And he is not collecting a paycheck from a cadre of groups anticipating a Clinton presidential run in 2016. All of this bothers him. Magruder, a 23-year-old "Clinton-ologist" from Pennsylvania, devotes much of his online life to supporting, defending and responding to her every move. In what he calls his "own little war room" -- his computer and Twitter account -- the Pennsylvania state Senate employee has carved out a space as one of Clinton's most ardent unpaid supporters. "I have yet to vote for Hillary," said Magruder, who was too young to cast a ballot the last time she was on one. "I am really looking forward to fixing that in the coming years." Magruder is an unsalaried Clinton warrior. And he isn't alone. All over the Internet, bloggers and their circles of friends with no backing from the Clinton orbit defend the former first lady from attacks. While their defenses don't have the weight of a Clinton spokesperson or a former top aide, they are influential in their small community of friends and family. And they are standing up for the person they hope becomes the next President. "I am very, very passionate obviously about Hillary," Magruder said, if that wasn't already clear. "I just want to make sure that Hillary has, if she does run, a kind of presence on social media that she hasn't always had." Magruder is dogged and devout. He regularly tussles with reporters. "I don't know if Maggie Haberman still hates me or not," he said referring to a Politico reporter he sparred with over a story. [TAJ MAGRUDER TWEETS] And he touts Clinton's many appearances. "She was so good last night," he tweeted after Clinton's sit-down on the Colbert Report. Why does he do this? "When I see a story that is like, 'yuck,' I feel like I should just stick up for my girl," he said with a laugh. Since May 2012, Magruder has tweeted nearly 30,000 times. Most of them -- especially recently -- have been about Clinton. And while he only has 780 followers, many of those include reporters following Clinton and representatives from the groups looking to help her if she runs again. Clinton's unpaid army does far more than tweet. Some, like Still 4 Hill, have devoted years to blogging about her every move. Since 2008, Still 4 Hill -- who keeps her identity private because of her paid employment -- has kept detailed records of Clinton's comings and goings, including nearly every speech she delivered as secretary of state. The process, is admittedly, consuming. "You have to find ways to squeeze it in," she said. "I cheat a little bit (and blog) during a lunch hour or something like that. But most of the time I do it at night." Still 4 Hill started her blog after Clinton ended her presidential campaign in 2008. She began to write about Clinton's events at the State Department and once Clinton stepped down as America's top diplomat in 2013, Still 4 Hill began writing about Clinton on the paid speaking circuit. "I see it as documentation," Still 4 Hill said about her blog. "I want to be able to go back and look at this speech or look at that speech." Amid all the glow for Clinton, there is also pushback against her critics. When the Washington Post's conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin wrote a lengthy critique of Clinton's time at State, Still 4 Hill responded to what she called "repetitive and tiresome... empty bloviating" from Rubin. There is more to the online response, though: People like Magruder and Still 4 Hill have received a little notoriety for their persistence. Ask people within the Clinton universe about Magruder and they laugh about his exuberance. Though he was never paid, Ready for Hillary sent the Clinton devotee to a finance meeting earlier this year to act as an example of a "grassroots supporter." Still 4 Hill's blog receives upwards of 10,000 hits a week. As of late -- given Clinton's book tour and regular appearances -- the blog can gets as many as of 2,500 clicks a day. And when Still 4 Hill met Clinton at a New Jersey book singing this year, she was sure to mention her blog. According to blogger, Clinton responded, "Still 4 Hill! I love it. Yeah, I love it." There is a downside to all of this, too. Both Magruder and Still 4 Hill are building a online record of their thoughts and feelings about Clinton and that record -- at some point -- could come back to haunt them. What's more, in the anything goes nature of a campaign, comments made by Clinton followers and fans can blow up into bigger stories. What happens when those fans have years of logs and comments that opposition groups could cull? "To the extent that the actors join Hillary's campaign or official groups that support Hillary's campaign, their views and statements online become relevant," Tim Miller, executive director of America Rising, an anti-Clinton super PAC, told CNN. Still 4 Hill's post-2008 actions seemed to recognize this. Shortly after Clinton conceded defeat to Barack Obama after a bitter primary battle, the blog took a negative, sometimes anti-Obama turn, Still 4 Hill told CNN. After giving it some thought -- and after Clinton patched up her relationship with him -- the blogger decided to delete some of those posts. "I am reading her book now and when I read the first chapter it was like tearing a scab off a wound of something," Still 4 Hill said, capturing how she is still hurt over that campaign. "That primary season was so brutal. ... I removed a lot of the pages from June 2008 to the general election campaign." But Clinton's previous run might not be her last. So what if she runs again, how much work are these devotees willing to commit? And is all of their Internet devotion an audition for something bigger? "I would love it if a role is available for me. If there is one, I would love it," Magruder said. "But whether or not I get an official role won't stop me from doing work on social media." *Capital New York: “The (Hillary) Beat goes on” <http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/media/2014/08/8549573/hillary-beat-goes>* By Jeremy Barr and Alex Weprin August 8, 2014, 2:26 p.m. EDT Former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton has not declared any sort of candidacy for 2016, but the group of reporters dedicated full-time by news outlets to follow her and report on her keeps growing every month. The latest addition is Alex Seitz-Wald, who started at MSNBC digital this past month to cover “Hillary Clinton and any Dems who may run against her,” as he put it on Twitter. Seitz-Wald, a former reporter for National Journal and Salon, joins a long list of reporters on the beat, like Annie Karni at the New York Daily News, Jonathan Allen at Bloomberg, Maggie Haberman at POLITICO, Ruby Cramer at Buzzfeed, Amy Chozick at The New York Times, Maeve Reston at The Los Angeles Times and Brianna Keilar at CNN, among others. In late May The Washington Post announced that Anne Gearan would be joining its politics desk to “renew her focus on covering Clinton and her seemingly inevitable second try for the presidency.” Language like “seemingly inevitable” seems to suggest that the decision to devote a reporter full-time to Clinton is a calculation meant to put them ahead of the curve when (or if) she declares her candidacy; and inevitably, these announcements provoke “tsks” from politics-weary corners of the Internet: Why are you covering a candidate that isn’t even running? But the real reasons for the surge in the Hillary beat are more nuanced. For one thing, publishers and broadcasters have long since learned to pay attention to what the audience does—not what they say. And Clinton stories are still great business, whether her run is inevitable or not. Risa Heller, who handled communications for New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and former Gov. David Patterson, suggested that intense reader interest in Hillary Clinton, and a buzzing from the political press, is nothing new. As such, Heller said she’s not surprised that so many news organizations have designated a reporter to cover her. “I assume what these news organizations are saying is, ‘We’re going to be at the front of this, and we’ll write a bunch of interesting stories that people are going to read, and if she doesn’t run, then what do we have to do lose?” Heller said. “There seems to be a pretty large appetite for Clinton stuff.” “Even if she decides not to run, Clinton is a great story on the merits, and she’s at the nexus right now of the conversation about the future of the Democratic Party,” Buzzfeed political editor Katherine Miller told Capital. “Ruby’s telling that story, and will follow it wherever it goes.” Most importantly, the possibility of a Clinton run in the minds of the public make her a central figure in determining the future of a party that will have just come off a challenging two-term presidency. Washington Post senior politics editor Steven Ginsberg said it’s “silly” to suggest that the paper’s Hillary coverage would be a wash if she decides not to mount a campaign. “No matter what she decides, she is without question the biggest factor in the race right now, for both Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “She’s also a major figure outside the presidential contest and of intense interest to readers.” Times reporter Amy Chozick has been covering Hillary Clinton and her famous family for just over a year now, which makes her the veteran of the H.R.C. beat team. Times political editor and Washington bureau chief Carolyn Ryan told Capital, it would be “derelict” not to assign someone to Clinton. “She is a formidable force in American politics and a part of an extraordinary political family,” Ryan said. And yet not everyone who fits that description gets covered. Why Hillary? Thomas Edsall, long-time Washington Post politics reporter who now teaches at Columbia University, considered the question. “I think, but am not 100 percent sure, that the early assignment to full time coverage of H.R.C. before she has announced is unprecedented,” he said. “If the gamble that she will be the nominee after facing little opposition proves true, one plus is that she will get a fairly complete examination by the press, a process that normally depends on opposition research by competitors for the nomination. She is, of course, already getting a thorough vetting by the R.N.C.” But Edsall also saw two ways the strategy could, potentially, backfire on these outlets. “A reporter in this situation needs to balance the need for ongoing access with the obligation to disclose negative findings,” he said. “This is true of any assignment, but particularly true in the case of coverage of one person and her entourage. Does this reporter pass on tips to colleagues or does the reporter do a negative story him or herself?” *Newsmax: “Clintons Support Brooklyn as Host of '16 Democratic Convention” <http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/DNC-Democratic-Convention-2016-Brooklyn/2014/08/08/id/587789/>* By John Blosser August 8, 2014, 6:23 p.m. EDT New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has picked up some heavy-hitter support in his drive to grab the 2016 Democratic National Convention for Brooklyn — former President Bill Clinton and current Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. The New York Times reports that insiders say the Clintons approve of Brooklyn for the major event. Onetime Clinton advisers, including Gabrielle Fialkoff, finance director for Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign, and other Clinton backers, like financier Alan Patricof, have gotten onboard with de Blasio in an attempt to sway the DNC to bring the convention to New York. De Blasio termed it a "perfect scenario" for Brooklyn to host the nominating event, given that the former first lady was once a senator from New York, her husband accepted the Democratic nomination at Madison Square Garden in 1992, and, should Clinton score the nomination as many expect will happen, it would serve as a "homecoming," insiders told the Times. Should Brooklyn win the convention, New York taxpayers would shell out $8.1 million and the city has plans to raise another $132 million in donations, according to a 49-page proposal de Blasio presented to the DNC. The convention would be held at the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, and has won the support of another prominent New Yorker, Nets center Jason Collins, the first openly gay player in the NBA. who told Politico at an event Monday, "That'd be awesome," Collins told Politico at an event Monday. "I think it'd be a lot of fun to see the DNC there." Not so fast, New York. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter wants the convention too, and told the Daily News, "There is only one city in this country where the Declaration of Independence was created. There is only one Liberty Bell. It's in Philadelphia. Those are just facts." He's citing the ease of transportation and number of hotel rooms readily close to the Wells Fargo Center, where the convention could be held. Even de Blasio notes the difficulties of transporting delegates around New York, since a dearth of hotel rooms in Brooklyn would mean that most delegates would be housed in Manhattan and ferried to Barclay's. Former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell told the Times, "How would you like to transport in the middle of rush hour thousands of delegates from midtown to Brooklyn?" Along with Philadelphia, other cities in the running are Birmingham, Ala., and Columbus, Ohio. The Republicans have already chosen Cleveland as the site of their 2016 convention. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman raised issues he said work in favor of his city. "The Republican Party grabbing the convention in Cleveland has the potential of leaving this state to the Republican side in 2016," Coleman told Politico. The Times says the decision on the Democratic convention will be announced late this year or early next year. *New York Magazine blog: Daily Intelligencer: “The Clintons Are Down to Party in Brooklyn for 2016” <http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/clintons-down-to-party-in-brooklyn-for-2016.html>* By Joe Coscarelli August 8, 2014, 4:12 p.m. EDT Bill de Blasio's plan to bring the 2016 Democratic National Convention to Barclays Center has some very influential — and potentially relevant — backers. According to the New York Times, the mayor "made sure he had the Clintons' blessing" before throwing Brooklyn into the running (with this corny video). It's almost like they expect to be there or something. Madison Square Garden hosted Bill Clinton's nomination in 1992, and one could get the sense that Hillary feels — what's the word? — inevitable. Both Clintons "are said to be encouraging Mayor Bill de Blasio's efforts to bring the convention back to New York City, this time to Brooklyn, that haven of liberal cool," the Times reports, with the caveat "that Brooklyn could come across to a national audience as a progressive parody." Really? Brooklyn? De Blasio, a veteran of Hillary's campaign for Senate, has other Clinton insiders working with him on the borough's pitch, and reportedly said it would be a "perfect scenario" for Hillary to accept the nomination in New York, referring to it as a "homecoming." One of Brooklyn's main rivals for the convention? Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, the Times says, another Clinton ally, of course. “‘I don’t think Bill and Hillary Clinton could possibly be that politically naïve,’ Mr. Rendell, who also served as Philadelphia’s mayor, said in an interview. ‘New York is a solidly blue state that never votes Republican. Pennsylvania is a swing state whose margins are closer and closer. Where would you go?’” Either way, the Clintons win ( ... they assume). *New York Times: “Fear of ‘Another Benghazi’ Drove White House to Airstrikes in Iraq” <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/middleeast/fear-of-another-benghazi-drove-white-house-to-airstrikes-in-iraq.html?_r=0>* By Mark Landler, Alissa J. Rubin, Mark Mazzetti, and Helene Cooper August 8, 2014 On Wednesday evening, moments after finishing a summit meeting with African leaders at the State Department, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff delivered a stark message to President Obama as they rode back to the White House in Mr. Obama’s limousine. The Kurdish capital, Erbil, once an island of pro-American tranquillity, was in the path of rampaging Sunni militants, the chairman, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, told the president. And to the west, the militants had trapped thousands of members of Iraqi minority groups on a barren mountaintop, with dwindling supplies, raising concerns about a potential genocide. With American diplomats and business people in Erbil suddenly at risk, at the American Consulate and elsewhere, Mr. Obama began a series of intensive deliberations that resulted, only a day later, in his authorizing airstrikes on the militants, as well as humanitarian airdrops of food and water to the besieged Iraqis. Looming over that discussion, and the decision to return the United States to a war Mr. Obama had built his political career disparaging, was the specter of an earlier tragedy: the September 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, and has become a potent symbol of weakness for critics of the president. As the tension mounted in Washington, a parallel drama was playing out in Erbil. Kurdish forces who had been fighting the militants in three nearby Christian villages abruptly fell back toward the gates of the city, fanning fears that the city might soon fall. By Thursday morning, people were thronging the airport, desperate for flights out of town. “The situation near Erbil was becoming more dire than anyone expected,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the White House’s internal deliberations. “We didn’t want another Benghazi.” For weeks, intelligence officials had been watching the militant group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, gain in strength, replenishing its arsenals with weapons captured both in Syria and in Iraq. But interviews with multiple officials at the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies paint a portrait of a president forced by the unexpectedly rapid deterioration of security in Iraq to abandon his longstanding reluctance to use military force. Mr. Obama, in a speech late Thursday announcing his decision, insisted this was not a return to war — that Iraq’s fate still ultimately rested in the hands of its three main groups, the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. But he made clear that he would take action to protect Americans in Erbil and Baghdad. “We have an embassy in Baghdad, we have a consulate in Erbil, and we have to make sure that they are not threatened,” Mr. Obama said in an interview on Friday with Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times. “Part of the rationale for the announcement yesterday was an encroachment close enough to Erbil that it would justify us taking shots.” Still, his decision to order F-18 fighter jets from the aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush to carry out bombing raids on militants dramatically raises the risks for Mr. Obama. Unlike other times when he has made the decision to commit American forces — the 2009 troop surge in Afghanistan, for example — Mr. Obama acted within hours. With nearly 50 African leaders converging on Washington, the president was fully occupied with a week of diplomacy and salesmanship on behalf of American companies — not to mention a White House dinner featuring entertainment by Lionel Richie. On Saturday, he and his wife, Michelle, were to leave town for two weeks of vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. While Mr. Obama discussed security and governance with the leaders, his national security aides were huddling in the Situation Room, getting increasingly dire briefings from embassy officials in Baghdad and the Pentagon’s Central Command, which oversees Iraq. “Things reached a tipping point on Wednesday,” said a senior official. “We saw that on the mountain, the Iraqis were not able to resupply and provide food and water.” Back at the White House that evening, Mr. Obama and General Dempsey continued talking in the Oval Office, joined by the chief of staff, Denis McDonough; the national security adviser, Susan E. Rice; and other officials. The discussion moved toward military action, one official said, though Mr. Obama had not yet decided on anything, beyond airdrops. About 8 p.m., the meeting broke up and Mr. Obama again left the White House, an hour late, for a dinner date with his wife and a close confidante, Valerie Jarrett, at an Italian restaurant in Georgetown. Six thousand miles away, in Erbil, Thursday morning broke with news that two towns just 27 miles west of the Kurdish capital, Mahmour and Gwer, had fallen to the militants, and that Kurdish fighters, known as pesh merga, had withdrawn. “That was a real problem,” said a former Kurdish official who closely tracks security issues. In villages and small towns outside the city, even places well north of Erbil and farther from the militant forces, people were frantically piling into cars to flee. The pesh merga were helping to evacuate hundreds of people in large flatbed trucks. When people heard a gunshot, rumors would spread of an ISIS advance. Americans officials on the ground said they feared that if Erbil emptied, the city would be vulnerable to a militant attack. And if it fell, they feared, not only would Americans be at risk, but it would be a second seismic event for the region — after the June 10 fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city — with dangerous consequences for Turkey and a potential for enormous loss of life in Kurdistan. As if that were not enough, the militants had seized a critical dam in Mosul, which controls water levels on the Tigris River as far south as Baghdad. The capture of the dam shook Kurdish officials and fueled the sense of crisis during Thursday’s meetings, with officials worried that the militants could either blow it up or use it to cut off water supplies or as a bargaining chip in negotiating anything they wanted. “That was one of the trip wires we looked at,” said another senior official. “We look at that dam as a potential threat to our embassy in Baghdad.” At a 90-minute meeting in the Situation Room on Thursday morning, Mr. Obama was briefed again about the plight of the Iraqis stranded on Mount Sinjar. Members of an ancient religious sect known as Yazidi, they were branded as devil worshipers by the militants. The women were to be enslaved; the men were to be slaughtered. Officials told Mr. Obama there was a real danger of genocide, under the legal definition of the term. “While we have faced difficult humanitarian challenges, this was in a different category,” said an official. “That kind of shakes you up, gets your attention.” At 11:20 a.m., Mr. Obama left the meeting to travel to Fort Belvoir, Va., where he signed a bill expanding health care for veterans. He had all but made up his mind to authorize airstrikes, officials said, and while he was away, his team drafted specific military options. When the president returned to the White House barely an hour later, he went back into meetings with his staff. By then, there were news reports of airdrops and possible strikes. But the White House “hunkered down,” an official said, refusing to comment on the reports for fear of endangering a nighttime airdrop over Mount Sinjar. Mr. Obama did not announce the operations until dawn had broken in Iraq, a delay of several hours that added to the panic in Erbil. Reports of explosions near the city at dusk on Thursday night sowed confusion after Kurdish officials said the United States had begun airstrikes on the militants. The Pentagon flatly denied the reports. American officials said the United States was closely coordinating with the Iraqi Air Force, which has been carrying out its own strikes on the militants, though officials did not confirm that the explosions reported on Thursday evening were from Iraqi raids. On Friday, an administration official said there had been no airstrikes the previous evening. Struggling to stanch the fear, keep the fighters at their posts and slow the exodus out of the city, Kurdish officials put out a series of brave-sounding but misleading statements. The Kurdish prime minister, Necherven Barrzani, sent a letter to Kurdish citizens, posted on a government website, saying: “The pesh merga are going ahead and terrorists are being beaten. Don’t be skeptical.” Also writing a letter to the Kurdish people was Kosrat Rassoul, deputy to President Massoud Barzani, who said: “There are rumors among the people, which make citizens feel skeptical. Here I want to reassure everyone we in Erbil are ready in the best way to defend the Kurdish territory.” What they did not say was that the pesh merga were demoralized, uncertain, underequipped and facing a formidable foe along several hundred miles of border between the Kurdistan region and Iraq’s Nineveh and Kirkuk Provinces, where the militants are now the dominant force. Several fighters who had fought ISIS said they were daunted when they discovered the militants were traveling in bulletproof vehicles that left the pesh merga’s bullets doing little more than pockmarking the metal. “It’s our business to see the faces of the soldiers and know how they feel,” said Halgurd Hekmat, the head of media for the pesh merga fighters. “I wouldn’t say they were afraid, but they were a bit nervous,” he admitted. Since the fall of Mosul, the pesh merga leadership had warned the Americans and the Iraqi government that they were ill equipped to hold the militants at the border separating Nineveh Province from Kurdistan. “We told them: ‘We cannot hold it for very long. We are not a country; we don’t have an army; we don’t have aircraft,’ ” said Lt. Gen. Jaber Yawer Manda, the secretary general of the pesh merga ministry. “I said: ‘We are fighting in the front lines now. You have to help us.’ ” On Thursday evening, after a long day in the West Wing, Mr. Obama had a message for Iraqis: “Today, America is coming to help.” *State House News Service (M.A.): “Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she supports President Obama's decision to authorize airstrikes in Iraq” <http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/08/sen_elizabeth_warren_warns_abo.html>* By Andy Metzer August 8, 2014, 3:41 p.m. EDT Warning against a new U.S. war in Iraq, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday stood by President Barack Obama’s decision to authorize targeted airstrikes to help defend Americans in Erbil, Iraq, and provide aid to a religious minority taking refuge in the Sinjar mountains. “It’s a complicated situation right now in Iraq and the president has taken very targeted actions to provide humanitarian relief that the Iraqi government requested, and to protect American citizens,” Warren told reporters. “But like the president I believe that any solution in Iraq is going to be a negotiated solution, not a military solution. We do not want to be pulled into another war in Iraq.” Renowned for its financing strategies and media savvy and feared for its brutality, a group of Sunni sectarian extremists that now calls itself The Islamic State has expanded out of war-torn Syria into Iraq, where it imposes taxes and kills people of other religions, according to news accounts. On Thursday night, Obama announced he had authorized air strikes to protect American diplomats, civilians and military personnel in Erbil, and humanitarian air drops of food and water had already begun to assist Yezidis, a religious minority, who fled to the Sinjar mountains. An American-led invasion of Iraq was launched in March 2003, starting a war that was divisive politically and costly. After Obama failed at reaching accord on a new status of force agreement with the Iraqi government, the U.S. stuck to an earlier timetable, withdrawing troops from the country by Dec. 31, 2011. Warren said the actions announced by Obama will change the dynamic in the country, which has a Shi’ite led government and an independent Kurdish region in the north. “It’s a very complicated situation in Iraq. The president has now taken two very targeted actions, and those two actions will change the mix of what’s happening in Iraq, and we’ll have to just monitor it,” Warren said. Warren was in the State House for a closed-door meeting between state and federal officials and Jorge Carlos Fonseca, the president of Cape Verde. Asked if she had a broader plan for dealing with the crisis in Iraq, Warren said, “Certainly these airstrikes are going to change the mix of what’s going on, so we’ll just have to monitor it literally day by day, hour by hour.” While calling for a negotiated solution, Warren said the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is a terrorist organization and the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists, while leaving open the possibility the U.S. could assist the Iraqi government negotiating with ISIS. “The point is there has to be a negotiated solution in Iraq, but we don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Warren said. She said, “This is partially a question of whether the U.S. government negotiates or whether we have the Iraqi government doing these negotiations, and how we help support them as they try to maintain an integrated country, and a country that better represents all of the people who live there.” A champion of those squeezed by big banks who toppled Scott Brown in a 2012 election for the seat, Warren is a favorite among liberals, and regularly disavows any plans to seek the president. Warren said her caution not to entangle the United States in another military conflict in Iraq is a viewpoint shared across the country. “I am concerned that none of us want to be pulled into a war in Iraq. I think that’s clear across this country, and I feel very strongly about that,” Warren said. *Sioux City Journal (I.A.): “Iowa trip: Huckabee thinking about 2016 campaign” <http://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/iowa/iowa-trip-huckabee-thinking-about-campaign/article_fc1a9e13-70e8-54cc-88ae-592a74736c4a.html>* By James Q. Lynch August 8, 2014 CEDAR RAPIDS | Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Friday said he is actively considering a 2016 presidential campaign. He's scheduled to appear in Ames, Iowa, on Saturday. “I would certainly start in a very different place if I were to run than I did when I came here in 2007 and first launched the campaign and nobody knew who I was and even fewer people cared,” Huckabee said during a roundtable with reporters. The winner of Iowa’s 2008 first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses shied away from saying how certain he is that he’ll run. He’s maintaining a “delicate balance" because his radio and TV contracts preclude him from being a candidate, Huckabee said. Those contracts don’t prevent him from thinking about it. “This is not some real remote likelihood. This is something I’m very seriously considering,” Huckabee said. Polls show that he’s one of the top choices of Iowa Republicans for the 2016 campaign. He attributed his frontrunner status to Iowans’ “good taste in politics.” “If the polls are showing that I’m leading in Iowa it’s a clear indication and an affirmation of just how intelligent and insightful the people of Iowa really are,” he said. He’ll see more Iowans Saturday when he addresses The Family Leadership Summit in Ames. Huckabee said that event and the “Pastors & Pews” program he was part of in Cedar Rapids are not part of a strategy to sew up support among the conservative Christian bloc of the Iowa GOP. “I think there’s great value in mobilizing people of faith who often sit at home during the elections and don’t show up to vote,” he said. “I think that’s unfortunate.” He called reporting on his comments about impeachment unfortunate, too. Although he believes President Barack Obama has committed impeachable offenses, Huckabee said he’s never called for impeachment. Impeachment “should be used in rare and most unusual circumstances,” he said, and talk about impeaching Obama is a distraction. *Calendar:* *Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.* · August 9 – Water Mill, NY: Sec. Clinton fundraises for the Clinton Foundation at the home of George and Joan Hornig (WSJ <http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/06/17/for-50000-best-dinner-seats-with-the-clintons-in-the-hamptons/> ) · August 13 – Martha’s Vinyard, MA: Sec. Clinton signs books at Bunch of Grapes (HillaryClintonMemoir.com <http://www.hillaryclintonmemoir.com/martha_s_vineyard_book_signing>) · August 16 – East Hampton, New York: Sec. Clinton signs books at Bookhampton East Hampton (HillaryClintonMemoir.com <http://www.hillaryclintonmemoir.com/long_island_book_signing2>) · August 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes Nexenta’s OpenSDx Summit (BusinessWire <http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140702005709/en/Secretary-State-Hillary-Rodham-Clinton-Deliver-Keynote#.U7QoafldV8E> ) · September 4 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton speaks at the National Clean Energy Summit (Solar Novis Today <http://www.solarnovus.com/hillary-rodham-clinto-to-deliver-keynote-at-national-clean-energy-summit-7-0_N7646.html> ) · October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the CREW Network Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network <http://events.crewnetwork.org/2014convention/>) · October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation Annual Dinner (UNLV <http://www.unlv.edu/event/unlv-foundation-annual-dinner?delta=0>) · ~ October 13-16 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes salesforce.com Dreamforce conference (salesforce.com <http://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF14/keynotes.jsp>) · December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts Conference for Women (MCFW <http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/speakers/>)