Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. warns that 'a thousand' bin Ladens could emerge from 'global tumor' of ISIS unless Obama deals with the 'immediate threat'
Lukan Faily said Monday that while Obama frets about Iraq's internal politics, ISIS is gathering strength
Unless the group is stopped, he said, it will become a global terror threat like 'a thousand' Bin Ladens
ISIS will take 'no POWs,' he warned, 'nothing, none of that. No rules of engagement but destruction'
'What we have in Iraq now ... is an immediate threat,' the ambassador warned
CNN's Christiane Amanpour said she thought the true threat was a Sunni minority that feels 'disenfranchised'
ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is a Sunni militant group that was previously known as 'Al-Qaeda in Iraq'
By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor
Published: 10:41 EST, 17 June 2014 | Updated: 10:49 EST, 17 June 2014
The Sunni extremists running roughshod across Iraq could produce 'a thousand' global terrorists like Osama bin Laden bent on widespread death and destruction, Iraq's ambassador to the United States warned on Monday.
Lukman Faily said that if the United States and other nations focus too much on Iraq's internal politics and ignore the 'immediate threat' of a terrorist movement that's gathering steam, the results will be catastrophic.
'This is a global tumor in Iraq taking place now and in Syria,' he said, referring to the Sunni militant group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 'We've seen it before.'
The White House has scolded Nouri al-Maliki's government in Baghdad for provoking ISIS by alienating the country's Sunni minority.
Barack Obama said on Friday that U.S. military intervention would be conditioned on reconciliation efforts from Maliki's Shia majority.
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Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to the United States, warned CNN's Christiane Amanpour that 'a thousand' Osama bin Ladens could emerge from among the Sunni extremists pushing to take over Baghdad
'Any action that we may take to provide assistance to Iraqi security forces has to be joined by a serious and sincere effort by Iraq’s leaders to set aside sectarian differences, to promote stability, and account for the legitimate interests of all of Iraq’s communities,' Obama said in public remarks.
'So this should be a wake-up call. Iraq’s leaders have to demonstrate a willingness to make hard decisions and compromises on behalf of the Iraqi people in order to bring the country together.'
But Faily suggested during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Obama is naively fiddling while Baghdad burns.
'These are all "nice to have" discussions,' he said, but 'what we have in Iraq now, to -- is an immediate threat.'
'But do you not feel this is an immediate threat?' Amanpour interrupted, 'that practically half the country feels disenfranchised? The Sunnis?'
'We're not saying we're not happy to [have a] discussion,' he responded. 'We want to have that discussion. But we're saying conditioning that discussion is not wise. Making clear that we all stand together against a threat in global terrorism is the question.'
'Let me give you an example. What you have in Afghanistan, with one Bin Laden – you will have a thousand of them.'
'No POWs,' he warned. 'Nothing, none of that. No rules of engagement but destruction.'
'That's the situation in Iraq.'
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Obama told Congress on Monday that he is sending 275 armed military men and women into Baghdad to protect American embassy personnel and assets as they are moved elsewhere in Iraq and to Jordan.
They will be 'armed for combat,' the White House said, while insisting that the ground troops won't be the first drop in an ocean of military entanglements of the sort that Obama campaigned against in 2008 and 2012.
An administration official also said Monday that the president is considering the deployment of a small contingent of Special Forces to Iraq, specifically to help the al-Maliki government slow the advance of ISIS.
Obama is also mulling unilateral air strikes to hamper ISIS, but administration sources told MailOnline on Tuesday that the primary objection to that strategy is political, not tactical.
The National Security Staff, one source said, is concerned that forcing ISIS off the battlefield now that neighboring Iran has sent 2,000 of its elite Quds forces to stabilize the region could effectively clear the way for Iran to seize oil fields and other lands in eastern Iraq.
Millitant groups allow children to witness execution
Obama is stuck between a rock and a hard place, needing to keep a U.S.-friendly government in place in Baghdad while also avoiding a newly strengthened and further leveraged Iran at a time when that Islamic republic is moving toward nuclear weapons capability.
Faily said Monday that whether or not the White House decides on a path of limited cooperation with Tehran, Iraq needs help urgently.
'We have been saying that we need to strengthen our army with having fighter planes, Apache helicopters and others. ... The administration now understands that urgency.' he said.
They have been willing to say, "We are willing to help." What we are saying is we cannot wait until tomorrow. A decision has to be made. It should have been made yesterday.
'From our perspective,' Faily said, 'the urgency of the ground are giving us less options and more radical options.'
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