President Barack Obama on Wednesday strongly denounced the murder of journalist James Foley by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremists as “an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world.” Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., the President said Foley “was a journalist, a son, a brother, and a friend” who has “reported from difficult and dangerous places, bearing witness to the lives of people a world away.” Obama said Foley’s life “stands in stark contrast to his killers,” whom he condemned for killing women and children and targeting Christians and religious minorities in Syria and Iraq. “ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.” Obama promised continued US support to Iraq and said: “Friends and allies around the world, we share a common security and a common sense of values that are rooted in the opposite of what we saw yesterday.” He vowed to “continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope and civility.” Secretary of State John Kerry also released a fiery statement Wednesday in which he called ISIL an “ugly, savage, inexplicable, nihilistic, and valueless evil.” (Obama transcript) (Kerry statement).
Unit commanders are being told to separate service members who can’t shave their cheeks and chin for medical reasons for more than a year, according to new guidance from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
