Their country. Putin reportedly told a european official that he could take key never two weeks if he wanted to. It is game over for Atlantic Citys revel casino. Its a bummer. Two more casinos are expected to close leaving up to 8,000 people unemployed. The fbi is on the case of nude photos stole friend several hollywood celebrities. Private information. There is not only civil consequences but criminal consequences. Another american doctor has become infecte infected with eb. Could not possibly overstate the need for an urgent response. The first openly game player in the nfl may have reached the end of his pro career already. It was a football decision. I was pulling for him him and it didnt work out. We begin with a second american journalist brutally beheaded by Islamic State terrorists. It time a video purportedly shows the decapitation of 31yearold stephen sought love. Sought love group up in miami and was known for his heartfelt war reported until testifies kidnapped in syria last year. In the video he says that he is paying the price for u. S. Policy in iraq. The United States as you know has set indicated significant resources to try to rescue mr. Sotloff. Our thoughts and prayers first and foremost are with mr. Sotloff and mr. Sotloffs family and those who worked with him. I sotloffs horrific killing comes just two weeks after the execution of james foley n that video, i. S. Threatened sotloff would be next if the u. S. Continued to launch air strikes against them in iraq. Sotloffs mother had recorded an emotional video plea asking i. S. To release her son. I ask you to please release my child. As a mother, i and your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters that he has no control over. Since feeling is execution, the u. S. Has continued to launch air strikes in iraq. And that has paved the way for significant gain buys iraqi forces. Strikes around 100 miles north the baghdad helped divert the biggest looming humanitarian crisis. But i. S. Has identified another hostage, british aid working davis haines as their next victim if other governments join the u. S. In fighting against them. Joining us now frommer bel froms josh rushing from fault lines. This horrific be headed of Steven Sotloff was something that i. S. Did in the if i had yo of killing james foley. Do they think this will stop the u. S. Or are they actually trying to provoke the u. S. . Reporter they are looking for new strategies. The you are right, the first one was mentioned in james foleys video. They threatened in the u. S. Didnt stop air strikes they would execute steven. The u. S. Continued with air strikes all week. In fact, they broke the siege at amerli just yesterday using u. S. Air strikes, everyone we speak to on the ground says that the u. S. Air strikes are a game changer. So they are making a big difference here. And, in fact, when we have been with Ground Forces either kurdish Ground Forces or iraqi Ground Forces you get a sense of the momentum shifting on the ground. And amerlis majoring not just because its humanitarian operation, but it connects erbil, kirkuk and the road to baghdad. And what you have had in the last three months says is the entire region the kurdish stan no longer bordering the rest of iraq. I. S. Went from syria to the boarder of iran, now that they have broken through and have the road to baghdad opening there is a corridor going right down the middle. That is also isolating the isis forces that are on the eastern side of that cordon. This is a momentum, the Islamic State i think are searching for weapons and they think the videos and beheadings might be that. What is the danger for westerners, because in the latest video they show another hostage identified as david all thorhawthorne haines who is an d worker from the united kingdom. Most the people that i. S. Has were kidnapped in syria, where now there are very few westerners, but there are a lot of westerners in iraq. Reporter that is true. The kidnap victims that they are holding, these all happened in syria. But, in fact, its not just westerners that are being beheaded and killed. Many, many iraqis and kurds are being killed. They beheaded a kurdish soldier earlier this week. It doesnt make it the same headlines as with the west, for obviously reasons in america, i think Americans Care about the americans here. But thats what they have. I also know that they are holding a few more americans, even though they have threatened the british one next. They have carried out all sorts of massacres against iraqis of all types. Certainly the bar bare at this of this group is horrific. Is there op a optimism with the United States help and more arms come figure that they will be able to take over more territory than what you have already described . Reporter speaking of the barbarity, imagine the row coe lungs that you have here, the unspoken coalition, we have traveled the entire 600mile frontline that kurdistan shares with the Islamic State. And in that time we have seen iranian fighters, shia militia, the medi army, the entire your ministry of iraq, the iraqi army, and all of the different units of the peshmerga from the puk to the kdp all fighting on the same side as the u. S. Against the Islamic States. So any organization that can bring all of those groups together must, you know, something is happening there. In terms of the kurds, yeah, they definitely are making progress. From all the peshmerga fighters that we have spoken to the biggest challenge is the weapons that they have and are receiving from the west are not necessarily the weapon that his they need. They have plenty of ak47s, they have plenty i of small arms but they are fighting Islamic State fighters that have up armored humvees, and large u. S. Built trucks that are meant to withstands i. E. D. S, they need heavier arms and need it soon. Well, lets hope they get them so that they can fight these guys. Aal jazerra americas fault line correspondence good luck there in iraq. Joining us is ambassador james wool is a former director of Central Intelligence from 1983 to nine 1985. And served in vienna and is currently the chairman of the foundation for defense of democracies. Ambassador, a pleasure to have you with us. Good to be with you. Two americans murder odd camera in two weeks, a british citizen is threatened. The state Department Says a few other americans could still be hostages. Is there anything that the u. S. Should do specifically to try and prevent these kind of horrific executions of americans and other westerners . Once a person is captured by isis , their options, i think really are to try to escape and if thats impossible, to pray. Because this is a group not of just thugs or robbers, these are theocratic totalitarian genocidal immaterial pearl assists. They are establishing an em piles, a caliphate. And anybody who is part of it or lives within its boarder boarded does not convert to their view of religion, they kill. Sometimes horribly, by burying family as life or by crucifix. So i think the first first thing that we have to do is understand war. We have been attacked by a totalitarian regime and we have to deal with them accordingly. So you said before, and as you just said now, that we are at war with these terrorists. But the president said last year that the global war on terror was over. You know, was he wrong . And how do we conduct the war when weve got terrorists in pakistan, in yemen, and iraq, and syria, afghanistan, and who knows where else . I think the president miss took killing bin laden for an overall victory over a Major Movement. We dont just have terrorist that his we are dealing with here, some of them are just terrorists, but when we are talking about the isis, we are talking about a Major Movement with Members Forming military units, and carrying out some kind of sentence horribly by murdering people that they capture who will not sign onto their religion. This is something we have to take seriously as we eventually took our major wars. So far i think the president and the u. S. As a whole basically, has been behaving somewhat like the europeans in the 1930s between 1933 and 39, back just before world war ii. We are being positively chamberlainesque in our conduct. So appeasing the i. S. Group. So what has to be done . Does there need to be clearer messaging among other things out of the administration . Because weve got chuck hagel the secretary of defense and secretary of state john kerry talking very aggressively about having to destroy this group but the white house seems to not take that same position. Well, i dont know why president obama drew a red line in the sand about syrias use of chemical weapons and then after they crossed the line sort of shrugged. I dont know why he told med he have several years ago the russian president , was that once he had been reelected that he could be more flexible with putin. This is just not the way you behave in dealing with people like these enemies. I think there are other things we need to do. We need to help the kurds with and with military capability. Not just with food or night goggles and so forth. We need to be very tough with the qataris about their wealthy individuals sending weapons and money mainly, to isis. We need to help figure ute how to fulout howto pool the sunni s together in to a Coherent Group the way we did back in 07 0708 when we put the surge together. I think we need to do all of this without putting american big american units in. But a few cia people, a few special forces people to help the people who are with us get organized. I think we could do that. And does that include syria . Because as you know, they have a lot of land. They hold a lot of lands in syria, they have taken over syria army bases, they are oil fields. Do we go in there . Is that a case where if we go in there against these i. S. Terrorists are we helping Bashar Alassad whom we dont want to help . Thats a very big dilemma and you right are you point to it. We had a similar kind of dilemma in at the beginning of worlds war two and we eventually decided to illini with stalin against hitler. And its a good thing that we did, because as awful as stalin was, we were still we only had a victory in world war ii because for a time. I am not sailing that we ought to try to Work Together with assad. But if we happen to happen to be going against some of the same people or groups such as isil or others i think that is just the way the dice fall on that particular play. On a broader, from a broader perspective, we Just Launched drone strikes in so mall yeah, somalia, targeting alshabab terrorist . Is that where our focus should be . Or what should we have. We have the taliban, al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan and yemen. So knowledge ya. Do we have to go after them everywhere . Not ourselves. We need to have allies and we need to work closely with our allies, the kurds are one good example in one part that have world. And to move effectively with them by that i mean supplying them with weapons quickly, supply them with intelligence, supply them with cruise missiles and drones, there are a number of things that we can do to help without putting more than a handful of boots on the ground ourselves. And where we can, the some of the terrorist groups of the sort that you describe, ought to be dealt with by our allies. We shouldnt have to do all of this. But we need to pull things together. And by what the president once called leading from behind, its very difficult to pull things together. Quick final question for you. You were the head of the cis soon after the soviet union disintegrated as you can see what and happening in ukraine, did you ever think that we would be back at this point in a confrontation with an expansionist russia that certainly brings back bad memories of the cold war . It certainly does i headed up the negotiation for the convention of armed forces in europe in 9091 had a treaty that russia and all of europe signed. Among other things it would have kept and did keep people from 11 country, troops from one countries we outside the borders of another unless they had permission. We had legal instruments and the rest that we had negotiated to keep europe secure and stable, but russia is completely ignoring them. They are not even close to going along with the very basics of these treaties. So i think that we have to begin to think of russia much the way we thought of them during the cold war. Putin is we behaving very much except there is no holocaust as far as we know, very much the way hitler did between 1933, and 1939 hes grabbing europe a bit of time and thats what the nazi nazis. Strong words, pleasure to have you with us. Good to you will be. For more we are joined by linkin mitchell. War and peace studies the author of several books on the former soviet union most recently the color revolutions lincoln always a flesh you to have you with us. Good to be here. I want to start with the rhetoric going in every manageable direction. One of the big pieces of news, putin threatening the president of the ee. U. Saying he could be in kiev in two weeks if he so desired. Kremlin says, no, no, you misinterpreted this, whats going on here . With regards to the rhetoric we are seeing a lot of rhetoric on both sides. Physician of all, this is a very serious situation. This is Major Military power invading a formerly formally. [ inaudible ] i id having aftr destabilizing a large country and after several months of this we have seen this rhetoric from the west but not much else and much hasnt been useful. If you look at the editorial pages, putin is hitler, this is the cold war, this is the biggest threats since y xyz and the rhetoric is getting in the way of analysis. There is no question that russia has to some extend invaded ukraine. I dont see how you could argue against that points, of course. Right. We have heard a lot of noise, wesley clark, former nato commander, i heard him say if russia innervates ukraine, the consequences will be inning calculable. A lot of rhetoric. But hughes does it mean . Exactly. One of the very Distressing Trends that we have seen russia did something that two weeks ago seems unmanageable and the most of the west says what are we going to do maybe rachet up some sanctions and then two weeks after that this do something else, and the west keeps trying to play catch up. But the reality remains that there is little that the west can easily do here. One of the things that we are hearing a lot is arming the Ukrainian Army. And i am not against that, but it doesnt necessarily solve anything. Ukrainian military armed with arms from the west, would still have a very, very difficult fight against the russian military. And if we are going to talk about arming the military, an honest debate with the American People here the United States. Is to talk about putting boots on the ground which nobody in the United States wants to see happen. But nato says they want to create a Rapid Response team, not necessarily to get involved in ukraine, maybe to protect the baltics or other nato nations. But, again, this is amp ing it up to another level and the russians are not happy to hear about that. To some extent nato has do something bold to get russia and putin to back down but we havent seen that yet here. Why is putin doing it . Again there have been all of these threats made and, hissy con my isnt doing well. The sanctions have hurt him. To understand why putin is doing this, we need to move away frat rhetoric. Hes not this because hes crazy, not because hes hitler and thats not to stay that hes a mentally balanced person. There is strong, you know, a lot of foreign leaders are in that gray area and it is clear that what he is doing in ukraine is aggressive, nefarious and hes an authoritarian leader but there are reasons why hes doing it. First from the very beginning a ukraine that is pro wests aligned from the United States and europe is something that russia will do anything it can to stop from happening. One way russia did that was creating permanent instability in ukraine. With he that you for several months here, the last piece of this as far as i can see. Is that the nationalism that putin got up to support the destablstabilization to push bak against the red rick of him has now gotten ahead of putin and he has to catch up. And he cant be seen as backing down otherwise domestically hes weaker. And thats part of the problem, you have the russians saying its the wests fault. They are pushing keif to do more and to go after our, you know, our prorussian separatists, they are the instigators of course we see putin and everything hes doing as the one who is responsible for the mess thats going on. And right now, the mess is really its a big deal because we have some serious fighting in eastern ukraine. We have 2600 dead. More than 1 Million People piss displaced and now the fighting has gotten while the Ukrainian Army had made some serious progress, it seems that the Russian Troops that have gone in and the russian weapons have real made a difference. Thats right. And that mess looking big picture, is hugely the fault of russia. But what you describe as what the people are saying in russia, isnt your description is accurate, but thats because of a Russian Media that is in fact controlled heavily by the kremlin. So they have one media climate to support their actions. And now i think thats getting a little bit out of control. How do we get out of this vicious circle . How do we get out of this . If i could give you a 30second answer to get out of this with 100 percent confidence without an agenda, without bluster, i would be giving it do, i would be saying it as broadly as i could. There is no easy way out of this. One way we can get out of this as least the we here in washington in the United States rather than the world is to talk about what role we are willing to pl