Worker. We will talk about that and a lot more with the state Department Deputy spokeswoman marie harf. There are growing signs right now that two of americas biggest foes may be teaming up against the United States. What are Russias Vladimir Putin and north Koreas Kim Jongun up to . Im wolf blitzer. You arere in the situation room. Breaking now. Dramatic offenses by isis and al qaeda. Isis forces in iraq waging a Deadly Campaign to claim even more territory and they are actually moving closer and closer to a major Iraqi Government base housing hundreds of u. S. Troops. In yemen, al qaeda fighters have taken over a major camp and seized a major cache of weapons after a gun battle that lasted for hours. We are covering all angles of these stories and much more this hour with our correspondents and our guests including the deputy spokeswoman at the state department marie harf. Lets begin with our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto. He has the latest on this war against isis. Jim . There has been a lot of talk recently about isis being on the defensive, losing ground. That is true in some places but today, we are seeing isis making an attempt to show its strength again. Look at the attacks that took place just in the last 24 hours, up in the north against Kurdish Forces including using suicide bombers, car bombs, but also down here around the town of al baghdadi. Whats key about this, its in Anbar Province just to the west of baghdad, very close, just a few miles from the air base where you have some 400 u. S. Military personnel there now training iraqi pilots. Pentagon says there is no assault on the base. This is just a few miles down the road and it shows that as you put u. S. Military advisors outside of the main Population Centers in baghdad and erbil, they are getting much closer to combat even if they are not in combat. In yemen, Aqap Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, they are also on the move especially now that the u. S. Is basically out of there. Thats right. Also just taking advantage of the instability in that country, you have the collapse of that government in sanaa, the capital, a key partner for the u. S. In the fight against aqap. So in the last 24 hours here in the province where al qaeda has a very strong base of support, they took over a yemeni what was a Yemeni Military base with heavy weapons there, taking them not just from the yemenis, the former partner, but even the Houthi Rebels who have taken over the capital. It shows as this country becomes more unstable not only does it become more difficult for the u. S. To fight the aqap threat there, which pentagon officials have acknowledged but also gives them more of a chance aqap to take more territory, take more weapons. Jim sciutto with the latest. Stand by. President obamas efforts meanwhile to get congress to authorize the war against isis running into some Serious Problems up on capitol hill. Both democratic and republican lawmakers are sharply critical of the president s proposals for different reasons. Our chief Congressional Correspondent dana bash is working this part of the story for us. Whats the very latest here . You know talk to any member of congress and they will tell you the most difficult and solemn vote they ever have taken is a vote to wage war. This is something that is weighing heavily on them. Lawmakers in both parties have been talking about whether or not they can actually find consensus on this even though they have actually been demanding a debate for months. Tonight with isis making new advances in iraq and some questioning whether u. S. Air strikes alone can defeat the terrorist group, congress is now starting to consider the president s request to finally authorize the six month old mission. I want to give our military commanders the flexibility and the authority that they need to defeat our enemies. Reporter today, most republicans said while they support that mission, they strongly oppose president obamas unprecedented call for restrictions on his own power to deploy troops. The president has tied his own hands and wants to tie his hands even further with the authorization that he sent up here. Reporter the president and most democrats say its critical to limit the use of Ground Troops especially for the next president. Im worried about what a potential republican president could do without an airtight limitation on Ground Troops. The American Public dont want us to put major combat operations back into the middle east because they know that it wont work. It is time to start bringing our troops home. Reporter obama became president by opposing an openended iraq war others had voted to support more than a decade ago. Today, it still looms large. What i was told when i opposed the iraq war quite frankly by members of our caucus was if you oppose this war, your future is ended in the leadership of the democratic party. Reporter democrats like house leader nancy pelosi took heat at the time only to eventually feel vindicated. That makes them reluctant to support the president s resolution now. There is no question that theres no appetite in the public for us to go into any more war. Reporter but tonight, republicans like john mccain say no president has ever limited his own ability to fight or win a war. If the congress of the United States wants to prevent the commander in chief from acting, you can cut off funds. Reporter but that didnt work during the iraq war. Once the mission was authorized, it was hard to stop. Those of us who came to congress after the iraq war, who have learned from those mistakes im hopeful that that will be who wins the day here. So much of a divide over limits on Ground Troops. Lawmakers in both parties admit it will be very hard to find compromise that can actually pass both the house and the senate but leaders in key committees will spend the next several weeks and months trying to do that. As one senator told me if we cant find bipartisan compromise on a plan to confront the wretched terror group like isis he said we should just give up. Even if they find bipartisan compromise the president still has to sign it right . He could veto it if he wanted to. He could, but by the time they get to the point where they actually have consensus, presumably they will have to have the white house to get that consensus. Thanks very much for that. Meanwhile, new details emerging of failed efforts to rescue kayla mueller, the american aid worker who died in isis custody, including a very dangerous and dramatic attempt by her boyfriend, who confronted the terrorists facetoface. Our justice correspondent pamela brown is working this part of the story for us. What are you hearing from your sources . Well it is clear the mueller family explored every option possible to bring their daughter home even kaylas boyfriend in syria risked his life to save her and he recently posted a touching tribute to her on his Facebook Page. A heartbreaking message from the man kidnapped in syria with kayla mueller. Her boyfriend, omar posted this picture of kayla holding a stuffed animal saying on his Facebook Page im sorry i didnt hold on to you with so much strength that even god couldnt take you away. You left our world for a bigger and better place now. Cnn learned omar risked his life to rescue kayla. He went to a terrorist Training Camp pretending to be her husband, but the ruse failed. Arizona congressman paul gozar has counseled the family and hinted more could have been done to rescue mueller. There is conflicting evidence that maybe the white house and administration didnt do all they could. Reporter the white house denies a delayed launch of a rescue attempt to save hostages last july. A spokesperson for the National Security council says u. S. Forces conducted this operation as soon as the president and his National Security team were confident the mission could be carried out. The president told buzzfeed he did everything he could. I deployed an entire operation at significant risk to rescue not only her, but the other individuals that had been held and probably missed them by a day or two, precisely because we had that commitment. Reporter after isis issued an execution deadline of mueller last august her family reached out to the white house in desperation and according to a family spokesperson asked the administration if it would consider a prisoner swap trading u. S. Prisoner known as Lady Al Qaeda for mueller. Even though the swap never happened its believed mueller was still alive after the execution deadline passed. We reached out to the white house today about the familys swap request, it declined to comment. Wolf . Pamela brown, thanks very much. Lets talk about all of this and a lot more with the state Department Deputy spokeswoman, marie harf who is here with me in the situation room. Thanks for coming in. Happy to be here. You want to respond to the charge that the raid to try to save Kayla Muellers life was delayed, and as a result it failed . Nothing could be further from the truth. As soon as we had actionable intelligence and a military operation plan in hand, the president authorized this mission. Unfortunately, and horribly it was not able to bring these americans home but nothing could be further from the truth. What about this notion that isis was seeking a trade . Kayla mueller in exchange for this convicted terrorist, this woman who was held prisoner in the United States a convicted al qaeda terrorist . Well look were just not going to get into what our conversations were with the mueller family or what their conversations were their communications were with her captors. As we know isil has a long history with other situations putting out offers on the table and then not following through. Clearly, we arent just going to get into the details there. But throughout this entire ordeal have been working very closely with her family with all the families of these hostages to do anything we can to get them home. There is a review under way right now of u. S. Hostage policy when the United States should do x, y or z, right . Yes. There is. When is that going to be complete . I dont have a date for completion of that. The white house and other agencies have reached out to some families of hostages or former hostages to get their input. This is something we take very seriously talking about how we can do this Going Forward in the future and we want to hear from the families. Obviously they are really at the heart of what should be driving our policy but we do even before the policy review did everything we could to try to locate and bring these americans home. Obviously we know how tragically this ended. You wouldnt anticipate major changes, for example, the u. S. Willing to pay ransom to terrorist organizations in exchange for the freedom of an american . The no concessions policy is not part of the review. That is correct. We believe very strongly that if you start paying ransom you are just funding more terrorism and putting more americans at risk. But i dont know what the outcome will be of the review. I dont want to prejudge that. We will see what comes from it. On iraq right now, we are told isis instead of cowering or retreating are actually on the offensive in certain Northern Iraqi locations. They are actually moving closer to the air base where there are hundreds of u. S. Troops including marines supposedly training iraqi forces maybe ten miles away. Whats going on . I would note that in many other places they are in retreat because the forces on the ground the iraqis or the kurds, in conjunction with us with the air power, have pushed them back. So we know this is going to be a long fight and there will be ebbs and flows in terms of the battlefield rhythm and whats happening. There will be times when they go on the offensive but i think we should put it in the broader context. We have had success pushing them out of areas of iraq. Do you have confidence in the Iraqi Military . That they can protect these americans, because these americans are there as trainers advisors advisors. They are not necessarily there in a Ground Combat role. Well we know the Iraqi Military has really grown much stronger since what we saw last summer. Their capabilities are better they are better trained, better armed. They are better funded certainly. But no one area no one battle no one town is going to define the overall fight against isil in iraq or syria. They are still m. I. A. In other parts of Northern Iraq. The peshmerga are getting the job done but are limited in their capabilities. They keep asking where is the central Iraqi Governments military why arent they getting involved in trying to fight isis. This is a tough fight. There are limited resources here. Thats why we have done everything we can to expedite our at znsssistance to the forces. For the first time in a long time we have seen the forces working very closely together. That hasnt always been the case. I think thats been one of the reasons we have been able to have so much success so far. The peshmerga and Kurdish Forces we are talking to in Northern Iraq say they dont see any iraqi forces. They are sort of invisible right now. They abandoned their positions. The u. S. Spent hundreds of millions of dollars training the Iraqi Military over more than a decade and the fighting starts to heat up a little bit, they run away. We will continue this. Stand by. A lot more to discuss. We will also talk about the United States decision to evacuate the u. S. Embassy in yemen, what that means for aqap. Al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Thats where they are based. While others go in circles. And repeat themselves. We choose to carve our own path, in the pursuit of exhilaration. The 306 horsepower lexus gs. Experience the next level of performance, and theres no going back. Meet the worlds newest Energy Superpower. Surprised . In fact, america is now the worlds number one natural gas producer. And we could soon become number one in oil. Because Hydraulic Fracturing Technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. Supporting millions of new jobs. Billions in tax revenue. And a new century of American Energy security. The new Energy Superpower . 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Sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make. You like the bed soft. Hes more hardcore. So your sleep goes from good to great to wow now we can all choose amazing sleep, only at a sleep number store. Save 50 on the ultimate limited edition bed, plus 24month financing. Know better sleep with sleep number. Were following the growing unrest the chaos in yemen, where al qaeda forces have seized a Major Military camp and a major cache of weapons while houthi shiiteled rebels solidified their control of the capital sanaa where the u. S. Embassy has now been closed. Staffers all of them have been ordered to leave. All of this happening in a country that at one point was a key u. S. Ally in the fight against terror. We are back with the state Department Deputy spokeswoman, marie harf. This is the base yemen, of Aqap Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula which represents a major threat to the u. S. To the europeans, to others and now the u. S. Has abandoned that embassy in sanaa. A few months ago the president was saying it was a Success Story in yemen. Now the u. S. Is gone. What happened . Its a very complicated situation. When we made the decision about our embassy, obviously security has to govern what we do when it comes to our people overseas. It certainly doesnt mean we abandoned yemen or are not incredibly focused on it. The military still has assets there to work on counterterrorism issue which is obviously one of or key priorities there. As you mentioned, aqap the most dangerous affiliate of al qaeda certainly has threatened the homeland. We will keep working the situation even though our embassys not there. We have an ambassador. We will keep talking to the p