And hamas warning International Airlines not to fly israel starting today, suggesting more rocket fire after the ceasefire was broken. Thank you so much for joining us today. Well see you tomorrow on friday. Fox friends starts right now. Bye. Well, good morning, everyone. Today is thursday, the 21st of august, 2014. Im in for elisabeth hasselbeck. We know this morning special forces tried and failed to rescue american journalist james foley. But why was that topsecret mission exposed . Thats the question. Meanwhile, while the family of james foley breaks down in tears, the president of the United States went golfing. After saying he was going to find action for others. What . This is a quote. We will act against isil, standing alongside others. What the hell does that mean . What does that mean . Maybe this is what he meant by staying the course in iraq. And this could change everything in ferguson. New details this morning show the officer who killed Michael Brown was beaten badly. The exclusive details in a live report straight ahead. Fox friends hour one starts right now. Welcome aboard, folks. Studio e live from new york city. Its kind of rainy on this thursday morning. Muggy, rainy morning. Weve got Venus Williams on the show this morning. Theres a big tennis court set up outside. Venus is rising. It wont rain on our parade. Are you going to play . I think were all going to play. Its going to be embarrassing. Stay tuned. In heels. Brian and elisabeth are off. Steves the only one holding down the fort. Its great to have you, anna, and clayton with us as well because we start with a fox news alert. The white house hrevealed that there was a rescue raid in syria
for that man right there, james foley, who was beheaded on youtube. Apparently according to the washington post, several dozen special operators were involved, blackhawks also known as the night stalkers, they used drones. But after landing, they discovered that mr. Foley and the others had been moved, and so they got out of there. How do we know about this . Yeah. The question really this morning is if they were able to get in and get out without anybody knowing, why would we share this information from a covert operation . Its something that many experts say should have been kept under wraps for decades. Listen to what Charles Krauthammer and ambassador john bolton had to say. This is a political reaction to a horrific event. The administration is trying to say were not just standing by and watching. So you can understand that politically, but it is the usual instinct of this administration to think first are the politics. I think this is a stunning breach of security for theUnited States. Obviously ordered by the white house. I cannot conceive of the pentagon releasing this on their own. This is exactly the sort of thing that should remain completely confidential for 50 years, number one, because it tells people what we tried to do. Number two, its an admission of failure. Well, the United States tried again and couldnt do it. And number three, whoever it was we relied upon, whoever gave us the tip, is now in jeopardy from the Islamic State and may well be dead already. This is just not something you do. Right. Its something that maybe were going to have a hard time intelligence gathering after the fact as well. If were just going to share this information. Whats the political calculus for telling me . It shows me that the president is saying we tried. We tried to do this. We tried to stop this ahead of time. We want the American People to know were out in front of all of this. And we also are learning more this morning about what exactly this group wanted from the United States before this killing. In fact, they were asking for
ransom money. Millions of dollars. The United States, though, i think the only country that didnt funnel money to the terror group. Britain and others were funneling millions of dollars to this group. Thats right. Isis apparently demanded 100 million euros, which translates today into 132 million. The United States government said no. Now, whats curious is the intel that led the special operators to that part of syria. The intel came from six British Nationals who were actually negotiated out. Now, one of the nationals also spoke to a british tabloid and revealed that they were held in the city of rocca in syria. And thats why the special operators targeted right there. One of the guys who was known as their guard, they all three had british accents. One of them, he was able to identify from the Youtube Video the executioner was a fella who
identified himself as john, which coincidentally is one of the names of the beatles, and they referred to all three of these guys as the beatles. From britain. Theyre from that part of the world. No wonder David Cameron has cut his vacation short, come back after just one day of vacation, that these guys are british, radicalized, managed to fly into turkey and make it across the border and become part of this group. Its not like theyre foot soldiers. They are showcasing john the executer as theyre calling him, its part of this radicalization. Its almost like they get accolades from making the switch from being part of western culture to becoming this way. And its dangerous. Think about what this could do for their homeland. Theyve said they want to get as big as possible and expand. Many experts say they are bigger and stronger than al qaeda was on 9 11. And if these guys look like you and me, it makes you wonder. An ak47 is promised if they join. As soon as they show up and join, they were handed grenades, a couple clips of ammo and an ak47, and they are part of this group. John the executioner reportedly had sent other members of the group had sent emails to their family members letting them know that im doing all of this in the name of allah. Others who have then committed suicide wearing suicide vests saying i moved here because i wanted to become a martyr for allah. Meanwhile, shortly after the video was released, apparently the wheels were put in motion that the United States would retaliate against isis. And there were 14 new air strikes near the mosul dam yesterday. Okay. So we took action. And then the president , at 12 45, at a local school in Marthas Vineyard, said this. The United States of america will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant, and we will be relentless. When people harm americans anywhere, we do whats necessary to see that justice is done, and we act against isil, standing alongside others. You know, whats so curious about him talking about isil or isis yesterday is this is the same group that back in january, he referred to as the jv squad. Yeah, they really dont know what theyre doing. Yesterday he referred to them as a cancer that must be eliminated. The question now is, is this president willing to do what it takes to kill them . Is it going to be a humanitarian effort . No. No. It shouldnt be. Humanitarian effort, just contain these guys decimate them . Right. Is this the new face of terror that were facing in this world, and what do we need to do. And he was a little wishywashy on his statement yesterday. Were going to stand with others. But we saw what standing with
others has done. Theyve invaded iraq, taken the mosul dam, taken baghdad. Colonel oliver north about what that even means. They talked at length about the horrors being perpetrated by isis. And then he says at the end of this and this is a quote we will act against isil, standing alongside others. What the hell does that mean . Theres no real Clandestine Service on the ground. So human intelligence is not existing. When they conducted the raid, they found out they werent there, we now know where they are. Theyre in the hands of isis, isil, and they are going to be murdered. I mean, this is a horrible fact of life on the ground. And what the president is saying when he says were going to act standing alongside others, its hollow. It means nothing. There has to be a decision made, and this president can do it like that. Hes got a pen. Hes got a telephone. Start attacking isis command, control and Communications Inside syria. You cant give terrorist organizations a safe haven. Weve learned nothing since vietnam, a safe haven is a formula for disaster. Ollie is right, the president has a pen, and hes got a phone, but hes also got a putter. Extraordinarily yesterday, he immediately went from the school, the local school in Marthas Vineyard, directly to the golf course. And as you can see in the daily news, right there refers to it as obamas golf war. Whats curious, though, is here you see president if you come back here, there you see the president of the United States right there. And there you see the grieving parents of james foley who were having a press conference at exactly the same time. It was very emotional, and the optics of this are bad. Yeah. And if the president doesnt care about the optics which, you know he should. He should. I mean, put a tie on, go to the situation room, go back to washington, do something. Try to console this poor family who lost their son, you know, after these terrorists were
trying to negotiate. Do we negotiate with terrorists . Its not something that a lot of people say that we should do. He did it with bowe bergdahl. The French Foreign minister said last week regarding the people who were dying in iraq, quote, i know in western countries, this is vacation period, but when people are dying, you must return from vacation. Even europeans are coming back from vacation. The french lecturing us about vacation, and then David Cameron coming back after one day. The british Prime Minister after one day of vacation. Let us know your thoughts. Meanwhile, weve got some more headlines. Ill get right to those. They were near death a few weeks ago, but in just a few hours the two americans diagnosed with ebola will be released from the hospital. Emory university making the announcement a short time ago. They got the virus while treating people in liberia. Brantly expected to speak at a
press conference this morning at 11 00 a. M. The judge says shes old enough to stand trial on charges she started one of the most destructive wildfires of the year. Prosecutors say she sparked the fire on purpose. The flames ripped through three dozen homes north of san diego, causing 12 million in damage. Police not saying just yet how they linked her to the crime. And Robin Williams now at peace. We just learned that he was cremated the day after he took his own life. His ashes scattered in the San Francisco bay near his home. Williams wife revealed the 63yearold had been diagnosed with parkinsons disease but was not ready to reveal it to the world. And those are your headlines. You can see weve got a very busy news day. And theres a major bombshell out of ferguson, missouri, today. Yeah, a source telling fox news exclusively that officer Darren Wilson was beaten badly by Michael Brown moments before he shot and killed brown. Our reporter is live on the ground with the brandnew
details. Good morning, garrett. Reporter good morning. This source who is close to the head of Fergusons Police Department says that officer Darren Wilson suffered an eye fracture and was beaten severely by Michael Brown moments before he fired and eventually killed Michael Brown. Now, this comes after several other accounts weve heard of this story. It matches up along with those. The account of this source says that when officer wilson pulled up to Michael Brown and his friend dorian johnson, that they the officer asked them to get out of the middle of the road, and they ignored him. And then the officer, he started to get out of his car to tell them to get out of the road again. And at that point, the source says they, quote, shoved him right back in. And thats when Michael Brown leans in and starts beating officer wilson in the head and the face. End quote. The source goes on to say that when brown started to walk away, thats when officer wilson drew his gun and ordered him to freeze at which point brown
said, what, are you going to shoot me . And then charged at wilson, prompting the officer to fire six shots at him. Wilson suffered that fracture eye socket and was taken to the hospital after the shooting. And the source says he is now living in fear that the grand jury will try to make an example out of him by bringing those charges against him. Last night there were several supporters of officer wilson that came out to the protests here. Police quickly whisked them away, though, for their own protection when they were surrounded by other protesters. Back to you. Thats the side of the story that a lot of people have not yet heard, and that changes everything. Garrett tenney, thank you very much. Meanwhile, coming up, its happened again. First white flags were flown from the brooklyn bridge. Those were american flags that were bleached out. Now this. A palestinian flag on the manhattan bridge. And then take a close look at this video. Thats a man in a wheelchair stranded during a pounding rainstorm. Well show you what a Police Officer did when he thought no one was watching. Fact. Every time you take advil liqui gels youre taking the pain reliever that works faster on tough pain than extra strength tylenol. And not only faster. Stronger too. Relief doesnt get any better than this. Advil every time you take advil youre taking the medicine doctors recommend most for joint pain. More than the medicine in aleve or tylenol. The medicine in advil is the number one doctor recommendation for joint pain. Relief doesnt get any better than this. Advil
every styles a showstopper with fabrics that flatter and prints to go wild for. Legs look longer, you look leaner. Any way you wear them. Chicos leggings. Were famous for our legs. At chicos and chicos. Com. When people harm americans anywhere, we do whats necessary to see that justice is done, and we act against isil, standing alongside others. Who are the others . The president speaking out on the beheading of james foley by
isis soldiers in that Youtube Video. This morning we now know that an attempt was made by special operators to rescue foley, but it failed. Yeah, releasing the details of that rescue mission, highly unusual. So whats the pentagons motivation behind the release, and what message is the president sending to our enemies . Joining us now is pete hegseth. Good morning. Why do we need this information right now . Is this the administration saying we are engaged in this . Were not hands off in this . We tried . Thats exactly what this is. Politically they need that narrative introduced. We dont know who released it or how the reporters got it. Theres plenty of blame to go around. Was it the pentagon . Was it the white house . We dont know. This is the kind of classified released. It wasnt a successful mission. I do give them credit, though. Im grateful, im glad they did what they could with the intelligence they had, with stressful operators to try to go get those guys deep into syria, a dangerous spot. Youve got to give our special operators credit. They did what they could. But theres a track record here, isnt there, from the administration leaking this information. We know from the bin laden raid that some members of the Administration Reportedly had leaked bits of this information to hollywood. For scriptwriting purposed. Thats right. Usually the leaking has been to sort of take a victory lap on something thats finally gone right for them. In this case, theyve got a beheaded journalist, and it looks like theres been inactivity. They feel like they needed to sort of tell their side of the story that this was done. I think a selfassured confident white house would be able to stand up and talk forcefully about what theyre going to do to get the killers knowing theyve done this. One of the reasons you dont reveal an operation, particularly a covert operation like this, is you destroy the source. Whoever inserts the information, yesterday you were on this program and you were talking a little bit about the president was probably going to make a statement yesterday. He did. And then he immediately went golfing. And this is the first thing you talked about when you came in here today. Youre furious about it. Its maddening. I watched the statement live. I was actually talking to some folks there saying hey, theres no way that he goes to the golf course after this. Theres just no way. At first i said why is he not wearing a tie . Can we just get a tie at one time to show the respect and the seriousness of this . He literally went straight from the podium to the 1st tee. Im not saying i need lbj poring over maps, of targets, but some engage tments would go a long w. President s work hard. They all deserve a vacation and time on the golf course, but the timing is not successful. The british Prime Minister canceling his vacation to come back. The british canceling their vacation. So much at stake. Pete, thanks a lot. Heres whats coming up, outrage over this story. Special needs kids made to sort through the trash at school. And get this, its part of the school curriculum. What school is that . And its white flags were
flown from the brooklyn bridge, now a palestinian flag pops up on the manhattan bridge. Whats going on . And welcome back now. Time for some quick headlines. Another flag mysteriously appearing on a new york bridge. This flag supporting palestinians hung from the manhattan bridge, was found shortly after 500 people led a propalestinian protest nearby. And just last month, two bleached White Ame