It doesnt mean that they have to be back with their birth families or permanently adopted or anything, they just need to have the love that a family gives naturally to a child. Woodruff those are some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by at bae systems, our pride and dedication show in everything we do; from Electronics Systems to intelligence analysis and cyber operations; from combat vehicles and weapons to the maintenance and modernization of ships, aircraft, and critical infrastructure. Knowing our work makes a difference inspires us everyday. Thats bae systems. Thats inspired work. Ive been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. The ones getting involved, staying engaged. They are not afraid to question the path theyre on. Because the one question they never want to ask is, how did i end up here . I started schwab with those people. People who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff Islamic State radicals declared today theyve killed a second american hostage in syria. The announcement came hours after u. S. Airstrikes aimed at the head of another major militant group in somalia. More about that later, in the news summary. First, the gruesome new video that purports to show a reporter being beheaded. Woodruff for the second time in two weeks, a chilling message preceded the murder of an american journalist. The victim this time Steven Sotloff, a 31yearold freelancer for time and Foreign Policy magazines. He went missing in syria last year. On the video, a hooded man with a british accent directs a message to president obama before killing sotloff. Im back obama and im back because of your arrogant Foreign Policy towards Islamic State, because of your insistence at continuing your bombings. You, obama, have yet again, through your actions, killed yet another american citizen. Woodruff the august 19th video that showed the beheading of james foley also briefly showed sotloff. The Islamic State warned he would suffer the same fate as foley if u. S. Air strikes continued in iraq. They did, as recently as this weekend, when american planes blasted targets around the mosul dam and helped relieve the besieged town of amerli. This, as sotloffs mother pleaded last week for her sons release. Steven has no control over the actions of the u. S. Government. He is an innocent journalist. Ive also learned that you, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you to please release my child. Woodruff today, a spokesman said the sotloff family is in shock. In washington, president obama did not comment, as he left for an overseas trip. But the state department condemned the killing. If the video is genuine, we are sickened by this brutal act taking the life of another innocent american citizen. Our hearts go out to the sotloff family and we will provide more information as it becomes available. Woodruff pentagon officials have said the u. S. Military tried to rescue sotloff, foley and other hostages earlier this summer, but the captives were gone when the troops arrived. And now, a third hostage is under threat. Todays video warned that David Cawthorne haines, a british aid worker, will be next. Woodruff joining me now for reaction to the reported execution of Steven Sotloff, is charlie sennott, cofounder of global post, where he worked with slain journalist james foley. Hes now executive director of the groundtruth project. Charlie sennott, you joined us two weeks ago to talk about james foley, and i know Steven Sotloff didnt report for you, but you have been working with the foley family, and what have you learned about Steven Sotloff in the course of this . Well, steven, like jim foley, was just a great journalist, someone who really wanted to be on the ground, telling the stories that matter. He took risks doing that, but he did it knowing what he was doing, and both families share the sense that their sons were passionate about their work and i think both families understand that its work that really mattered. I think the only time i intercepted with steven was in egypt when our paths crossed inside the mosque where the Muslim Brotherhood was holed up in the summer past, a year and a half ago, i believe it was june and july and august of 2013. You know, he was there working then, and he was inside the Muslim Brotherhood and reporting on it and did so for World Affairs journal. If you read that reporting and looked at how open he was and trying to get inside the story and understand it, you say the same reporting in syria, and i think steven and jim were alike in how they approached their reporting. Woodruff what do you know about the efforts made by the sotloff as well as foley family to get their sons released . Well, you know, the information of the families is very closely guarded. Our c. E. O. At globalpost, my cofounder, was very much involved in the details and i was not. What i know is through understanding whats been reported, whats been shared publicly. We have a lot of information we have to be very careful with, but i can definitely share with you that all these families hae worked so hard and their representatives have worked so hard to try to secure the release. Its really one of the greatest and most difficult and troubling moral questions of our time what do you do to save a life . Do you pay the ransom which they are demanding, or do you have live up to the u. S. Governments policy, which is to say we never pay ransom . Its one of the most complex moral questions we could face. I dont know the answer but i know the system as it is now where european governments do pay and where the u. S. Government insists no families will pay, you cant help but understand the emotion of a family as is expressed in the vid by stevens mother, they just want to save their son. They just want him home. Its a very human emotion. We need to get together and rethink this policy in a way thats collective. I dont know what the answer is but it needs to be sorted out. Woodruff are you saying the families believe that the u. S. Government should have done more to win their release . I think none of the families have gone there and i think they do that for a reason. When trauma happens inside a family or a news organization, kit create a lot of divisions. There are trip wires everywhere if you look at the effect of trauma. Everyone involved in this from the concentric circle of the family to the wider circle of the news organization, everyones experiencing trauma, and the divisions could be everywhere. The key is to remember who did this. This was done by i. S. I. S. This was done by a really dark force that it really is that clear an issue and we cant forget to keep looking at them. The policy question is how do you approach them . What do you do to shut them down and put them out of business . Those are enormously complex questions. But i think the families are trying to stay away from those divisions. They want answers to questions, and i think thats fair and i hope they get the answers, but i think theyre wise to Stay Together and keep focused on the evil that has presented itself to us and work hard to save lives that still hang in the balance. Woodruff charlie sennott, thank you very much. Thank you. Woodruff for more on what this latest killing means for u. S. Policy toward the Islamic State, we get three views. Daniel benjamin was u. S. Ambassadoratlarge and coordinator for counterterrorism during the first term of the obama administration. Hes now a professor at dartmouth college. Annemarie slaughter was the director of policy planning at the state Department Also during the first term of the obama administration. Shes now president and c. E. O. Of the new america foundation. And retired Army Lieutenant colonel Douglas Ollivant had two tours in iraq. He was also the director for iraq on the National SecurityCouncil Staff during the presidencies of george w. Bush and barack obama. Hes now a managing partner in a Consulting Company which does business in iraq. We thank you all for being here. Colonel ol ollivant, what do you make of the statement by this i. S. I. S. Militant before this apparent execution, that this was being done, this killing, in response to u. S. Continuing attacks on i. S. I. S. . Oh, im sure thats their perspective, but the fact is these attacks had nothing to do with these hostages. The United States was conducting these air strikes to protect the mosul dam, to protect u. S. Citizens in erbil and most recently to rescue these shia in the village of amerli who are under threat of genocide, no other word for it, but i. S. I. S. So this isnt about our hostages. This is about us attacking i. S. I. S. For very real, both political and humanitarian reasons. Woodruff how do you see whats behind this, annemarie slaughter . Well, i agree that this is, in some ways, evidence that our bombings are, in fact, affecting i. S. I. S. Were hurting them. They are trying to get us to stop and theyre using the weapons they have at their disposal, which also serve as recruiting videos for them and for angry, radicalized young men who want to join the fight, the decapitation, as horrible as it is, of an american is a recruiting video. But this is not about whether we paid ransom or not. This is terribly the weapons they have at their disposal to try to hit back. Woodruff daniel benjamin, do you see what happened, what the video purported to show today as a result of what the u. S. Is doing . Well, i think there certainly was the desire on the part of i. S. I. S. To hit back. This is, in fact, a retaliation for the bombing runs, and this is also to elaborate on what annemarie slaughter was saying, another way for them to underscore their reputation as the most brutal terrorist group that we have seen yet, and the many, many killings that we have heard about in prisons of syrian troops, the crucifixions, the slaughter of the yazidis, all of this goes together, in their minds, to strengthen their reputation as a truly fearsome group that will stop at nothing. Woodruff is i. S. I. S. A worse threat than was already believed . I dont think we have any new information. Our hearts go out to the sotloff family, and we saw the earlier execution and the second one tells us nothing new about the group. Its a death cult, a group that buries children alive, that sells young girls as sex slaves, that performance crucifixions. Nothings beyond this group, so i dont think we learned anything particularly new today. Woodruff that raises the question yet again, annemarie slaughter, what should u. S. Policy be . We heard president obama say last week that the administrations strategy toward i. S. I. S. Is still being developed. What should that strategy be . Well, i think there are two questions there one is what should our policy be with respect to ransoms and hostages, and as much as all our hearts go out to the families of the journalists, i think our policy is the right one, not to pay ransom. Ransom funds this group to do more killing and, of course, also encourages kidnapping. The larger question is what do we do about i. S. I. S. As a whole and, here, this threat has been growing for certainly 18 months to two years, through the continuation of the Syrian Civil War now spilled into iraq. I think a comprehensive strategy to do more than to contain i. S. I. S. , to actually eliminate or decimate i. S. I. S. Has to be a regional strategy that addresses the Syrian Civil War as well as whats happening in iraq and among the kurds, and thats a longerterm strategy, at least four to six months. It has to include multiple countries in the region, including iran, and, thus far, we have not been willing to take on that broader strategy that is, as i said, has to include syria as well as iraq. Woodruff in what form, daniel benjamin, do you see that strategy taking . How much more aggressive or not should the u. S. Be at this point . Well, this execution is, of course, going to raise the pressure on the president enormously to do something in the near term, but i think that a rush to action, at this point, would be unwise until we can make sure that action is really effective. So bombing strikes, for example, in syria could very well undermine our efforts because it would alienate all the countries we need to have in the partnership annemarie slaughter was discussing. I do think at the end of the day that the United States will be deeply involved in supporting an alliance of regional countries who will be involved on the ground with the iraqis themselves in the forefront, and we may well be providing intelligence as well as arms, and we very well may have a drum campaign to take away i. S. I. S. s leadership. But i think that the key thing right now is not to react instantly to try to get some retaliation for this really barbaric attack, but rather to get the strategy right, to get the partners brought in, and to ensure, of course, that the iraqis themselves continue to move towards inclusiveness and towards working together against a common thread. I dont think the United States should be on the ground in this one. Woodruff so Douglas Ollivant, what about that . Do you agree it would be a mistake for the u. S. To do something now that would be seen as retaliation . I think thats exactly right. In the military we talk about tactical patience. You have to wait till the conditions are right to perform the right military action and get the best effect. Woodruff wait for what . First, we need reliable partners on the ground. Putting u. S. Boots on the ground is a nonstarter both here and in the region, so we need reliable partners there. The next step is to get a government formed in iraq that we can work with, and we are waiting for them to go through their long, drawnout government formation process with a reliable partner, at least on the one side of the border. The syrian side will be much harder. Woodruff annemarie slaughter, do i hear you saying waiting for a government to be formed, waiting for a coalition is the right thing to do . Well, yes, actually. I mean, i have been a strong supporter of using force in syria for a couple of years, now. But here, i do think there has to be a comprehensive solution. We can contain i. S. I. S. And we are going to continue using drone strikes to prevent i. S. I. S. From expanding the ground it covers, from threatening baghdad, the proposal dam, were going to continue doing that. I think thats the right thing to do. But the longer term strategy, as i said, to actually eliminate i. S. I. S. , certainly to recapture the territory it holds, it does take a Regional Coalition and we cant act without governments to engage with and, as i said, ultimately, thats going to have to include turkey and probably also iran. Woodruff so, daniel benjamin, that means wait, even if it means months . Well, i dont think that it will be months, and i wouldnt rule out doing the kind of targeted strikes that weve seen in the last month because theyre vitally important for the morale of the kurds, of the iraqis on the ground and for others, as well, who are in the region watching this spectacle unfold. But the fact is at the moment, i. S. I. S. Is a limited threat to the United States at home. Upthe greatest threat the greatest threat is from potential sympathizers appearing and carrying something out. This is a group that has not carried out a terrorist attack of an International Nature over long distances in its history. So while people in the region are very much in peril, i think we ought to get this right and construct the relationships, construct the alliance that will contain and diminish this group. Woodruff a lot of tough questions today and we thank you alall three. We hear you three, benjamin danl benjamin, colonel Douglas Ollivant and annemarie slaughter. Thank you. Woodruff turning now to todays other news. The u. S. Military was waiting for confirmation that it had killed the leader of an alqaeda group in somalia. Airstrikes overnight hit a vehicle carrying ahmed abdi godane. They also struck a base of his alshabaab militia. A pentagon spokesman said warplanes and drones carried out the attacks against godane, about 100 miles south of mogadishu. He is the recognized, appointed leader of the Al Shabaab Network in somalia. If he was killed, this is a very significant blow to their network, to their organization. And we believe to their ability to continue to conduct terrorist attacks. Woodruff the alshabaab leader was the alleged mastermind of the attack on a kenyan Shopping Mall that killed 67 people, one year ago. Another alqaeda affiliate, in syria, has named its conditions for releasing 45 u. N. Peacekeepers from fiji. The alnusra front rebels abducted the peacekeepers last thursday, on the golan heights. Today, the group demanded to be taken off the u. N. s terror list. It also called for compensation for the deaths of three fighters. In saudi arabia, Authorities Say theyve rounded up 88 people on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. The Saudi Interior Ministry announced today that some of the suspects have links to the Islamic State or to alqaeda groups. Officials said many of them may have been planning assassinations, inside saudi arabia and abroad. European Union Diplomats laid out plans today for expanding sanctions against