House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers on Sunday underscored the threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, saying the terrorist group is "one plane ticket away from U.S. shores." 
 
 “It’s a very real threat,” the Michigan Republican said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “One of the problems is it’s gone unabated for nearly two years, and that draws people from Britain, to across Europe, even the United States to go and join the fight.” 
 
 “They are one plane ticket away from U.S. shores, and that’s why we’re so concerned about it,” he added. 
 
 Rogers said the U.S. is safer since 9/11, but more is needed both domestically and abroad. 
 
 “We have a better system, but we’re just not configured … to continue a tempo that allows disruption,” he said, adding that nothing was deterring ISIL for years. “Yeah, we might be OK if we continue the posture that we’re in from a defensive posture, but remember, they get new recruits every single day.” 
 
 Rogers said the U.S. also needs to engage Arab League partners “in a more robust campaign” and that intelligence agencies and the Defense Department need to be “more disruptive.” 
 
 “There’s no mulligans in foreign policy,” Roger said. “We need to regroup.” 
 
 "This is an opportunity for the president to take a step back, change his presidential guidance on how we disrupt terrorism around the world, including Al Qaeda that has been slowing,' Rogers said. "We have missed dozens and dozens of opportunities to take really bad people off the battlefield." 
 
 Read more about: Iraq, Mike Rogers, ISIL ||||| Sen. John McCain on Sunday invoked the latest earthquake in California to criticize President Barack Obama's handling of a slew of foreign policy issues. 
 
 "The president has to understand that America must lead and, when American hasn’t, a lot of bad things happen," the Arizona Republican said on "Fox News Sunday." This is not like the earthquake in San Francisco. All of this could have been avoided, like leaving a residual behind force in Iraq, and obviously the challenge is now much greater than it would have been." 
 
 McCain's comments follow those of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who both on Thursday emphasized the growing threat of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. 
 
 (VIDEO: Sunday shows in 90 seconds) 
 
 “I do not know,” McCain said, when asked whether he was confident Obama will decide on a full-scale attack on ISIL. “But I don’t think his advisers would be that far out front if they didn’t have some confidence.” 
 
 "One hopes that they are — it is a precursor to the president making an announcement of a new approach,” McCain said, pointing also to the situation in Ukraine. 
 
 Obama has been "strangely detached" regarding his approach to leadership," McCain said, calling the administration "feckless." 
 
 A 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Bay Area of California early Sunday morning, The Associated Press reported, the largest earthquake to hit the area since 1989. 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, John McCain, Iraq, ISIL, Napa Earthquake ||||| The United States needs to act decisively to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Rep. Paul Ryan said Sunday, joining the chorus of Republican voices calling for President Barack Obama to move more forcefully to combat the terror group in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 U.S. generals should develop a plan militarily to combat the group, the Wisconsin congressman added, after Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said last week that movements in Syria will have to be part of any plan to defeat ISIL, which is also referred to as ISIS. 
 
 "I don't want to hear from the president how he's reacting to events like the Mosul Dam," the former GOP vice presidential nominee and possible 2016 presidential candidate said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "What I want to hear from our commander in chief is that he has a strategy to finish ISIS off, to defeat ISIS. Let's not forget that there are reportedly thousands of terrorists with foreign passports. If we don't deal with this threat now thoroughly and convincingly, it's going to come home to roost. So no, I don't think the president has given us the kind of strategy we need." 
 
 Read more about: Barack Obama, Terrorism, Paul Ryan, ISIL ||||| Sen. John McCain and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul on Sunday both cited the death of American journalist James Foley as the reason for increased rhetoric against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, calling the death a “catalyst” and “turning point." 
 
 “I think the terrible beheading was sort of the catalyst on what was already brewing out there,” McCain said on “Fox News Sunday.” 
 
 “I do think they present the greatest threat we’ve seen since 9/11," McCaul said on ABC's "This Week." "This has been festering for the last year, and now it’s culminating with the killing and beheading of an American journalist, which I think is a turning point. The American people — it has sort of opened their eyes to what ISIS really is. The true character of ISIS, how savage they really are and their intent to harm Americans.” 
 
 A video showing the beheading of Foley, who disappeared in Syria in 2012, was posted last week by men claiming to be part of the terrorist group. 
 
 Emphasizing the growing threat of the group, McCaul (R-Texas) said ISIL is very intent on extending operations abroad. 
 
 “They would love more than nothing else to hit the Unites States of America,” McCaul said. 
 
 He added later, “They are intent on hitting the West. And there are external operations, I believe, on the way.” 
 
 McCaul also said that U.S. allies in the region and abroad can also help to bring pressure on ISIL, which is also known by the acronym ISIS. 
 
 “I don’t think you’re going to win this with a containment policy alone,” McCaul said. “We need to expand these airstrikes so that we can ultimately defeat and eliminate ISIS, because I would far prefer to eliminate them over [there] than have to deal with them in the United States.” 
 
 Read more about: John McCain, Iraq, Mike McCaul, ISIL, James Foley ||||| The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant directly threatens the U.S. homeland, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday, and hundreds of members of the terrorist group with U.S. and European passports could use them to try to carry out attacks on America. 
 
 "It's about time now to assume the worst about these guys rather than underestimating them — they're not the JV team anymore," the South Carolina Republican said on CNN's "State of the Union." "They're the most prominent terrorist organization in the world, but they're not the only one. They're in competition with the other jihadist groups, and the gold medal will be awarded to the group that can hit America." 
 
 The well-funded terror group responsible for the death of journalist James Foley in Iraq last week — characterized by the White House as a terrorist attack on America — has ambitions to strike the United States, Graham added. 
 
 (VIDEO: Sunday shows in 90 seconds) 
 
 "I hope the new mission is to defeat and destroy ISIL as a threat to the homeland," he said. 
 
 But Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat from Rhode Island, wasn't as quick to characterize ISIL as an immediate threat to the U.S. 
 
 “We have to begin with the presumption that they could be such a threat. … But to jump from what they’ve done, which is horrific, the murder of Mr. Foley, to the assumption that they’re going to be an immediate and, within days, threat to us here in our homeland, I think you don’t jump to that assumption, but you don’t dismiss it," he said. "You carefully look at what they’re doing, what they want to do.” 
 
 Read more about: Lindsey Graham, Terrorism, ISIL ||||| The spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant poses a threat that requires more than containment from the United States, Sen. Kelly Ayotte says. 
 
 "In New Hampshire, the brutal murder of James Foley really brought home this week this threat that [the group] presents to us and our country," the New Hampshire Republican said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation." "And what I think is that a containment strategy is not going to cut it. We need a strategy to defeat ISIS," she said. 
 
 The United States needs a strategy that expands the airstrikes in Iraq, further supports the Kurds and goes after ISIL (also referred to as ISIS) in Syria, said Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
 
 "What I want from [President Barack Obama] is a strategy to defeat ISIS," Ayotte said. "That's what I think we need to work together on, and he needs to lead this, because the containment aspect of it is not going to defeat them. And we're going to have to defeat them because of the threat that they ... present to us." 
 
 Read more about: Terrorism, Kelly Ayotte, ISIL, James Foley
– Mike Rogers dropped a dire prediction this morning, contending that the Islamic State militants currently rampaging through Iraq "are one plane ticket away from US shores" and that an attack "is a very real threat." Continued the House Intelligence Committee chair: "There’s no mulligans in foreign policy. We need to regroup." John McCain also chimed in, hours after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake rolled through Napa County, trotting out its inevitability as a contrast for the Islamic State: "The president has to understand that America must lead and, when America hasn’t, a lot of bad things happen," said McCain, as per Politico. "This is not like the earthquake in San Francisco. All of this could have been avoided, like leaving a residual behind force in Iraq, and obviously the challenge is now much greater than it would have been." They led a bevy of politicians discussing the militants on the Sunday talk shows: Lindsey Graham: "It's time now to assume the worst about these guys rather than underestimating them—they're not the JV team anymore. They're the most prominent terrorist organization in the world, but they're not the only one. They're in competition with the other jihadist groups, and the gold medal will be awarded to the group that can hit America." Paul Ryan: What I want to hear from our commander in chief is that he has a strategy to finish ISIS off, to defeat ISIS. Let's not forget that there are reportedly thousands of terrorists with foreign passports. If we don't deal with this threat now thoroughly and convincingly, it's going to come home to roost. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul: The Islamic State "would love more than nothing else to hit the United States of America. They are intent on hitting the West. And there are external operations, I believe, on the way." Kelly Ayotte (senator from James Foley's native New Hampshire): "What I want from [President Barack Obama] is a strategy to defeat ISIS. That's what I think we need to work together on, and he needs to lead this, because the containment aspect of it is not going to defeat them. And we're going to have to defeat them because of the threat that they ... present to us."