Special to WorldTribune.com

Bill Gertz, Inside the Ring, Washington Times

Senior Obama administration officials briefed members of Congress on the drive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to seize control of Iraq.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined for senators the situation in Iraq, where ISIL has seized a large central section and has declared that is leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is now the head of a “caliphate” stretching across Iraq and Syria. …

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, emerged from the classified briefing with harsh words for the administration. “It’s a classified briefing, so I will not provide any details of that briefing, except to say very clearly, there is no strategy for countering the largest enclave of terrorism in history on the Iraq-Syria border,” Mr. McCain told reporters Tuesday. “They have no strategy, nor could they articulate a strategy to counter what our intelligence estimates are over time will be a direct threat to the United States of America.” …

The current military mission is twofold — providing security for diplomats in Baghdad and facilities at the airport, and dispatching six assessment teams, mostly around Baghdad, to gauge the cohesion of the Iraqi Security Forces.

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  ‘No strategy’: Obama administration briefs Congress on Iraq but lacks plan, Chuck Hagel, Iraq, LIFE, WorldTribune.com