Obama Warns of ‘New Phase’ in Terror Threat, Vows to Destroy ISIS by David Nakamura, Washington Post
President Obama said Sunday that the threat of terrorism to the United States has evolved into a new phase in the wake of recent attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., but he vowed that the nation will ultimately defeat the Islamic State and other militant groups.
“The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it,” Obama said during a 14-minute Oval Office address. Using an acronym for the group, he declared: “We will destroy ISIL.”
Obama hoped the rare prime-time address would help reassure an uneasy nation after a series of deadly terrorist attacks. Obama, who has struggled to calm public fears, made the decision to speak directly to the nation — only the third time he has used the venue — late last week and has been working on his remarks through the weekend…
Obama Says of Terror Threat: ‘We Will Overcome It’ by Michael D. Shear and Gardiner Harris, New York Times
President Obama sought on Sunday to calm a jittery American public after the terrorist attack last week in California, delivering a prime-time address designed to highlight the government’s campaign against an evolving threat.
Speaking from behind a lectern in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama bluntly acknowledged the heightened fears that followed attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., and called it an “act of terrorism” that appears to have been inspired, but not directed, by members of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
“The terrorist threat has evolved into a new phase,” Mr. Obama said. “I know that after so much war, many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure.”
He added: “The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.”…