Obama Holds Security Talks as Hollande Urges Action Against IS

{WHITE HOUSE—President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with his national security team Wednesday for a briefing on homeland security nearly two weeks after the deadly terror attacks in Paris and as millions of American travel for a national holiday.}

Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, is one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States. While the FBI said there is no specific credible terrorist threat, local and federal law enforcement agencies are on high alert.

Friday will also be an extremely busy day at malls and shopping centers as it is the traditional start of the Christmas shopping season.

France, which was already on alert after the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people, announced Wednesday it would deploy even more police and soldiers for the upcoming global climate conference, which starts Monday.

Obama is among the large group of world leaders traveling to Paris for the event.

Belgium’s capital, Brussels, also remains on its highest level of alert through at least Monday as authorities continue to search for several suspects connected to the Paris attacks, including Salah Abdeslam and newly charged Mohamed Abrini.

But the city did return to some normalcy Wednesday with kids going back to school and much of the city’s subway system reopening.
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French President Francois Hollande is meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday as he continues his push to persuade world leaders to intensify their actions against the Islamic State group.

Hollande travels to Moscow Thursday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On Tuesday, Hollande and Obama agreed to increase airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, broaden their scope, and strengthen intelligence sharing, while urging closure of the Turkey-Syria border to prevent Islamic State fighters from crossing into Europe.

‘We need a joint response’

“Against Daesh, we need a joint response, an implacable joint response,” Hollande said, using the Arabic name for Islamic State. “France and the United States stand together to bring that joint response.”

He vowed to hunt down Islamic State leaders, dismantle their networks and take back their territory.

France has recently intensified its bombing of Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria as part of a U.S.-led coalition that has carried out more than 8,300 airstrikes since August 2014.

The White House said Obama directed his national security team to “intensify ongoing efforts to degrade and destroy” the militant group.

It said the U.S. is also working to increase military cooperation with allies, disrupt foreign-fighter networks, stop the Islamic State group from expanding outside of Syria and Iraq, and break up efforts to plot attacks elsewhere in the world.

Obama also pledged that “Americans will not be terrorized,” while calling on his countrymen to uphold the U.S. ideals of freedom of religion and equality before the law, in the midst of a contentious debate in the country over whether to allow Syrian refugees to enter the U.S.

Obama has been criticized by Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates looking to succeed him when he leaves office in January 2017 for his plan to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the U.S. over the next year.

But Obama noted that France is set to permit 30,000 Syrians to enter its borders, and he reiterated that his refugee plan calls for intensive screening before anyone can move to the United States.

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