US won't let borders hamper fight vs. extremists

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior White House official raised the possibility Friday of a broader American military campaign that targets an Islamic extremist group's bases in Syria, saying the U.S would take whatever action is necessary to protect national security.

"We're not going to be restricted by borders," said Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser.

The White House said the president has received no military options beyond those he authorized earlier this month for limited airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and military aid to Iraqi and Kurdish forces. Thus far, the United States has avoided military involvement in Syria's three-year civil war. But faced with the Islamic State making gains across the region and the beheading of an American journalist, the administration's resistance may be weakening.

Rhodes spoke a day after Obama's top military adviser warned the extremists cannot be defeated without "addressing" their sanctuary in Syria.

Many prominent Republicans and some Democrats have called on Obama to hit back harder at the Islamic State militants.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a prospective 2016 presidential candidate, said in an interview Friday that attacking their supply lines, command and control centers and economic assets inside Syria "is at the crux of the decision" for Obama. The risk of "getting sucked into a new war" is outweighed, he said, by the risk of inaction.

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To hit back at the group, Obama has stressed military assistance to Iraq and efforts to create a new, inclusive government in Baghdad that can persuade Sunnis to leave the insurgency. He also has sought to frame the Islamic State threat in terms that convince other countries — not just in the Mideast but also in Europe — of the need to create a broad coalition against the extremists.

In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. was prepared to help Iraq pursue a federal system that would decentralize power away from Baghdad. While saying that Iraq is making progress in forming a new government, Biden warned that sectarian divisions were fueling extremist movements like the Islamic State.

Lukman Faily, the Iraqi ambassador to Washington, said in an interview this week that Baghdad's new leadership has been told to expect additional military help once the new government is seated, possibly in early September. But an Iraqi counteroffensive may yield only temporary gains if the Islamic State retreats to areas of Syria beyond the government's control.

"The U.S. can't defeat the Islamic State terrorist army in Iraq if it does not strike its leadership and core base in Syria simultaneously," said Oubai Shahbandar, a Washington-based senior strategist for the Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition group. "A real strategy requires linkage of the military effort in Iraq with Syria," he said.

Rhodes said the U.S. was "actively considering what's going to be necessary to deal with that threat." Speaking on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, where Obama is on vacation, Rhodes said: "We've shown time and again that if there's a counterterrorism threat, we'll take direct action against that threat, if necessary."

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The recent execution of journalist James Foley could be seen as a turning point in a long-running battle against the group, whose origins are in an al-Qaida offshoot that U.S. forces faced in Iraq several years ago, he said. Foley's killing, he added, was "an attack on our country."

Obama faces tough decisions.

He can continue helping Iraqi forces try to reverse the group's land grabs in northern Iraq by providing more arms and American military advisers and by using U.S. warplanes to support Iraqi ground operations. On Friday, the Pentagon announced that U.S. warplanes made three more airstrikes against Islamic State targets near the Mosul Dam, including a machine gun position that was firing on Iraqi forces.

But what if the militants pull back, even partially, into Syria and regroup, as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday predicted they would, followed by a renewed offensive?

"In a sense, you're just sort of back to where you were," said Robert Ford, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria who quit in February in disillusionment over Obama's unwillingness to arm moderate Syrian rebels.

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"I don't see how you can contain the Islamic State over the medium term if you don't address their base of operations in Syria," he said in an interview before intensified U.S. airstrikes this week helped Kurdish and Iraqi forces recapture the Mosul Dam.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday the Islamic State militants can be contained only so long and at some point their Syrian sanctuary will have to be dealt with.

"Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no," he told a Pentagon news conference where Hagel called the group a dire threat that requires an international, not just an American, response.

"That (sanctuary) will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border," Dempsey added. "And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating ISIS over time," he said, using an alternate acronym for the group. "ISIS will only truly be defeated when it's rejected by the 20 million disenfranchised Sunni that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad."

Just in Iraq, Obama has difficult choices to make. Its sectarian divisions and political dysfunction created the opening that allowed Islamic State fighters to sweep across northern Iraq in June, capturing U.S.-supplied weapons that Iraqi forces left behind when they fled without a fight.

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Among his options:

—Sending more troops to Baghdad to strengthen security for the U.S. Embassy, as requested by the State Department. Officials said the number under consideration is fewer than 300. They would be in addition to several hundred U.S. troops already in the capital helping to protect U.S. facilities and personnel.

—Speeding up the arming of Iraqi and Kurdish forces. The administration has been supplying Iraqi government forces with Hellfire missiles, small arms and ammunition, but critics say the pace is too slow.

—Increasing the number and expanding the role of the dozens of U.S. military advisers coordinating with Iraqi forces in Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Irbil. They could be given more direct roles in assisting Iraqis on the ground by embedding with units in the field or scouting targets for U.S. airstrikes.

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Associated Press writers Ken Dilanian, Lara Jakes, Bradley Klapper, Jim Kuhnhenn, Josh Lederman and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

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Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Ferguson's streets were peaceful for a third night as tensions between police and protesters continued to subside after nights of violence and unrest erupted when a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed black 18-year-old.

A small stream of protesters marched in the St. Louis suburb as night fell Friday, but instead of confrontations with police, several stopped to talk one-on-one with officers about the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown and tactics used by authorities during previous demonstrations.

While many residents are hopeful that tensions were waning and eager to end the disruptions to their lives caused by protests and police presence, some say they fear the community's anger could explode anew if the grand jury now considering the case doesn't return a charge against the officer, Darren Wilson.

"This officer has to be indicted. I'd hate to see what happens if he isn't. The rioting, the looting, man ...," said resident Larry Loveless, 29, as he stopped Friday at the memorial for Brown where he was killed.

St. Louis County prosecutors this week convened a grand jury to begin hearing evidence in the case, despite concerns among some in the community — including Brown's parents — that the office would not be impartial because of District Attorney Bob McCulloch's ties to law enforcement. McCulloch's father, mother and other relatives worked for St. Louis police, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect. He has said he will not remove himself from the case.

Considering the racial tensions of the case, even the makeup of the grand jury was being closely scrutinized. Two black women and one black man are on the 12-member panel, along with six white men and three white women, said Paul Fox, director of judicial administration for St. Louis County Circuit Court.

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U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill said she's pushing for the local investigation and a separate one being done by the federal government to be completed around the same time so that all evidence in the case can be made public — a step many consider important should prosecutors decide not to charge the officer. Her office said Friday that the Department of Justice hasn't given a timeline for the federal investigation, which centers on whether a civil rights violation occurred when officer Darren Wilson fatally shot the unarmed Michael Brown on Aug. 9.

Gov. Jay Nixon, in an interview Friday with the AP, didn't say if he agreed with McCaskill's call to conclude both investigations at the same time. He said the full focus is on seeking justice.

"To me it's one you've got to get right. Just got to get it right," he said.

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Associated Press reporters Ryan J. Foley and Nigel Duara contributed to this report from Ferguson.

New fear: What happens in Ferguson if no charges?

Russian aid trucks begin to leave Ukraine

DONETSK, Russia (AP) — Hundreds of trucks from a bitterly disputed Russian aid convoy to rebel-held eastern Ukraine rolled back across the border into Russia on Saturday.

An Associated Press reporter counted 225 of the white tarp-covered trucks as they drove from Ukraine into a Russian border town called Donetsk, which bears the same name as the largest rebel-held city in Ukraine. A second AP reporter on the Ukrainian side of the border was able to look inside about 40 of the tractor-trailers side and confirmed they were empty.

One driver who declined to give his name said the rest of the 260-truck convoy was expected to return within hours to Russia. The state news agency RIA Novosti cited the Russian customs service as saying the trucks were moving in six groups.

The trucks had crossed Friday into Ukraine bound for Luhansk, another rebel-held city in eastern Ukraine hard-hit by weeks of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels. The Ukrainian government and Western countries denounced the move as a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and accused Russia of using the convoy to smuggle supplies and reinforcements to separatist fighters.

Russia said the trucks carried only food, water, generators and sleeping bags. When some of the trucks were inspected by reporters a few days previously, some of those items were visible in the cargo.

In a separate development, NATO said it has mounting evidence that Russian troops are operating inside Ukraine and launching artillery attacks from Ukrainian soil. Russia also rejected that accusation.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has advocated a measured European Union response to Russia's aggressive policies in Ukraine, arrived Saturday in Kiev to meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

In a statement, Merkel said she would advise Poroshenko "that the conflict can only be resolved politically and that a cease-fire must be reached as soon as possible."

It remained unclear Saturday what the Russian convoy had actually delivered, or how. Unloading hundreds of trucks in less than a day in a war-battered region represents a sizeable task. AP journalists who followed the convoy to Luhansk on Friday said rattling sounds from some trailers indicated they were not fully loaded.

The convoy's entry caused Russia-Ukraine tensions to spike. The trucks had languished on the Russian side of the border for nearly two weeks as Ukraine refused permission for entry and the Red Cross sought security guarantees from all sides.

Russia sent the trucks in Friday, saying it had lost patience and Luhansk was on the edge of a humanitarian catastrophe. Ukraine condemned it as a "direct invasion."

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At the United Nations in New York, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin rejected NATO's accusations that Russian troops were inside Ukraine. Russia has steadfastly denied supporting and arming the rebels.

In the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, residents reported artillery strikes throughout Friday night and Saturday morning. The mayor's office said three people were killed, including two who had been waiting for a bus.

Ukraine has retaken control of much of its eastern territory bordering Russia, but fighting for Donetsk and Luhansk persists.

Unrest in eastern Ukraine began in mid-April, one month after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. The United Nations says more than 2,000 people have been killed and 340,000 forced to flee their homes during the fighting.

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Associated Press reporter Mstyslav Chernov in Izvarnye, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The moment Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson shot an unarmed teenager, a 25-year-old Supreme Court case became the prism through which his actions will be legally judged.

To most people, an 18-year-old unarmed man may not appear to pose a deadly threat. But a police officer's perspective is different. And that is how an officer should be judged after the fact, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in the 1989 opinion.

The Supreme Court case, decided at a time when violence against police was on the rise, has shaped the national legal standards that govern when police officers are justified in using force. The key question about Wilson's killing on Aug. 9 is whether a reasonable officer with a similar background would have responded the same way.

The sequence of events that led to the death of Michael Brown, a black man shot by a white officer, remains unclear. An autopsy paid for by Brown's family concluded that he was shot six times, twice in the head. The shooting has prompted multiple investigations and touched off days of rioting reflecting long-simmering racial tensions in a town of mostly black residents and a majority white police force.

Attorney General Eric Holder said Thursday the episode had opened a national conversation about "the appropriate use of force and the need to ensure fair and equal treatment for everyone who comes into contact with the police."

A grand jury is hearing evidence to determine whether Wilson, 28, who has policed the St. Louis suburbs for six years, should be charged in Brown's death.

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Since the 1989 Graham v. Connor decision, the courts in most instances have sided with the police.

"Except in the most outrageous cases of police misconduct, juries tend to side with police officers and give them a lot of leeway," said Woody Connette, the attorney who represented the Charlotte, North Carolina, man behind the case, Dethorne Graham.

On Nov. 12, 1984, Graham, 39, felt the onset of an insulin reaction, and asked a friend to drive him to buy orange juice that would increase his blood sugar, Connette said.

According to the Supreme Court, Graham rushed into the store and grabbed the orange juice but saw the checkout line was too long, so he put the juice down and ran back to the car.

Charlotte police officer M.S. Connor thought this was suspicious and followed him. When Connor stopped Graham's friend's car, Graham explained he was having a sugar reaction. But Connor didn't believe him.

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In this Feb. 11, 2014 image from video released by the City of Ferguson, Mo., officer Darren Wilson …

As Connor was following up with the store to see whether anything had happened, Graham left the car, ran around it twice, then sat down and passed out for a short time. Other police officers arrived, and Graham was rolled over and handcuffed. The officers lifted Graham from behind and placed him face down on the car.

When Graham asked the officers to check his pocket for something he carried that identified him as a diabetic, one of the officers told him to "shut up" and shoved his face against the hood of the car. Then four officers grabbed Graham and threw him head-first into the police car. Once police confirmed no crime had been committed inside the convenience store, they dropped Graham off at his home and left him lying in the yard, Connette said.

Graham ended up with a broken foot, cuts on his wrists, a bruised forehead and an injured shoulder.

Graham, who died in 2000, lost his lawsuit against the city of Charlotte and five police officers in a jury trial and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, which set out the standards still used today. After the Supreme Court decision vacating an appeals court ruling against Graham, he had a new trial, in which the police actions were judged on new standards. Graham lost again.

The Graham decision found that an officer's use of force should be considered on the facts of each case. Officers are to weigh the seriousness of the crime, whether the suspect poses a threat to the safety of police or others and whether the suspect is trying to resist arrest.

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"The 'reasonableness' of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight," Rehnquist wrote.

In Graham's case, his behavior as he was experiencing low blood sugar looked similar to that of a belligerent drunk.

Since then, police officers across the U.S. have been trained to use force in that context. States and police departments have their own policies, but the standards set in the Graham case are always the minimum. Some law enforcement agencies, like the Los Angeles Police Department, even reference Graham v. Connor in their manuals.

The jury that acquitted four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Rodney King in 1991 was instructed to consider the Graham standards — the officers' "reasonable perceptions" — as they deliberated.

Officers are to be judged by those standards even if things look different to people who weren't involved.

"What a police officer, what she perceives at the moment of application of force, may seem very different in the hard light of the following Monday morning," said Ken Wallentine, a recently retired police chief and former law professor in Utah. "And there's the rub."

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Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier in St. Louis and Nancy Benac and researcher Monika Mathur in Washington contributed to this report.

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Follow Eileen Sullivan on Twitter at www.twitter.com/esullivanap

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