Obama's JV team is in the news again

ISIS pursuing production of chemical weapons, officials say

BAGHDAD -- The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region, according to Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials.

Their quest raises an alarming scenario for the West, given the determination to strike major cities that the group showed with its bloody attack last week in Paris. On Thursday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned that Islamic extremists might at some point use chemical or biological weapons.

U.S. intelligence officials don't believe ISIS has the capability to develop sophisticated weapons like nerve gas that are most suited for a terrorist attack on a civilian target. So far the group has used mustard gas on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria.

But Iraqi officials expressed concern that the large safe haven the extremists control since overrunning parts of Iraq and Syria last year has left Iraqi authorities largely in the dark over the ISIS program.

"They now have complete freedom to select locations for their labs and production sites and have a wide range of experts, both civilians and military, to aid them," a senior Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton refused to say Thursday that President Obama misjudged the danger posed by ISIS when he called it the “JV team” of Islamic terrorism early last year, explaining that the label made sense “from the perspective of what they had accomplished at the time.”