On September 29, 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee released a bi-partisan “Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel.”

Conclusions of the report include:

• “Despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists. Of the hundreds of Americans who have sought to travel to the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, authorities have only interdicted a fraction of them. Several dozen have also managed to make it back into America.”
• “The U.S. government lacks a national strategy for combating terrorist travel and has not produced one in nearly a decade.”
• “The unprecedented speed at which Americans are being radicalized by violent extremists is straining federal law enforcement’s ability to monitor and intercept suspects.”
• “Jihadist recruiters are increasingly using secure websites and apps to communicate with Americans, making it harder for law enforcement to disrupt plots and terrorist travel.”
• “There is currently no comprehensive global database of foreign fighter names. Instead, countries including the United States rely on a patchwork system for swapping extremist identities, increasing the odds foreign fighters will slip through the cracks.”
• “‘Broken travel’ and other evasive transit tactics are making it harder to track foreign fighters.”
• “Few initiatives exist nationwide to raise awareness about foreign-fighter recruitment and to assist communities with spotting warning signs”
• “The federal government has failed to develop clear early-intervention strategies–or ‘off-ramps’ to radicalization–to prevent suspects already on
  law enforcement’s radar from leaving to fight with extremists.”
• “Gaping security weaknesses overseas–especially in Europe–are putting the U.S. homeland in danger by making it easier for aspiring foreign fighters to migrate to terrorist hotspots and for jihadists to return to the West.”
• “Despite improvements since 9/11, foreign partners are still sharing information about terrorist suspects in a manner which is ad hoc, intermittent, and often incomplete.”
• “Ultimately, severing today’s foreign-fighter flows depends on eliminating the problem at the source in Syria and Iraq and, in the long run, preventing the emergence of additional terrorist sanctuaries.”

The report states: “Western recruits in particular have ended up at the forefront of the violence, and as one ISIS defector noted, they can be even more brutal than local jihadists.”  In addition to the well-know case of “26-year-old British citizen Mohammed Emwazi, better known as “Jihadi John,'” this issue common among Western ISIS recruits.  The report states: “Western foreign fighters have engaged heavily in the group’s atrocities. Analysts for the International Center for the Study of Radicalization say extremists in Syria use Westerners for ‘excessively brutal operations that locals may refuse to be involved in,’ including suicide bombings, beheadings, and torture. In fact, U.S. officials estimate most of the group’s suicide bombers are from foreign countries. One of the first Americans do die in the conflict, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, was responsible for a suicide bombing attack on a Syrian restaurant, the video of which was later distributed by extremists on social media.  In the recording, Abusalha rips up his American passport, urges others to travel to the conflict zone, and warns that America “is not safe”; it ends with him driving an explosive-laden truck into the attack site and detonating it. In yet another indication Westerners are engaging in serious violence, Germany recently estimated that 100 of its 700 citizens who went to Syria had been killed while fighting alongside ISIS.”

The report states “[s]ince early 2014, there has been an alarming global uptick in terrorist plots involving foreign-fighter returnees. They include, but are not limited to, the following:”

1. “August 2015 (France): Plot to attack a concert on French soil; suspect allegedly returned from ISIS’ stronghold in Raqqa, Syria with instructions to
   conduct the attack.”
2. “August 2015 (Belgium): Attempted mass shooting against passengers on a train from Amsterdam to Paris; suspect alleged to have fought in Syria.”
3. “July 2015 (Kosovo): Plot to contaminate the capital’s water supply; two suspects believed to have fought in Syria.”
4. “June 2015 (Tunisia): Mass shooting on resort beach killing 40 people, mostly Western tourists; while suspect did not travel to Syria, he is said to have trained with ISIS in Libya.”
5. “April 2015 (Saudi Arabia): Plot to bomb U.S. Embassy in Riyadh; suspects include two Syrian foreign fighters and a Saudi citizen.”
6. “April 2015 (United States): Plot to attack a U.S. military base, as noted above; suspect trained in Syria and was directed to return to the United States to conduct attack.”
7. “March 2015 (United Kingdom): Plot to conduct mass public shooting; suspect was a British MI5 agent who had traveled to Syria and reportedly double-crossed his UK handlers.”
8. “March 2015 (Tunisia): Mass shooting attack killing 19 people at the National Bardo Museum in Tunis; two suspects allegedly trained in Libya with ISIS, which claimed credit for the attack.”

 

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our universal human rights for all, and we stand in defiance against those, including terrorist and hate groups, which seek to attack such universal human rights, dignity, and security for all