As we have known for some time, a free society is the perfect thing for terrorists who hate a free society. The reason they like it is that they can destroy it from within.
The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist recruitment campaign has successfully penetrated the United States, and it is happening right under the noses of the Federal Administration and law enforcement, according to officials and terror analysts, USA Today reported on Tuesday.
How are they doing that?
Simply by using personal “peer-to-peer” communication social media tools, and they are currently focusing on Minneapolis and Detroit.
Speaking to USA Today, one law official said, “This is not so much a recruitment effort as it is a global marketing campaign, beyond anything that al-Qaeda has ever done.”
Earlier this month, six men were charged with conspiracy to provide material support and attempting to aid a foreign terrorist organization with plans to join the Islamic State in Syria (ISIS or ISIL).
This subversive action happened right under the noses of local authorities.
So far, federal authorities have discovered more than 150 U.S. residents who sought to join the terrorist organization or related groups in Syria. Some of those residents were also U.S. citizens. Apparently, the number of people who would like to be a part of ISIS is believed to be even higher.
The Islamic State group is directly involved in coordinating outreach to these people, according to the report in USA Today. An official who asked not to be identified said, “I don’t think there has been one case in which we haven’t found some connection to the videos or other media the group has produced.”
According to Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, chief of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, young men and women are “responding to the call to join violent jihad abroad at an alarming rate.”
FBI Director James Comey says the agency is handling an increasing number of cases. U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger says the “peer-to-peer” or “brother-to-brother” campaign involves a close group of suspects engaged in the radicalization of each other at every phase of recruitment leading up to plans to travel to the battlefield.
The terrorist groups are evolving quickly, like social media these days.
A former director of the U.S. Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, speaking to USA Today, “Al-Qaeda in Pakistan represented Version 1.0, with its static video of Osama bin-Laden’s face. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula became Version 2.0, with (American cleric) Anwar al-Awlaki using graphics and the online magazine ‘Inspire’ to reach potential English-speaking converts. Think of ISIL as Version 3.0.”
And does the U.S. administration know what is is doing?
Probably not.
Has the U.S. got this covered?
Not a chance!
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst and director of Georgetown University’s Center for Peace and Security Studies program, told USA Today, “It’s like the Dutch boy sticking his fingers in the dike.”
Oh great, we are open to a whole lot of trouble and the President and the people at the top who are supposed to be taking care of security have been ignoring the signs for years!
So much for the 9/11 report.
