USA Fears The Enemy Within
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The House Homeland Security Committee has released its Terror Threat Snapshot for November, and it paints an increasingly alarming picture.
The November snapshot focuses on homegrown Islamist extremism, terror attack plots against the West, foreign fighters, foreign Jihadist networks and terrorists’ exploitation of Syrian refugee flows.
The report states that ISIS-related homegrown terror threats are increasing at an unprecedented rate with a majority of the 900+ homegrown extremist investigations linked to ISIS. The threat from homegrown terrorists is ever-present, according to the November Terror Threat Snapshot report. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there were 127 further U.S. terrorist cases comprised of homegrown, U.S.-based violent jihadists – with 55 individuals arrested in the U.S. this year alone (71 arrests since 2014). The cases involved: plotting terror attacks; plans to travel overseas to join ISIS; financially supporting known terrorist groups; and falsifying statements to authorities.
Outside the US, ISIS continues to wreak violent havoc including against Western targets, with 18 inside the United States. From July to September of this year, ISIS-linked groups launched at least one attack per day – killing 30 people worldwide. An astonishing 30,000 fighters from more than 100 nations worldwide have flocked to Iraq and Syria to join extremists – resulting in the “largest convergence of Islamist terrorists in world history,” according to the report – which amounts to approximately 1,000 foreign fighters entering the conflict zone each month. Furthermore, around 250 American citizens have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to join the ranks of ISIS.
Another point made by the snapshot was that Al-Qaida is rebuilding its sanctuary in Afghanistan thanks to the diminishing U.S. troop presence in the region. Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has captured additional territory in Yemen.
The November Terror Threat Snapshot also states that the world’s leading state sponsor of Islamist terror, Iran, remains unstable yet it is still poised to “gain additional resources in the coming months as a result of sanctions relief.” In fact, the Obama administration is set to give Iran additional sanctions relief under the terms of the nuclear agreement. Paradoxically, the report also confirms that the Iranian parliament stated recently that the “martyr nurturing nation of Iran” will continue chanting “Death to America.”
