Homeland Security Committee - Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel

First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2016

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Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-1238-6

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-1242-3

Printed in the United States of America

In March 2015, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee launched a bipartisan Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel. Eight Members of Congress were charged with examining the threat to the United States from foreign fightersindividuals who leave home, travel abroad to terrorist safe havens, and join or assist violent extremist groups. The Task Force assessed domestic and overseas efforts to obstruct terrorist travel, as well as security gaps. This is their final report.

The Task Force would like to thank the many individuals and organizations who made the review possible. While some are not listed by name in this report, their inputs were not forgotten and helped shape the findings and recommendations contained herein. Most importantly, the Task Force would like to thank the many staff members who contributed to the final product for their hard work and dedication to country.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

The rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group in 2014 and their declaration of a pan-Islamic caliphate added a new dimension to the threat of global jihadist terror. The jihadist movement, spearheaded for a quarter of a century by the Tenzim al-Qaeda al-Jihad (the al-Qaeda Organization) metastasized into a far more virulent strain of ideological fanaticism than had been seen so far in the post-9/11 world. Though seemingly new, ISIS is just the fifth generation of al-Qaedas cult variant of Islamic belief. They view an apocalyptic clash of civilizations between the worldwide terror insurgency led by their caliphate (and the nations of the Islamic world) and the West as a daily obligation as important as prayer.

Adopting beliefs and traits that are wholly un-Islamic, the ISIS jihad has adapted the modern technologies of social media and high-speed Internet to apply terror tactics across the globe with a passion for murder and conquest not seen since the Middle Ages. Whereas al-Qaeda was an organization of terror professionals who spent their lives steeped in the study of Islamic doctrine and itinerant terror warfare, ISIS created the equivalent of a terror flash mob. The call to kill in ISISs name appealed to the youngest men and women, Christian and Muslim alike, who knew little of Islam and most of whom originated in a petty criminal class. Once social deviants in the West, these ISIS members rejected their former lives to become international murderers; they found camaraderie as throat slitters and child rapists.

The Great Jihadi migration saw over 25,000 foreign terrorist recruits come to Syria in a murderous caravanserai that crossed all national, social, and economic boundaries and led them to the meat grinder of the caliphate. ISIS called on these foreign fighters and local Iraqis and Syrians to form a new Islamic nation composed only of those who swore oaths to eliminate all tolerance, respect, and traditions that were honored in Islam for fourteen centuries. ISIS shaped them into a cult that worshipped performing rape and creative executions, selling children into slavery, plotting genocide, erasing culture, and killing anyone who opposed them.

This Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel is a keystone study of ISISs ability to recruit terrorists from or in their home nations to abandon all they have ever known and launch themselves as a virtually programmed corps of human guided weapons globally.

Malcolm Nance

HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE TASK FORCE

on

COMBATING TERRORIST AND FOREIGN FIGHTER TRAVEL

Miles Taylor, Republican Staff Lead

Nicole Tisdale, Democratic Staff Lead

Special thanks to Committee Staff who contributed to this final report:

Paul Anstine, Lanier Avant, Kate Bonvechio, Mandy Bowers, Adam Comis, Cate Cullen, Moira Bergin, Luke Burke, Alan Carroll, Paige Davies, Steven Giaier, Katy Flynn, Laura Fullerton, Hope Goins, Cedric Haynes, Kerry Kinirons, Kyle Klein, Vanessa Layne, Tyler Lowe, Kyle McFarland, Jason Miller, John Neal, Ramzi Nemo, Leaksmy Norin, Alison Northrop, Joan OHara, Jason Olin, Christopher Schepis, Brendan Shields, Andrea Thompson, Claire Woolf, and Maseh Zarif.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Threat Environment

Today we are witnessing the largest global convergence of jihadists in history, as individuals from more than 100 countries have migrated to the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq since 2011.

These fighters pose a serious threat to the United States and its allies. Armed with combat experience and extremist connections, many of them are only a plane flight away from our shores. Even if they do not return home to plot attacks, foreign fighters have taken the lead in recruiting a new generation of terrorists and are seeking to radicalize Westerners online to spread terror back home.