Intelligence agencies believe that at least 150 Americans have tried to join a record amount of recruits currently filling the Islamic State group’s ranks in Syria and Iraq.
Officials have told the House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on Wednesday that 3,400 individuals from Western nations are part of a group of 20,000 foreign fighters heading to the Middle East, The Associated Press reported.
Text received by news service says that the rate of foreign fighters attempting to join the Islamic State group’s front lines surpasses anything seen within the past 20 years.
Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee, said in his prepared remarks that Syria’s civil war has created “the largest convergence of Islamist terrorists in world history,” AP reported. He added that he believed the Obama administration was ill-prepared to deal with stateside repercussions of the Sunni radical terror group’s successful recruiting efforts.
“We have no lead agency in charge of countering domestic radicalization and no line item for it in the budgets of key departments and agencies,” Rep. McCaul said, AP reported.
Michael Steinbach, the FBI’s assistant director for counterterrorism, offered a bleak assessment of the ability to track members of Islamic State’s terror pilgrimage once they arrive in the Middle East.
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“Once in Syria, it is very difficult to discern what happens there. This lack of clarity remains troubling,” Mr. Steinbach said, AP reported.
Francis X. Taylor, who heads the Homeland Security Department’s intelligence office, said in his prepared testimony “We are unaware of any specific, credible, imminent threat to the homeland,” AP reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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