Overview

After 9/11, the most acute terrorist threats came from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, which had orchestrated large, complex attacks from remote caves in Afghanistan. Today, Bin Laden is dead. The core of al-Qaeda as we knew it has been largely dismantled. Al-Qaeda affiliates in Yemen, Africa, and Syria have filled the void. At the same time, new terror groups like ISIS present an immediate and different kind of threat to the United States and others, both here and abroad. While the threat of major aviation attacks still remains a top concern for American counterterrorism officials, the tactics employed by these groups have broadened. Groups like ISIS, Al-Shabaab, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula have used social media and online propaganda to spread their call to extremists here in America and around the world to carry out their own attacks. ISIS has seemingly perfected the ability to use social media to lure Western recruits to Syria for training. The New America Foundation has identified 62 individuals across 19 states from news reports or public records who have tried to join ISIS, have joined ISIS, or Nusra, the al-Qaeda affiliated, or supported others doing so. The only profile that this group really shares is that 53 of the 62 individuals were very active on social media, downloading and sharing jihadist propaganda, and in some cases, directly communicating with members of ISIS in Syria. This is a new development in the way jihadist terrorists are recruiting in the United States. These new tactics mean that we can no longer rely solely on our ability to use military force to eliminate a terrorist threat. The United States, in partnership with our allies abroad, must start examining more closely the root causes of why Westerners join the ranks and act in the name of ISIS or al-Qaeda.

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9781548356828

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