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| FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2015 file photo, a Syrian Kurdish sniper looks at the rubble in the Syrian city of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani. Foreign fighters are streaming in unprecedented numbers to Syria and Iraq to battle for the Islamic State or other U.S. foes, including at least 3,400 from Western nations and 150 Americans, U.S. intelligence officials conclude. In all, more than 20,000 fighters have traveled to Syria from more than 90 countries, top intelligence officials will tell Congress this week. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Foreign fighters are streaming into Syria and Iraq in
unprecedented numbers to join the Islamic State or other extremist
groups, including at least 3,400 from Western nations among 20,000 from
around the world, U.S. intelligence officials say in an updated estimate
of a top terrorism concern.
Intelligence
agencies now believe that as many as 150 Americans have tried and some
have succeeded in reaching in the Syrian war zone, officials told the
House Homeland Security Committee in testimony prepared for delivery on
Wednesday. Some of those Americans were arrested en route, some died in
the area and a small number are still fighting with extremists.
The testimony and other data were obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.
Nick
Rasmussen, chief of the National Counterterrorism Center, said the rate
of foreign fighter travel to Syria is without precedent, far exceeding
the rate of foreigners who went to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Iraq, Yemen or Somalia at any other point in the past 20 years.
U.S.
officials fear that some of the foreign fighters will return undetected
to their homes in Europe or the U.S. to mount terrorist attacks. At
least one of the men responsible for the attack on a satirical magazine
in Paris had spent time with Islamic extremists in Yemen.
Meanwhile,
the White House circulated a proposal Tuesday that would have Congress
authorize the U.S. military to fight Islamic State terrorists over the
next three years. A formal request for legislation is expected on
Wednesday.
Also at the White House, President
Barack Obama praised Kayla Jean Mueller, the young American whose death
was confirmed Tuesday. Mueller died while in Islamic State hands, though
the group blamed a Jordanian airstrike, and Obama said, "No matter how
long it takes, the United States will find and bring to justice the
terrorists who are responsible for Kayla's captivity and death."
As
for foreign fighters, officials acknowledge it has been hard to track
the Americans and Europeans who have made it to Syria, where the Islamic
State group is the dominant force trying to overthrow the government of
President Bashar Assad. The U.S. Embassy in Syria is closed, and the
CIA has no permanent presence on the ground.
"Once
in Syria, it is very difficult to discern what happens there,"
according to Wednesday's prepared testimony of Michael Steinbach, the
FBI's assistant director for counterterrorism. "This lack of clarity
remains troubling."
The estimate of 20,000
fighters, from 90 countries, is up from 19,000, Rasmussen will tell the
House committee, according to prepared testimony. The number of
Americans or U.S. residents who have gone or tried to go is up to 150
from 50 a year ago and 100 in the fall.
Rep.
Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who chairs the committee, said in
his prepared remarks that the Syrian war had created "the largest
convergence of Islamist terrorists in world history." Sustained bombing
by a U.S.-led coalition has not stopped the inflow, he noted.
McCaul's
committee staff compiled from public sources a list of 18 U.S. citizens
or residents who joined or attempted to join the Islamic State group,
and 18 others who tried to or succeeded in joining other violent Islamic
groups. The list includes three Chicago teens and three Denver teens
who were radicalized and recruited online and were arrested after
attempting to travel to Syria to join Islamic State fighters. It also
includes Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, a Californian who died in August
while fighting with the Islamic State group near Aleppo.
U.S.
intelligence officials do not make public their estimate of how many
Americans currently are fighting in Syria and Iraq. In September, FBI
director James Comey said it was "about a dozen."
Francis
X. Taylor, who heads the Homeland Security Department's intelligence
office, said in his prepared testimony for the hearing that "we are
unaware of any specific, credible, imminent threat to the homeland."
However,
he said, the department is concerned that Americans who join violent
extremist groups in Syria "could gain combat skills, violent extremist
connections and possibly become persuaded to conduct organized or
`lone-wolf' style attacks that target U.S. and Western interests. We
also have become increasingly aware of the possibility that Syria could
emerge as a base of operations for al-Qaida's international agenda,
which could include attacks against the homeland."
Taylor
said the U.S. is trying to instruct other governments on how best to
track foreign fighters, including "how they can compare airline
manifests and reservation data against terrorist watch lists and other
intelligence about terrorist travel." He said the U.S. outpaces other
countries in that effort.
The intelligence
officials also discussed the possibility of homegrown attacks inspired
by the Islamic State or al-Qaida but not directly connected to the
groups. Rasmussen of the counterterrorism center appeared to downplay
that threat, saying it "will remain at its current level resulting in
fewer than 10 uncoordinated and unsophisticated plots annually from a
pool of up to a few hundred individuals, most of whom are known to the
(intelligence agencies) and law enforcement."
McCaul
said he fears the Obama administration is blind to the looming dangers
of homegrown radicalism of the kind that led to the 2013 Boston Marathon
bombing.
"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," he said. "I am also concerned
that the few programs we do have in place are far too small to confront a
challenge that has grown so quickly."
