Last year saw the deadliest Islamist jihad attacks in America since 9/11 and in Europe since 2004, according to the January Terror Threat Snapshot released by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas).
“The heinous ISIS-linked attack on a policeman in Philadelphia [earlier this month] is a grim reminder of the Islamist terror threat we face today,” McCaul said in releasing this month’s terror snapshot. “ISIS and al Qaeda terrorists are expanding their networks and carving out sanctuaries abroad, while their supporters and operatives have been plotting terror attacks in the West.”
McCaul said Obama’s “strategy to defeat ISIS and other Islamist extremists … is out of touch with reality …”
According to the Snapshot, “Islamist terrorists have been attempting to infiltrate the United States as authorities have uncovered jihadists who were resettled in America through the refugee resettlement program. Two refugees from Iraq resettled in the US were recently arrested on terror-related charges linked to ISIS.”
Additionally, the Snapshot stated, “The United States faces an unprecedented terror threat level at home due to the continued failure to destroy ISIS. Law enforcement authorities have arrested nearly 80 individuals in ISIS-related cases in the United States since 2014 – 62 in 2015 alone. There have been 21 ISIS-linked plots to launch attacks in the homeland. Over 80 percent of the post-9/11 homegrown Islamist extremist cases in the United States have occurred or been disrupted since 2009.”
Islamist terrorists returning to the West from Syria are also “a surging threat,” the snapshot added, noting legislation recently signed into law “will enhance the security of the Visa Waiver Program in order to prevent terrorists from entering the United States.”
The Full SnapShot Report from the Homeland Security Congressional Committee is here.
Recent Developments
• January 7: ISIS supporter Edward Archer ambushed and fired 13 shots at a Philadelphia police officer using s stolen police firearm before being arrested. Archer pledged allegiance to ISIS.
• January 7: Sacramento, California-based Islamist extremist Aws Mohammed Younis al Jayab was arrested after lying to authorities about traveling to Syria and fighting alongside terrorist organizations between November 2013 and January 2014. Al Jayab, an Iraqi refugee of Palestinian descent who was resettled in the U.S. from Syria in October 2012, communicated his intention to join terror organizations in Syria over social media. He said he had joined the ranks of Ansar al Islam, a foreign terrorist organization and had communications with an ISIS supporter.
• January 6: Houston, Texas-based ISIS supporter Omar Faraj Saeed al Hardan was arrested for attempting to support ISIS. Hardan, an Iraqi refugee of Palestinian descent who was resettled in the U.S. from Iraq in November 2009, lied to authorities regarding his automatic machine gun training and had associated with ISIS since 2014 and with al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al Nusra in 2013 and 2014.
• December 30: Rochester, New York-based ISIS supporter Emanuel Lutchman planned to attack a restaurant on New Year’s Eve before being arrested. Lutchman said he received direction from an ISIS operative overseas and also expressed his desire to travel to join ISIS. He recorded a video pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and claiming responsibility for the planned attack.
• December 17: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based ISIS supporter Jalil Ibn Ameer Aziz was arrested for advocating for violence against Americans through social media and facilitating the travel of ISIS recruits overseas. Aziz was storing high-capacity weapon magazines and ammunition in his residence. He used at least 57 Twitter accounts in support of ISIS’s messaging and reposted a list of the names and personal information of 100 American service members with the intent of inciting attacks against them.
• December 11: Edgewood, Maryland-based ISIS supporter Mohamed Elshinawy was arrested after communicating electronically with ISIS operatives based overseas and accepting funds he believed were from ISIS for the purpose of launching an attack inside the United States. Elshinawy pledged allegiance to ISIS leader al Baghdadi in February 2015 and received $8,700 he believed was sent from ISIS operatives through Western Union and PayPal.
• December 11: Minneapolis, Minnesota-based ISIS supporter Khaalid Adam Abdulkadir was arrested when he threatened law enforcement authorities after the FBI publically announced the arrest of ISIS recruit Abdirizak Warsame near Minnesota. Abdulkadir had previously communicated with at least two other ISIS-linked recruiters and former Minnesota-area residents.
• December 9: Eagan, Minnesota-based ISIS supporter Abdirizak Mohamed Warsame was arrested after plotting to join ISIS overseas and facilitating the travel of other individuals in a broader ISIS recruitment network operating from Minnesota. The network began watching Islamist extremist propaganda in 2014 after which it began plotting to send members to join ISIS overseas.
• December 2: Two ISIS-linked terrorists, U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook and Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik, attacked a holiday party for local government workers at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people. Farook’s friend, Enrique Marquez Jr., was later arrested for purchasing the rifles used in the attack and for conspiring with Farook to plot an attack in 2011-2012. The attackers posted a pledge of allegiance to ISIS’s leader on Facebook.
ISIS TERROR ATTACK PLOTS AGAINST THE WEST
ISIS dramatically expanded its war with a concerted campaign to target the West in 2015.
By the numbers
• There have been 72 ISIS-linked plots to attack Western targets, including 20 inside in the United States, since 2014.3 The number of ISIS-linked attack plots grew by nearly three times from 2014 (20) to 2015 (50).4
Recent Developments
• January 7: ISIS supporter Edward Archer ambushed and fired 13 shots at a Philadelphia police officer using s stolen police firearm before being arrested. Archer pledged allegiance to ISIS.
• January 7: An attacker wielding a meat cleaver was shot after attempting to storm a Paris police station. The man was carrying a reproduction of ISIS’s flag and a claim of responsibility for the planned attack.
When will we get it? This isn’t about IS!
We are fighting Muslims anywhere & everywhere who hear & answer their faith’s call to jihad for the purpose of imposing Islamic Law (shariah). We fight to live free of shariah.
This is a very different challenge than just countering one flavor-of-the-week jihadi group that today is “IS” but last week was “ISIS” and before that “AQI.”
And unless we glom onto the fact that jihadist Tehran is a far more critical & dangerous enemy than the Sunni jihadis–at least at the moment–because Tehran soon will field deliverable nuclear weapons. One EMP over Kansas & the USA ceases to exist.
We’ve got to get our priorities straight.