The final report of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee’s bipartisan Foreign Fighter Task Force was released late last week at a press conference.
The report was the culmination of a six-month review to evaluate the level of the threat from individuals who leave home to join jihadist groups overseas and to identify possible security gaps.
The committee presented to world leaders at the United Nations 32 key findings as well as recommendations to combat terrorist travel.
"According to the final report, we are witnessing the largest global convergence of jihadists in history in Syria, and foreign fighters have taken the lead in recruiting a new generation of terrorists to spread terror back home," a release from the Homeland Security Committee said. "Despite concerted efforts to stem the flow, we have largely failed to stop Americans from traveling overseas to join jihadists. Of the hundreds of Americans who have sought to travel to the conflict zone in Syria and Iraq, authorities have only interdicted a fraction of them.
"The U.S. government lacks a national strategy for combating terrorist travel and has not produced one in nearly a decade," the release continued.
Another finding was that overseas security weaknesses - largely in Europe - were making it easier for foreign fighters to get to terrorist hotspots and to allow jihadists to get back west.
“It is clear that our nation faces a grave and growing threat from foreign fighters,” Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said. “Sadly, global efforts have failed to stop the flow of these aspiring jihadists into Syria, and we have already seen ‘returnees’ from the conflict zone come home to America and Europe and plot acts of terror."
Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) called the threat of terrorism "alarming."
“The Task Force’s report is a step in stemming this trend – it outlines specific findings and sets up a path for us to address them going forward," Thompson said. "This report is the result of six months of detailed work on addressing this threat, and I want to thank the bipartisan group of task force members for completing it.”
The full report is available at https://homeland.house.gov/.
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