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FBI Arrests Teen Trying to Join ISIS
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
October 6, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Arresting
U.S. 19-year-old teenager Mohammed Hamzah Khan at O’Hare International Airport
in Chicago, the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force highlights a growing problems for
U.S. law enforcement. When
39-year-old Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan massacred 13 soldiers at Fort
Hood Texas Nov. 5, 2009, the White House dismissed the attacks as workplace
violence. Far from another Postal-type attack, the FBI uncovered extensive email correspondence
between Hasan and the late U.S.-born head of al-Qaeda’s Yemen cell Anwar
al-Awlaki. Converted to radical
Islam, Hasan committed jihad for al-Awlaki, killing 13 U.S. soldiers, injuring
32 more. Intercepting Khan at
O’Hare was a good first step by the FBI, trying to redeem itself for the April
15, 2013 Boston Marathon pressure-cooker bombing killing three and injuring 264
by Chechen-born U.S. citizens Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Before Tamerlan was killed by Boston police April 19 in a bloody shootout
in Watertown, Mass., the FBI ignored warnings for over two years given to the
FBI by Russia’s FSB Security Service about Tamerlan’s trip to Chechnya. Ignoring the warnings cost
unimaginable suffering to innocent visitors to the Boston Marathon, one of the
country’s most celebrated years outdoor events.
Catching Khan at O’Hare is a good start but doesn’t begin to deal with
untold numbers of wayward youth vulnerable to the appeal of psychopathic groups
like al-Qaeda and ISIS. While
cloaked in jargon about radical Islam, terror groups are outlaw gangs, much like
urban gangs in the U.S. like Crips and Bloods or foreign gangs closer to the
U.S. like the Sinaloa Drug Cartel.
Islamic criminal gangs have done a good job of selling themselves as legitimate
religious organizations.
Drawing official criticism from Ankara, President Joe Biden’s comments at
Harvard Oct. 3 blaming Turkey to letting jihadists slip across the border to
Iraq and Syria showed the problem.
Catching Khan before traveling to Turkey proves President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s
claim that Turkey doesn’t knowing allow anyone to go to war zones. Biden’s Harvard remarks antagonized
Turkey precisely because of the what the FBI found in Khan’s case. Wannabe jihadists find any way
possible to join ISIS, al-Qaeda or any other radical groups promising utopia to
disenfranchised youths looking for Islamic paradise. It’s not surprising that FBI agents found drawing of ISIS’s flag and Arabic words “come
to jihad” in Khan’s personal effects.
Wherever Khan got the ticket to travel to Vienna, then Turkey is anyone’s
guess. What the FBI must face is
that U.S. youths are vulnerable to radical groups.
FBI officials believe there may be up to 12 U.S. citizens fighting along
with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed dismay over the amount of British
youth joining ISIS. Recent
beheading videos picturing a British ISIS convert wielding the knife also raised
red flags. U.S. and British
officials find themselves scrambling to stop citizens from traveling to the
Mideast to join groups like ISIS or al-Qaeda and preventing them from returning
to the U.S. and Europe to wage jihad.
With the Tsarnaev brothers attack in Boston, it’s just a matter of time
before returning jihadists lash out in their own countries. FBI officials estimate that over 100
U.S. citizens have tried to go to Iraq and Syria or have already come back to
the States seeking to make trouble.
FBI Director James Comey seeks to identify more U.S. citizens seeking to join
Mideast terror groups.
Comey must work diligently with U.S. Homeland Security to fashion tougher
laws to stop U.S. citizens from considering joining radical groups. While it’s an overwhelming problem,
the FBI can’t go it alone without Congressional help. Homeland Security and Intel
officials must get on the same page about combing through radical Websites that
seek to recruit wayward youth.
While it’s not too difficult to understand the appeal of radical groups to
disadvantaged groups in the Mideast, it’s difficult to see the appeal in the
U.S. Just as U.S. gangs have no
problems recruiting members from poor and broken homes, Mideast terror groups
seduce youth with appeals of religious identity and purification. Dying for he cause becomes the
ultimate ideal fulfillment of Islam’s promise, giving gullible youths the
fantasy of eternal life for martyring themselves for Islam.
Dealing with their own security failings at White House with the recently
bungled Secret Service episode, the FBI and Homeland Security officials must
study more carefully what drives young people to join radical groups. Gang and cult experts can help shed
light into the manipulative nature of terror groups and their charismatic
leaders. Scouring domestic and
foreign domestic Websites should help identify homegrown wannabe terrorists. Catching Khan before he fled O’Hare
for parts unknown shows the FBI can intercept problems before they occur. Tsarnaev brothers Boston Marathon
attack showed that terror cells are a real problem for Homeland Security. Before there are more Tsarnaevs or
Nidal Malik Hasans, the FBI needs to do more profiling on the kinds of foks
vulnerable to terror recruitment.
Only then can social scientists help the FBI prepare for the future.
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