United States failing to stop most people trying to join ISIS

“Instead, countries including the United States rely on a patchwork system for swapping individual extremist identities”, the report found, calling that system “an inherently weak arrangement that increases the odds a foreign fighter will be able to cross the border undetected when traveling to and from a terrorist sanctuary”. “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.”

The congressional report was published the same day that President Obama chaired a summit at the United Nations General Assembly highlighting the global community’s efforts to counter Islamic State, address the foreign fighters issue and counter violent extremism.

The committee says the government lacks a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorists and people trying to travel overseas to join terrorist groups as a so-called foreign fighter. Of the more than 250 American who sought to travel to Iraq and Syria, US officials caught just 28 before they could make it to the region, according to the task force’s report. It did not cite significant numbers who have sneaked back into the United States without being arrested or monitored. “A lot of this could be stopped by prevention if we had outreach to these communities”, Mr McCaul said.

And the study looked at the militants’ use of social media to recruit foreigners.

“We need to get the message out that you are more likely to get a bomb dropped on your head than find adventure in Syria,”said Republican Representative Will Hurd, who was a Central Intelligence Agency agent involved in the fight against al Qaeda before he was elected to the House in 2014″.

Federal officials have ramped up their efforts to stop and arrest individuals inspired by ISIS to either travel to Syria and Iraq or carry out attacks on US soil, but gaps still remain.

The United States and its allies on Monday launched 12 air strikes in Iraq and five in Syria against Islamic State targets, according to a statement released by the coalition overseeing the operations.

The report blamed the governments of European Union countries for failing to screen travelers against terrorism watchlists or try to identify forged passports.

The House report made 32 recommendations and lawmakers said they would work on crafting legislation based on them.