Congressional Report: ISIS Continues To Grow

The latest state department report said: “Iran continued its terrorist-related activity in 2014, including support for Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, Lebanese Hezbollah, and various groups in Iraq and throughout the Middle East”.

“Pervasive overseas security gaps make it easier for aspiring foreign fighters to travel to terrorist hotspots – and increase the odds that trained jihadists will be able to travel to America undetected”, the report said. “But this remains a very hard challenge and today we are going to focus how we can do more together”, Obama said Tuesday. “But as we continue our fight against ISIL and they continue to have setbacks that attraction will wane”.

And while Russian Federation and Iran did not attend the forum, Obama reiterated at the meeting that “we are prepared to work with all countries, including Russian Federation and Iran, to find a political mechanism” to transition Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of power.

“The unprecedented speed at which Americans are being radicalized by violent extremists is straining federal law enforcement’s ability to monitor and intercept suspects”, the report said.

INTERPOL, the worldwide police organization, said Wednesday its database of fingerprints and other data needed to help identify foreign fighters has increased to more than 4,000 so-called “identifiers”.

“What keeps me up at night are the ones we’ve missed”.

US and coalition air strikes have not deterred Americans seeking to join ISIS in Syria, according to the report. This is a critical moment in the tug-of-war between those who call on Washington to assist or protect them from risky foes, and those who say the United States is not a reliable partner because it doesn’t know what it is doing when it sends its military into action in distant lands.

Among the individuals it sanctioned in Syria was British national Aqsa Mahmood, who is accused of recruiting three British schoolgirls in February to flee the United Kingdom to become wives of Islamic State fighters. “European security officials estimate 20 to 30 percent of their foreign fighters have already departed Syria and Iraq“.

“The Task Force’s report was done in a bipartisan manner and provides bipartisan proposals”, said Democratic Lead, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif. “These worries have materialized in the United States this year, as several American returnees have been arrested and charged by authorities”, notes the report.

This story was first published on CNN.com, “Congressional report: US has “failed” to stop flow of foreign fighters to ISIS”.