Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) United States intelligence agencies have 900 active investigations into ISIS involvement in the US, which puts them in “triage mode,” according to Seamus Hughes at George Washington University. “You need to figure out what cases are most important, the people you need to pull of the streets now, and the people you need to continue to monitor, that you can’t do anything about.”
Hughes and the University’s Program on Extremism is out today with a new report detailing how ISIS gains inroads into Americans’ minds after a six-month investigation. “The FBI would agree with us. It’s an unprecedented level of people joining groups like ISIS. It’s on a scale we’ve never seen before.”
ISIS’ presence on social media is well known, but Hughes said they use different methods from there.
“One is the people being groomed online. They don’t really have a sense of their faith and they’re being brought in by ISIS recruiters and taught what the ‘right way’ is.” There are also “travel agent” types, that offer to connect new recruits to members that can get them across a border.
“Then there are the individuals that are the devils on the shoulder. They’re egging people on, saying ‘you’re in the U.S., you’re not going to be able to travel for various reasons. You need to do something there.’”
This dialogue thrives online, Hughes said, because social media turns into an echo chamber. “You only hear the voices you want to hear,” he said.
The report concludes with suggestions on stemming the tide. First and foremost, Hughes said, is early prevention. “You can’t arrest your way out of this. You have to figure out a way to reach these people before they cross that legal threshold.”
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