The enemy is among us.
Some of the deluded Americans who fought with the murderous Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq have now come home, a senior Obama Administration official warned Monday.
There was no exact figure, but the National Counterterrorism Center estimates more than 100 Americans enlisted in ISIS or with the al-Nusra Front, which claims ties to Al Qaeda, the official said.
“It includes those who’ve gone, those who’ve tried to go, some who’ve come back,” said the official, who spoke anonymously at a briefing.
The good news is “the FBI is looking at them,” the official said. “These are FBI matters, I refer you to them on specifics.”
But this is the first official confirmation from the Obama administration of what terrorism experts had long feared — that Americans trained abroad in jihad are coming home to possibly spread terror.
The NYPD’s terror chief said they’re on top of any threat foreign-trained terrorists might pose to New York City, but so far none of the suspects on their radar have been tied to ISIS.
“We have a small number of investigations in progress in coordination with the FBI’s Joint Terrorist Task Force,” John Miller said. “There is a small number of people we’re looking at in the New York area. Beyond that, if evidence is developed that a person worked for, or fought for a designated terrorist organization, they will be prosecuted.”
Back in June, Miller warned that more than 100 young homegrown American Muslims were in the ranks of ISIS — and that New York City would be their ultimate target.
“If their mindset is to return to America and to engage in terrorist activities, they’re likely going to end up in New York anyway,” Miller told the Daily News Editorial Board.
President Obama and other administration officials have also echoed Miller’s warning.
“Well, with respect to the Americans who may be engaged in combat in Iraq and Syria, this is something that our national security agencies and counterterrorism team are taking very seriously,” National Security Advisor Susan Rice said Friday. “It’s something we track closely. And we are doing obviously all that we can to both gather the necessary information and take the appropriate precautions to the greatest extent that we possibly can.”
The chilling warning came as ISIS mouthpiece Abu Muhammad al-Adnani issued a new warning to America. “You will not feel secure even in your bedrooms,” he said.
In a statement that was monitored by the SITE Intelligence Group, the flak called on ISIS followers to attack citizens of the U.S, France, Canada and other allies.
Al-Adnani also hit Secretary of State John Kerry below the belt, calling him an “uncircumcised old geezer.”
He mocked the coalition Kerry has been building as the “final campaign of the crusaders” and said it would be “broken and defeated.”
As for Obama, al-Adnani branded him a “mule of the Jews.”
Obama, who was one of the few U.S. politicians after 9/11 to publicly oppose the Iraq War, has gone to great pains to assure Americans that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground in the battle against ISIS.
The ISIS flak vowed they would lure U.S. troops to their graves.
“You claimed today that America would not be drawn into a war on the ground,” he said. “No, it will come down to the ground and it will be led to its death, grave and destruction.”
While ISIS’s advance in Iraq has been stymied by six weeks of U.S. air attacks, their advance in Syria has forced more than 130,000 Kurds to flee across the border into Turkey.
Source: NY Daily News