Page 3 - atoday sept 30
P. 3
U.S. NEWS A3
Wednesday 30 September
Congress: US fails to stop most
people trying to join ISIS group
ALICIA A. CALDWELL in Syria and Iraq, authori-
Associated Press ties have only interdicted
WASHINGTON (AP) — a fraction of them,” the
The U.S. government has report said. “Several doz-
largely failed to stop more en have also managed to
than 250 Americans who make it back into Ameri-
have traveled overseas ca.” It noted that several
since 2011 to join or try to people were identified and
join terrorist groups, includ- arrested this year trying to
ing the Islamic State group, return to the United States.
a new congressional study In other cases, authorities
concluded on Tuesday. are monitoring people who
It did not provide details have returned from the re-
on the several dozen who gion, said McCaul, R-Texas.
have sneaked back into Rep. John Katko, a Repub-
the United States without lican, who helped write the
being arrested or moni- report, said radicalization
tored. of Americans over the In-
“The findings are concern- ternet “poses probably the
ing; we are losing in this biggest problem” for U.S.
struggle to keep Americans law enforcement and oth-
from the battlefield,” House ers trying to detect and
Homeland Security Com- combat efforts by interna-
mittee Chairman Michael tional terrorist organization
McCaul said Tuesday after to recruit U.S. citizens to join
his committee released the the fight overseas.
65-page report. The report said of particu-
The report said the Obama lar concern were western
administration lacked a Europeans who travel to
strategy to prevent such Iraq or Syria and would be
travel abroad, identify all permitted to fly to the U.S.
who try to return to commit without applying for a visa.
terror attacks, or cope with “American returnees are
new recruitment practices not the only threat to the
and technology that allow United States,” it said.
extremists to communicate Katko said the commit-
securely. tee will work to draft sev-
“Of the hundreds of Ameri- eral pieces of legislation
cans who have sought to based on the report’s 32
travel to the conflict zone recommendations.q
New US sanctions illustrate sprawling Islamic State network
KEN DILANIAN such effort against the Is- Assistant Treasury Secretary Daniel Glaser, right, listens to tes- by Treasury are also ex-
AP Intelligence Writer lamic State, also serve to timony on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. government an- pected to be placed Tues-
WASHINGTON (AP) — demonstrate how far and nounced sanctions Tuesday against 25 people and five groups day on the United Nations’
The U.S. government an- wide the group’s ideology connected to the Islamic State. al-Qaida Sanctions List, offi-
nounced sanctions Tues- has spread. cials said in a news release.
day against 25 people and The State Department des- (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) The announcement came
five groups connected to ignated as foreign terrorist before a meeting between
the Islamic State, disclosing organizations Islamic State British national Aqsa Mah- lieved to be in Syria. President Barack Obama
intelligence that depicts a regional spin-offs in Russia’s mood, who is accused Previously, Treasury had and other world leaders
sprawling international or- Caucasus region, Algeria, of recruiting three British sanctioned just four Islamic on countering the Islamic
ganization with tentacles Indonesia and Egypt’s Si- schoolgirls in February to State officials, one of whom State on the margins of
across Europe, Asia and nai Peninsula. Among the flee the United Kingdom to was killed in a U.S. drone the U.N. General Assembly
the Middle East. individuals designated as become wives of Islamic strike in June. meetings in New York.
The moves by the Treasury terrorists was Sally Jones, a State fighters. She is be- Some of those sanctioned “These sanctions will pre-
and State departments are British native and the wid- vent them from engaging
aimed at disrupting the ac- ow of an operative killed in financial transactions
tivities of Islamic State finan- recently in an American and make it harder for
cial, logistical and recruit- drone strike. them to travel,” he said.
ing operatives who may The Treasury Department, Financial institutions around
not be suitable targets of meanwhile, slapped finan- the world tend to honor
American bombs or drone cial sanctions on Islamic U.S. sanctions, he said. The
strikes. State officials who operate State Department desig-
Many of them reside out- in Afghanistan, Pakistan, nations mean that anyone
side the theaters of war in Libya, Yemen and Tunisia. who supports the individu-
Iraq and Syria. Among the individuals it als or groups can be pros-
The sanctions, the largest sanctioned in Syria was ecuted under U.S. law.q
