We Dodged One ISIS Bullet. But Will America Be as Lucky Next Time?
How many more terrorist bullets must we dodge before we finally come to our senses and deploy every possible legal tool against our jihadist enemies? Two news stories from earlier this month got somewhat lost in the turmoil surrounding the presidential election and the excitement of the Olympics, but together they tell us both about the bullet we just dodged and about the ones we can expect to face if Congress doesn’t act more aggressively in defense of the American people. In one story, the FBI announced the arrest of Nicholas Young of Virginia for trying to provide material aid to ISIS. In the other, the New York Times laid out the activities of the so-called “Emni,” a branch of ISIS that oversees its program to plant jihadists in western Europe and the United States.
Young’s history is sobering. A Metro cop since 2003, he was a convert to Islam who ventured twice to Libya to fight with the so-called rebels against Muammar Qaddafi — the same rebels who were later revealed as radical Islamic terrorists affiliated with ISIS. He stockpiled weapons and traveled with military equipment (which we apparently know because his baggage was searched) and had subsequent contact with terrorist sympathizers in the United States, as well as FBI agents posing as terrorist sympathizers. In addition, our allies clearly saw him as a threat — the Egyptian authorities actually prevented him from entering Libya on one trip, although he subsequently gained access through Tunisia. Still, for the six years the FBI had him under surveillance, there does not seem to have been an effort to restrict his movements or raise concerns about his work as a Metro cop, despite the havoc he could have wrecked given his position and jihadist training. The consensus seems to have been that he was kooky but not really serious about committing a terrorist act. Only when he was caught red-handed trying to provide untraceable communications cards to ISIS was he finally arrested for providing material support to a known terrorist group.
While we can all breathe a sigh of relief that this human time bomb is no longer a threat to the innocent commuters of our nation’s capital, the New York Times article should eliminate any sense of false security. Nicholas Young was not just crazy and he was not a lone wolf — he was the forerunner of a gathering pack, a “global network of killers,” that ISIS is mobilizing to attack America and our allies abroad. He is also flesh-and-blood evidence that United States citizens are traveling overseas, contacting terrorist groups, and returning here to plot against us.
For the past three years, our attention has been riveted by the horrific acts of violence carried out by ISIS in its claimed caliphate. Critics of the Obama administration’s ISIS policy have frequently pointed out the anemic pace and intensity of the air strikes against ISIS, and have urged a more rigorous, concerted campaign to actually destroy them. While there have been some recent advances, reports about the activities of a secretive branch of ISIS called “Emni” suggest that even the dissolution of the caliphate will not end the ISIS threat. Indeed, ISIS is already planning for the next phase of this long war, which will shift to their agents in the West — some infiltrating the waves of refugees pouring out of the Middle East, some radicalized online, and some our own citizens who have gone abroad to train with terrorist groups.
There are many red flags around the Young case that need to be addressed. If the Obama Administration continues to refuse to recognize the threat that he represents, hopefully Congress will start to take action on legislation to address the influx of refugees from the Middle East and the ability of the State Department to make joining with a terrorist group overseas grounds for denying re-entry into the United States. In light of the terrorist threat we face, these steps are only the most basic common sense and should enjoy bi-partisan support.
In the case of Nicholas Young, our law enforcement officers were able to keep track of him until he tipped his hand about his intentions. We got lucky in this case, but ISIS has taken note of our vulnerability. The threat is growing, not receding and we might not be so lucky the next time. (For more from the author of “We Dodged One ISIS Bullet. But Will America Be as Lucky Next Time?” please click HERE)
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