The director of the FBI said Tuesday that the Islamic State group is currently the main threat facing the United States, both in its efforts to recruit fighters to join its members overseas and to have others carry out violence in America.
Director James Comey said the IS group poses a third potential threat: a “terrorist diaspora” that he said will eventually flow out of Syria and Iraq and end up in Western Europe, where members will have easy access to the U.S.
“There’s three prongs to this ISIL threat,” Comey said. “The recruitment to travel, the recruitment to violence in place, and then what you saw a preview of in Brussels and in Paris — hardened fighters coming out, looking to kill people.”
He said officials are “laser-focused on that.”
Comey took questions from reporters Tuesday in the FBI’s Minneapolis office as part of a two-day visit to the region that included meetings with community leaders and local law enforcement. Comey responded to questions about the heroin epidemic, shootings involving officers and surveillance issues, but the bulk of his comments were about the Islamic State group.
Last week, three Minnesota men who were accused of plotting to join the IS group were convicted of conspiring to commit murder overseas — which carries a potential life sentence — as well as conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and other charges.
The defendants — Guled Ali Omar, 21; Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 22; and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 22 — were among a group of friends who prosecutors say recruited and inspired each other to travel to Syria. A total of 10 men were charged in the conspiracy; six pleaded guilty and a seventh is at large, believed to be fighting in Syria.
Comey said the FBI is continuing to focus on the Islamic State group, and there are close to 1,000 open cases nationwide involving people at various stages of recruitment. He said the group’s slick videos and propaganda can resonate with people of all ages, but seem to draw in people under 30 who are “unmoored” in some way.
He said he hopes the FBI’s work, including the convictions in Minneapolis, will send a message that “there will be severe consequences for people who go down that path.”
Comey added that the number of active IS-related cases hasn’t decreased, but the number of people seeking to travel to Syria has dropped since the end of last summer — going from about six to 10 attempted travelers each month to about one or two.
He said he can’t pinpoint the reasons for the trend, but it’s possible people are traveling to other Islamic State outposts, have been deterred by the outcomes of other criminal cases, or have been stopped by families and community members.
Another — and more disturbing — possibility is that some are staying in the U.S. and looking to carry out violence here, Comey said.
“It’s good news the traveler numbers have come down,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what to make of it yet.”
Comey was in Williston, North Dakota, on Monday to open a new FBI office that will focus on crime in the Bakken region, which has spiked with the oil boom. The FBI’s Minneapolis division covers Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. (For more from the author of “FBI Director: Islamic State Still the Main Threat Facing the U.S.” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/15021944058_0844ff0f01_b.jpg540960Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-08 00:18:452016-06-08 00:18:45FBI Director: Islamic State Still the Main Threat Facing the U.S.
According to press reports, a man arrested as part of an Islamic State (ISIS) group in Minnesota claimed he wanted to setup a pipeline to funnel terrorists into the U.S. through Mexico. The story rekindles concerns over the security of our southern border.
It should come as no surprise that there are reports of terrorists trying to cross from Mexico to the U.S.—it’s been tried before. In 2011, Iranian agents tried to recruit a Mexican cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States with a car bomb while he dined at a restaurant in Washington, D.C.
The assault on our border is overwhelming—and it’s not just about jumping over walls. U.S. officials just discovered a massive 800-foot tunnel under the border—complete with elevator. This means that bad actors are increasingly flying over the border, and they’ve used undersea craft, as well as speedboats, to smuggle people into the U.S.
Further, the Obama administration has a dismal record in securing our southern border, exacerbated by self-defeating immigration policies that ignore the law and encourage waves of human smuggling across the border.
The U.S. is lacking effective, and persistent, border security with responsible enforcement of immigration laws.
Serious efforts to stop terrorists demands vigilance at the border.
It’s also important to note that many of the terrorist plots we see aimed at Americans come from—America. There have been 10 successful terror plots within the U.S. since 9/11 that were led by Americans. Of the failed plots, 63 out of 74 involved homegrown terrorists.
This doesn’t mean we get to ignore the threat from abroad and our borders and ports of entry, but rather that we can’t solely focus on our southern border problems.
When it comes to stopping terrorists from overseas, there are lots of places to stop them. This means our goal should be to stop them long before they get near our borders. There are lots of ways President Barack Obama could be doing more to shut down the pipeline of foreign fighters.
Critically, Obama ought to be doing more to stop the heartbeat of the Islamist insurgency—which comes from ISIS’ control of vast territories in Iraq. (For more from the author of “Yes, Terrorists Are Setting Their Sights on Our Open Southern Border” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Border_Mexico_USA-2.jpg24753600Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-03 23:13:022016-06-03 23:13:02Yes, Terrorists Are Setting Their Sights on Our Open Southern Border
Analysts at a D.C. based think-tank are predicting that ISIS will attack the West in the next 45 days, as the Muslim world begins celebration of Ramadan, The Washington Examiner reports.
The Institute for the Study of War’s forecast says that the terrorist group “will likely attack the West” during Ramadan, which begins on June 6 and ends July 5. The Islamic State traditionally uses the annual religious observance to increase the number of attacks and tweak its strategy, the report said.
Europe faces the greatest threat of attacks on sporting events in crowded public venues, including a Euro 2016 soccer tournament between June 10-July 10, according to the report. But attacks against the U.S. are also possible, especially around July 4.
The State Department has issued a travel warning for Europe, saying summer tourism will provide radical jihadists with ample opportunities to strike. They warn American citizens to remain “vigilant.” (For more from the author of “Experts Say ISIS Attacks ‘Likely’ in June” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/462598238_0ee05a9f87_b.jpg7681024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-06-01 01:12:282016-06-01 01:12:28Experts Say ISIS Attacks ‘Likely’ in June
The Islamic State (Isis) has executed 25 alleged spies by lowering them into a huge tub of nitric acid, until their ‘organs dissolved’, Iocal news source Iraqi News has claimed. The report could not be independently verified.
The alleged spies were captured in the IS (Daesh) stronghold of Mosul, in northern Iraq, accused of working for the Iraqi government’s security forces.
Mosul is the largest city in Iraq still under IS control, but is facing increasing pressure from the north, south and east by the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga forces and US-led Western air strikes. A number of shocking and brutal killings have taken place at the hands of IS as they try to assert their domination over the the city, which Barack Obama had predicted would fall be the end of this year.
According to witnesses of the killings, the 25 alleged ‘spies’ were tied together with a huge rope and lowered in a basin containing the highly corrosive acid. Nitric acid is generally used for manufacturing ammonium nitrate that can be used to make fertiliser and explosives but it can also be used for photoengraving, etching steel, and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel. (Read more from “ISIS Executes 25 Iraqi ‘Spies’ by Lowering Them Into Nitric Acid Until Their ‘Organs Dissolve'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/Isis-flag.jpg15362048Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-21 02:02:052016-05-21 02:02:05ISIS Executes 25 Iraqi ‘Spies’ by Lowering Them Into Nitric Acid Until Their ‘Organs Dissolve’
Waleed Basyouni is trying to take something good from the fact that the Islamic State terrorist group has specifically targeted him for death.
In the twisted way in which the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, views the world, Basyouni says he would not be considered a threat to the terrorists if he wasn’t doing something right.
“I have a long history with these jihadist groups speaking very vocally against them,” Basyouni, a Houston imam, told The Daily Signal.
“When we, as Muslims, come out and show there is another choice, you can be successful or accepted in keeping a Muslim identity and also a national identity, that in itself will destroy what ISIS is calling for, even if it makes us a target. I take pride from that. It means whatever I am doing is hurting them and I am glad to know that.”
Last month, ISIS published a hit list in its online propaganda magazine, Dabiq, targeting moderate Muslims living in the West.
In an article titled, “Kill the Imams of Kufr in the West,” ISIS calls for its followers to kill “overt crusaders” and “politically active apostates” who “involve themselves in the politics and enforcing laws of the kufr [disbelievers].”
The target list includes high profile Muslim American political figures Rashad Hussain, who has served as the U.S. special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. And for the first time, ISIS put out a direct hit on U.S. imams, or religious leaders, including Basyouni.
In an hour-long phone interview with The Daily Signal this week, Basyouni described what it’s like being on an ISIS kill list, and why the threat won’t stop him from preaching Islam the only way he knows how, and condemning those who twist the religion into something it isn’t.
There is nothing scary about Basyouni, a baby-faced 46-year-old Muslim whose idea of extreme is indulging in sports like scuba diving and mountain climbing.
Basyouni is the imam of the Clear Lake Islamic Center in Houston. Known since before 9/11 to deliver sermons in which he challenges prominent terrorists by name, including Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, Basyouni travels the world spreading his counter-narrative message.
“We try to educate Muslims about the true religion so that we can build a resilient community immune from extreme messages that ISIS and other terrorist groups are trying to spread,” said Basyouni, who is also the vice president of the AlMaghrib Institute, an educational nonprofit for Muslims that he says has more than 130,000 students across the world.
“That’s what bothers ISIS the most—the firewall we are building inside the communities through education,” Basyouni added.
Born in Egypt, and raised in Saudi Arabia, Basyouni moved to the United States in 1997.
Basyouni immigrated first to Montana to be with his wife, who had previously come to the state from Saudi Arabia.
Already possessing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Islamic studies from Al-Imam Muhammad University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Basyouni earned a doctorate in theology from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Indiana.
He’s proving that Islam and the West can co-exist, much to ISIS’ chagrin.
“I chose to live here,” Basyouni said. “I chose to be an American citizen and I truly believe this is the greatest country in the world today. I will stand out against any threat to this society at large. If I can make this place safe, I will do it.”
Basyouni believes that his religious expertise, and exposure to different teachings of Islam, taught him to be an “independent thinker,” and gives him the credibility to confront ISIS. His authority is bolstered by his large following: Basyouni has more than 30,000 Twitter followers, and over 230,000 people have “liked” his Facebook page.
“This is my duty as a Muslim scholar,” Basyouni said. “These guys have abused my religion. We have a verse in the Quran that says people of knowledge will explain it to the people and defend their religion. This kind of counter messaging is what gives me superiority over others because I can strip down the evidence and names they use to claim legitimacy.”
Basyouni learned he had become an ISIS target from a friend—a former Department of Homeland Security employee—who also made the hit list.
To ensure his safety, Basyouni says he quickly contacted his local FBI connections, who he says he has a “working relationship” with (he’s a 2012 graduate of the bureau’s citizens academy).
Basyouni’s young children, a 15-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son who he preferred not to name, reacted to the news in their own way.
“I told them to take it easy and it’s not a big deal, but my daughter heard from a classmate in school that, ‘Your dad is on the ISIS kill list,’” Basyouni said. “She came to me and said, ‘Papa, is that true they are going to kill you?’ I said, ‘I hope not.’ I never thought I’d have that conversation with my 15-year-old daughter.”
Basyouni says he has received supportive calls from leaders of Houston area synagogues and churches, neighbors, and officers in the local police department. While Basyouni promises to be more cautious when he travels—and he will consider hiring private security—he says he won’t limit his activism.
“I take the threat seriously, absolutely,” Basyouni said. “Some of my friends have told me to be more general, and not name names. I believe these issues have to be addressed very bluntly and explicitly. I think it would be wrong if I limit my activity. I would be giving them [ISIS] what they want and not what they deserve. They make these threats just to scare us and stop us from doing what we are doing. But I am not scared.” (For more from the author of “What It’s Like to Be on ISIS’ Kill List” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/maxresdefault-4.jpg10801920Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-05 23:25:252017-03-03 12:51:11What It’s Like to Be on ISIS’ Kill List
A U.S. Navy SEAL died in combat Tuesday while embedded with Kurdish peshmerga soldiers in a battle against the Islamic State, Department of Defense sources said.
The SEAL, whose name and rank were not immediately disclosed, died during an Islamic State attack on the town of Tel Skuf, about 17 miles north of the terrorist army’s stronghold of Mosul.
Late in the day, the Associated Press identified him as Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charlie Keating IV, 31, saying the name was released by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.
Keating, grandson of the late Arizona financier Charles Keating, grew up in Phoenix and attended the Naval Academy before becoming a SEAL based out of Coronado, Calif., AP reported.
Keating was conducting an advise-and-assist mission with the peshmerga, a Kurdish fighting force allied with the U.S.-led coalition in the war against the Islamic State, the Islamist militant group also known as ISIS.
“It shows you it’s a serious fight that we have to wage in Iraq,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in announcing the “combat death” in Stuttgart, Germany, without releasing the name, AP reported.
Military officials told the wire service that Keating died after being hit by small arms fire. He died around 9:33 a.m. local time from a gunshot wound, two defense officials told Navy Times.
Presumably, U.S. troops performing that mission are not on forward edge of the front lines and do not directly participate in fighting. The Pentagon said Keating was 2 to 3 miles behind the front lines when he was killed.
The combat fatality is the third among U.S. troops in Iraq since the 2014 launch of Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition campaign against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Marine Staff Sgt. Louis F. Cardin died March 21 during an ISIS rocket attack at an outpost near the town of Makhmour, about 40 miles southeast of Mosul.
And U.S. Army Special Forces Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, who also was performing the advise-and-assist mission, died from enemy fire in October during a hostage rescue operation in Iraq.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident and extended condolences to Keating’s family. He said the incident was a “vivid reminder” of the dangers facing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.
“They are taking grave risks to protect our country. We owe them a deep debt of gratitude,” Earnest said, AP reported.
Old political hands in Washington and Arizona recall Keating’s grandfather as a politically active developer and financier who became embroiled in a savings and loan scandal that ensnared five U.S. senators, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The elder Keating died in 2014.
Of the “Keating Five”–the others were Alan Cranston, D-Calif.; Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz.; John Glenn, D-Ohio; and Donald Riegle, D-Mich.–McCain is the only one still serving on Capitol Hill.
The ability of ISIS forces to break through peshmerga lines Tuesday underscores how the terrorist army is still able to mount offensive operations despite nearly two years of coalition airstrikes.
The ISIS attack comprised 400 fighters and multiple car bombs and suicide bombers.
The attack also was a bellwether for the kind of tactics ISIS likely will use when Iraqi and Kurdish forces launch a campaign to take back nearby Mosul, a city of more than 1 million and the most populous city controlled by ISIS in Iraq.
Coalition and peshmerga reports indicate Mosul is heavily defended by multiple rings of improvised explosive devices and booby traps. Peshmerga troops say they anticipate ISIS fighters will launch waves of suicide attacks as in past battles.
According to unconfirmed reports from peshmerga soldiers in the area, the attacking ISIS fighters were able to break through Kurdish lines before a peshmerga counterattack supported by more than 20 U.S. airstrikes turned them back.
Fighting was ongoing and Kurdish authorities had sealed off roads to the area for safety.
Peshmerga troops reported multiple ISIS attacks Tuesday in the area around Mosul, including at front-line positions near Gwer, about 18 miles south of Mosul. (For more from the author of “Navy SEAL Killed as ISIS Overruns Kurdish Positions in Iraq” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/2000px-AQMI_Flag_asymmetric.svg_.png15002000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-05-04 00:25:362016-05-04 21:55:52Navy SEAL Killed as ISIS Overruns Kurdish Positions in Iraq
After Islamic State terrorists carried out deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels, Paris, Egypt and other parts of Africa, the U.S. reportedly sent U.S. special operations forces after those believed to be responsible for planning the acts of terror.
And they were up for the challenge.
So far, Members of Delta Force and Navy SEALs have hunted down and killed 40 “external operations leaders, planners, and facilitators” behind several of the Islamic State attacks, The Daily Beast reported, citing “defense officials.”
The special ops forces’ success has significantly affected the terrorist group’s ability to recruit foreign fighters, according to the report. (Read more from “After Islamic State Attacks From Brussels to Paris, U.S. Sends Delta Force and Navy SEALs to Hunt Terrorists” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-134.jpg360480Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-30 02:23:452016-04-30 02:23:45After Islamic State Attacks From Brussels to Paris, U.S. Sends Delta Force and Navy SEALs to Hunt Terrorists
The Islamic State has destroyed the ancient city of Nineveh, YNET reported Friday. The Israeli news site didn’t provide any details of the destruction, but the news followed an earlier report this week about the destruction of the gates of Nineveh.
ARA News in Syria reported that local activists had confirmed ISIS demolished the so-called Gate of God (Misqi) that was built in the seventh century B.C., when King Sennacherib ruled over Babel, which is now Iraq.
Local media activist Zuheir Mousilly told ARA News that since Islamic State took over Mosul (which is modern day Nineveh), the terrorists have destroyed most of Iraq’s historic sites and monuments. These include the Assyrian city of Nimrud, the Winged Bulls and the Mosul National Museum that was destroyed after ISIS stole removable artifacts.
Nineveh was mentioned in the book of Jonah and was once the largest city in the world. Under Sennacherib, the city became truly magnificent. The Babylonian King, who also laid siege to Jerusalem but failed to conquer, built many famous buildings and laid out new streets and squares in Nineveh. (Read more from “REPORT: ISIS Has Destroyed the Ancient Babylonian City of Nineveh” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/2000px-AQMI_Flag_asymmetric.svg_.png15002000Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-18 02:51:302016-04-18 02:51:30REPORT: ISIS Has Destroyed the Ancient Babylonian City of Nineveh
By Ahuva Balofsky. Persecution of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) has become so serious a problem that it has been recognized as genocide. Some Christians in the region are unwilling to go like lambs to the slaughter, however, and have begun forming militias to fight back.
One such group is the Babylon Brigade, some 500 to 1,000 Christian fighters who mobilized after ISIS took control of their hometown in Mosul, Iraq in 2014. Christians were forced to leave, convert or pay bribes, and many were expelled from their homes. Women were raped and sold into slavery or killed.
Not content to let things be, the members of the Babylon Brigade are offering resistance to ISIS forces. They are a part of a larger group called the Popular Mobilization Forces, which qualifies them for funding from the government.
ISIS “displaced us from our houses, they took our money, killed our young men and women and they took our properties,” the group’s commander, Rayan Al-Kildani, told NBC News. “Therefore, Christians decided to fight the terrorists of ISIS.” (Read more from “Christian Defense Forces Mobilize Across Middle East” HERE)
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U.S. Sends Weapon to Hit ISIS Communications
By Jamie Crawford. The United States has deployed tactical aircraft capable of attacking ISIS’s ability to communicate closer to the front lines of the battle against the terrorist group.
The U.S. European Command announced a squadron of Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler aircraft has been sent to Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to support operations against ISIS.
In addition to being able to intercept communications by ISIS, the Prowler can protect allied forces on the ground and strike aircraft by jamming any radar and communication devices ISIS has. (Read more from “U.S. Sends Weapon to Hit ISIS Communications” HERE)
Could you imagine being kidnapped, being auctioned off like a piece of meat, and being endlessly gang-raped every day by some of the most evil men on the entire planet for months on end? This is what ISIS is doing to thousands upon thousands of women in Iraq and Syria, and some of their victims are as young as nine. The things that I am about to share with you are almost too nightmarish for words, but it is imperative that we understand what is going on. When ISIS conquers an area that is not Muslim, they believe that they can do whatever they want to the women because they are “infidels”. So innocent young women are being treated in some of the most horrible ways imaginable, and most of the rest of the world looks on with indifference. But of course what ISIS is doing is just the tip of a very big global iceberg. As you will see below, there are tens of millions of slaves in our world today, and sexual exploitation is involved in approximately 80 percent of those cases.
I came across a Daily Mail article earlier today that detailed what ISIS did to a young Yazidi woman named Khalida. When she was captured, she was brought to one of those infamous “auctions” where members of ISIS buy and sell women like trading cards…
A Yazidi woman sold as a sex-slave eight times by an ISIS jihadi says she was put on parade like she was being picked out in a ‘car showroom’.
Khalida, 20, was kidnapped and taken to Raqqa where she was put on display in a ‘meat market’ where women are purchased for as little as a mobile phone, or simply given away as ‘gifts’.
The most beautiful women are put into a separate ‘VIP’ room where leaders can take their time choosing their favourite three or four girls each.
Khalida and her sister were purchased initially by a very sick old man with a white beard that kept them locked away in a small room. From time to time he would rape them, and then afterwards his wife would beat them for “tempting” her husband.
Later she was sold to other owners, and she was gang-raped by ISIS fighters multiple times. Here is more of her story from the Daily Mail…
Raped up to three times a day her ‘slave master’ or gang-raped by groups of ISIS fighters, this quiet young woman was bought and sold by eight different men – each more brutal, callous and perverted than the last.
She told MailOnline she was force-fed contraceptive pills and once taken to hospital for a contraceptive injection after she was rendered unconscious by one particularly brutal gang rape.
‘They [ISIS] did not want me get pregnant, especially if there was more than one man because they would not know who the father of the baby was,’ she said.
This is going on day after day in the Middle East, and yet it doesn’t make a lot of headlines in the western world.
Perhaps we think that if we can ignore what is happening to them that we are justified in not doing anything about it.
Next, let me share with you the story of Nadia Murad. She was just 19 when ISIS conquered her town, and she saw ISIS kill all of the males in her family right in front of her eyes…
Murad and her mother and sisters watched out of the window, along with hundreds of other women and children from the Yazidi village of Kocho, as ISIS slaughtered their men and boys. “We could see outside—they were shooting the men and they were beheading them as well. They were also taking them away in buses.
“My six brothers were killed in this way.”
In the western world, we tend to think that such things could never happen to us. But in my new book I discuss how Christians all over the globe are eventually going to be facing this kind of persecution.
If you are under the illusion that you are somehow going to be exempt from all this, then you are going to be in for one heck of a wake up call.
After Nadia Murad watched ISIS butcher her family members, she was sold 13 different times, and her various “owners” were incredibly brutal…
I first met Murad in July last year, four months after she managed to escape from her captors in Mosul. She visited the UK with two other former captives and former Iraqi MP Ameena Hasan Saeed, who helped to smuggle her out of the Islamic State. Speaking anonymously, she described in blistering detail how she was abused, raped, and sold through the ranks of ISIS troops, enduring a total of eight months in captivity and 13 owners who kept her locked up, starved and disorientated.
At the time, she showed me scars from cigarette butts burnt into her skin by the fighters who worked for her first owner, a commander called Salman. He had his men gang rape her after her first disastrous attempt at escaping. “I found a small window so I climbed out and jumped from the second story, but one of Salman’s guards found me and brought be back to him. I could have died jumping, and after that I wished I had.”
I don’t know how anyone can read these stories without having an emotional reaction.
Just imagine if this was happening to your wife or your daughter. How would you feel?
Unfortunately, even if ISIS could somehow be wiped off the face of the planet tomorrow, that would only put a very, very tiny dent in the overall problem of sex slavery in our world. The following are 11 facts about human trafficking that come from dosomething.org…
1. Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90.
2. Trafficking primarily involves exploitation which comes in many forms, including: forcing victims into prostitution, subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude and compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography.
3. According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.
4. There are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today.
5. According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year, of which 80% are female and half are children.
6. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.
7. California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
8. The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any other state in the US. 15% of those calls are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
9. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year.
10. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries.
11. The International Labour Organization estimates that women and girls represent the largest share of forced labor victims with 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%) compared to 9.5 million (45%) men.
To me, those numbers are absolutely staggering.
Most people tend to think of slavery as something that happened in less civilized times, but the truth is that it has been estimated that there are more slaves in our world today than ever before in human history.
We live in a world that is absolutely brimming with evil. This is something that those that believe that people are “generally good” and that humanity has a “bright future” really struggle with.
If humans are “generally good” and we really have advanced so dramatically over their centuries, then why are there more slaves in the world today than ever before and why do we see so much evil all around us?
The answer to that question reveals a lot more about someone than you might think. (For more from the author of “ISIS Sex Slaves Reveal the True Horror of What Is Going on Over in the Middle East” please click HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/15715981259_ea169dcafe_b-1.jpg546974Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-14 02:12:562016-04-14 02:12:56ISIS Sex Slaves Reveal the True Horror of What Is Going on Over in the Middle East