Islamic State supporters now crop up across the United States.
From Mississippi to Washington, D.C., to Minnesota, these sympathizers have one thing in common: the terrorist organization began to woo them on social media.
An expose in the New York Times revealed how—and why—the Islamic State targets home-grown Americans to carry out horrific acts of violence: United States gun policies.
American Omar Mateen, the man behind one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, pledged allegiance to ISIS before he unleashed a semi-automatic weapon in Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, killing 49 and wounding dozens more.
Christine Leinonen, the mother of Pulse victim Christopher “Drew” Leinonen, told the Democratic National Convention, “The weapon that murdered my son fires 30 rounds in one minute.
“An Orlando city commissioner pointed out the terrible math. One minute per gun to fire so many shots, five minutes per bell to honor so many lives. I’m glad common-sense gun policy was in place when Christopher was born, but where was that common sense the day he died?”
Terrorists know American policies, and revel in ease of access to guns.
“For America and Canada, it’s much easier for them to get them over the social network, because they say the Americans are dumb—they have open gun policies,” ISIS recruit Harry Sarfo said. “They say we can radicalize them easily, and if they have no prior record, they can buy guns, so we don’t need to have no contact man who has to provide guns for them.”
Through social media, “The foreign terrorist now has direct access into the United States like never before,” Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said.
A CNN report revealed:
“There are thousands of messages being put out into the ethersphere and they’re just hoping that they land on an individual who’s susceptible to that type of terrorist propaganda,” said John Carlin, the assistant attorney general heading the Justice Department’s national-security division.
“They just need to be right once to get a terrorist attack inside the United States.”
ISIS has the most sophisticated propaganda machine of any terrorist organization, a global communications strategy that has stumped counterterrorism officials while making significant inroads among U.S. sympathizers.
“How many of those followers are actually in the United States, in your estimate?” McCaul asked at this week’s hearing.
“There’s hundreds, maybe thousands,” Steinbach replied. “It’s a challenge to get a full understanding of just how many of those passive followers are taking action.”
Popular Science declares the terrorists wage war via Twitter.
“So far, there is only one certainty in this fight. What ISIS has discovered—this very weird, effective new way of war—is not a novelty or a one-time thing. ISIS may have been the first to wield this cross of social media, terror, and war, but it will not be the last,” P.W. Singer and Emerson Brooking write.
Thus, terrorism first enters the United States through your home, through your computer, before a trigger is ever pulled.
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