TerrorismAugust 2016 terrorism: The Numbers

Published 2 September 2016

The House Homeland Security Committee has just released its September Terror Threat Snapshot, which details terrorism events and trends in August 2016. The snapshot is a monthly committee assessment of the threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists. The document is produced by the Majority Staff of the committee. It is based on information culled from open source materials, including media reports, publicly available government statements, and nongovernmental assessments.

Cab of truck used in Nice terror attack // Source: theconversation.com

The House Homeland Security Committee has just released its SeptemberTerror Threat Snapshot, which details terrorism events and trends in August 2016. The snapshot is a monthly committee assessment of the threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists.

The document is produced by the Majority Staff of the committee. It is based on information culled from open source materials, including media reports, publicly available government statements, and nongovernmental assessments.

Key points

  • Islamist terrorists will continue to pose a significant threat to the United States and its allies — ISIS and its supporters, undeterred by battlefield setbacks, have now been linked to 105 plots targeting Western interestsglobally.
  • ISIS, al Qaeda, and other Islamist extremists have built a global network of sanctuaries they can leverage for directing and inspiring terroristattacks.
  • Radical Islamists are exploiting everything from social media applications, including encrypted technologies, to refugee flows to improve their ability to recruit adherentsand conduct terroroperations.
  • Detainees freed from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield at an alarmingrate, and now the recruiting pool for these terrorists has expanded under the Obama Administration’s surge oftransfers.
  • An emboldened Iranian regime has been building its military capabilities, vying for hegemony across the Middle East, and threatening the United States and itsallies.

 

Homegrown Islamist extremism

  • FBI Director James Comey estimated in May 2016 that around 80 percent of the Bureau’s more than 1,000 active homegrown terror investigations are linked to ISIS. Attacks directed or inspired by ISIS represent “the greatest threat to the physical safety of Americans today,” he added in July2016.
  • Since September 11, 2001, there have been at least 166 homegrown jihadist plots in the United States, including attempts to join terrorist groups overseas and execute attacks at home. Morethan 86 percent of these cases have occurred or been uncovered since2009 (this figure is based on open-source data compiled by the Congressional Research Service and the Majority Staff of the Homeland Security Committee).