Official: Some Americans Who Fought In Syria Have Returned

[big_dog]

Source: Yahoo News By Olivier Knox, 2 hours ago


Some of the estimated 100 Americans who have tried to get to Syria and join up with groups like the Islamic State have returned to the United States and are under FBI scrutiny, a top official told reporters on Monday. For months, top American officials have warned that U.S. citizens trying to swell the ranks of the Islamic State and other groups fighting to topple Bashar Assad pose an exceptional security risk.

Asked whether there were 100 Americans now in Syria, a senior administration official told reporters that the figure “includes those who’ve gone, those who’ve tried to go, some who’ve come back and who are under active – the FBI is looking at them.” The official was speaking at a briefing organized by the White House; the ground rules required that the official be anonymous.

Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry highlighted the administration’s concerns in an interview with MSNBC. “We have over a hundred fighters there from America. They have passports. They can come back here,” having acquired deadly expertise on Syrian battlefields, Kerry said.On Sept. 17, President Obama chaired a special meeting of his national security team that focused on the danger posed by American fighters joining the foreign cause. “With respect to the Americans who may be engaged in combat in Iraq and Syria, this is something that our national security agencies and counterterrorism team are taking very seriously,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Friday.


“It’s something we track closely. And we are doing obviously all that we can to both gather the necessary information and take the appropriate precautions to the greatest extent that we possibly can,” Rice said. Asked whether 100 was a relatively low number that might signal success in keeping Americans off Syrian battlefields, the anonymous official replied: “I think that success is 0.” “One American going is too much.”


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/official--some-americans-who-fought-in-syria-have-returned-160953525.html

[Sopkoviak]

1. So the rethugs are back in charge of the executive branch

Well actually they probably never left.

[Tarheel_Dem]

3. What does your statement have to do with the posted article?

[Sopkoviak]

9. Terra terra terra

Keep the sheep in line.

[Tarheel_Dem]

12. So you're saying ISIS is fiction? And if you're wrong?

[Sopkoviak]

13. If I'm wrong?

Then the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud.

Or so we were told at one time.

Boo.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Different administration. The reason most of us voted for Obama twice is the trust factor.

If you don't, that's fine too, but you are certainly in a minority among Americans when it comes to ISIL. I mean, if they're gonna behead folks, and post it to social media, they're gonna get a reaction. Plain and simple. Although, I can see how some folks with a different agenda would attempt to minimize that.

Oh, and welcome back.

[freshwest]

15. LOL. Yeah, that kind of talk is a standard.

[Tarheel_Dem]

16. And predictable. Let's not forget predictable.

[former9thward]

20. People who opposed Bush's war in Iraq were in a minority at the beginning also.

Not the best argument for war.

[Tarheel_Dem]

22. I wasn't aware that I was making an argument for war. Just stating the facts.

[Adrahil]

23. Ummm.... Interesting viewpoint....

So because Bush was an asshat, we SHOULDN'T keep track of people KNOWN to have attempted to join up with extremists?

What kind of odd world do you live in where THAT is a good idea?

[snooper2]

29. so are you pro fundie?

You don't think asshole fundies exist?

You need proof?

You know they are smart enough to use the intertubes and buy plane tickets right? They know how to travel?

[karynnj]

5. It is Republican to have the FBI monitor Americans who fought or tried to fight in Syria?

Unless you are an extreme libertarian, you would agree that there is some purpose for the FBI -- and this certainly seems to be one case where it is warranted.

It is true that there have been times when surveillance was done when there was no cause. In fact, Secretary Kerry himself was a target - until after observation the FBI ended surveillance because they saw no wrong doing on his part.

Here, someone who fought with the terrorists is not even a close case - they NEED to be watched. It is ridiculous to argue that Obama administration has gone too far here.

[cosmicone]

19. Au contraire

I wish they are all arrested under the Patriot Act and then released on a case-by-case basis. If they went there to fight, they are brainwashed enough to be terrorists.

[Quackers]

2. And yet Snowden will be arrested the moment he steps foot on US soil.

[karynnj]

6. There was a provisional warrant for his arrest and I believe that he has been charged with crimes

I would assume that he likely would be arrested and would have to stand trial. I don't know if a jury would convict him. I also don't know if he could get some bargain with the government or if he even tried.

[christx30]

10. Because what Snowden did

isn't going to put money in the hands of the war profiteers. The people that fought in Syria have sparked a war that is going to cost billions. That's a lot of brand new yachts.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. How will we tell the violent acts of returning extremists from our daily mayhem?

[big_dog]

7. I doubt that is going to be a big problem-they want the publicity for propoganda purposes

Belgium has been put on edge over potential Islamist terrorist attacks for the second time in four months amid reports that a man and woman who had returned from the war in Syria via Turkey were plotting an assault on the European Union’s main offices in Brussels.

According to the Dutch public broadcaster, NOS, the couple were detained in Belgium where investigators were said to have proof of a planned attack on the Berlaymont building, the offices housing the European commission.

A commission spokeswoman said she was aware of the reports, but that the organisation, the EU executive and civil service, had received no warnings of any specific threats.

With governments across Europe increasingly preoccupied by the risks arising from the return of nationals who have joined gone to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State (Isis), concern is particularly high in Belgium. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/couple-returning-from-syria-were-plotting-assault-on-european-unions-belgium-office/

[HoosierCowboy]

8. The Daily Mayhem....

....doesn't knock out your electrical power, blow up the gas mains or poison your water supply.

[Nihil]

25. You don't read the news much do you?

> ... blow up the gas mains or poison your water supply.

"Daily Mayhem" in the USA isn't just the usual "gun-nut shoots someone"
stuff that doesn't even make national news. It includes the "profit uber alles"
non-stick corporate persons who have been doing exactly this - blowing up
gas mains & poisoning the water supply - for years.

What's more, they've been doing it with the explicit approval of both sides of
the government and with the willing cooperation of the "blinded by greed & ignorance"
section of the public.

Or maybe you consider that when these events are done for mercenary reasons
then it's all sunshine & beer whereas when they are done for "OOOHHH Terr'ist!!"
reasons then it is something to fear?

[marble falls]

11. Scruitiny? NSA knows all it needs to know about any of us. They should be flipped by sane and....

fair treatment.

We all have different degrees of youthful indiscretion that we ducked the bad consequences of, and most of these people are still 'kids' in a lot of ways. I am interested in what and how one gets turned from mostly middle-class Americans into jihadi. Maybe it would be good to embrace at least some of the returnees just for the insight most of the rest of us don't have.

[PSPS]

17. Oh the horror of it all!!11!1!

I guess it's time to gleefully give up what little is left of our civil liberties while we all soil ourselves under our beds!!11!!11

[christx30]

18. I don't see a problem with

watching people that go off to a foreign country to commit acts of murder and destruction, and then come back. why did they go? Why are they coming back? What crimes did they commit while over there? Did they kill anyone? Have their views on religion or politics change at all? Are they planning on doing anything now they are back?
ISIS has called on its members to kill Americans. They have beheaded people. I think all of the above question are warranted. I think some more scrutiny is very warranted. Not out of terror, or being afraid of our shadows. Just some caution.

[Adrahil]

24. I don't see a violation of Civil Liberties here.

These people certainly trip any reasonable probable cause standard. It's like saying that someone who attempts to join the mob, or a drug cartel shouldn't be watched.

[Rhinodawg]

21. Welcome Home boys....

What could possibly go wrong ?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

26. Time for a new law.

You go off to fight for al quaeda, isis, or any of those sorts of groups, you lose your citizenship and passport. You don't simply get to come back afterwards. No backsies.

[840high]

27. Yes.

[KurtNYC]

28. Are they counting John McCain as one of the "100" ?

Sept 15, 2014 - FNC

HANNITY: Let me ask you about what your colleague, Rand Paul, said about it this morning. He said it's a mistake to arm them. Most of the arms we've given the so-called moderate rebels have wound up in the hands of ISIS because ISIS simply takes it from them or it is given to them, and we mistakenly actually end up giving it to some radicals. How -- how -- look, things are very...

MCCAIN: Has Rand Paul -- has Rand Paul ever been to Syria? Has he ever met with ISIS? Has he ever met with...

HANNITY: I'm not trying to cause a fight, Senator.

MCCAIN: ... any of these people? No, no, no. I -- we're going to have a fight because it's patently false. This is the same Rand Paul that said we didn't want to have anything to do with anything to do in the Middle East, by the way. I don't want to get in a fight with him at all.

HANNITY: Yes.

MCCAIN: But it's not true. I know these people. I'm in contact with them all the time...

HANNITY: All right, then let me ask you this...

MCCAIN: ... and he is not. And he is not. And he is not.

Hannity cut him off twice trying to help keep the story on track but McCain just goes right on bragging about how well he knows ISIS. He talks about Rand Paul and ISIS like a jealous lover.

Anyone who thinks we are getting the straight story on Syria and ISIS will soon be proven wrong.