U.S. should be "stepping up our efforts to track where people go when they leave the United States."

[MineralMan]

16. Not really.

Those systems are not really designed to deal with individuals who might be traveling to join terrorist organizations. The phone/bank records is probably the only one of the three that applies, and those are pretty much overwhelmed right now, given the vast amount of data that is collected.

Learning that Abdi from St. Paul is traveling to Syria isn't all that simple really. From my understanding, most of this travel is done in segments, with only the one originating in the US able to be monitored in real time, and then pretty much only if the person's name is on some registry of people being tracked.

I'm not sure what Warren was talking about in any sort of detail. The US is able, right now, to know who is leaving the country on an airline, but if a ticket only includes the first destination, purchase of additional tickets after that person arrives at the stated destination isn't really trackable in advance for US citizens with passports.

The problem is not a large one, and not that many are doing this, so it may be a problem that doesn't need to be managed so carefully. I don't know, frankly. But Warren has identified a gap in our knowing who is heading out of the US to join some terrorist organization. How that intelligence gap might be filled is hard to imagine, though, I think.

If Abdi is going to fly from MSP to some airport in Greece or Turkey, we might know that. Where he goes from there isn't so easy.