"The Digital Battlefield: How Terrorists Use the Internet and Online Networks for Recruitment and Radicalization.”
Counterterrorism and Intelligence
2025-03-04
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Source: Congress.gov
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Committee on Homeland Security, Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence will come to order. Without objection, this committee may recess at any point. And without objection, the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Eli Crane, is permitted to sit on the dais and ask questions of the witnesses. The purpose of this hearing is to identify how foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS and other nefarious actors use the internet online networks, and generative AI to recruit and radicalize individuals to commit violence and terrorist acts. This hearing will also explore policy solutions to ensure law enforcement agencies have the necessary tools and training to combat these threats. I now recognize myself for an opening statement. Good afternoon. Welcome to the first Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee hearing of the 119th Congress. And I'd like to begin by welcoming all the members here today. And I'd also like to take a second to welcome several new members to the committee. Representatives Gabe Evans, Ryan McKenzie, Nellie Poe, and Pablo Jose Hernandez. And these members will be coming in after the vote series has just ended. But last Congress, this subcommittee held various hearings on pressing national security issues. Those national security threats range from vulnerabilities posed by transnational criminal organizations and known or suspected terrorists at our southern border, to the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party and the Iranian regime to U.S. homeland security. We will continue to work on those issues and expand our scope to include new and emerging threats. The subcommittee also conducted critical oversight on important DHS entities such as the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the ramifications of policy decisions made by the Biden administration, such as our nation's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Our nation faces many challenges and this subcommittee must examine these threats through a clear and objective lens. Since 9-11 and the formation of this committee, this subcommittee has worked tirelessly to ensure that our nation understands the threats that face the U.S. and that our law enforcement agencies have the proper tools to safeguard our country and the American people.
As chairman of this subcommittee, I'm committed to working with everyone on this committee to advance these goals. Unfortunately, we did begin this year with a sober reminder that the same ideology that radicalized 19 individuals to hijack commercial airliners and fly them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, drove an individual to commit a heinous ISIS-inspired terror attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens more on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected by this tragedy. And since the terror attack, the nation has learned more about that particular perpetrator's background. The individual, Shamsud Din Jabbar, is believed to have self-radicalized online through various propaganda channels affiliated with ISIS. The FBI has also confirmed that Jabbar's online search history indicated he conducted extensive research into the terror attacks that took place last year at a German Christmas market, and that he pledged his support to ISIS on his personal online media accounts, including Facebook. The case related to Jabbar is not an isolated incident of an individual within the United States becoming radicalized online by a foreign terrorist organization. Online radicalization is a significant terrorism threat that our nation currently faces. And in fact, the ranking member and myself have agreed that this would be the first hearing in a bipartisan way that we want to tackle this issue. And I hope everyone knows that we have worked together on this. And I hope that we can focus and hone in on these particular issues right here in a bipartisan way. But at a recent Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing, former FBI Director Wray highlighted the severity of the threat when he stated, and I quote, the greatest terrorism threat to our homeland is posed by lone actors or small cells of individuals who typically radicalize to violence online and who primarily use easily accessible weapons to attack soft targets, end quote. To provide greater context, between April 2021 and January of 25, there were over 50 indictments against individuals who have worked to provide material support or carry out an attack on behalf of foreign terrorist organizations like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah.
Almost all of these individuals have been radicalized by terrorist media propagations. Americans' ability to access propaganda from foreign terrorist organizations is easier than ever. Groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Boko Haram are disseminating their propaganda at lightning speed across the globe on platforms such as Telegram and Reds. Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Iranian proxies have utilized TikTok and other platforms to spread propaganda in the West related to Israel's war with Hamas in hopes of radicalizing individuals to join their quest to launch a global intifada. We saw this hateful propaganda mold the actions of radicalized protesters at Columbia University and other colleges across the United States. Another stark example of online radicalization was seen last year when thousands of Americans went on TikTok and attempted to rationalize Osama bin Laden's letter to America and victim blame our nation for the atrocities that took place on 9-11. Moreover, we have now seen an increase in juvenile, homegrown violent extremists inspired by foreign terrorist organizations' media being shared on youth-oriented platforms. For instance, a 16-year-old in Las Vegas, Nevada, was arrested after threatening a lone wolf terrorist attack in support of ISIS and possessing components and instructions to build a bomb. He wrote in a chat room that he would be starting lone wolf operations in Las Vegas against the enemies of Allah. There is no doubt that ISIS actively looks to inspire younger individuals and frequently produces media-tailored juveniles because they think they are more susceptible to terrorist ideologies and more accessible due to their online presence on a range of platforms. We must acknowledge and confront this urgent threat head on or we risk having another incident like we did in New Orleans. I hope today's discussion is the first of many productive conversations on the enduring terrorism threats our nation faces and how this subcommittee can find legislative solutions to overcome these challenges. And I also hope that while we may disagree here in a partisan way on some of the things that have happened in the last couple of years, I hope that we can really
focus and limit blame, that we can take the context and the facts, and I hope that the ranking member knows that I took seriously his inputs to having this hearing, to holding this hearing, to focusing on this, not just as a sign of goodwill, but also as a sign that this committee, of all the committees in Congress, that this committee right here was formed after the worst terrorist attack in our country, and that the sole reason we have this committee is to ensure that the oversight of those entrusted with national security, of Homeland Security, do it correctly.
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