By Glynn Cosker
Managing Editor, In Homeland Security
Since 9/11, never has the United States experienced more jihadist inspired terror plots in any full year than in 2015.
The surge of terror-related events point to increasing concern over new attempts on U.S. soil, according to the Terror Threat Snapshot, a new dashboard public-reporting tool, prepared and distributed by the House Homeland Security Committee headed by Chairman Michael McCaul.
See each month’s Terror Threat Snapshots here.
The committee began releasing the monthly snapshot in June, which includes a geography-based infographic, by-the-numbers plot reports, and a summary of key terror-threat takeaways, including expanding terror threats against the West.
The diagram above paints an alarming picture of the various ISIS-related arrests and homegrown terror plots.
The jihadist threat in the U.S. homeland is high and has escalated dramatically this year. There have been more U.S.-based jihadist terror cases in 2015 than in any full year since 9/11. The number of U.S. terrorist cases involving homegrown violent jihadists has gone from 38 in July 2010 to 124 today—more than a three-fold increase in just five years.”
September 15 Homeland Security Committee Terror Threat Snapshot
According to the committee’s report, Islamist terrorists are also stepping up efforts to attack U.S. public safety and military personnel as well as civilians. Additionally, In August, ISIS supporters issued another “hit list” of U.S. government employees, including military service members. The report also highlights that since early 2014, the “majority of Islamist terror plots on U.S. soil have featured plans to kill police or U.S. service members.”
The Terror Threat Snapshot highlights worldwide terror plots too, including a recent intercept of several ISIS supporters who had blended in with a large group of migrants being smuggled into Europe via the Mediterranean coastline. Five men with ISIS propaganda videos on their cellphones were detained in Bulgaria while posing as refugees, according to the report.
Another frightening statistic found in the committee’s snapshot is that almost 30 percent of all released Guantanamo Bay detainees are “known or suspected to have returned to the battlefield.”
Download the full Terror Threat Snapshot as a PDF here. Check back next month for October’s terror snapshot report.
AMU’s James Thompson contributed to this article.
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