The March Terror Threat Snapshot was released today by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul. The "snapshot" is a monthly Committee assessment of the growing threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other Islamist terrorists.
Chairman McCaul: "This week's Islamist terror plots in Canada and Europe are a grim reminder of the heightened threat environment America and our allies confront. ISIS and al Qaeda are growing deeper roots in their sanctuaries around the world while plotting terror against the West. The Iranian regime grows more emboldened as it capitalizes on the economic stimulus afforded to it by President Obama's disastrous nuclear deal. Unfortunately, these trends will continue to worsen without a resolute, U.S.-led strategy to defeat Islamist terrorists and restore global order."
Key takeaways in this month's Terror Threat Snapshot include:
ISIS's unchecked global expansion has heightened the Islamist terror threat in the West. ISIS commands a "sophisticated external plotting network" from its sanctuaries and continues to inspire jihadist recruits worldwide. A senior U.K. official recently warned the group has "big ambitions for enormous and spectacular attacks."
The emboldened Iranian regime and its proxies are responding to President Obama's dangerous nuclear deal with growing aggression. Iran has been building "complex terror infrastructure" around the globe, conducting illicit ballistic missile launches, and escalating its threats against Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East. Tehran continues to exacerbate the problem of Sunni extremism.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates -- far from being degraded -- are poised to build on recent territorial gains by capitalizing further on instability and inaction. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a persistent threat to the Homeland, is "strengthening and expanding its reach" given the lack of a significant counterterrorism effort in Yemen.
Islamist terrorists are infiltrating the West by exploiting massive refugee flows. European security services continue to struggle with the magnitude of a crisis that is "masking the movement" of future terror plotters. Terror suspects have been arrested in refugee and migrant centers in Germany and Italy in recent months. As of earlier this year, over 40 jihadist suspects were detained after attempting to infiltrate Europe posing as Syrian refugees.
Terror detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield at a rate of more than 30 percent. A new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) assessment concluded that 19 terrorists freed since 2009 have rejoined the fight or are suspected of doing so. They are among the 204 total former detainees believed to have rejoined the ranks of militant Islamist groups.