Nearly 80 percent of the individuals prosecuted in the United States for crimes connected to the Islamic State are U.S. citizens, a new report reveals.
Federal prosecutors opened 101 cases tied to the terror group between March 2014 and June 2016, securing 46 convictions so far and zero acquittals, according to a 32-page analysis published Wednesday by the Center on National Security at Fordham Law in New York City.
Out of those 101 cases, 79 focused on suspects holding U.S. citizenship, the study suggests.
“The wide range of individuals attracted to ISIS remains a constant, yet there are some overarching trends,” wrote the study’s authors, using an acronym for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL. “They are predominantly male, young and U.S. citizens, with more than half born in the United States.”
In addition to the 79 U.S. citizens investigated for Islamic State-related offenses, prosecutors had set their sights on eight lawful permanent residents, five asylum seekers and one person who had overstayed their visa, according to the report. Residency status for five of the 101 suspects was unavailable, and four were simply described as having no U.S. residency.
“Despite the fact that nearly 80 percent of the charged defendants are U.S. citizens, an identification with foreign conflicts rather than with American politics and society is apparent across the sample of indicted individuals,” the report’s authors wrote.
“While the cause of ISIS continues to attract a wide range of individuals, there are some trends in terms of motivations, personal context and intent,” the Center said in a statement. “All but one were Muslim at the time of arrest. Most were attracted at least in part by social media and many had expressed some form of social alienation, loneliness or identity issues.”
Indeed, the analysis suggests that social media was used by terror suspects in 89 percent of the cases examined by Fordham — a topic that dominated discussion on Capitol Hill Wednesday when a Senate panel held a hearing to examine how Islamic State sympathizers and supporters use online platforms to reach new recruits.
“No group has been as successful at drawing people into its message as ISIL, Michael Steinbach, executive assistant director for the FBI’s National Security Branch, told the Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “ISIL’s extensive reach through the internet and social media is most concerning as the group continues to aggressively employ the latest technology as part of its nefarious strategy.”
“In today’s hyper-connected world, this mission is tightly intertwined with technology and the ability it provides to reach out to anyone, anywhere, anytime,” he said. “Just as we use technology throughout the course of our day, so do the bad guys.”
According to the Fordham report, a fair share of those bad guys are doing so from their parents’ homes. Among the center’s findings: one-third of the 101 terror suspects lived with their mother or father at the time of their arrest.
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