The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has recently been more successful than al Qaeda in gaining U.S. terrorist recruits. The authors undertake a demographic profile of individuals drawn to foreign terrorist organizations and find that the affiliates average terrorists recruited by ISIL is younger, less educated, and more likely to be African American/black or Caucasian/white and a U.S.-born citizen.

Excerpt from Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session, on Examining the Extent of and Policies to Prevent Foreign Terrorist In a few minutes, Senators, we will play portions of two of these videotapes that were captured from Mr. Ajaj. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The United States government-backed by the overwhelming support of the American public-takes a hard line against international terrorism. The tenets of official U.S. counterterrorist policy are: make no concessions or deals with terrorists; bring them to justice for their crimes; isolate and apply pressure on states that sponsor terrorism; and bolster the counterterrorist capabilities of countries willing to work with the United States. While these tenets are sound principles, their application, specifically overseas, raises difficult questions. Does the "no deal" policy actually deter terrorists acts? Are there cases where agreements might reduce terrorism, while advancing other U.S. interests? Do isolation and pressure really force offending states to alter their support for terrorists? What factors affect the willingness, not just the capability, of foreign governments to help the United States in counterterrorism? In this critical study, a career CIA officer provides a guide to constructing and executing counterterrorist policy, urging that it be formulated as an integral part of broader U.S. foreign policy. In the first four chapters, Paul R. Pillar identifies the necessary elements of counterterrorist policy, he examines why the United States is a prime terrorist target, and he reveals why the counterterrorist policies that seem strongest are not always the most effective. Chapter 5 examines the widely varying nature of terrorist groups and the policy tools most appropriately applied to them. Chapter 6 focuses on states that sponsor terrorism (including Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Cuba), along with those that enable it to occur (particularly Greece and Pakistan). Pillar examines ways in which the American public's perspective toward terrorism can actually constrain counterterrorist policy, and he concludes that terrorism cannot be "defeated" only reduced, attenuated, and to some degree, controlled. The final chapter summarizes his recommendations f

There are three intertwining themes to this book. The central theme is the events involving four diverted airliners in the eastern United States on the morning of September 11, 2001 were not acts of foreign terrorism. The mistaken belief that September 11th involved foreign terrorism has become so pervasive that it qualifies as a form of urban legend. It is an idea that has been widely accepted without proof. There have been so many loose references to foreign terrorism since September 11th, that clearing away the semantic fog that has generated false public perceptions about those events reveals the plain truth that the terrorism against Americans related to September 11th wasn't perpetrated by foreigners. The book's second theme is that in stark contrast to the absence of foreign terrorism, a systematic and very public campaign of domestic terrorism against Americans by the President and his Cabinet, members of Congress, and officials of multiple federal agencies was begun soon after the World Trade Center buildings were struck. That terrorist campaign is compounded by the suspicious circumstances of what occurred prior to, on, and after September 11, the scale of the operation necessary to orchestrate those events, that no organization or group has taken credit for them, and that the federal government and those associated with it are not just the most conspicuous beneficiaries of those events, but they are the only visible direct beneficiaries of them. Thus the factors of means, motive, opportunity, magnitude, and who benefited from September 11th all point to those events were acts of domestic terrorism. The only terrorism the American people have been, and are being subjected to is being perpetrated against them by the federal government in the form of such things as the Patriot Act of 2001, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the federalization of airport screeners, the Defense Department's Information Assurance Office, and the incessant drumbeat by politicians and their supporters in the media that we must fear the foreign terrorists hell-bent on harming the United States. Widespread public and media support for those responses is attributable to the trigger events of September 11. The book's third theme is the threat to the liberty of Americans by people, agencies and organizations within the United States - directly or indirectly associated with the federal government - that are seeking emasculation of the Bill of Rights. Such an agenda can only be accomplished by people with access to the inner sanctum of power in Washington D.C., and not by politically impotent foreigners outside the country who can do nothing to undermine the liberty of Americans. It is only political insiders or people and organizations with meaningful access to them, that can obliterate the liberty of Americans by unleashing the Constitution from the Bill of Rights' symbolic constraint against the unfettered use of its powers against individual men, women and children. So quite contrary to the assertion of many analysts of the fall-out from the events of September 11th, the campaign in their wake has been to exalt the federal government's powers under the Constitution as supreme over the shield of protections afforded individuals and their associations under the Bill of Rights. Thus it isn't the Constitution that is hated - but the Bill of Rights - just as it was in 1787 by the "founding fathers."

This unique work analyzes for the first time how foreign-affinity terrorism works in a major democratic nation like the United States, and what this country must do to survive the terror challenge, on both conventional and unconventional levels. To date, no definitive study has dealt specifically with the role of American citizens in supporting a foreign political, ideological, and religious illegal agenda. Terrorists in Our Midst: Combating Foreign-Affinity Terrorism in America remedies that as six expert authors discuss the threats of Americans to security interests in the United States and elsewhere, exploring what can and should be done to reduce a risk that may threaten the very survival of the free world. Terrorists in Our Midst focuses not only on foreign nationals operating in the United States, but also on American citizens participating in terror networks at home and abroad. The book presents an overview of both conventional and unconventional terrorism, surveys the terrorist threat in the United States by state and nonstate actors, and analyzes the foreign-affinity links of American operatives in this country and abroad. Most important for the safety and security of the United States, it offers an assessment of what policies worked and what did not work, specifying a "best practices" agenda of recommendations that should be adopted by the United States and the international community.