Intel believes 300 Americans fighting with Islamic State, posing threat to U.S.

Washington Times ^ | Tuesday, August 26, 2014 | Maggie Ybarra

[GonzoII]

The U.S. government is tracking and gathering intelligence on as many as 300 Americans who are fighting side by side with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and are poised to become a major threat to the homeland, according to senior U.S. officials.

Officials say concern is widespread in Washington that radicalized foreign fighters could return to the homeland and commit terrorist attacks with skills acquired overseas, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. Those concerns were heightened by the disclosure Tuesday that a California man was killed fighting alongside militants with the group, also known as ISIS.

The U.S. government is doing its best to keep track of the foreign fighters, who have been shifting back and forth between Iraq and Syria, according to a senior U.S. official.

"We know that there are several hundred American passport holders running around with ISIS in Syria or Iraq," the official said, offering a figure well above widespread reports of about 100 such fighters. "It's hard to tell whether or not they're in Syria or moved to Iraq."

The State Department did not respond to a request for the number of Americans traveling in Iraq and Syria.

Supporters of the Islamic State group have worked to cultivate anxiety in the United States over the threat they might pose domestically.

Among photographs posted to Twitter in recent weeks is one that shows the Islamic State flag unfurled in front of the White House at night. Another photo taken in front of a high-rise building in Chicago features the message: "We are in your state. We are in your cities. We are in your streets. You are our goals anywhere."

[RipSawyer]

“Are there any mosques that do not teach the Koran?”
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Interesting question in light of the fact that there are definitely churches claiming to be Christian who do not teach or preach the Bible but rather a distorted version of it. The one that Obama claimed was his Christian church in Chicago actually taught something more akin to the Koran than the bible.