Ed Royce: “International travel by terrorist recruits poses a deadly and growing threat. It is estimated that ISIS alone has drawn…”

“International travel by terrorist recruits poses a deadly and growing threat. It is estimated that ISIS alone has drawn 20,000 foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq. Extremist groups in Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere also draw foreigners into their deadly campaigns. These include thousands of westerners, primarily from Europe, but also a couple of hundred people from the United States so far. The threats are as real as today's headlines: British officials today arrested a man for plotting attacks on U.S. military personnel there in Britain and for planning to travel to Syria to join ISIS, along with his uncle. If they are successful in traveling, these foreign fighters receive terrorist training and they hone their skills there on the battlefield. Some have even appeared as executioners in ISIS' gruesome propaganda videos. If they return home, hardened fighters come back more hateful, certainly more deadly. {time} 1745 The killing of four U.S. marines and one sailor in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last Thursday; the attempted attack in Garland, Texas, in May; and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing all demonstrate that the United States is not immune from lone wolf and small-scale attacks of the type that ISIS and al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continue to call for. Surprisingly, the statutory authority to prohibit such travel in support of designated terrorist groups hasn't kept pace with the threat.…”