The Rise of Radicalism

The free world is at war. The world was reminded last week that Islamic terrorists are seeking to harm our people, destroy our way of life and undermine the foundational principles of the free world. The Paris attacks also confirmed our worst fears, that of the thousands of foreign fighters who have gone to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, some would be deployed to bring terror back to the West. More than 5,000 individuals with Western passports, including Americans, have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, and some have already returned, battle-hardened and prepared to strike. ISIS is not contained as the President says. ISIS is expanding globally and is plotting aggressively. In a matter of weeks it executed major external terrorist plots on 3 continents, destroying a Russian airliner, conducting suicide bombings in Lebanon and launching a mass attack in the streets in Paris. ISIS is now responsible for more than 60 terrorist plots against Western targets, including 18 in the United States. Here at home, we have arrested more than 70 ISIS supporters over the last year. That is on average more than 1 per week, and the FBI says it has nearly 1,000 ISIS-related investigations in all 50 States.