FBI Director James Comey said Tuesday the number of Americans attempting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State has dropped significantly since the end of last summer.
An average six to 10 people per month had attempted to go overseas and fight with the terrorist group last year. That number is down to one or two a month now, Comey told reporters Tuesday during a press conference at the agency’s Minneapolis office.
“It’s good news the traveler numbers have come down,” Comey said. “I don’t know exactly what to make of it yet.”
Comey explained the Justice Department’s prosecution of Islamic State recruits may be deterring some from joining. But he added there was also the possibility that some have joined and have chosen to stay in the U.S. to orchestrate an attack on the homeland.
There are almost 1,000 open cases nationwide involving people who have been charged with assisting the Islamic State in some capacity. That number has not decreased despite the FBI’s efforts to combat the terrorist group’s recruiting efforts.
Comey said the agency’s efforts to fight the Islamic State are evolving due to the terrorist group’s growing size.
U.S. intelligence officers have primarily focused on thwarting the Islamic State’s efforts to recruit fighters overseas and export jihadists to carry out attacks in the U.S, but Comey said there’s a third aspect to the agency’s fight against terrorism.
“There’s three prongs to this ISIL threat,” Comey said. “The recruitment to travel, the recruitment to violence in place, and then what you saw a preview of in Brussels and in Paris — hardened fighters coming out, looking to kill people.”
Comey called the third prong a “terrorist diaspora,” which he said is likely to occur as the group migrates from its base in Iraq and Syria, and flows into Europe. Comey warned that move into Europe would enable fighters to easily travel into the U.S.
Comey was in the Dakotas and Minnesota for a two-day tour of a new FBI office in the Bakken region and to meet with officials in the Minneapolis office, which has reported higher numbers of terrorist recruitment than in other regions around the country.
