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Can Western Governments Stop Their Citizens From Joining Terror Groups?

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Fri Sep 12, 2014 at 09:41:18 PM EST
Tags: ISIS, Iraq, Syria (all tags)
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Source: Rayat al Tawheed Tumbler

Western nations are trying to stop citizens from leaving to fight with groups like ISIS.

What do counter-terror officials propose?

Counterterrorism officials recommend that countries share data to detect the recruitment of foreign fighters, monitor online communications more aggressively, share airline passenger information in advance, and criminalize travel abroad to fight.

How will they limit the surveillance to those who may want to join ISIS as opposed to regular citizens? My answer: They can't. So the rest of us should get used to to to the idea of ramped up intrusions on our civil liberties.

Most of the recruits are young -- in their 20's. Arresting them on their return, as some countries are proposing, or as they are about to leave, and giving them long jail sentences is a bad idea. Prison will further radicalize them. They will become more marginalized and feel more oppressed.
I doubt this will prevent any young adults from wanting to join them. [More...]

I also doubt threats of imprisonment are likely to be a deterrent. Closing the border at Turkey would probably help stop the recruits from succeeding, but I don't see any real effort on Turkey's part to do this.

In addition to You Tube, Twitter, Tumbler, and Facebook, a big recruitment tool for foreign fighters is Ask FM, where individual fighters answer questions and describe their daily lives, and offer advice on how to get across the border. For personalized advice, they ask people to contact them on kik and offer to connect them with someone who can help with particular issues. Their tone is conversational, even breezy, and they show a sense of humor. One fighter, who also works in the media department, has answered more than 1,500 questions in the past month or so. It was easy reading, so I made a compilation of what I found to be the more interesting questions and answers in his thread. You can read it here.

They are well aware these communications are monitored, and don't seem to care. They don't hesitate to disclose who is in their group, which ISIS big shots they've met, how long they've been there, etc. They even answer questions about food and cooking, bathroom and laundry facilities.

There's a lot of women asking them questions about whether they want to get married, how a "sister" would go about it, etc. They answer some, but don't hesitate to remind them they aren't providing a dating service.

One of the best ways to learn about ISIS is to read them in their own words. Unfortunately, Twitter keeps deleting their accounts, including official ISIS accounts. ISIS moved its accounts another site, which also deleted them. A few weeks ago they moved to VK, a Russian owned Facebook lookalike. Today, VK zapped all the official accounts. That leaves Justpaste.it where they post photos and communiques, but it's not searchable, so unless you read on Twitter they've posted something new, there's no way to know. That's a huge mistake in my view. Analysts, researchers and journalists learn a lot from following them online. Governments could too.

In any event, until the Governments of the world start paying attention to why their youth are disaffected, marginalized and feeling oppressed, and make an effort to provide supportive programs and other assistance, they will just lose more and more of them to extremist groups. The State Department's latest effort, a video that tries to scare them off, is a waste of time and money and a losing proposition.

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    Can Western Governments Stop Their Citizens From Joining Terror Groups? | 35 comments (35 topical)

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    Western recruits (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by Uncle Chip on Sat Sep 13, 2014 at 08:53:24 AM EST
    I think some of these kids are going off to these places thinking that it will be some great adventure  but they soon learn the meaning of the words "war is hell".

    When you experience your first casualty, see your first headless corpse up close and personal, and hear those bullets whizzing past your head, it ceases being a glorious adventure.

    ISIL commanders probably see recruits from Western countries as cannon fodder and put them on the front line -- unless they believe that they will prove more useful to them back in their home countries.

    True but (5.00 / 1) (#2)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sat Sep 13, 2014 at 10:02:55 AM EST
    In any event, until the Governments of the world start paying attention to why their youth are disaffected, marginalized and feeling oppressed, and make an effort to provide supportive programs and other assistance, they will just lose more and more of them to extremist groups.

    The governments are not teaching them that they are citizens of that country and they owe loyalty to that country. This is true in the US and all western countries.

    So, thinking they are citizens of the world they dash to support whatever group that flips their mostly uneducated minds.

    Look, this is really odd (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Dadler on Sat Sep 13, 2014 at 10:08:36 AM EST
    First and foremost, when you go off to join an organization that you KNOW relishes lopping off heads and raping children, you are a psychopath. THAT is who is joining these groups. Psychopaths. Let us absolve ourselves of the idea that there is ANYthing but psychopathy at work. Islam is alive and well all over that region, this is a sectarian psychopathic organization. Nothing more, nothing less. Short of stopping ALL travel for ALL people, no, you can't stop it. Can we, as a nation, stop acting psychopathic in our own ways abroad and make a difference? Of course. But so far we have proven far too stupid and disdainful of our freedom to actually do so.

    Youth have always felt (5.00 / 1) (#6)
    by Militarytracy on Sat Sep 13, 2014 at 12:55:45 PM EST
    Disaffected, marginalized, and oppressed.  It is all part of being a youth.

    but authoritarian responses are not the answer (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Jeralyn on Sat Sep 13, 2014 at 02:08:32 PM EST
    to disaffected youth (who have not left or harmed their home countries) as we learned at Chicago in 1968, Kent State in 1970, and Ferguson last month. As to the ones returning, there should be some individualized proof they intend to harm their home country before jailing them. For those returning because they became disillusioned with the movement they joined, social programs, educational opportunities, job training, etc. could be much more helpful. Criminal charges and imprisonment and stripping of citizenship should be reserved for those whom the Governments can prove killed someone.

    For example, a young female who went there in hopes of marrying a fighter and never handled a gun, or a young male who went and was assigned to janitorial work instead of fighting and returned, should be treated differently than someone the government can point to in a video killing someone and proudly holding up their head.