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Foreign fighter 'pipelines' see new wave of transnational terrorism

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THE THREAT of ‘fighters’ flowing to and from the battles in Iraq and Syria presents a heightened danger in what the world is seeing as a new wave of transnational terrorism. And shutting down these 'pipelines' which funnel recruits into the ranks of extremist groups in the Middle East will be a challenge for multinational counter-terrorism efforts for years to come, writes World Review expert Dr James Jay Carafano. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which forced both the Taliban and al-Qaeda to retreat to Pakistan, establishing pipelines to direct extremists into zones of conflict has been a staple of Islamist strategy. And efforts to direct foreign fighters into the conflict rapidly expanded after the 2011 uprising in Syria turned into a protracted insurgency against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. European states, particularly France and Belgium, became alarmed at the increasing number of people from their countries flowing into the conflict. In 2013, a senior French government official estimated there were about 600 foreign fighters of European origin in Syria, half of them from France and Belgium. Others came from Denmark, Norway and Italy. In Spain, counter-terrorism operations took down a terrorist cell whose primary purpose was to provide logistical support to al-Qaeda's underground highway. The pipelines became a major concern in many countries with the rise of ISIS and its invasion of Iraq in 2014. Estimates of foreign fighters have also dramatically risen. Over the summer of 2014, as ISIS made massive gains in Iraq, common estimates held that about 10,000 foreign fighters were in the ranks, about one-third of them from Europe and the United States. In September, the State Department estimated the number of foreign fighters could be as high as 12,000. While most of the fighters are from North Africa and the Middle East, they are reported to have come from 80 different nations. Through social media, including tweeting, and posting ‘selfies’ and online videos, foreign fighters have assumed a high profile in the Iraqi insurgency. Foreign fighters fuelling insurgencies overseas and the problem of their returning home are separate but intertwined issues. The ‘pipelines’ which carry them in and out of the staging area bear similar characteristics. In each case, individuals transit to a staging-area, a country where their entry or exit from the zone of conflict is facilitated by an organised group. Countries where these activities are prominent have included Spain, Turkey, and several countries in North Africa among others. In the zone of conflict there are reception or debarkation stations. In many cases there are networks which provide financial support for operating the pipelines and equipping and supporting the foreign fighters. International counter-terrorism efforts focussed on the foreign fighters and the networks that recruit, and facilitate their movement, training, and employment, have been growing over the last two years. But there are great disparities in national efforts. The challenge with dramatically disrupting pipelines is that many of them flow through countries in the Middle East or North Africa which are unwilling, or unable, to effectively disrupt extremist networks. Jordan, for example, has struggled to keep hundreds of 'foreign fighters' from flowing into Iraq to join extremist groups. The extent to which fighters represent a significant transnational terrorist threat, or a critical resource for Islamist insurgencies, remains an issue of some debate. Overwhelmingly, fighters who have fought for groups like ISIS or attended terrorist training camps have not become a major source for establishing terrorist cells or organising attacks in Western countries, though a few have. What unquestionably, foreign fighters do provide, is a huge propaganda asset for extremist groups. It gives rise to a claim of international relevance and legitimacy. It allows extremist groups to peddle an attractive, compelling narrative which is often appealing to groups being targetted for recruitment or support. Further, the fighters are a tool for ‘scaring’ countries by suggesting that terrorist groups have a ready means to 'reach out and touch' states far from the zone of conflict. The potential for the employment of foreign fighters for transnational terrorist activity and as ‘celebrity’ fighters to garner support for insurgencies remains very real. Since these pipelines are now so extensive and the numbers involved so significant, it is difficult to imagine any realistic scenario where they do not represent a credible security threat. Western counter-terrorism activities will have to prepare for many eventualities.
Author: 
Dr James Jay Carafano
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2014-11-11 06:00
Factbox Title: 
Foreign fighters
Factbox Facts: 
The Haqqani Network successfully established a practice of recruiting outsiders to the resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan as a religious duty. The ranks they assembled included Osama bin Laden who later founded al Qaeda. Under the network's tutelage, bin Laden moved his base of operations to Afghanistan where he established camps to train foreign fighters. Although the camps were primarily used to provide fighters to support the Taliban in Afghanistan they also trained would-be transnational extremists and terrorists. According to the US 9/11 commission, Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, who participated in the 2001 terrorists attacks on New York and Washington in the United States, trained at the Mes Aynak training camp in Afghanistan. Subsequently, pipelines became features of other conflicts including Islamist insurgencies in North Africa and Syria. In 2013, INTERPOL reported it had created a data base to ‘exchange information on current and recently closed cases, threat assessments, suspect profiles, recruitment networks, travel routes and the process of radicalisation and incitement’. INTERPOL recently announced it would undertake a significant expansion of this programme. In September 2014, the United States led an action in the United Nations Security Council that led to the passage of a resolution requiring nations to adopt laws severely penalising foreign fighters. In August 2014, Australia implemented now counter-terrorism measures to track the movements of foreign fighters. New Zealand recently announced it would pass new laws to address potential threats of fighters returning from conflict zones like Iraq and Syria. Great Britain recently debated new security measures including revoking the passports of foreign fighters. The Canadian government already actively revokes passports of citizens that fight for ISIS.

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