The FBI has taken to the Internet to crowd source the identification of several English-speaking terrorists who have been seen in ISIS propaganda videos.
On its webpage, the FBI has posted a form for people to use to submit potential tips.
“We need the public’s assistance in identifying U.S. persons going to fight overseas with terrorist groups or who are returning home from fighting overseas,” said Michael Steinbach, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.
The FBI is seeking information about the identity of an English-speaking individual and several others seen in ISIS propaganda videos.
“In the video,” the FBI explains on its website, “a man whose face is obscured by a mask alternates seamlessly between English and Arabic in pro-ISIL pronouncements intended to appeal to a Western audience. Dressed in desert camouflage and wearing a shoulder holster, the masked man can be seen standing in front of purported prisoners as they dig their own graves and then later presiding over their executions.”
The FBI also released a 55-minute video in the hopes that someone might recognize the individual’s voice or characteristics.
The Bureau created a pilot program in Minneapolis, a city with the unfortunate reputation of spawning several “home grown” terrorists who have left the country for Africa and other places to join terror groups.
The Minneapolis office created a unique tip line and worked with community leaders to find out information about anyone who might be planning travel–or had already traveled–to a foreign country to join terrorist groups.
“These homegrown violent extremists are troubled souls who are seeking meaning in some misguided way,” Director Comey said on CBS’s 60 Minutes. “And so they come across the propaganda and they become radicalized on their own independent study, and they’re also able to equip themselves with training again on the Internet, and then engage in jihad after emerging from their basement.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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