GOP Senator: US ’Certainly Vulnerable’ to ’ISIL’

Local Editor

The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee said the United States was "certainly vulnerable" to attacks by militants linked to the "ISIL" terrorist group.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson stated that attacks inspired by "ISIL", like one against a provocative event in Texas last week, were allowing the terrorist organization to convey a "winner's message."

He said the US military must defeat "ISIL" in Iraq and Syria "so the reality is conveyed that this is not a winning organization - this is a losing organization."

"We are not adequately defeating them, and we are not conveying the extent to which they are weakened," said Johnson.

Further, he admitted the terrorist group had communicated with potential recruits over social media because law enforcement agencies can't track every possible suspect.

"The problem is, what do you do with the not-guilty-yet?" Johnson said. "We do have laws, we have a Constitution, and it's extremely difficult for law enforcement officials when you might have tens of thousands of sympathizers -- how do you track them all?"

He went on to say that there were as many as 90,000 Twitter accounts that support "ISIL".

"Now, Twitter is starting to shut those things down," Johnson said. "But just consider maybe 90,000 people drawn to this barbaric ideology. So we have got a very large haystack. We're looking for a needle in it."

Accordingly, the "ISIL" terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, had beheaded three American, two British and two Japanese hostages in recent months. The videos of their beheadings were posted online.

"ISIL" is engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control. They have been carrying out horrific acts of violence such as public decapitations and crucifixions against all communities.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team