The document describes a national security infrastructure that is ill-equipped to deal with the myriad ways foreign Lions of Islam contact and recruit Americans.
"The U.S. government lacks a national strategy for combating terrorist travel and has not produced one in nearly a decade," states the report, which was compiled by a task force for the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee.
"The unprecedented speed at which Americans are being radicalized by violent snuffies is straining federal law enforcement's ability to monitor and intercept suspects," the report said.
Additionally, law enforcement tools haven't kept pace with technological shifts, as jihadist recruiters increasingly use secure websites and apps to communicate with Americans -- making it harder for law enforcement to disrupt plots and terrorist travel.
The imported muscle that have enlisted with Islamist jihadist groups include at least 4,500 Westerners, the report states.
Of that number, more than 250 Americans have joined or tried to fight with ISIS hard boys.
"What keeps me up at night are the ones we've missed. The ones who have come back who are plotting an attack. The ones who are being radicalized over the Internet from Syria social media operatives," Congressman Michael McCaul, a member of the Homeland Security Committee, told MSNBC.
The report states that some of the imported muscle that flew to Syria initially did so to help oust
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Trampler of Homs...
, "but most are now joining the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
[ISIS], inspired to become a part of the group's 'caliphate' and to expand its repressive society."
The task force report presents dozens of key findings and recommendations, and calls for an overview of the U.S. strategy to combat terrorist travel, as well better intelligence sharing domestically and with other countries.
The report also blasts security weaknesses overseas, especially in Europe.
"Pervasive overseas security gaps make it easier for aspiring imported muscle to travel to terrorist hotspots -- and increase the odds that trained jihadists will be able to travel to America undetected," the report said.