FBI hopes to combat IS rhetoric with swift
Concern causes major change in priorities
WASHINGTON — In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Justice Department officials — concerned that another attack was imminent — swiftly arrested many people, some of whom were only remotely suspected of having ties to terrorism.
Many suspicions proved unfounded. Some cases collapsed. And the frenzied response soon gave way to a more patient approach that encouraged FBI agents to watch suspects as long as possible before making arrests, so they could gain valuable intelligence about al-Qaida’s networks.
Now, confronted with efforts by the Islamic State to inspire Americans to commit violence, authorities have changed their strategy again. In recent months, the FBI has apprehended people suspected of being Islamic State sympathizers soon after they came onto the government’s radar.
The FBI has arrested and charged at least 25 people in the past three months with having ties to the Islamic State or other terrorist groups, compared with 20 people arrested over the previous year, according to court records. U.S. counterterrorism officials are so concerned about the Islamic State threat that in June, the FBI had so many people under surveillance in terrorism-related investigations that supervisors reassigned criminal squads to monitor terrorism suspects, according to FBI officials.
“It’s like in old cartoons where you would have a stick of dynamite and a long fuse, except now the fuse is much shorter — the flash to bang is much faster,” John P. Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, said in an interview.
But critics say the return to a faster-moving approach raises the possibility that, in the rush to make arrests, the government is jeopardizing criminal cases and missing opportunities to gather intelligence.
Chicago defense lawyer Thomas A. Durkin, who has represented clients accused of supporting alQaida and the Islamic State, said the new cases are hurried and not as strong. “Everything is: ‘Not on my watch,’ ” he said. “‘Do you want to be responsible for letting that kid go home? Not me.’ ”
Justice Department and FBI officials defend the practice, saying their chief mission is to prevent violence. They acknowledge that the Islamic State — a radical Sunni terrorist organization operating chiefly out of Syria and Iraq — has shown no ability to stage significant attacks inside the United States.
But they say sympathizers have repeatedly expressed a willingness to undertake small-scale attacks, such as stabbings and shootings that require little planning. Because their networks are far less complex than the ones used by al-Qaida, officials do not believe that they are missing out on important intelligence.
“Sometimes people say, ‘So why are you disrupting these people?’ ” FBI Director James B. Comey said in a briefing with reporters. “Well, first, we’re disrupting because we try to disrupt plots, but also we face people who are highly unpredictable.”
One senior law enforcement official said that “if moving quickly stops an attack but hurts our prosecutions, then that’s the price you have to pay to prevent violence.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss national security matters.
Some FBI investigators privately disagree with the intense focus, which draws resources away from other investigations and sometimes has led to frustration inside the bureau and the Justice Department. After years of watching for largescale plots, investigators are now trying to identify and prevent shootings and stabbings — violence on a scale common in major U.S. cities, but which has never been an FBI priority. Preventing Islamic State-inspired violence is a priority, and current and former investigators say they feel tremendous pressure to succeed.
The recent episode in Chattanooga, Tenn., in which a troubled Kuwaitiborn man fatally shot five people at military sites, shows the difficulty in preventing small-scale attacks. Investigators have found no evidence that the gunman, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, was in contact with the Islamic State, but they say they believe that he watched terrorist videos on the Internet, most likely making him the kind of selfradicalized killer the FBI is trying to stop.
In response to calls on Twitter by the Islamic State for Americans to stage attacks on the Fourth of July, FBI officials in Washington told agents across the nation in the weeks leading up to the holiday to arrest suspects under surveillance if they believed that they had enough evidence to bring charges.
The Islamic State is far less choosy about its recruits than “your grandfather’s al-Qaida” ever was, Mr. Comey said. The group is essentially trying to crowdsource terrorism. Every day, the group sends messages on Twitter and on other social media platforms to thousands of Americans with simple instructions: Commit some type of violence in our name.