Terror Networks Are Under Intensified Scrutiny in DNI Threat Report

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual threat report Wednesday. It lays out the broader assessment of risks facing the United States and American interests abroad.

In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, DNI Tulsi Gabbard focused on the threat posed by foreign terror groups with Islamist ideology. The report frames this as a danger not only to Americans but to Western civilization itself.

The phrase, while absent from recent threat reports, “fits the broader approach the administration has taken to U.S. allies in Europe, which is arguing that the threat is to Western civilization from immigrants,” according to Daniel Byman.

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“The spread of Islamist ideology, in some cases led by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, poses a fundamental threat to freedom and foundational principles that underpin Western civilization,” Gabbard said Wednesday.

“Islamist groups and individuals use this ideology for recruiting and financial support for terrorist groups and individuals around the world, and to advance their political objectives of establishing an Islamist caliphate which governs based on Sharia [law].”

The report highlights Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia group working closely with the Iranian regime and currently fighting Israeli forces inside southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has been a critical actor in regional conflict, recently in the Syrian civil war and launching attacks against Israel in support of Hamas.

Hezbollah has been severely degraded over the past two years, as Israel has wiped out much of its top political and military leadership. Still, the Lebanese state has thus far failed to reach an agreement to disarm the group.

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Since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Hezbollah also lacks a reliable conduit for trade with Iran, although some smuggling continues. Additionally, the group may have been responsible for a drone attack on a British air base in Cyprus earlier this month.

Iranian proxy groups like Kataib Hezbollah and other militias, also referenced in the report, do pose a threat to U.S. assets and military installations in Iraq in particular, as they have for several years. The ongoing joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran means the threat of such attacks has increased.

The report’s other major concerns, including ISIS- and Al Qaeda-linked groups in Africa, likely pose more of a threat within their regional or national contexts.

ISIS is still active in parts of Syria, and could present a more significant threat in a nation struggling to stabilize and avoid civil war after decades of dictatorship.

Other ISIS-linked groups, like ISIS-Khorasan in Southwest Asia, have presented capabilities of attacking internationally in the past, though recent attacks have been more confined to regional focus points.

African groups, such as Al Shabaab in the Horn of Africa and Boko Haram in Nigeria, continue to pose threats as well.

Locally, a number of these groups are doing very well, Byman said. “They’ve been conquering territory. They’re threatening capitals in some areas, [but] they don’t seem to have a huge or particularly active international presence.”

From the White House to the Pentagon, the implications are clear. The Trump administration will not tolerate a lax posture that invites danger to American communities or to the troops stationed overseas.

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