Episode #90: The ISIL Threat - A National Counterterrorism Assessment
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2014
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s already made the headlines, but earlier this week, Matt Olsen, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center delivered a keynote threat assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to the Brookings Institution. Olsen’s assessment stood out among the many others that have been released into the Washington echo chamber: it was alarming yet measured; it addressed the structural factors both propelling and limiting ISIL; and it outlined a series of steps the United States could take to limit the threat to the U.S. homeland and its interests abroad. Overall, Olsen paints a picture of a radical group with unnerving capabilities, but one that he says is certainly not “invincible.” Bruce Riedel, Director of the Intelligence Project and Senior Fellow at Brookings, introduced Olsen and moderated the discussion.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:34.4 | Now at this point we have no credible information that ISIL is planning to attack the United |
| 0:39.2 | States. |
| 0:40.5 | We do know that more than 12,000 foreign fighters have flocked to Syria over the past three |
| 0:45.5 | years, including more than 1,000 Europeans and more than 100 Americans. |
| 0:51.8 | Many of these foreign fighters have joined ISIL's ranks and the group may use these fighters |
| 0:57.8 | to look to conduct external attacks. |
| 1:01.1 | These foreign fighters are likely to gain experience in training and eventually to return |
| 1:05.1 | to their home countries. |
| 1:06.9 | Return to their home country's battle hardens and further radicalized. |
| 1:11.2 | Many are likely to possess western passports and travel documents. |
| 1:16.4 | I'm Cody Poplin and this is the LawFair podcast September 6, 2014. |
| 1:22.4 | That was Matt Olson you just heard, director of the National Counterterrorism Center. |
| 1:27.2 | This week at the Brookings Institution, Olson gave a National Counterterrorism Center |
| 1:31.6 | threat assessment of ISIL and al-Qaeda in Iraq, Syria and beyond. |
| 1:37.1 | In his address, Olson discusses the potential for ISIL to attack the United States. |
| 1:41.7 | How the US and its allies can prevent such an attack while working to destroy ISIL and |
| 1:46.1 | what exactly has made the group so effective in Iraq and Syria? |
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