NEW YORK—President Barack Obama will speak at the United Nations General Assembly this week, and he expects the U.N. Security Council to adopt a binding resolution that would require nations to bar their citizens from traveling abroad to join terrorism organizations. People from around the world have joined such groups, and have often gone undetected until it was too late.
The hooded ISIL terrorist who appeared on video to murder American journalists Stephen Sotloff and James Foley was from Great Britain.
Americans have been killed fighting as jihadi in Syria. Moner Mohammad Abusalha, of Vero Beach, Fla., traveled to Syria, where he killed 16 people in a suicide bombing on May 16.
The Congressional Research Service identified an expansion of what it called “homegrown” jihadist terrorist activity in the United States. For now, most homegrown jihadists lack the skills and tradecraft of international groups. For example, most do not know how to make large bombs, and that stops them from being able to carry out major attacks. Keeping the homegrown terrorists from traveling abroad for training is important, according to the Congressional Research Service.
In Obama’s weekly address he said America will “continue to lead the world against terror, a fight in which all countries have a stake.” This U.N. resolution is part of his strategy.
The president wants other countries to make it a priority to block their own people from leaving to train with extremist groups and return to their own countries ready to cause harm.
