Ways we can respond to this. My response in this vote is to say both of the letter to the court, but a letter to ourselves that fighting corruption is one of the best parts of the american tradition and we should all not and i think of it as a postwatergate fight or really is a post war of independence by and one of the most difficult sites that will ever be involved in. They are making a difference. So everyone at home as well, check out emet online. Org. Great, great important organization, and i have to give everyone here credit for coming out tonight. Theres easier and more soothing things and relaxing things to do after a long day at work than coming to hear about isis. God bless my wife, and she is here someplace in the room in the back i think. We talk about this issue. We talk about isis. And this is my third book. And every night when my head hit the pillow writing this book over a fivemonth span id be thinking about isis, and id have to share it with someone. How about my significant other . Beheadings burnings, lighter fare. Keeping the marriage together. Aid sure to her, would you rather know or not know at the end of the day . And she said id rather know. But youre sleep on the couch tonight. [laughter] so, without further adieu, thank you for coming. Secondly, i want you to know what i want to focus on. Were in america, in the United States. I want to focus here on what isis, its supporters, its sympathizers are doing here on american cycle very important. A lot of times americans today are kind of zoned out. The kardashians are on the tube. The game is on. Someone just texted me. Im guilty of that too. Maybe not the kardashians. But the rest of it im guilty of. I admit. But look, the way you get peoples attention in our great country, is to make it real and immediate and to let them know its in their backyard. A lot of times americans say look, why should i care about what happens in the middle east . Thousands of miles away. It doesnt affect me. Well ill give you an example how it does affect all of us right here in the United States. Just last month recently, the fbi director, james commie, made a stunning statement. The said in all 50 u. S. States today we have a network of isis supporters and sympathizers. The fbi director. Said that in all 50 states in the union we have investigations ongoing right now into isisrelated activity. So folks, what the fbi director was saying is that the barbarians are not just at the gate. Theyre inside the gates. Were going to get into that tonight. But lets start with a quick overview of isis and this Islamic State that has wreaked so much havoc through the middle east and the world over the past year. Look right now, isis the Islamic State of iraq and sir ra controls some 35,000 square miles of territory, and the very heart of the middle east. Thats an area the size of great britain. Astounding. Jv team, mind you. Well talk about that briefly. 35,000 square miles in the middle of the middle east. And theyve declared a caliphate. An Islamic State. The great dream of every Islamic Jihaddist group. From me thus brewer had to al qaeda and some on. The tactics differ but at the end of the day, the end game is the same. The caliphate. And islamic sharia law for one and all, whether you like it or not. So they declared a caliphate. The caliphate has returned. And its made isis more than just a terrorist group. Its made them a global phenomenon. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not al qaeda or hamas and thats bad and thats lethal enough. Isis again has declared a state in a pivotal part of the world. If 30,000 to 40,000 welltrained fanatical foot soldiers basically they have a Standing Army and theyre global. The cia director, john brennan, said recently that isis recruits are coming from 90 countries around the world, including the United States. 90 countries. And american airstrikes have not stemmed the flow. The flow of jihaddists from every corner of the globe continues. Theyre going through our friend and ally, turkey, many times. I say that with air quotes when i talk about turkey being a friend and ally these days. But its happening. This is a global phenomenon. This is a movement. Jihaddists around the world have galvanized. The caliphate has been declared. And here in the west, in the United States, some 180 u. S. Citizens have left their comfortable existences, in the most prosperous country in the history of the world and theyve gone to the caliphate. Some 3500 western europeans at least that probably much high are at least 3500 western europeans, brits french germans, swedes danes, have left comfortable western europe and traveled to the caliphate in iraq and syria, and ladies and gentlemen, heres the key point about that, and for everyone watching here in america, if they dont get killed, these westerners waging jihad overseas, one day they will return home. Theses are u. S. Citizens, u. S. Passport holder, and when they return home fresh off sawing off someones head in the middle east, theyre probably not going to transition peacefully back into civilian life maybe get a job at a gas station. No. The jihad will come here. Isis right now is calling on its followers, theyre saying, hey, come to the caliphate, establish this utopian islamic society, but its also a good thing if you stay put. In chicago, new york, london berlin. Isis calls them city wolves. City wolves. And theyre telling them to rise up on american soil. You can be a oneman jihad in your own backyard. Think of fort hood. Think of the boston bombings. Think of paris back in january 2015. Look folks, in paris, perfect example of what im talking about. Two wellarmed jihaddists. Brothers. They had trained in yemen with al qaeda. They returned home to france. And they wreaked havoc. Killed 17 people. Among those 17 was not coincidentally a number of jews at a jewish deli. They were targeted because they were jews. Make no mistake about it. It was not a coincidence. 17 People Killed by two wellarmed jihaddists, captured world attention, dominated the global media cycle for the better part of a week. Inspired a massive antiterror march in paris, which president obama skipped. Message sent. Ladies and gentlemen translate what happened in paris here to american soil. Do you really think it cant happen here . Did we not see the boston bombings may 2013 . Again, brothers, two wellarmed welltrained terrorists to a degree actually relatively amateurish. In all killed four people. Wounded over 200 more. And again, captured the global media cycle, and even more importantly and more chilling i think, for us a major American City the city of boston was shut down for the better part of a week. Two men were able to do that. Ladies and gentlemen, think of the mumbai attacks. In november 2008 they ruined a lot of our thanksgivings that weekend. When ten welltrained terrorists young these guys in their early 20s mostly, even one i believe in his late teens. They fanned out across the city of mumbai. One of the largest cities in the world, millions of people live there in india. Fanned out with assault rifles and bombs in their backpacks. And they wreaked absolute havoc. They laid siege to one of the Worlds Largest cities. Just ten men with assault rifles and some bombs. Laid siege to one of the worlds biggest cities. For the better part of the week again, the media cycle was completely dominated by this. They killed dozens and dozens of people. Could you see that in god forbid Middle America . Because thats the goal. And im not an alarmist, not a sensationalist. This is what isis is saying. They are calling again on americans to rise up and be city wolves in their words. Folks, the game plan and the strategy for isis, i outlined it in the book. Is to turn the United States and western europe into guerrilla war zones, forthood style attack bostonbombing style attack, a parisstyle attack on american and european soil on a regular basis. We had an inclining of that in october 2014. A sequence of events, actually beginning in late september 2014 and ending in october. A sequence of events, beginning in late september 2014, when an isis sympathizer in rural oklahoma of all places beheaded his coworker a grandmother. Now, on his Facebook Page and in his online ravings, he spoke in fav favor of 9 11, proal qaeda, proisis. Picture giving the isis one finger salute. Yet the fbi deemed it Workplace Violence. At the end of the day. Sounds familiar. I believe theres something happened at fort hood a few years ago. It was also a case of Workplace Violence so im told, and so our government said. This poor woman a grandmother in rural oklahoma, was beheaded by an islamic radical. And it went on. And the ensuing weeks we saw in ottawa canada one lone jihaddist stormed the canadian parliament. Where the Prime Minister often is in canada. Then we had a hatchetwielding squadist madman, isis sympathizer attack a group of new York City Police officers with a hatchet again a city wolf. That was in the span of three weeks. In the fall of 2014. Isis wants to create a situation on american soil, ladies and gentlemen, where youre looking over your shoulder. Ill give you a great example. A chilling example in sydney, australia, down under in september 2014 an isis plot was broken up. A plot devised by isis supporters. What they wanted to do was randomly kidnap someone off the streets of sydney australia. Some poor soul with a cup of coffee in his hand, walking to the bus, doing his morning commute. They planned to kidnap him and saw his head off, or her head off. For the cameras. A great propaganda victory. Thankfully it was broken up. But again, this is the definition of terror, where you never know what is going to hit you, when its going hit you or who is going to hit you, but rest assured, when they do hit you, god forbid probably be shouting and it doesnt take a brain surgeon to walk into a Shopping Mall, yell, and start filing. It doesnt. And if the fbi director his words, not mine his words if he is saying we have a network of isis sympathizers and supporters in all 50 states including alaska and hawaii then we have serious trouble here. Its a big problem. Again, im not being an alarmist. Because ive done my homework. Ive done the research. Ive seen it with my own two eyes. Eye document it in the book. You want to know about isis recruiting, how theyre attracting americans. Well, i have a chapter in the book called the Islamic State of minnesota. Kind of tongue in cheek but kind of not. I spent time on the ground over the years in minnesota. Look, in the frozen tundra of the upper midwest. A great place to live. A prosperous state. Very high quality of living. A beautiful place. But the twin cities of minneapolis and st. Paul of all places have really become jihad central in the United States. People at home and people in this room are probably shaking their heads and saying minnesota . I could see new york city chicago, los angeles. Minnesota . Yes. Minnesota. Minnesota has the largest somali Muslim Population in all of north america. At least 100,000 somali muslims live in the twin cities of minneapolis and st. Paul. Thats going to shock a lot of americans to hear that. Look not every somali is a terrorist, obviously, but we have a serious problem in that community, here in the United States, with islamic radicalism. Dozens of somali muslims, u. S. Citizens, bill the way, who live in the twin cities have traveled overseas over the past few years, and joined terrorist groups like isis. More than any other state, city in the entire country. Minnesota. And in particular that somali Muslim Population. The reason that alarms me is new york one, they may return home, welltrained fanatical. We had a threat from a group called alshabaab. Linked to al qaeda, somali group, calling for attacks on the mall of america in minneapolis. The largest Shopping Mall in the country. I if you have that large radicalized population living within the shadow of that Shopping Mall you may have a problem. Dozens. Thats astounding. Dozens of u. S. Citizens from the same metropolitan area have gone overseas to join terror groups. The worth of the worst isis. Folks, that alarms me also because, look, it seems to be following the european model. I document in the book the horrific problems western europe is having in britain france germany, sweden of all places. Where a large number of muslim immigrants are coming to these countries. And theyre not assimilating and theyre not integrating. And theyre forming almost selfsegregating type societies. I know because ive walked in these neighborhoods and i document it in the book. Its happening. The europeans have not encouraged assimilation. Theyve encouraged multiculturalism, and for new arrivals to keep their culture. It sounds great in theory, but in practice, its disastrous. And if we go down that road here in the United States we have big problems. And i fear that were seeing that to a degree. Again, im not trying to paint a broadbrush. Ive met a lot of good sew mamly muslims, Community Leaders who have worked with me given me great information and walked me through whats going on. But if we have Serious Problems in that community with assimilation and integration, we have to be on top of it. We cant have droves of people from an American Community joining terror groups. Just cant. I spoke to a Law Enforcement source. Very pluggedin guy on the ground. Worked for years and years in the city of st. Paul. And i asked him how the recruitment process works. I think this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the book, and frankly, chilling but an eyeopening discussion. He told me, erick, this is how it works. A jihaddist recruiter, usually a young guy, young enough he can still relate to teenagers, hip enough, guess, that he can still relate to teenagers. Hell come into a mosque or hell come into a rec center or whether theres 18, 19, 20yearold kids hanging out. And first hell befriend them. Then the radicalization process starts. And the bill of goods these isis recruiters will sell a young kid in the United States is, look, if you come to the caliphate if you come to the middle east, iraq and syria join isis be part of our grand Islamic State you will be at the vanguard of the new islamic empire. You will be a rock star in the middle east. Everyone will know your name. Youll be a glorious holy warrior. To an 18, 19 20yearold kid, fresh out of high school might not have a job yet, can be an appealing message. Can be an appealing message. Its working. Its real estate nateing. And the main its resonating and the main they isis is doing this the on the ground aspects where the recruiter curing to my sources in minnesota, will take the kid brainwash them, radicalize them, make sure they note airport to make it to syria. Make sure they have money in their pocket. Make sure theyre in contact with a fixer on the ground usually in turkey. And they transit through turkey into syria. And theyre part of the blessed caliphate. Holy warriors. Dedicated to destroying the country that gave them everything. Where they were born and raised in many cases, the United States. How was this happening other than on the ground . Two words, folks. Social media. Isis, as i said in the beginning of our talk, is a different beast in many ways. A global phenomenon. Ladies and gentlemen, the way theyre using social media is unprecedented. Facebook twitter youtube, instagram. Isis and it supporters around the world send out 90 tweets per minute. Thats astounding. 90 tweets per minute. And their social Media Operations are run by westerners. In particular, one american. Who was raised in the boston massachusetts, area of all places. Was a deans list student at northeastern university. He now reportedly runs isis propaganda arm and that arm is targeting through social media and films. The power of film. Of video. Isis has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making these slickly produced propaganda videos. And they have the production values of a hollywood action flick in some cases. Its really astounding if you look at isis propaganda. Folks, long gone are the days of Osama Bin Laden in a cave standing against a green screen droning on in arabic for an hour. Thats done. Isis is on the cutting edge and there are westerners who control the propaganda arm and know how to directly speak to a western English Speaking audience. They can reach out and touch them through the web. And theyre having a great effect. I think another aspect of this because we in this room and hopefully most people, if not everyone at home, sees what isis is doing, the barbaric savagery and were repelled bit by it. This is evil. Yes, evil exists. But theres a segment of people in the west right now, ladies and gentlemen, who see what isis is doing, behead raping pillaging, enslaving, and theyre attracted to it. You know in our culture, over the past few decades we have had violent video games where heads are being kids are chopping heads in their bedroom. We have movies with gory horrific violence, realistic torture scenes in our films, and our kids are filling their heads with this, and i believe that there is some desensitization going on. Just chopping a head. I just did that last night. And im not trying to be flip about it. But when your culture is kind of poisonous with that kind of thing, isis is a product theyre made for these times in many ways. Medieval ideology and tactics wedded with 21st century technology. Folks, thats a lethal mix. Thats a lethal mix. And its highly effective. Unprecedented, really. So you have the on the ground recruitment. You have the online recruitment. Give you another chilling story about how the online recruitment works. One of the nastier sid