ISIS wants your teenager! Recruitment videos and social media posts target disaffected American youth

The FBI diligently works to combat ISIS' recruitment of Americans

With alluring messages of false hope and a sense of identity, ISIS actively recruits lost American teenagers and women. According to head of the FBI's counterterroirst division, Michael Steinbach, the FBI works around the clock to defeat the recruitment of Americans, but it is nearly impossible for United States law enforcement to do so alone.

LOS ANGELES, (Catholic Online) - "In the majority of cases, we know that someone recognizes that change in behavior, that radicalization," Steinbach said to CNN. "That family member or friend chooses not to intervene. And by not getting involved, the story ends in a very familiar fashion, and that's death."

It is Steinbach's responsibility to track any evolving threats in America, including targeting and recruiting teenage Americans.

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"There are individuals out there who are inspired by the message of terrorist groups and they encourage family members, including their children, to follow that path," stated Steinbach.

He admits that it is the unknown that worries him. "I'm worried about individuals that we don't know about that have training," Steinbach said. "We know what we know. But there is a number that's greater than that that we don't know."

As concern over homegrown violent extremism increases after Paris' Charlie Hebdo massacre, Steinbach admits it "is extremely difficult to track every American who might travel abroad to join terrorist groups."

"There are individuals that have been in communication with groups like ISIL who have a desire to conduct an attack," he stated regarding ISIS cells in the U.S.

"We've seen lots of places, online media, forums, social media, where there have been calls to conducting lone wolf attacks in your home country through a variety of means, not necessarily a sophisticated technique, but use what you have, use the tools you have and conduct an attack," Steinbach continued. "They are using it successfully, I might add, to spot, assess, identify, target folks outside of war zones," he elaborated.

However, doing anything about these threats in the United States is a complicated ordeal. Looking at every single social media post would be not only a full-time job, it would be quite the challenge.

"We don't have a desire or a right to step on somebody's freedom of expression. They have a right to express their opinion," Steinbach says. "But when that opinion turns into violent rhetoric and then into action, that's something different."

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Recently two American teenagers, Ohio's Christopher Lee Cornell and Colorado's Shannon Conley, have made controversial headlines for expressing ISIS-affiliated beliefs.

"I need folks to understand that whether you're talking about a foreign terrorist organization directing individuals or just inspiring individuals...we identify individuals with the intent. We don't manufacture that intent. We don't put that intent into their mind."

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