Jul 21 2022

ICYMI: 'Perfect Storm Brewing' For 'Reemergence of ISIS' in Syria, Graham Warns

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) recently traveled to northeastern Syria to investigate the state of the al-Hol refugee camp and facilities that hold captured ISIS prisoners.

  • GRAHAM: "The reemergence of ISIS as a threat to the American homeland is increasing by the day. There's a perfect storm brewing in northeastern Syria, where we have a refugee camp full of ISIS wives and children mixed in with other populations. That's going to be an ISIS factory. ... The radical elements of the camp are taking over."
  • GRAHAM: "Congress needs to understand that the American military presence in Syria and Iraq is vital to our homeland security. Congress needs to be pushing the State Department and Iraq, the government of Iraq, to reduce the number of refugees at al-Hol refugee camp. Congress needs to be working with the administration to find solutions to the 11,000 ISIS prisoners. Throwing them in jail and forgetting about them, that is not going to work."
  • GRAHAM: "The Syrian Democratic Forces, the commandos guarding the jail, told us that if Turkey goes back into northeastern Syria like they did in 2019, they will fight Turkey to protect their homeland and will not have the resources to guard the ISIS prisoners. The American military is very worried that we're gonna lose control of both the camp and the prison, and you could have a reemergence of ISIS just like in 2014."

‘Perfect storm brewing’ for ‘reemergence of ISIS’ in Syria, Graham warns

By Mike Brest

July 21, 2022

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is imploring his colleagues and the Biden administration to pay attention to northeast Syria, even as Russia's war in Ukraine and the threat of China loom large in defense circles.

Graham recently returned from a trip to the al-Hol refugee camp and Hasakah prison, both in northeast Syria. The refugee camp has a population of roughly 55,000, consisting mainly of the wives and children of the Islamic State fighters who are in the prison, both of which are rampant with radicalization.

A possible new generation of radicalized jihadis, in addition to those currently housed in Hasakah prison, presents a chilling risk to U.S. national security, according to Graham, who detailed his trip to the Washington Examiner in an interview on Wednesday.

"The reemergence of ISIS as a threat to the American homeland is increasing by the day," he stated. "There's a perfect storm brewing in northeastern Syria, where we have a refugee camp full of ISIS wives and children mixed in with other populations. That's going to be an ISIS factory. ... The radical elements of the camp are taking over."

Graham stressed the importance of improving the lives of the people in the camp, which he described as "a tent city with very draconian living conditions," and it's an issue he plans to address on Capitol Hill. Defense officials have also stressed the repatriation of foreign nationals who reside in the refugee camp.

"Congress needs to understand that the American military presence in Syria and Iraq is vital to our homeland security. Congress needs to be pushing the State Department and Iraq, the government of Iraq, to reduce the number of refugees at al-Hol refugee camp. Congress needs to be working with the administration to find solutions to the 11,000 ISIS prisoners. Throwing them in jail and forgetting about them, that is not going to work. The international community does pretty well AWOL."

Graham will lead an effort to push the State Department to appoint a special envoy to focus on "improving the living conditions of the camp and trying to get the radical elements out" and plans to introduce proposals to the appropriations bill.

Last week, Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, agreed with Graham's sentiment, saying, "The most durable solution to the challenges of these detention centers and the displaced person camps is for countries of origin to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and, where appropriate, prosecute their nationals residing in northeast Syria."

In late January, ISIS fighters launched a prison break on the Hasakah prison, and the fighting went on for days until the Syrian Democratic Forces and Coalition Forces were able to end it.

Timothy Betts, the U.S special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, said last week, "The detention facility [was] full of hardened fighters ... and so there, they are definitely capable people. But I don't have with me who amongst them may have been the most senior. I am not aware of any significant ISIS figures that were amongst those that are no longer there."

Betts also called the battle a "wake-up" because it "demonstrated that the detention facilities were not as secure as we might have believed."

Graham thinks the United States should increase its military footprint in the region by "a couple hundred more" in order to ensure the security of the prison, and he said he spoke with a U.S. military officer, one of the last to leave Iraq, who told him, "If we don't get a handle on this, everything we've done to destroy the caliphate will unravel."

"We're not talking about thousands, but a couple of hundred more. I think our military footprint in Syria is vital to keep ISIS from reemerging because if they come back, the first target they want to hit is the United States."

One reason Graham thinks more troops are necessary is that the SDF, he said, would not be able to fight against a Turkish invasion and continue maintaining security at the prison, which is a concern considering the bad relations between Turkey and the YPG, a Kurdish militia in Syria that Turkey considers a close ally of the PKK, an organization it considers a terrorist group.

"The Syrian Democratic Forces, the commandos guarding the jail, told us that if Turkey goes back into northeastern Syria like they did in 2019, they will fight Turkey to protect their homeland and will not have the resources to guard the ISIS prisoners," he warned. "The American military is very worried that we're gonna lose control of both the camp and the prison, and you could have a reemergence of ISIS just like in 2014."

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