S. Hrg. 114–677 TERROR IN EUROPE: SAFEGUARDING U.S. CITIZENS AT HOME AND ABROAD HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 5, 2016 Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov/ Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 22–770 PDF WASHINGTON : 2017 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin Chairman JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware ROB PORTMAN, Ohio CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri RAND PAUL, Kentucky JON TESTER, Montana JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey JONI ERNST, Iowa GARY C. PETERS, Michigan BEN SASSE, Nebraska CHRISTOPHER R. HIXON, Staff Director DANIEL P. LIPS, Policy Director ELIZABETH E. MCWHORTER, Professional Staff Member LEXIA M. LITTLEJOHN, U.S. Coast Guard Detailee GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Minority Staff Director JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Minority Deputy Staff Director HARLAN C. GEER, Minority Senior Professional Staff Member LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk BENJAMIN C. GRAZDA, Hearing Clerk (II) C O N T E N T S Opening statements: Page Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 1 Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 2 Senator Ayotte .................................................................................................. 18 Senator Ernst .................................................................................................... 21 Senator Peters .................................................................................................. 24 Senator Booker ................................................................................................. 27 Senator Portman .............................................................................................. 30 Senator Tester .................................................................................................. 40 Prepared statements: Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 49 Senator Carper ................................................................................................. 51 WITNESS TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2016 Hon. Juan C. Zarate, Senior Advisor, Center for Strategic and International Studies .................................................................................................................. 4 Julianne Smith, Senior Fellow and Director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program, Center for a New American Security ................................................. 6 Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democ- racies ..................................................................................................................... 8 Clinton Watts, Robert A. Fox Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute ........... 10 ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 8 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 74 Smith, Julianne: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 6 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 68 Watts, Clinton: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 87 Zarate, Hon. Juan C.: Testimony .......................................................................................................... 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 53 APPENDIX Response to post-hearing questions for the Record: Mr. Zarate ......................................................................................................... 94 Ms. Smith .......................................................................................................... 99 Mr. Gartenstein-Ross ....................................................................................... 104 Mr. Watts .......................................................................................................... 110 (III) TERROR IN EUROPE: SAFEGUARDING U.S. CITIZENS AT HOME AND ABROAD TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2016 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m., in room 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Ron Johnson, Chairman of the Committee, presiding. Present: Senators Johnson, Portman, Lankford, Ayotte, Ernst, Sasse, Carper, McCaskill, Tester, Baldwin, Booker, and Peters. OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JOHNSON1 Chairman JOHNSON. Good morning. This hearing will come to order. I want to welcome the witnesses. Certainly, thank you for your thoughtful testimonies. We are looking forward to hearing those and having the opportunity to ask a number of questions. When this hearing originally was planned, we were going to be talking about an issue that Senator Carper and I are also very con- cerned about: biosecurity and the threats that we face in that re- spect. With the unfortunate tragedy in Brussels, we thought we would, maybe, expand it. We, maybe, can still pick up on some of those biothreats, as well, but we thought we would like to hold a hearing to really take a look at the root causes that are driving this activity in Europe as well as to discuss the implications for us here in America. In January 2016, there was a foiled plot in Milwaukee, Wis- consin against the Masonic Temple by an individual named Samy Mohamed Hamzeh. Now, I would say this is a real success story on the part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and those individuals—the informants—that worked to foil that plot. In the complaint filed against Samy Mohamed Hamzeh—I just have four little sentences. They are disconnected, but it, certainly, reveals what is going on in the minds—or in the mind of an individual that actually plots to slaughter innocent human beings. This is what he was quoted as saying: ‘‘I am telling you, if this is executed, it will be known all over the world. The people will be scared and the operations will in- crease. This way, we will be igniting it. I mean, we are marching at the front of the war and we will eliminate everyone.’’ 1 The prepared statement of Senator Johnson appears in the Appendix on page 49. (1) 2 Now, in his plotting, he was trying to accomplish the killing of 100 people. And, in the complaint, he also said he would be 100 percent happy if he was able to kill 30 people. These threats that Europe is facing—these threats that America is facing because of Islamic terrorists are real and they are growing. And, the purpose of this hearing is really to—again, to take a look at the root causes of those problems and to see what we can do here, in America, to try and keep this Nation—our homeland—as safe and secure as possible. I also do have to say, on March 22, we did reach out, the day after the Brussels attack, to the FBI, to the Department of Home- land Security (DHS) and to the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to have witnesses appear before this Committee today. Un- fortunately, nobody from any of those Departments or Agencies agreed to testify, which is disappointing to me. I know Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is on the Hill today having a press conference on additional funding for DHS, which—listen, we want to support the Department by giving it the tools and the resources it needs to keep this Nation safe. I think, probably, a pretty good way to try and secure those resources would be to come before a Committee like this to lay out the reality of the problem. So, I am disappointed that we do not have a government witness—or wit- nesses—today, but I certainly appreciate the fact that you all have come here today and are willing to testify. So, with that, I will turn it over to Senator Carper. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER1 Senator CARPER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for pull- ing this together today. To each of our witnesses, it is good to see you and I want to thank you for your preparation and for joining us on this occasion. Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families—and with the victims—of those who died 2 weeks ago. And, my hope is that something good can emerge from something awful—and this hear- ing is part of that process. As with the terrorist attacks in Paris, the similar attacks in places around the world—like Pakistan and Turkey—as well as the attacks in our own country—at the Boston Marathon and in San Bernadino—it exposes, yet again, the vulnerabilies that we face in public places—places that are hard to defend—malls, trains, train stations, airports, and the like. With today’s 24-hour