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- Final Report of the Task Force on Combating Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel is a report about counterterrorism and foreign fighters in the Syrian and Iraqi Civil Wars by a bipartisan task force of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security, with a foreword by cryptology analyst and author Malcolm Nance. The work was released by the United States Government Publishing Office in 2015 as an unillustrated committee print, by the United States House Committee on Homeland Security in September 2015 in an illustrated edition, and as a paperback book in 2016 by Skyhorse Publishing. The report discusses United States citizens leaving their country to gain fighting experience in Iraq and Syria on the battlefield. It notes some linked up with the Syrian Civil War in order to attempt to remove Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad from power, later joining ISIS. According to the work, approximately 4,500 from the Western world left their countries to join ISIS, including over 250 American citizens. The report gives thirty-two recommendations to address the problem, including tactics to stop travels of battlefield soldiers to and from their countries of origin, ways to change executive branch policies, and methods to determine which individuals are planning terrorist activities. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson spoke highly of the report and thanked the Committee for their efforts. Interpol leader Jürgen Stock said the recommendations emphasized the need for sovereign states to give materials to each other in collaborative counterterrorism efforts. Anthony D'Amato wrote for the Georgetown Security Studies Review that the report's recommendations were a way to address the "critical process" and "formulate a strategy on disrupting foreign fighter travel in the 21st century." The Brookings Institution cited the report for information on terrorist recruitment tactics. The report significantly affected on the U.S. legislative process related to counterterrorism objectives. Representative Martha McSally spoke out on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in favor the Tracking Foreign Fighters in Terrorist Safe Havens Act, House Resolution 4239. Another bill based on the report, Counterterrorism Screening and Assistance Act of 2016, House Resolution 4314, passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016. Yet another bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel Exercise Act of 2016, House Resolution 4404, was proposed based upon research from the report. The bill was successfully reported to the full U.S. House of Representatives out of committee, as the Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel Exercise Act of 2017, H. Rept. 115-40. It unanimously passed the full U.S. House of Representatives in 2017, as Terrorist and Foreign Fighter Travel Exercise Act, H.R. 1302. (en)
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