March 15th, 2018 
(PJ MEDIA) — By Bridget Johnson
The commander of U.S. Southern Command said there’s “significant concern” in the Western Hemisphere about “the ability of radicalization to occur via the internet” and create terrorists in their home countries, as well as the return of foreign fighters who spent time in Syria.
“The threats that we and our partners face in the region are a chief concern to many,” Adm. Kurt Tidd told reporters at the Pentagon, underscoring “the sophistication, adaptiveness and considerable financing leveraged by criminal and extremist elements.”
“Drug traffickers, human smugglers, terrorist supporters, arms dealers and money launderers are not new to this region, but they operate in new and surprising ways, compared to years past,” he said. “Relying solely on what worked in decades past to find and disrupt them is not enough. Threat network enablers like facilitators, suppliers, recruiters and technicians provide criminals and extremist with unprecedented global reach, and the ability to operate stealthily in both the physical and the cyber worlds. Criminal networks leverage all means available to move lethal narcotics, people, weapons and dirty money into and out of Latin America and the U.S. homeland.”
“Extremist networks like ISIS reach deep into our hemisphere, inspire would-be terrorists to conduct attacks in the region, or to attempt entry into the United States to do our citizens harm.”
Pressed to elaborate on ISIS movement in the Western Hemisphere, Tidd pointed to the at least 100 jihadists, by that government’s count, from Trinidad and Tobago who fought for ISIS abroad.
“That would be probably the best indicator that, yes, in fact, there are individuals who have been radicalized, who this pernicious message has taken root,” he said. “And so it’s one that is of concern to the government of Trinidad and Tobago. They have focused on it. And so I think it’s an area that we all have to take into consideration.”
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