Michael McCaul Quotes

Social media campaigns and the savviness of ISIS and propaganda is what greatly concerns us Homeland Security officials.

Social media is not only the most important tool for inciting terrorists, it can also be an effective weapon against them.

It is the thing that keeps me up at night - the notion that you have individuals in the United States who are looking at computer screens and who are becoming radicalized.

How did ISIL grow? It's real simple: social media.

ISIL are already using the Internet for hideous propaganda purposes - for radicalisation, for operational planning, too.

200,000 ISIS tweets a day, 1,000 investigations in all 50 states. It's really hard to stop all of it. But we have to get control over this Internet propaganda that is poisoning the minds of the United States.

ISIL particularly is very slick, very sophisticated, proselytizing and recruiting, and they are very astute users of social media.

One of the scariest things about ISIS is their ability to leverage social media to inspire individuals who have never been to Syria and Iraq.

ISIS uses traditional media platforms as well as widespread social media campaigns to propagate its ideology. With the broad distribution of social media, terrorists can spot, assess, recruit, and radicalize vulnerable persons of all ages in the U.S. either to travel to foreign lands or to conduct an attack on the homeland.

We need to wage this war against ISIS from the air, on the ground, and online, in cyberspace.

Some of the people involved in ISIS are going to Iraq, and some of our young people are being radicalised through the Internet.

There's a conspiracy going on online every day between these top U.K. individuals within ISIS leadership out of Syria.

Not all of the Islamic State killers are going to die on the battlefield.

ISIL is inspiring groups that already exist to rebrand themselves, but in rebranding themselves into a more radical ideology. That's what makes it dangerous.

We can put a stake through the heart of Islamic State as an army. We can put a stake through the heart of its leaders. You can take away its territory. But you can't put a stake through the heart of the ideas, of the ideology, that sadly, tragically, still has some attraction for some small numbers in the Islamic faith.

When mainstream Muslims defeat the Islamic State, that lessens the ability of the Islamic State to recruit and fund-raise.

Terrorists, in ungoverned spaces, disseminate poisonous propaganda and training materials to attract troubled souls around the world to their cause.

It is a warning to all those who may think about becoming involved with a terrorist network, people who are willing to destroy their own lives are hard to deter.

I know the pain of having to deal with terrorism. And that's why, after 9-11, I was one of the first to join the international coalition to fight terrorism.

No matter how many plots we uncover and disrupt, no matter how many terrorist organizations we degrade or destroy, another individual or group will rise to take their place.

Throughout the world, terrorists are actively seeking their next recruit. Alarmingly, terrorist organizations are increasingly targeting school-age children as the next generation of terrorists.

Twitter is providing a communication device, a loudspeaker for ISIS. If you are promoting violence and a call to violence. If you are promoting violence and a call to violence, you are providing material support. Twitter should be part of the solution. If not, they are part of the problem.

Come to the so-called caliphate and live the life of some sort of glory ...; and if you can't come, kill somebody where you are; kill somebody in uniform; kill anybody; if you can cut their head off, great; videotape it; do it; do it; do it.... Kill, kill, kill.

It is true that jihadists are often middle class. But that’s because terrorist groups are like other employers: they accept the best candidates who apply.

I think it's important to note that after the airstrikes began in Iraq and Syria, ISIS began a very aggressive social media campaign calling for these types of attacks, these lone wolf attacks.