US officials say that as many as 100 Americans are under active surveillance in the US as suspected terrorists, and that just as many have left the US to fight with al Qaeda-linked groups overseas, including about a dozen fighting with the Al Nusrah Front in Syria and some 50 who have gone to Somalia to fight with Shabaab. Two members of the 9/11 Commission called for a revision of US counterterrorism policy and the release of more of the documents found at Osama bin Laden’s compound; they said al Qaeda and its affiliates are now active in “some 16 different theaters of operation,” twice as many as five years ago.
