Foreign Fighters Task Force investigates extremists' use of social media to lure members

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A new task force is working to combat extremists who target young people on the internet and social media.

Michael Masters heads up Cook County's Homeland Security operation, but his eyes will soon be focused on a more world view. Masters is now part of what's called the Foreign Fighters Task Force, a national panel looking into why U.S. citizens - most of them young - are attracted to overseas militant groups with terrorist agendas.

"My greatest hope is that we can develop some strategies to reach those young people who may be thinking about going down a path that would lead them to violence and bring violence to their community, as well as around the world," Masters said.

It's not an easy task to detect those who might be radicalized. The recent arrest of Mohammed Hamzah Khan of Bolingbrook, who had planned with his younger brother and sister to join ISIS, left their parents stunned.

Much of the ISIS recruitment effort comes by way of an extraordinarily well-funded social media effort - slick, online publications that make an ideology attractive to someone young and impressionable.

"Groups like ISIL are more advanced in their use of social media than any terrorist group we've seen before," Masters said. "Their use of Facebook, Twitter and other tools as ideological accelerants. We need to work with public and private sectors to deal with that."

The challenge is not just to monitor, which law enforcement actively does, but to provide a counter narrative. The task force mission is to develop strategies to discourage those who might be radicalized.

"Providing young people who feel they have no options with real options to move forward," Masters said. "There has to be a better job for them than going overseas and losing their lives."