FBI warns soldiers that ISIS may be targeting them at home through social media. Yahoo/ABC News

ISIS fighters. Yahoo/ABC News

In the strongest warning to date, the FBI is advising soldiers to scrub their social media accounts of any information of use to ISIS. Yahoo/ABC News. The joint intelligence bulletin warns that ISIS may use social media accounts to learn individual soldiers identities and other information. The report warns that copycat attacks based on the recent terror attacks in Canada, that targeted uniformed soldiers specifically, may occur in the United States. Soldiers have either deleted or locked Facebook and Twitter accounts as far back as the beginning of the U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, but most of those were special forces. The threat has expanded to regular soldiers as well as the FBI is claiming that ISIS is attempting to recruit people to attack soldiers. 

My Comment:

Not sure how much stock I take for these reports. Of all the home grown terror attacks this year I can't think of any of them that targeted specific soldiers. The parliament shooting in Canada wasn't targeting the specific soldier that was there, but any soldier that was there. The ramming attack that happened in Canada looked more like a crime of opportunity. Same with the hatchet attack in New York City that targeted a cop. I'm not doubting that the threat is real, just the conclusion that soldiers social media could lead to them being targeted for retaliatory murders.  It just seems a bit too sophisticated for these lone wolf types. 

Of course the FBI is probably basing this warning on specific intelligence. Without access to that intelligence there is no way to tell how serious this threat is, but if I was a soldier I'd at least be thinking about it. As a civilian who regularly writes about radical Islam in general, and ISIS specifically, I suppose I could be a target as well. Fortunately, my blog is too small to get that kind of attention. I hope so at least... I do know that if I were to be threatened, I would take it much more seriously then I would if my blog covered video games or movies.