CBS: Turkey Starting to Crack down on Extremists Trying to Cross Border to Join ISIS

Turkish officials say it’s impossible to stop the flow of Islamic extremists to groups like ISIS

KING: “Report coming out this morning highlights ISIS recruits, nearly 30,000 people from more than 100 countries have joined ISIS in Syria and Iraq since 2011, that’s according to The New York Times. More than 250 of them are Americans. Holly Williams is in Gaziantep, in Turkey, that’s along the Syrian border where many of those recruits entered Syria. Holly, good morning to you.”

WILLIAMS: “Good morning. Turkey has been accused of turning a blind eye to thousands of foreign fighters crossing its border into Syria. Turkish officials told us, they are cracking down, but that it's impossible to stop the flow of Islamic extremists to groups like ISIS.”

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WILLIAMS (voice-over): “The road to the so-called Islamic State runs through Istanbul. Turkey's biggest city is just a bus ride away from the Syrian border where those who join ISIS are smuggled into the war zone. Turkey has a blacklist of 16,000 names, put together with the help of intelligence officials from the U.S., Europe and other countries. If one of the people on that black list tries to enter Turkey, they’re stopped here and deported. But it’s is not enough, Cemalettin Hasimi, a senior advisor to Turkey's prime minister, told us, foreign fighters are still slipping through the net.

WILLIAMS: “It’s impossible to catch everyone.”

HASIMI: “Definitely.”

WILLIAMS: “Some are going to make it true?”

HASIMI: “Yes.”

WILLIAMS (voice-over): “These three teenage girls from Britain crossed into Syria in February, but this security video showing them in a Turkish bus station was only discovered after they had already joined ISIS. Plain clothes Turkish police officers now have this bus station under 24 hour surveillance, and they are profiling travelers.”

HASIMI: "From clothes style, from the way they're acting, from the way they're speaking, so it's quite a detailed process.”

WILLIAMS (voice-over): “They told us, they’ve caught over 120 suspected foreign fighters at the bus station alone in the last five months, including several from North America.”

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WILLIAMS: “Here in southern Turkey, an another attempt to stop Islamic extremists crossing into ISIS territory: The Turkish government has also begun building a concrete wall along part of its 500 mile long border with Syria.”

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