BOSTON (
MyFoxBoston.com) -- The terror investigation that led to the arrest of two local men and the shooting death of another suspect, by a Joint Terrorism Task Force, shows the influence the Islamic State has on the minds of some young Americans.
FOX25's Bob Ward investigated how ISIS is pulling this off.
The attack on the Boston Marathon, pulled off by two Cambridge brothers, was an eye opening moment for many of us.
The trial of younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev revealed that in the months leading up to the April 2013 attack, he immersed himself on line in the world of radical Islam. His computer contained an entire run of the al-Qaeda magazine Inspire, which included a guide of how to build a bomb.
And just two weeks ago, Usaamah Rahim was killed in a police confrontation. Authorities say he and two others were involved in a beheading plot, in support of the terror group ISIS.
That's five New England young men who took up the cause of jihad.
To find out why and how this is happening, FOX25's Bob Ward spoke to Joe Wippl, a former CIA agent who is now a Boston University professor.
He said young people are most susceptible to falling for a terror groups message.
"There's a strong element of the martyr instinct, of being there to showing that you have done something, that you have actually been out there, you've been engaged," he said.
As ISIS captures large swaths of land in Syria and Iraq, it is producing high-quality videos of atrocities. Beheading and execution videos are common.
And these videos, for some, are powerful recruiting tools
Wippl explains that for some idealistic young people, seeking to right the worlds wrongs, the videos are irresistible because the message is backed up with brutal strength.
"It's not just ideology anymore," Wippl said, adding that the message this terror group is sending is, "We mean business and we are going to be able to fulfill the ideology that we have, but if you don't like it, you're going to get your head cut off."
