and you remember remember john walker lindh. and in may, a 22-year-old guy travelled to syria to join a terror group and he died in a suicide attack earlier this year. >> we are hearing from an american journalist freed from captivity. curtis was held for nearly two years before being released over the weekend. curtis was reunited with his mother where he spoke to reporters this morning. molly is live in cam bridge with more, mommy? >> reporter: well, petero curtis spoke for the first time, just briefly for a few moments outside of his mother's house. it is a brief walk down the street wearing a t- shirt and stepping up to the microphones and talking about what it is like to be home. he returned to massachusetts, flying from tel aviv to new york liberty yesterday afternoon and then on to boston where he was met by his mother. he was held by the syrian group 22 months and believed to be captured in october of 2012. he said while in captivity he had no idea so much effort was extended on his pehalf. >> i am overwhelmed by one othe

political, governments take an interest and our idea that the critical the episode was when john walker lindh from northern california, was sent behind enemy lines in october of 2002, how did this happen? all sorts of studies to explain how this kid ended up with a beard behind enemy lines. the critical moment was at the age of 12 his mother took him to see malcolm x and he read the autobiography of malcolm x and started listening to have hot and this triggered his journey towards, quote, radicalism. after that, you start getting but british government and american policy makers talking about the centrality of hip-hop and malcolm x to muslim use politics and the need for moderate hip-hop and moderate interpretation of malcolm x. that is when government starts to intervene. the french government has been intervening in hip-hop for 20 years. in 1995, basically americanization, and pass a law in 1995, restricting american hip-hop that could be played on french air waves. the u.s. has generally been more laizzez-faire. there's no ministry of culture. the u.s. doesn't intervene. the only time i re

they follow the likes of american john walker lindh, captured in afghanistan, while fighting for the taliban in 2001. he's now serving 20 years in a federal prison. the state department said today it is looking into reports that a second american died in the same syrian battle that took mccain's life last weekend. for more on why americans and other westerners join islamic extremist groups, we turn to jessica stern, a lecturer on terrorism at harvard university, and the author of "terror in the name of god." she served on the national security council staff in the clinton administration. and, humera khan, the executive director of muflehun a think tank that focuses on countering violent extremism. >> so how typical hummera khan is this? >> in terms of going off and trying to fight, join isis, trying to fight in syria and iraq there is no nationality, which is exempt. we have seen people from many, many countries going. and so being american does not mean there is any less likelihood. we see a lot of muslim from europe. the last numbers have just come out from the government, either t