By Earlier in the week, Foreign Affairs published a warning: “The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again.”
“From his confirmation hearing to become director of Central Intelligence in May 1997 until September 11, 2001, George Tenet was sounding an alarm about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. In those four years before al Qaeda operatives attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Tenet testified publicly no fewer than ten times about the threat the group posed to U.S. interests at home and abroad. In February 1999, six months after the group bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, he claimed, “There is not the slightest doubt that Osama bin Laden . . . [is] planning further attacks against us.” In early 2000, he warned Congress again that bin Laden was “foremost among these terrorists, because of the immediacy and seriousness of the threat he poses” and because of his ability to strike “without additional warning.” Al Qaeda’s next attacks, Tenet said, could be “simultaneous” and “spectacular.” In private, Tenet was even more assertive. Breaking with standard protocols, he wrote personal letters to President Bill Clinton expressing his deep conviction about the gravity of the threat. And several times in 2001, he personally discussed his concerns about al Qaeda’s plans with President George W. Bush and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. The CIA and the FBI may not have uncovered the time, place, or method of the 9/11 plot, but Tenet’s warnings were prophetic.
Two and a half decades later, Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, is sounding similar alarms. His discussions within the Biden administration are private, but his testimony to Congress and other public statements could not be more explicit. Testifying in December to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wray said, “When I sat here last year, I walked through how we were already in a heightened threat environment.” Yet after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, “we’ve seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to a whole nother level,” he added. In speaking about those threats, Wray has repeatedly drawn attention to security gaps at the United States’ southern border, where thousands of people each week enter the country undetected.
Wray is not the only senior official issuing warnings. Since he became commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) in 2022, General Erik Kurilla has been pointing out the worrying capabilities of the terrorist groups his forces are fighting in the Middle East and South Asia. These include al Qaeda, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), and especially Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the ISIS affiliate that operates in Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
Two days after the ominous article, it appears that ISIS arrived in the United States the same way that everyone else who wants to sneak into the country does: the unsecured southern border.
NBC News reports that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was made aware of a potential threat originating from Central Europe and that eight men have been arrested after being let go by Biden’s Border Patrol.
Eight men from Tajikistan with potential ties to ISIS out of central Asia were arrested over the weekend in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles, three people familiar with the matter told NBC News on Tuesday.
The suspects had been on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force radar and were arrested by personnel with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, the sources say.
All eight men crossed through the southern border into the U.S., and their criminal backgrounds checks came back clean when they crossed, say two officials familiar with the matter.
At least two of the men crossed the border in spring 2023, and one of those men used the CBP One app, which the Biden administration created to allow migrants to book appointments to claim asylum, those officials say.
The number of terrorists encountered at the border has skyrocketed under Joe Biden.
TERROR WATCHLIST ENCOUNTERS AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER:
FY17: 2
FY18: 6
FY19: 0
FY20: 3**Biden takes office**
FY21: 15
FY22: 98
FY23: 169
FYTD24: 80 pic.twitter.com/ICwcbDnhR6— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 12, 2024
Over the past few years, ISIS has been able to regain its footing and the capture of eight terrorists in the United States comes during the same week that the terrorist organization threatened the Paris Summer Olympics coming up in a few weeks.
“European media outlets have reported a chilling image believed to have come from the Islamic State group circulating online showing a drone carrying a package labeled “gift” headed toward the Eiffel Tower with the words “Lone wolves’ Olympics have begun with the will of Allah.”
According to the Mirror, the image was published by a website linked to the terror group. It’s the latest threat to what’s expected to be a historic Olympic games in Paris kicking off in late July with the biggest opening ceremony ever in the works.
“We all know that the security of such a big event is definitely the most important thing and all of the decisions we made were based on this, security as a number-one priority. Even the opening ceremony into the city, we worked for one year with the authorities before going out publicly to say we will do the opening ceremony into the city,” Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris 2024 Olympics said in an interview earlier this year.
According to the threat intelligence platform Recorded Future, there’s been an active campaign by Islamic State-affiliated media outlets to promote attacks on stadiums in Europe, like those being used in the Olympics.”
Like the terrorists caught in the United States, French authorities recently charged an 18-year-old man from Central Europe who allegedly planned an attack on behalf of ISIS.
Read More: Biden Looks To Take Care Of His Son]
