House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) stated on Sunday that the United States is currently at its “highest level” of risk for a terrorist attack on American soil.
During an interview with CBS News, Chairman Mike Turner was asked about recent reports of arrests involving individuals with ties to the ISIS terrorist group in the United States.
“What’s important about these reports and what we’re seeing, especially in conjunction with [FBI] Director [Christopher] Wray’s public statements, that we are at the highest level of a possible terrorist threat, that the administration’s policies have absolutely directly related to threats to Americans,” Turner said.
He told CBS News that the threats are “no longer speculative” and “no longer hypothetical,” referencing public comments made by the FBI director during several congressional committee meetings over the past six months.
“We have actual administration officials stepping forward and certainly our committee and our committee members have concurred on the intelligence that we’re seeing,” he told the outlet. “That as a result of the administration’s policies allowing people to cross the border unvetted, we have terrorists that are actively working with inside the United States that are a threat to Americans.”
His comments came after reports, citing unnamed U.S. officials, claimed that at least eight Tajik nationals with alleged ties to ISIS were arrested in major cities including New York and Los Angeles.
On June 14, the U.S. Department of State and Turkey announced sanctions on three individuals with ties to ISIS, who are involved in a network facilitating travel into the United States.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) informed Fox News on June 12 that he sent a letter to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) requesting a classified briefing for all senators regarding ISIS threats.
“I have never been more worried than I am right now about an attack on our homeland” after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, combined with what he described as ‘lax border security,’ Mr. Graham wrote on X. Two days prior, he wrote on social media he has “been sounding the alarm for over two years” that the United States currently is at risk of a 9/11-like terrorist attack.
Earlier this month, during testimony before a Senate committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray emphasized that the United States is currently facing heightened threats from foreign terrorists following the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel, which marked the beginning of the ongoing Israel–Hamas conflict.
“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time when so many different threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once, but that is the case as I sit here today,” the FBI director said at the time, while pushing for increased funding for the federal law enforcement bureau.
He also mentioned the terrorist attack at a concert hall in Moscow, for which ISIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan, claimed responsibility, resulting in many casualties.
“We’ve seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies,” Mr. Wray said, adding that what is “increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall in March.”
Mr. Wray also expressed concerns about potential human smuggling operations along the U.S.-Mexico border, urging Mexico to increase its support in addressing these issues.
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