Deputy Nat'l Security Adviser Ben Rhodes: 'We're Still Planning to Take in Syrian Refugees'

CNS News ^ | 11/16/15 | Susan Jones

[markomalley]

White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, intent on damage control, made the rounds of the talk shows on Sunday, partly to defend President Obama's remark that ISIS has been "contained"; partly to respond to criticism that the Obama administration has underestimated the enemy; and partly to support the president's decision to let thousands of Syrian refugees into this country.

One of the bombers in Paris reportedly arrived in France with other refugees. But that won't deter the Obama administration from admitting people from Syria:

"No, Chris, we're still planning to take in Syrian refugees," Rhodes told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."

"We have very robust vetting procedures for those refugees. It involves our intelligence community, our National Counterterrorism Center, extensive interviews, vetting them against all information.

And what we need to be able to do, frankly, is sort out that foreign fighter flow, those who have gone into Syria and come out and want to launch attacks or those people who have connections with ISIL in Syria. We need to be able to have the intelligence base to identify and target those people.

"At the same time, we have to recognize there's tragic victims of this conflict, there are women, and children, orphans of this war and I think we need to do our part, along with our allies, to provide them a safe haven."

Rhodes said similar things on the other Sunday shows:

"Does the president now have any pause about bringing Syrian refugees into the United States?" NBC's Chuck Todd asked Rhodes on "Meet the Press."

"No, Chuck," Rhodes said. "We have very extensive screening procedures for all Syrian refugees who will come to the United States. There is a very careful vetting process that includes our intelligence community, our National Counterterrorism Center, the Department of Homeland Security so we can make sure that we're carefully screening anybody who comes to the United States.

"Let's remember though, Chuck, we're also dealing with people who suffer the hardest of war -- women and children, orphans -- we can't just shut our doors to those people. We need to sort out how to focus on that terrorists that we need to keep out of the country but I think we do need to do our part to take those refugees who are in need."

Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, Rhodes said:

"With respect to refugees, we have the most extensive security vetting that we have ever had to deal with Syrian refugees coming into the United States that involves not just the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, but also our intelligence community, the National Counterterrorism Center, so that anybody who comes to the United States, we are carefully vetting against all of our information.

"And let's not forget, Jake, that some of these people are people who have suffered the horrors of war. They're women. They're orphans. They're children who have suffered at the hands of ISIL. We cannot close our doors to these people. We can focus on keeping terrorists out of the United States while having an open door to people who deserve a safe haven."

His remarks drew a blunt rebuttal from Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, who spoke to "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace:

"Let me just say, Chris, I was listening to Ben Rhodes. What he said about the robust vetting about refugees is untrue. There's virtually vetting. There are no databases in Syria. There are no government records. We don't know who these people are. And when you meet with the people doing the vetting, they tell us that.

"So, this is really -- they are rolling a dice here. We know that ISIS wants to bring in terrorists with these refugees."

[CPT Clay]

What a liar.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

True

[zeugma]

Jake Tapper should have laughed at him when he said they were ‘vetting’ these people. There is no vetting. How can there be? Do we have a database of the equivalent of Syrian citizens with pictures? Yeah, I didn’t think so.