Shaking my head
Congressman says terrorists are crossing border ‘at a level we have never seen before,’ DHS says that’s ‘inaccurate’
Oct 30, 2021 5:00 pm By Robert Spencer 16 Comments
DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator John Cohen says: “It is just factually inaccurate to frame the southern border as a place where we are seeing a significant number of al-Qaida or ISIS-related terrorists or foreign terrorists.”
How many is “significant”?
“Official Slams Claims of Terrorists Infiltrating US From Mexico,” by Jeff Seldin, VOA News, October 28, 2021:
WASHINGTON — Fears the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could reinvigorate terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State, and lead to a surge of attempted infiltrations along the southern U.S. border have not been realized, a top counterterrorism official said, dismissing claims to the contrary as “factually inaccurate.”
For months, mostly Republican lawmakers have warned of an unprecedented number of encounters by law enforcement and border patrol agents with known or suspected terrorists trying to enter the United States from Mexico.
One fact sheet distributed earlier this week by Republican Representative John Katko, the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, warned terrorists “are crossing the border ‘at a level we have never seen before.’”
But the Department of Homeland Security’s top counterterrorism official rejected such allegations Thursday, telling an online forum there is no evidence to back them up.