'It is a time to be concerned'
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the United States has entered a "dangerous period" amid the Israel-Hamas war, with fears of Middle Eastern terrorists entering the country while the bureau is unable to detect all individuals coming across the porous southern border.
"What has now increased is the greater possibility of one of these foreign terrorist organizations directing an attack in the United States," Wray told senators Tuesday at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing.
He said foreign terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaida, ISIS, and Hezbollah, were calling for attacks on the United States and the West as the war between Israel and the terror group Hamas escalates.
"It is a time to be concerned. We are in a dangerous period," Wray told U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who questioned him on whether the FBI was able to track all threats and prevent attacks on America.
"I couldn't say that we're able to detect all individuals," Wray responded, noting that "the gaps in our intelligence are real and it's something that we have concerns about," Just the News reported Tuesday.
In an X post Wednesday, Scott reposted an illustration by Fox News' acclaimed border reporter Bill Melugin using football stadium crowds to show the huge number of estimated gotaways (600,000) in FY2023.
Scott wrote: "This puts into perspective just how many cartels, criminals and terrorists might have come into our country untracked and without fear of the consequences. It's INSANE and a direct consequence of Biden’s dangerous border policies."
JTN reported: "U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 7 million migrant encounters at the southwest land border since President Joe Biden took office."
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who visited the border along with Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other Republican senators, sent an X post Tuesday in which he wrote: "Three days before Senate Republicans arrived at the border, Border Patrol seized an illegal migrant with explosives tailor-made for terrorists. It’s painfully clear @POTUS’ strategy is putting our nation at risk. Any additional funding must be used to stop the flow immediately."
In an attached video, Barrasso assailed the weak Biden border policies, including getting rid of DNA testing for incoming immigrants claiming to be "families" to prove their claims of being related. He said, "Eight million illegal immigrants have come into this country during Joe Biden's presidency."
Hezbollah likely in U.S.
In a separate story Just the News reported Tuesday, "The FBI director's warning to Congress follows revelations that the San Diego field office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection had warned its personnel that Hamas fighters or inspired actors might attempt to enter the U.S. via the southern border."
"San Diego Field Office Intelligence Unit (SDFO-FITU) assesses that individuals inspired by, or reacting to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt travel to or from the area of hostilities in the Middle East via circuitous transit across the Southwest border," an unclassified document from the office read, according to JTN. "Foreign fighters motivated by ideology or mercenary soldiers of fortune may attempt to obfuscate travel to or from the U.S. to or from countries in the Middle East through Mexico."
The JTN report continued: "Accompanying the admonition were images of popular symbols for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah. The latter group, in particular, is known to operate extensively in Latin America and former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates has warned that the group had likely already accessed the U.S. interior."
Islamic Jihad is the Gaza-based terror group that reportedly launched an errant missile into a local hospital parking lot, which Hamas and allies immediately claimed was an Israeli missile and evidence that the Jewish state was bombing civilian targets. U.S. and Israeli authorities debunked the claim but not before a prominent U.S. congresswoman, Rashida Tlaib, held a protest assailing Israel for the alleged hospital attack that wasn't. Tlaib has yet to apologize for repeating the false propaganda claim.
Meanwhile, Cruz, who has done yeoman's work educating his colleagues on the border-crisis issue – including taking lawmakers on repeated trips to the border – is sounding his most urgent alarm due to the expanding Hamas-Israel war.
“I believe we’re at greater risk today for a major terrorist attack in the United States than we have been at any time since September 11,” Cruz said Monday on Fox News, according to and Tuesday article in the Hill. “And you combine war in the Middle East with ... an open border on our southern border. ... That is an invitation from the Biden White House, if you’re a terrorist and you want to murder Americans come to Mexico and they’ll let you in."
"That is dangerous as hell,” Cruz said.
1,7 million gotaways
In the same hearing, after pressing Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Majorkas for numbers, Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said that 6 million migrants have been let into the country and "about 1.7 million gotaways." The latter comprise illegals that crossed the border but "got away" without being detained or processed by U.S. authorities.
The following exchange ensued at the hearing:
Johnson grills Mayorkas: "How many people has this administration let into this country?"
In response, Mayorkas starts talking about the "broken immigration system" needing to be fixed, to which Johnson interjects: "No, Mr. Secretary, I want a number – how many people have you let into this country?"
After Mayorkas again hedges on directing answering the question, Johnson says: "OK, OK, I'll give you the number: it's about 6 million – about 1.7 million as known gotaways ... Where are all these people residing? Where did the six million people go?"
When Mayorkas again tries to side-step the question, Johnson says: "No, Would you answer my questions? ... Where did these six people go? Are you keeping track of them?"
Johnson also asked Wray how many agents the FBI has to "investigate terror threats coming into the country" from the 6 million illegals and "particularly the 1.7 million got-aways."
Wray responded, "I would say we have several hundred agents who are tackling the threats that come from the border."
Asked to compare that to the resources devoted to the J6 investigation, Wray said: "I don't have the exact numbers but I'm relatively confident that the number of agents working on threats attributed to the border far exceeds the number of people working on the January 6 investigation."
On another front, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., reintroduced a bill to add the Afghanistan Taliban to the list of foreign terrorist organizations, or FTO.
Rubio and colleagues reintroduced the Preventing Recognition of Terrorist States Act to direct the U.S. Secretary of State to designate the illegitimate Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as a state sponsor of terrorism and the Taliban as an FTO.
“A Taliban-controlled Afghanistan poses a direct threat to our national security interests as well as our allies and partners both in the Middle East and in Central Asia. The Biden Administration’s botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan has left the nation as a safe haven for anti-American terrorists. Designating the Taliban as an FTO is the next logical step,” he said.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO WND READERS: "Our country is going communist!" warned Donald Trump recently. "It's going Marxist, it's going REALLY bad." He added, "The PEOPLE of our country aren't that way – but the people RUNNING it are." Is this just election-season bluster and hyperbole, or can the utterly unthinkable be true?
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