A Festering Evil in the Shadows

Erick-Woods Erickson

“The terrorism warning lights are blinking red again,” read the headline of a column penned by Graham Allison and Michael J. Morrell in Foreign Affairs.  Allison is a Harvard professor.  Morrell was the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  A series of news stories after their article paint a troubling picture. Something is festering in the shadows.

“The Department of Homeland Security has identified over 400 immigrants from Central Asia and elsewhere who crossed into the U.S. in the past three years as ‘subjects of concern’ because they were brought by an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network, three U.S. officials tell NBC News,” reported Julia Ainsley and Tom Winter.  Many of those immigrants, released into the United States through our open border, have disappeared.  There are no known terror threats related to any of them, but all are being sought.

Eight men from Tajikistan have been arrested by the FBI.  All came into the country illegally through the southern border.  All were released by the Biden Administration into the United States.  Authorities started monitoring their activities and those they associated with.  Those they associated with were monitored to determine if they were persons of interest.  Those who were interesting continued to be monitored.

Last week, the FBI moved quickly to arrest the eight men on immigration charges.  They had ties to ISIS and were interested in bombs.  Instead of prolonging a counterterrorism investigation, the FBI thought it advisable to round them up quickly on lesser immigration charges.  They did not want to wait longer.  They assure us there was no immediate threat or specific intelligence related to a terror threat, but also they wanted to quickly arrest the eight.

At Quantico in Virginia, two illegal aliens who had crossed the Southern border tried to gain access to the Marine base.  One of the individual was a Jordanian national.  The other was on the terror watch list.

The French are in political disarray as the Olympics approach and ISIS has issued one warning already.  The Russians have now seen two terror attacks from Islamic radicals.  We keep finding ISIS affiliated individuals in the United States.  We know many are here illegally who were stopped at the border then released into the country.  But many others are never detected and get away. It happens regularly.

Democrats now blame Donald Trump for scuttling a bipartisan border deal earlier this year, but every person mentioned above who entered the country illegally had done so before that deal.  Undoubtedly, when, not if, a terror attack happens, the press will work with the Biden Administration to blame Donald Trump.  It is what the press does these days.  Everything goes back to Trump, even the things that should not.

Democrats and their friends in the press have gone into “protect the precious” mode as they fret over Joe Biden’s polling.  Too few are willing to speak publicly about the copious amounts of intelligence and military warnings.  Just the other day, the Special Operations Association of America, which represents current and former special operators in the military, released an open letter stating, “The creation of new and reestablishment of previous terrorist training camps within Afghanistan has led to successful, deadly attacks by the Islamic State’s regional branch against targets in Iran and Russia and elsewhere, adding further credence to the notion that the U.S. is at risk. This heightened risk has been verified by multiple departments and agencies of the federal government, mainstream journalists and publications, former senior officials from both parties, and from former allies with whom we maintain communication.”

General Erik Kurilla of United States Central Command and Christopher Wray of the FBI have both loudly been warning of growing terror threats here in the United States.  But Joe Biden still keeps the border open.  Potential terrorists are still flowing through.  The President and his protectors in the press hope not to rock the boat.  They do not want to aggravate progressives with tough action at the border. Putting his re-election above the lives of Americans will cost lives and his re-election.  Something is festering in the shadows, but our President will not act.