Homeland Security Chair Says Obama Spreading 'False Narrative' About Terrorist Threat

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mike McCaul, sees terrorism spreading overseas like “a wildfire” and says that America is no safer today than it was in 2011.

CNN:

“I personally see it spreading like a spiderweb, like a wildfire, through Northern Africa and the Middle East,” Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told CNN’s Candy Crowley on “State of the Union.”

“As that threat increases overseas, so too does it increase to the homeland – and that’s my basic concern as Homeland chairman, is to keep that threat outside the United States.”

Leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees told CNN earlier this month on “State of the Union” that terrorists have gained ground in the past two years and that the U.S. is not any safer than it was at the outset of 2011. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, agreed that the Obama administration has lost ground in the ongoing battle with global terrorism.

McCaul said that though policies put in place as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks have prevented a similar large-scale event on U.S. soil, President Barack Obama is pushing a false narrative about the nation’s safety in the world.

“When the President of the United States talks about the, downgrades the threat, his narrative is that al Qaeda is on the run, and since bin Laden has been killed the threat is no longer existing – I think is a false narrative and premise because, as we see this threat all throughout northern Africa, as we saw Egypt fall, Libya, now Syria is a great culmination of the Sunni-Shia conflict.”

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-California, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Feinstein’s and Rogers’ comments surprised him but acknowledged that low-level attacks by lone-wolf actors, like the Boston Marathon bombing, are still “very threatening.”

But is the U.S. more effective now at keeping terrorism off its shores?

“I think we are better now than we have ever been, but we are never going to be 100% safe,” Schiff said, pointing to the ongoing conflict in Syria, a country that he said has become a “magnet” for those looking to join Jihad.

McCaul agreed: “I think Syria is now the training ground for the world. … These rebel forces are more of a threat than anything.”

It’s an interesting concept — the idea that we’re better now than we ever have been at keeping terrorism out of America but will do next to nothing to protect our borders. The mind that can harbor both ideas and believe them to be true isn’t firing on all cylinders. Obama, Schiff, and the Democrats are delusional if they try to disconnect border security from protecting the homeland from terrorism. They strenuously oppose GOP efforts to impose minimum security along the border because it will anger their Hispanic base, but keep insisting that, with bin Laden dead, the threat of a mass casualty attack is greatly lessened.

“Lone wolf” terrorists are not the problem. Groups like Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who have publicly stated they wish to expand their operations to the US are. We’re not ready for them, nor are we ready for any other terrorist group who is already here and plotting.