The top House Republican on intelligence warned of the “highest level of a potential terrorist threat” and called on the Biden administration to declassify terrorist threat information after eight people with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested in the United States last week.
Ohio Republican Congressman Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, appeared on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, where he said the threat was “no longer speculative or hypothetical.”
“We have terrorists actively working inside the United States who are a threat to Americans,” Turner said.
Last week, eight Tajik nationals with suspected ties to ISIS were arrested in Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia after US officials had been warning for months of a possible terrorist attack in the United States.
Turner told moderator Margaret Brennan that he could neither confirm nor deny the details of the arrests, but pointed to recent testimony from senior U.S. law enforcement officials warning of the growing threat of a terrorist attack.
Congressman Mike Turner warned on Face the Nation that the terrorist threat is “no longer speculative, no longer hypothetical” and called on the Biden administration to declassify information on terrorist threats.
Earlier this month, Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before a House Committee that he was ‘“Concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the country after October 7” and that “the threat level to us has increased enormously.”
Furthermore, FBI Director Christopher Wray said they have ‘We have seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to another level following the Hamas attack on October 7.
In December, Wray said, “I’ve never seen a time where all the threats were so high all the time.”
Turner on Sunday demanded that the Biden administration share more information about the increase in threats.
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee on June 4. At the hearing, he said the threat of a terrorist attack against the United States has increased “enormously.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray said terrorist threats in the United States have risen to “a completely different level” and warned that the US-Mexico border presents unique challenges.
“In terms of the threat, what we have done and continue to do, and what this administration must comply with, is that they need to declassify the information of the terrorist threats that they are seeing so that there can be a public discourse about what the risks and threats are. of the administration,” Turner said.
Turner claimed that it was ‘notable and expected as a result of the Biden administration’s policy.’
The Biden administration and Republicans have been fighting for years over how to address the border and immigration system, but a recent bipartisan bill to address border security failed after Republicans came out against it amid pressure from Donald Trump.
Clashes over illegal border crossings into the United States from Mexico reached an all-time high in December before illegal crossings slowed somewhat this year.