SINGLE DAY’ FROM TERROR
The threat of terrorism is as high today in the United States as it was the morning of 9/11, the nation’s top homeland security official said in a blunt warning, with ongoing federal terrorism probes in every state.
“We are under attack every single day. The threats are relentless,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said in a speech yesterday at George Washington University.
“They have a single mission, and that is our destruction,” Kelly said about terrorists — referring to both Islamic State-inspired lone wolves and those with direct links to the group.
“And I tell you,” Kelly added, “without exaggeration, they try to carry out this mission each and every single day, and no one can tell you how to stop it. No one.”
The pointed language comes as the FBI continues to pursue terror investigations nationwide, including in Massachusetts, according to Kelly, who said the FBI has open terror investigations in all 50 states, and terror attacks have continually pocked the calendar. He counted 37 “ISIS-linked” plots to attack the United States since 2013, and said there have been 36 “homegrown terrorist cases” in 18 states over the last year alone.
“The threat to our nation and our American way of life has not diminished,” Kelly told the crowd. “In fact, the threat has metastasized and decentralized, and the risk is as threatening today as it was that September morning almost 16 years ago.
“Make no mistake — we are a nation under attack.”
Anthony Weinreb, the acting U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts, told the Herald there is currently no “specific actionable intelligence” he’s aware of as a local threat. But terrorism cases are still working their way through Bay State courts, including that of David Wright of Everett, who was charged with conspiring with two others to provide material supporting ISIS.
He was also charged with erasing information on his laptop in June 2015 after learning that his uncle, Usaamah Abdullah Rahim, tried to attack police officers in Roslindale before being shot dead. Boston was the scene of the deadly 2013 marathon bombings, and in other cases, local men were caught planning attacks or aiding terrorist groups.
“I can say that we work very closely with the FBI to investigate all possible terrorist plots in this jurisdiction, and we’ve been doing that very actively,” Weinreb said. “We are always on the lookout on who might be the violent extremist trying to harm us.”
Nationwide, jihadi attacks have been carried out in San Bernardino, Calif.; Orlando, Fla.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; the Mall of America, Burlington, Wash., Fort Hood, Texas; and Times Square, among others.
President Trump has maintained a drumbeat message of impending Islamic extremist threats from the campaign trail to the White House, said Arnold Bogis, a former Harvard fellow and homeland security consultant. The Obama administration was criticized for a reluctance to declare incidents as terrorism or to blame Islamic extremism.
“It’s obvious they want to communicate information and the threat in a different way than the Obama administration wanted to communicate,” Bogis said of the Trump White House. “It’s definitely a choice of messaging. In the same way that the Obama administration tried to downplay the threat, there was no doubt even during the campaign, Trump has taken a different tack.”
Kelly also defended immigration officials in the crackdown on illegal immigrants.
“If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we are charged to enforce, then they should have the courage and skill to change the laws,” Kelly said. “Otherwise they should shut up and support the men and women on the front lines.”