In the wake of President Obama’s address to the nation on Sunday night, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) who serve as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee made an announcement that flies in the face of what the President had to say.
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Speaking at a press Conference, McCaul said:
“ISIS members in Syria have attempted to exploit it to get into the United States…The U.S. government has information to indicate that individuals tied to terrorist groups in Syria have already attempted to gain access to our country through the U.S. refugee program.”
McCaul says that this information came during a briefing last week with unidentified members of the intelligence community. He did however, have this to say:
“That was very courageous for them to come forward with this, to tell me about this personally, given the political debate on the Hill.”
What also was left unsaid was whether or not these individuals fully got into our country or if we were able to catch them beforehand. Secondly, how many do the estimate slipped through the cracks?
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From the Hill:
Intelligence officials have determined that Islamic extremists have explored using the refugee program to enter the United States, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee said on Monday.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) declined to go into detail about the determination, which the Obama administration has not announced publicly.
Yet the disclosure could give ammunition to critics of the White House’s refugee plans who have warned that the program is vulnerable to infiltration by adherents of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“ISIS members in Syria have attempted to exploit it to get into the United States,” McCaul said during a speech at the National Defense University.
