Foreign terrorist groups such as the Islamic State and al Qaeda, and even Iran-allied forces such as Hezbollah and Hamas, pose an immediate threat to the American homeland and warrant a serious response by the Biden administration, key House Republicans said in a new report.
The “Terror Threat Snapshot,” compiled by the House Homeland Security Committee, lays out in disturbing detail the number of jihadist cases in the U.S. over just the past three years and shines a spotlight on how so-called “soft targets” inside America could be vulnerable to terror attacks. The report, shared exclusively with The Washington Times ahead of its public release, also pointedly faults the administration for what it says has been a “weak” and inadequate response to the danger in recent years.
It comes at a crucial moment, as the conflict between Israel and its Middle East foes, most notably Iran and its network of proxy groups across the theater, heats up and is now on the verge of becoming a full-blown regional war. At the same time, U.S. military, intelligence and law enforcement officials in recent months have warned about both the resurgence of ISIS in the Middle East and the group’s desire, and perhaps its ability, to directly strike targets in Europe and the U.S.
Taken together, those factors have created an environment in which, the House GOP members warn, attacks on Americans at home could be on the horizon.
“Foreign jihadist networks like ISIS and Hezbollah, as well as homegrown violent extremists ideologically motivated by these terrorist groups, present security threats to the homeland,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Green, Tennessee Republican, said in a statement accompanying the report.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s mission is to protect the American people from every threat at our doorstep,” he said. “The system is blinking red yet again, as even the head of the FBI has noted. Despite heightened threats from terrorists, the Biden-Harris administration continues to demonstrate weak leadership on the world stage and fails to admit its policy failures that brought us here. We must change course and take the necessary actions to protect the homeland.”
DOCUMENT: House Homeland Security Committee's Terror Threat Snapshot
FBI Director Christopher Wray in July told House lawmakers that he fears foreign terror groups could try to carry out an attack in America similar to the Moscow concert hall attack last March, which killed more than 140 people. ISIS-K, the Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate, claimed responsibility for that attack.
“We are increasingly concerned about the possibility not just of a foreign terrorist attack, which is very much a concern, but even the potential for a coordinated foreign terrorist attack, perhaps like what we’ve seen against the concert hall in Russia,” Mr. Wray told the House Judiciary Committee in his July testimony.
The House GOP report offers an exhaustive list of troubling cases from 2021 through today. It includes the arrest last month of Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, who was charged in an alleged murder-for-hire plot that is believed to have been targeting former President Donald Trump.
The report also highlights other cases from New York, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maine, Idaho, California, Illinois, Nevada and virtually all other corners of the country in which individuals were charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists or other terror-related offenses.
In all, the report lists more than 50 jihadist cases across 29 states since April 2021.
The disturbing cases at home come at the same time that terror groups abroad are gaining strength, potentially giving them the resources and the motivation to more aggressively target America. Last May, the U.S. Institute of Peace released a comprehensive study that found terror groups such as ISIS-K and al Qaeda are reconstituting themselves in Afghanistan, following the U.S. withdrawal from that country in August 2021.
The USIP report cited the rising threat from ISIS-K and continued support for al Qaeda from Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime as two of the most immediate threats confronting America and its allies. The report’s authors called on the Biden administration to consider new rounds of U.S. strikes in Afghanistan against terror groups targeting America, along with cyberattacks to disrupt the communications and propaganda campaigns of both ISIS-K and al Qaeda.
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned in recent years that both of those groups want to strike the American homeland.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.