“It’s everywhere. It’s constant. It’s nonstop.”
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Friday said the terror threat is worse than most realize, saying some people would “never leave the house” if they knew the truth.
Speaking to Fox and Friends hosts, Secretary Kelly noted that there were four major terror attacks in the last week, spanning from England to Indonesia, perpetrated “by generally the same groups.”
“It’s everywhere. It’s constant. It’s nonstop,” Kelly said of the terror threat. “The good news for us in America is, we have amazing people protecting us every day. But it can happen here almost any time.”
Those comments to Fox and Friends has been the lead story, but there is much more that needs to be said about his remarks.
Speaking to several colleagues about Secretary Kelly’s comments, we wondered why such a thing would even be mentioned. In my experience over the years in sensitive areas, I would have never said such a thing. Talking to those I know currently in the field about Kelly’s words, they all felt the same way.
So why the statement at all? It has always been a policy of those in the shadows, those that do have the background and knowledge of this sort of thing, don’t talk about it. There is an overriding concern of causing unnecessary fear but also to keep certain knowledge and information very close to the vest so not to lessen its value and usefulness, much less its source.
Secretary Kelly’s comments will undoubtedly lead to all manners of inquiries and questions as to what we are not being told.
As I thought more about it, I reasoned the statement was probably appropriate. It was time to let the public know just what is going on out there, at least to the extent possible, without hurting the systems and efforts of those quiet professionals that work each and every day tirelessly to keep us safe.
In that light, here is little of what Secretary Kelly was alluding to. This is all publically available information, in no way a complete list, but enough to get some idea of what he and those in the field worry about every day.
There have been 36 cases of homegrown terrorism in 18 states over the past year. America is facing its “highest terror threat in years,” causing the FBI to launch investigations in all 50 states. Nearly a third of the 1000 FBI domestic terrorism cases involve those admitted to the United States as refugees. That amounts to around 300 individuals. Officials said some of those 300 came to infiltrate the U.S. while others were radicalized once they were in the country.
There have been at least 105 ISIS-linked plots to attack Western targets since 2014, including 30 inside the United States.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a Pakistani militant group, operates more than 35 training camps in the U.S. in 22 states, under the disguise of the “Muslims of America” group.
It’s leader; Sheikh Mubarak Gilani is also accused of setting up the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was beheaded en route to interview Gilani in Pakistan in 2002. Gilani and his organization are also suspected of committing assassinations and fire bombings inside the U.S.
The effort to keep us safe involves, to name only one agency, the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). It manages more than 100 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces around the country, where agencies work together to combat terrorism on a regional scale sharing intelligence and working joint investigations. These JTTFs provide information regarding terrorist activities, enable a shared intelligence base across many agencies, and create familiarity among investigators and managers. Perhaps most importantly they pool talents, skills, and knowledge from across the law enforcement and intelligence communities into a single team that responds together.
JTTFs are our nation’s front line on terrorism. Small cells of highly trained, locally based, passionately committed investigators, analysts, linguists, SWAT experts, and other specialists hailing from more than 500 state and local agencies and 55 federal agencies work every day in this task.
Here in the U.S., the chances of becoming the victim of terrorism are very small. Due to the sheer size and number of people in the U.S., the chances are about the same as being hit by lightning, but even that does happen.
The point is it can and does happen. There are bad folks out there every day doing nothing but planning, plotting, and trying to commit acts of terrorism in the U.S. and there are people also out there working to prevent and stop it.
There was a national campaign that started in the military with the slogan, “See Something, Say Something.” As Americans, we do not need to live in fear. That is part of the goal terrorists attempt to achieve, but we do need to be vigilant and not keep our heads buried in the sand.
Another fact of life is most people have no idea and have very little reason to know that a very dedicated group of professionals protect them from harm every day. These men and women work in terrible and unbelievably stressful environments always striving to identify, stop, and eliminate the terrorists that wish to do us harm. Most people will never know who these individuals are.
When a terrorist act takes place, when an atrocity happens, and when everyone is running for cover and trying to understand what happened and why there will be a few people running the other way. They are running toward the danger. That’s them, they are easy to spot.
