"It is not enough to know that there is a shadow government pulling the strings of the visible government- we must also act to expose it, and defeat it!"-Mark Matheny
Michigan, Alabama, Texas and Arkansas have become the first states in the country to refuse to take in Syrian refugees amid heightened security concerns following Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
Govs. Rick Snyder of Michigan, Robert Bentley of Alabama, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas said in separate statements Sunday and today that their states would not be relocating refugees from the war-torn country until the U.S. Department of Homeland Security fully reviewed its screening procedures.
“Michigan is a welcoming state and we are proud of our rich history of immigration,” Snyder said. “But our first priority is protecting the safety of our residents.”
Nearly 130 people died in the coordinated attacks in Paris, and at least one of the attackers was carrying a Syrian passport, which has led authorities to consider he could have entered Europe as a refugee. The alleged mastermind of the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is believed to have slipped into Syria this year.
In the wake of the devastating attacks in Paris Friday, US intelligence experts have once again issued stark warnings that such terrorism could be imminent on home soil because there is no way to vet refugees coming into the country from the Middle East, and the White House has no strategy to defeat ISIS.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, the head of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, said that “There are a lot of holes — gaping holes,” in US defenses.
“We have hundreds of Americans that have traveled” to Iraq and Syria, he urged. “Many of them have come back as well. I think that’s a direct threat.”
McCaul once again said he has spoken with FBI and Homeland Security officials who say that “We don’t have the databases to vet them.”
“They tell me this cannot be properly done.” the Congressman added.
McCaul has consistently warned that ISIS has planned to use the refugee crisis to get operatives into the US.
“This causes a great concern on the part of policymakers, because we don’t want to be complicit with a program that could bring potential terrorists into the United States,” McCaul said.
In a separate appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” the former head of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers, corroborated McCaul’s sentiments.
“I’m not sure why this shocked everybody,” Rogers said. “There is not a vetting process … that can vet every single individual refugee coming in on the refugee program.”
In testimony before the Senate last month, FBI Director James Comey stated that “gaps” remain in the vetting process, owing to a lack of intelligence on the ground in Syria.
Following the attacks in France, Obama announced that the plan to bring in 10,000+ refugees will not be reevaluated in any form, even as it emerged that some of the perpetrators appeared to have entered Europe disguised as migrants.
In appearances on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” both the chairmen of the Senate and House Intelligence committees agreed that the US currently has no strategy to defeat ISIS.
We’ve got to have a strategy. We don’t have a strategy in Syria as it relates to ISIL,” Sen. Richard Burr said. “The president talked the other morning about ISIL was contained. America learned within 24 hours that it’s not contained, it’s rampant.” he added.
Rep. Devin Nunes added that “You can’t fight ISIS unless you are willing to put a strategy together that deals with the failure of Libya, the problems in the Sinai, Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan-Pakistan region.”
“Fifty Special Forces [troops], which we’ve just upped in the last two weeks, that’s not enough to make a big impact,” he added.
Nunes also warned about the influx of undocumented refugees.
“There’s no possible way to screen them. It should be stopped immediately,” he said.
“Bottom line, if you don’t want refugees, you have to go into Iraq and Syria and defeat ISIS.”
Also appearing on “Face the Nation,” the former deputy director of the CIA, Michael Morell, urged that it was time for a re-think on a strategy to defeat ISIS.
“I think it’s now crystal clear to us that our strategy, our policy vis-à-vis ISIS is not working, and it’s time to look at something else,” Morell said.
Morell described the Paris attacks as having “A level of sophistication that we have not seen since the London bombings in 2005.”
He also suggested that rather than going after the Syrian President Bashar al Assad, much as the western coalition did with Gaddafi in Libya, the solution to defeating ISIS may be to work with Assad.
“You know, clearly he’s part of the problem, but he may also be part of the solution, right?” Morell said. “An agreement where he stays around for a while and the Syrian army, supported by the coalition, takes on ISIS may be the best result here.”
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, House Freedom Caucus Chairman
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)
94%
reveals that conservative House members have received no commitment from Speaker
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
58%
that he would in any way try to curb the nation’s importation of Muslims on visas.
By the end of the year, Congress will have to pass a government funding measure to appropriate funds for all federal operations. The Boehner-Obama debt deal, backed by Ryan, established the spending levels— but Congress still has to pass the actual spending bills which contain the money.
Included in this package will be funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement and other refugee-related operations, thus allowing the President to carry out his resettlement plans. In order to stop the President from carrying out these plans, Congress would have to include restrictions in the year-end funding bill that would be advanced by Ryan and
