Jihadi terrorism on the rise in U.S.: What you need to know!

My wife, Gena, and my hearts broke with the nation this last week as an ISIS-inspired U.S. veteran sped through a crowded downtown New Orleans, mowing down and murdering at least 15 and injuring another 30-plus in an act of domestic terrorism.

To add insult to injury and tragedy, that homegrown terrorist served in the U.S. Army for 13 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan.

He was shot dead by heroic police after exchanging gunfire with them.

We pray for the victims’ families and friends, as well for the wounded, their recovery and the medical personnel treating them.

The New Orleans ISIS-inspired massacre is tragically just the latest in a long string of jihadist terrorist acts in the U.S. going back to 9/11 and before, including these over the past decade reported by The Hill:

• In December 2015, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple, targeted a Department of Public Health Christmas party and training event, killing 14 people and seriously injuring 22.
• The deadliest U.S. attack linked to ISIS was the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016, where 49 people were killed and another 53 injured.
• On Halloween in 2017, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Sipov drove a pickup truck into people on a bike path along the Hudson River in New York City. Eight people were killed and 13 injured in the attack.
• The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) reported, “In December 2019, Second Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, a Saudi air force cadet training with the American military in Pensacola, Florida, killed three men and injured three others. He was inspired by al-Qaida’s ideology, communicated with leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula up until the attack, and joined the Saudi military in part to carry out a ‘special operation.'”
• 2019’s Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting;
• 2022’s Stabbing of Salman Rushdie;
• 2022’s Times Square machete assault of NYPD Officers.

I don’t run my life and decisions by fear. Neither do I ever want to frighten anyone. But I also don’t believe in sticking our heads into the sands of denial and ignorance, and not being prepared for possible disasters.

This isn’t conspiracy. It’s a proven fact. Islamic enemies of the state are right now influencing tens of thousands (if not more) online in the U.S. Thousands more have already penetrated the U.S. southern border and are right now living among us and plotting evil against us, closer to your home and neighborhood than you might know. I’ll prove it.

CSIS again reported, “In addition, leaders of al-Qaida and the Islamic State continue to encourage individuals in the West – including the United States – to conduct attacks. There are still perhaps 20,000 to 25,000 jihadist fighters in Syria and Iraq from the Islamic State and another 15,000 to 20,000 fighters from two al-Qaida-linked groups: Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Tanzim Hurras al-Din. Over the next several months, more jihadists may enter the battlefield after escaping – or being released – from prisons run by the Syrian Democratic Forces in areas such as al-Hol, located in eastern Syria near the border with Iraq. In addition, there are still concerns about al-Qaida and Islamic State groups operating in Yemen, Nigeria and neighboring countries, Somalia, Afghanistan, and other countries. In a May 2020 report, the United Nations concluded that al-Qaida remains a serious threat and that the ‘senior leadership of al-Qaida remains present in Afghanistan, as well as hundreds of armed operatives, al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent, and groups of foreign terrorist fighters aligned with the Taliban.'”

And many of these international terrorists have already crossed over into the U.S., particularly during the Biden administration’s last four years with its treasonous open-door policies at the U.S. southern border during which floods of criminals and terrorists have come into our country.

Let me remind you of these border crisis terrorist facts: Consider that there were a record number of 172 people on the terrorist watchlist apprehended in 2023 alone. These numbers represent a 72% increased of apprehended potential terrorists, the most ever on record – higher than the last six fiscal years combined. That’s how many we know of! We don’t have a clue how many potential terrorists were among the 1.7 million illegal gotaways.

“The numbers speak for themselves. When it first launched on Dec. 1, 2003, the consolidated watchlist – now known as the Terrorist Screening Dataset – included approximately 120,000 people. By 2017, the last publicly confirmed numbers, it included nearly 10 times as many: 1,160,000 individuals. Now, at the end of 2023, the Terrorist Screening Dataset contains the names of approximately 2 million people the government considers known or suspected terrorists, … according to a CBS Reports investigation.”

From what countries are these terrorist invaders originating?

Border officials have said that they have encountered invaders from more than 150 countries.

While countries south of the border grab most media attention, invaders also include those from the state sponsors of terrorism and those who harbor terrorists like Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan.

What most Americans don’t know (and the Biden administration didn’t want them to know) is that “Thousands of ‘special interest aliens’ [SIAs] from numerous countries, including the Middle East, have been arrested by Border Patrol agents while attempting to cross the U.S. southern border illegally over the last two years, according to internal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data leaked to Fox News.

“‘Special interest aliens’ are people from countries identified by the U.S. government as having conditions that promote or protect terrorism or potentially pose some sort of national security threat to the U.S.”

“That data, confirmed by multiple CBP sources and reflects apprehensions between ports of entry between October 2021 and October 2023, shows that agents encountered 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan in that period as well as 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran and 538 from Syria.”

I’ll never forget reading a 2017 letter from U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., businessman and former professional mixed martial arts fighter and also the second Cherokee Nation citizen elected to the Senate, who warned as a U.S. House member that Islamic terror groups were entering the U.S.: “Al-Qaida had a vested entrance in illegally sending terrorists into our country over our northern and southern borders, according to a declassified Counter Intelligence Agency (CIA) report. ISIS propaganda material was found encouraging illegal crossings on our southwest border. ISIS knows of our nation’s immigration loopholes and is actively seeking to utilize them. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2012 that Osama bin Laden pursued recruiting terrorists with Mexican passports to plan another attack on the United States. DHS announced that in 2017, they came across more than 2,500 individuals on the terrorist watch list with plans to travel to the United States. This means that on average, seven suspected terrorists are stopped daily attempting to enter our country and harm our citizens.”

More than 2,500 potential terrorists with plans to travel to the United States over seven years ago? What have they been doing all this time? Imagine how many more have illegally entered our country since then!

Well, you don’t have to imagine because we now have names among the record numbers of terrorists caught (and many released!) at the border or from among the 1.7 million gotaways.

The House Committee on Homeland Security recently reported, “In the Committee’s annual Worldwide Threats hearing, [even outgoing] Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray confirmed the national security threat posed by the growing number of gotaways at the Southwest border – especially as America’s enemies, including Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, have been emboldened to spread their malign influence following the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. Wray also alluded to Chairman Green that the national security consequences of the crisis have turned every state into a border state.”

America’s First Policy Institute’s very insightful article on “How Our Open Border Leaves Us More Vulnerable to Terrorism” explained how terrorist groups we are used to hearing about overseas are active right now in America:

A primary example is Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group based in Lebanon, which is largely funded by the Iranian regime. Before al-Qaida perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, Hezbollah had killed more Americans than any other terrorist group, and they have also been caught plotting to kill Americans multiple times. For example, in 2019, a highly trained Hezbollah sleeper agent named Ali Kourani was convicted for his intelligence gathering in New York City airports and at other potential targets for an attack. Kourani was smuggled across the U.S. southern border from Tijuana into California by a Hezbollah-affiliated man who smuggled more than 300 Lebanese aliens into the U.S. over a three-year period. In 2017, Samer El Debek was arrested in Michigan for helping Hezbollah plot attacks on Americans and Israelis. Hezbollah – and, by extension, Iran – has global criminal networks that extend into Latin America. Taking advantage of the Lebanese diaspora in North and South America, Hezbollah successfully extorts Lebanese-owned businesses, has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars of drug money through the Lebanese Canadian Bank, and has raised massive amounts of revenue through elaborate drug and cigarette smuggling.

Unsurprisingly, Hezbollah has historically allied with Venezuelan and Colombian cartels to expand their cocaine trade and money laundering operations. Their involvement with the Medellin cartel is well documented, as is their cooperation with the Venezuelan regime, which facilitates a foothold for their global crime-terror operations. …

Terrorists have global networks that operate beyond their home bases in the Middle East and Africa. Alarmingly, they are already inside major American cities, and more are expected to try to cross the southern border. Just recently, the San Francisco Field Office Intelligence Unit (part of CBP) warned that terrorists inspired by the current Israel-Hamas conflict may attempt to enter the U.S. through the southern border. In August 2023, a human smuggler operating in Mexico with ties to ISIS reportedly assisted at least a dozen Uzbekistan Special Interest Aliens (SIAs) over the southern border. These migrants claimed asylum and were let into our country with the large groups of migrants that have been surging across the border over the past two years. If the Biden Administration had control over the border, these aliens would have been detained while CBP figured out who they were. Aliens from Uzbekistan are classified as SIAs because their citizens have committed terrible terrorist attacks on the U.S. in the name of ISIS, such as Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov’s 2017 Manhattan truck attack and Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev’s threats to kill President Barack Obama in 2015. These attackers exploited the legal immigration system to gain entry into the U.S., but the Uzbeks that recently entered through our Southern border illegally correctly calculated that this route is now the easiest.

And the evidence for cooperation between foreign terrorist organizations and cartels hits even closer to the U.S. southern border, as this Naval Post Graduate School’s report detailed on “Cooperation Between Mexican Drug Cartels and Al Qaeda or ISIS.”

Please also read this April 3, 2024, confrontational letter from the House Committee on Homeland Security to Secretary of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about several known terrorists recently captured and released into the country, including a member of the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization al-Shabaab.

The fact is, if the feds won’t warn you about the increasing growth of Islamic terrorism and threats within our borders, I will, because Gena and I profoundly care for America and Americans. And we don’t want to see one more Islamic-inspired massacre like the one in New Orleans.

With the FBI reporting that terrorists are already in all 50 states, as well as more and more MS-13, sex-abuse smugglers and Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang members, securing our borders must be priority No. 1 for all Americans if we are going to save lives and the republic our founders entrusted to us.

Yes, former President Trump eradicated the ISIS caliphate, but even this ABC report blames the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq (under Obama) and Afghanistan (under Biden) for the rise and reemergence of the Islamic State terrorist group.

Friends and fellow Americans, jihadist terrorists are here in U.S. right now, odds are they’re closer to you than you know. The southern border needs to be closed under the new Trump administration, until his new border czar Tom Homan has identified and deported every last criminal invader and established a far tighter system to vet every last migrant wanting into the U.S.

This is NOT a left or right issue, but an American issue that must be overcome before our republic is dismantled and destroyed through a southern border invasion and online jihadist expansion.

Remember: The primary concern remains the potential for domestic individuals to be radicalized online through extremist propaganda, which can lead to isolated acts of violence as we’ve seen the last decade. So, watch out for such proselytizing activity online with your loved ones.

Now is the time to fight like hell before we experience another massive terrorist disaster that makes 9/11 look like a trial run.

WRITE & FIGHT TODAY, or we will abandon our children and grandchildren by giving their country over to its enemies, within and without.

Please share this column with everyone you know and love to inform them how dark forces are desperately trying to destroy our country from WITHIN.

(For further to read on homegrown terrorism, I recommend three online free resources: 1. Read “A Behavioral Study of American ‘Homegrown’ Terrorists” to understand how this can occur to even our brave U.S. military personnel. In it, researchers examined detailed forensic biographies of 135 American jihadism-inspired homegrown terrorists. 2. Also read America’s First Policy Institute’s article “How Our Open Border Leaves Us More Vulnerable to Terrorism.” 3. And read the Naval Post Graduate School’s report on “Cooperation Between Mexican Drug Cartels and Al Qaeda or ISIS”).