McCarthy warns chaos at the border could have allowed terrorists to US

The United States must urgently resolve the chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border, Kevin McCarthy has warned, or else risk allowing terrorists into the country unnoticed and succumbing to a similar attack to that in Israel this weekend.

McCarthy, who until last week served as speaker of the House, told The Washington Free Beacon on Monday that the attack should be a ‘wake up’ call for the White House, and blamed the Biden administration for emboldening Iran to back the plot.

He pointed out that known terrorists had already been found among those claiming to be migrants.

As of July, 160 migrants whose identities match those on the Terrorist Screening Dataset were stopped by Customs and Border Protection at the southern border – a significant increase on the 100 in fiscal year 2022, NBC News reported last month.

Fiscal years end on September 30.

‘We should wake up ourselves. We could have the same thing happen next week to us,’ McCarthy said.

‘We caught more people on the terrorist watchlist in February than we caught in the entire administration. We could have cells sitting inside of America right now.’

The FBI said on Monday it ‘does not have specific and credible intelligence indicating a threat to the United States stemming from the Hamas attacks in Israel.’

But, the agency added it was closely monitoring the situation and ‘will share relevant information with our state, local, federal and international law enforcement, intelligence and homeland security partners.’

The FBI added: ‘We will not hesitate to adjust our security posture, as appropriate, to protect the American people.’

McCarthy, however, accused the Biden administration of complacency, and said there was a direct line between the $6 billion the U.S. government unlocked for Iran, in return for the release of U.S. citizens held in the country, and the weekend’s attacks by Iran’s ally, Hamas.

The Biden administration has spent the weekend denying that the cash, which was Tehran’s money, frozen in South Korean bank accounts, had anything to do with the Hamas attack.

Israel has referred to the weekend as their 9/11, because – like with the al-Qaeda attacks on the U.S. – no one saw it coming.

McCarthy said that the comparison was accurate, and should serve as a warning to the United States.

‘We should take a step back and look at ourselves,’ he told the paper.

‘Your intel is never perfect and we’ve got a wide-open border. They’re coming from 160 different countries.’

Migrants have been registered coming from countries such as Afghanistan and Syria, where terrorist cells operate.

McCarthy asked why neither Mossad nor the CIA had any warning that the plan to attack Israel was being hatched in the Gaza Strip.

‘Everybody should look at their own intelligence right now,’ he said.

The California congressman also said the Biden administration’s policies helped Iran fund Hamas, saying they were ‘1,000 percent’ responsible for creating the right conditions.

‘From day one when the Biden administration came in, they changed the policies with Iran to appeasement,’ he told the paper.

Republicans argue that the Biden administration’s decision to pour millions in U.S. taxpayer funds into the Palestinian territories helped Hamas organize and launch its attack.

The State Department, in communications obtained earlier this year by the Free Beacon, assessed there is ‘a high risk Hamas could potentially derive indirect, unintentional benefit from U.S. assistance to Gaza.’

McCarthy said the White House’s decisions ‘built up and created what’s happening in today’s world.’

He warned that the conflict would not be easy to resolve.

‘You have to understand this isn’t going to be a short time,’ McCarthy said.

‘This is something different. This is a long-term battle.’

And he said his party’s decision to remove him as speaker last week caused turmoil, which could slow support from getting to Israel.

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‘It’s unfortunate a few members did the actions they did, and now we don’t even have a speaker sitting there,’ he said.

‘It shows the weakness.’

McCarthy’s comments echo those of Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential candidate and Donald Trump’s former UN ambassador.

On Sunday she tore into Anthony Blinken on Sunday after the Secretary of State insisted that releasing $6 billion to Iran played no role in Saturday’s attack.

Speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press, Blinken said Iran had not yet seen a penny of the $6 billion in sanctioned oil revenue earmarked for ‘humanitarian purposes’ last month in exchange for five American prisoners.

But Haley told the same program that Iran was already banking on the money to finance its terror campaign.

‘It was irresponsible for Secretary Blinken to say that the $6 billion doesn’t weigh in here,’ she added.

‘I mean, let’s be honest with the American people and understand that Hamas knows and Iran knows they’re moving money around as we speak, because they know 6 billion is going to be released.

‘That’s the reality.’ 

The former South Carolina governor said she knew from her dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency that funds released by previous administrations had gone to militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

‘They go and spread terrorism every time they get $1,’ she added.

‘It doesn’t go to the Iranian people. It does go to terrorist attacks, and Secretary Blinken, it’s just wrong to imply that this money is not being moved around as we speak.’

The deal with Iran helped free US citizens Siamak Namazi, 51, Emad Sharqi, 59, and Morad Tahbaz, 67, a duel U.S.-U.K. national, as well as two unidentified U.S. citizens.

Five Iranians detained in the US were also released under its terms.

‘Not a single cent has been spent from that account,’ Blinken said.

‘When any money is spent from that account, it can only be used for medical supplies, for food, for medicine, and those who are saying otherwise are either misinformed or misinforming, and it’s wrong either way.’

But Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi laughed at the idea that Tehran’s spending would be controlled.

‘This money belongs to the Islamic Republic of Iran, and naturally, we will decide – the Islamic Republic of Iran will decide – to spend it wherever we need it,’ he told NBC last month.

‘Humanitarian means whatever the Iranian people need, so this money will be budgeted for those needs. 

‘And the needs of the Iranian people will be decided and determined by the Iranian government.’

Blinken said he had ‘not yet seen evidence’ that Iran was involved in the attack that killed at least 700 people, but he admitted that Israel’s growing ties to its Arab neighbors may have inspired the terrorists.

‘It’s no surprise that those who are opposed to the talks, those who are opposed to Israel normalizing its relations with its neighbors and with countries beyond the region, are: Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.’

But senior members of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah claimed that the attack was given the green light by Iranian security officials.

Hamas plotted the air, land and sea invasions with help from officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to a Wall Street Journal report, with the final go-ahead given at a Monday meeting in Beirut.

Haley who is now second only to Donald Trump in the race for the Republican nomination according to some recent polls, also said that Hamas attack should act as a ‘wake-up’ call for the US itself.

‘We have an open border,’ she claimed.

‘People are coming through. They’re not being vetted. We don’t need to wait for another 9/11.

‘You also look at the fact that America is incredibly distracted and incredibly divided, and when America’s distracted, the world is less safe.

‘And look at what happened to Israel. They waited for them to be distracted, and that’s when your enemies move in. America needs to wake up.’