The Insecure Border and the Heightened ISIS Threat to the Homeland
Given the foiled terror attack at Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna, now’s not the time to ‘Shake It Off’, regardless of the ‘Blank Space’ in most Americans’ memories
By Andrew R. Arthur on August 14, 2024
Taylor Swift
You’ve likely heard that singer Taylor Swift recently cancelled three concerts in Vienna after Austrian police foiled a terrorist plot to attack fans outside the arena and “kill as many people as possible”. You’ve also likely heard that at least one of the teenaged plotters was allegedly radicalized by Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Qaida propaganda. What you likely haven’t heard most in the media mention is the increasing threats to the U.S. homeland posed by such groups, which are exacerbated by the administration’s feckless migrant-release policies at the unsecure Southwest border.
ISIS’s al-Qaida Roots. ISIS and al-Qaida share a common bloody history.
As I explained back in April, it all starts with Jordanian-born Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who founded an al-Qaeda offshoot, “al Qaeda in Iraq” or “AQI”, way back in 2004.
As a former CIA analyst tasked with tracking the terror mastermind explained to PBS’ Frontline in 2016, Zarqawi’s “initial focus was being empathetic for the Palestinian cause”, and his first target was the Jordanian government, which he believed was oppressing Palestinians.
The U.S. invasion of Iraq, however, appears to have shifted Zarqawi’s “vision”, focusing it on establishing an Islamic caliphate in that country with the assistance of a Sunni coalition of former Iraqi military and foreign fighters opposed to the U.S. occupation.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Insecure-Border-and-Heightened-ISIS-Threat-Homeland
