Cal Thomas: It could happen here … again

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday March 28th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Up next: the new challenges of Islamic terrorism. WORLD commentator Cal Thomas says a recent terror attack in Russia highlights our need to solve the crisis on our southern border.

CAL THOMAS: Last Friday, a mass shooting at a concert hall in Moscow killed more than 130 people. With many others seriously or gravely wounded, the number of dead is likely to rise.

The Islamic State released a statement claiming responsibility for the incident. Eight suspects have been arrested. Early reports suggest the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had advance warning of the attack. The Daily Mail reported White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said: “Right now we don’t know to what extent this warning [from the U.S. Embassy in early March] and this attack are related. But we had some concerns about the possibility of a terrorist attack in and around Moscow earlier this month.”

The question that must be asked is this: Could it happen here? The answer must be an unequivocal yes. In fact, it has already happened here on Sept. 11, 2001. Does anyone seriously think America’s enemies would not be encouraged by the Moscow atrocity to conduct a repeat operation in America?

The Cato Institute has noted that since 2017, “U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended 342 border crossers who were on … the terror watchlist. Those numbers have shot up in recent years to 169 in [fiscal] 2023 and 49 to date this fiscal year.” Last month, The Daily Caller reported that Border Patrol apprehended an al‐​Shabaab terrorist and released him into the United States in March 2023 after a mismatch on the watchlist. Later, the government discovered that he was on the watchlist, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him within 48 hours.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has testified several times before congressional committees that a national security threat exists because of the 1.8 million “known gotaways.” As we saw on 9/11 and in the Moscow concert hall incident, it doesn’t take many terrorists to produce mayhem.

Looking back, 9/11 was predictable. Osama bin Laden and other members of al-Qaeda issued fatwas calling for attacks on the U.S. and American citizens, declaring war on the United States. The terrorists also trained in how to takeoff in airplanes, but not land. Today’s warning signs are just as obvious, and the Biden administration will have no excuse if another attack happens on U.S. soil.

In 2003, Tom Clancy published a timely novel titled The Teeth of the Tiger. The plot in part is about Islamic terrorists who make a deal with Colombian drug smugglers. Crossing the U.S. border, they head for four shopping malls in Middle America where they murder innocent civilians. Again, it doesn’t take much to wreak havoc, tank the economy and strike fear into the hearts of everyone.

It could happen again here unless this or a new administration moves quickly to find any terrorists who have already snuck in. Let’s hope they do so soon, before any terrorists activate a plot worthy of a Tom Clancy novel.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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