Emerson on Fox Business: Threat from Cross-Border Terrorists a Ticking Time Bomb

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Stuart Varney: Police in Germany have arrested three Syrians with alleged ties to an ISIS terror plot over there. Steven Emerson joins us now. He is the Executive Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. Steven, I don't think you are surprised to hear about these arrests in Germany, are you?

Steven Emerson: No, I'm surprised that we haven't seen more of them. But ISIS had already declared their intent to insert terrorists among the refugee population. And in fact we've seen that [occur] in the Brussels attacks and the Paris attacks last year. And they continue to round up ISIS terrorists with papers that have been issued by ISIS passport makers in Syria and Iraq. It continues to happen with increasing frequency. And we're seeing it now even on the southern border.

Varney: If there were a serious terror incident – another one in Europe – that would have enormous political repercussions in Europe because of the migrant crisis, wouldn't it?

Emerson: Well you know I was thinking about that the other day. And Stuart, you know that in the last five months there have been upwards of almost 1,000 rapes in more than a dozen cities in Europe by some of the refugees. There's no [denying this].... you know that's absolutely true, and the police have been feckless. In Germany I think Angela Merkel's term, her tenure is finished, because there's such a backlash against [her] by the population. Having said that, I don't think that's made a dent in terms of [her] policies.

Varney: It hasn't, not yet, but this kind of, 1,000 rapes you're talking about, plus terror incidents already, changes the politics of Europe though, doesn't it?

Emerson: Well it changes the politics in terms of changing, you know, the [outcome of the] elections – yes, in terms of changing the government – yes, but in terms of the policies, they've already started to restrict some of the immigration [of] refugees, but... in Germany it's a one to one: Basically they're going to keep one for every one they send back to Turkey. They already have 800,000 [refugees]. What is France going to do? You know they already have – look, there are a lot of Muslims there that are not....most of them are not terrorists or radical, but you have 9 million [Muslims in France], and of the 9 million who are indigenous you have an X percentage that are actually very radical, and those were the ones that participated in the attacks last December. So you know it's not just the refugees.

Varney: Talk to us about this one, because 3 million immigrants have come to America in the last two years, that's 3 million total. Of that total, 1.1 million were illegal, just walked across the border. That's what it looks like. Now that, we're vulnerable to attack. We have not yet seen an attack inside America from border jumpers. I don't think we have. Do you think we will?

Emerson: Well you raise a very good point. I can't really tell you...., I mean I think the illegals come here, and also some of them are over-stays, they come here on a three-month tourist visa, they stay here, they don't get picked up, and that's because the government turns the other way. But I think in terms of those coming over the border, that's very interesting, because increasingly government agents in DHS have been stymied in terms of reporting the number of what they call, it's a government acronym – SIAs, Special Interest Aliens. Those are the aliens that come here, apply for asylum, say, 'We're being oppressed,' and in terms of their background the U.S. government ultimately finds out that they actually have terrorist connections. What happens? They put them in detention, they interrogate them, and then they give them a first class ticket back to Afghanistan to join, rejoin the Taliban, rejoin Lashkar-e-Taiba, rejoin Al-Shabaab. And for every one that they catch there are probably 20 they don't catch. So yes, there are hundreds, hundreds that make it across the border from Mexico that are involved, have been involved in terrorism in the past. And it's a ticking time bomb they say. And I spoke to someone last night, and he said we're just waiting for a major attack to occur and we've just been lucky so far that it hasn't been instigated by someone across the border.

Varney: Well Steven, that is a chilling note to end it on, but we must end it right there. Steven Emerson, thanks for joining us sir, appreciate it.

Emerson: You bet.

[End transcript]

Related Topics: , Steven Emerson, Stuart Varney, Fox Business Network, IPT, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Varney & Co., ISIS, Refugees, Lashkar-e-Taib, Special Interest Aliens

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