Could Another 9/11 Happen?

On the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it’s appropriate to ask: Are we safer today than we were before September 11, 2001? Unfortunately, the answer to that all-important question is no. A similar attack on the American homeland is more likely now than at any time since 2001.

This is not just my assessment as the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security—members of the Biden-Harris Administration have reached similar conclusions. In March, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that terrorism is “evolving,” and in April, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of “the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland.” In June, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas observed “a resurgence in recruiting of ISIS, ISIS’s public communications and efforts to galvanize individuals to divide us.”

What should especially concern the American people is the urgency of these statements.

None other than former President Obama’s CIA Director Michael Morrell asserted earlier in the summer—in an article in Foreign Affairs and a subsequent interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation—that the “lights are blinking red.” Although the Biden-Harris Administration is finally acknowledging the terrorist threat, Morrell claims they are not taking it seriously. This is not what leadership looks like.

Due to their misguided policies, the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia are once again havens for terrorist groups. As with the rise of ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) in Afghanistan, a lack of focus by the U.S. has allowed these groups to multiply.

Add to this mix the Iran-influenced pro-Hamas demonstrations on America’s campuses and streets, where participants spew vile anti-Semitic language and destroy property. Reports about Iran’s interference in the 2024 presidential election and its recent hacking of the Trump campaign reveals that they will use all levers to push circumstances in their favor. Americans should not forget that the Iranian regime was the architect of the biggest foreign terrorist attack on Americans prior to 9/11.

We also continue to experience a historic security crisis at the Southern border, because the Biden-Harris Administration dismantled the Trump Administration’s America First border policies.

Assessing the current state of the Southern border, Morrell said, “Last year, hundreds of individuals on the United States’ terrorist watch list attempted to enter the country via the southern border. It is not difficult to imagine a person, or even a group, with the intent to do harm slipping across the border.” A recent House Judiciary Committee report found that the Biden-Harris Administration has released nearly 100 terrorists into the U.S. since January 2021. Additionally, there are a significant number of national security and public safety threats among the 1.8 million known “gotaways” who evaded the Border Patrol and disappeared into American communities.

Having previously led the Department of Homeland Security, I can confirm that the Southern border is hardly recognizable. In June, hundreds of ISIS members reportedly entered the country through an “ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network”—and only 150 of them have been arrested. Earlier in the month, eight Tajik ISIS members were apprehended, with more disappearing into the American interior. On the Biden-Harris Administration’s watch, the number of known terrorists apprehended at the Southern border has increased from 15 in 2021 to 98 in 2022 and then to 169 in 2023.

The New York Post obtained government records that revealed over 1,500 illegal aliens from Tajikistan—a top ISIS hub for recruitment—have crossed the border since 2021, including 500 apprehended this year alone.

One of the most stunning aspects of the border crisis is the lack of vetting of illegal aliens, particularly those from countries of concern. One example is Uzbek ISIS member Jovokhir Attoev, who was apprehended in February 2022 but was released into the U.S. heartland because, at the time, there was no information tying him to terrorist groups. Though Uzbekistan publicly identified him with ISIS in 2023, it took the Biden-Harris Administration another year to connect the dots.

The administration’s failure lies in dismissing the need for border security or interior enforcement.

Deciding that all things Trump were bad, the Biden-Harris Administration took 94 separate executive actions on immigration in the first 100 days, many of which rescinded successful Trump Administration border policies. The only terrorism threat that concerned them was rooting out so-called extremists within the armed forces—a partisan effort launched only weeks after the administration came into office. But an independent study commissioned by the Department of Defense revealed “no evidence that the number of violent extremist in the military is disproportionate” to the U.S. population.

Instead of trying to root out perceived political opponents within our military, the administration should be anticipating ways that a terrorist attack on the homeland could mimic successful attacks abroad. In an October 2023 pamphlet, al-Qaeda leader Saif al-Adl lauded Hamas’s October 7 attack, saying it should be studied in “all of the military institutions” and “represents a great military leap” on the tactical level. Given this praise, Hamas’s actions are sure to be part of the “special operations” curriculum in Afghanistan that he announced in June.

Things have not always been this dire at home or abroad. Just five years ago, the Trump Administration announced that ISIS had been defeated after a U.S.-led coalition dismantled its caliphate in Iraq and Syria and killed its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. President Trump also left office with the most secure border in my lifetime.

Failing to enforce the law, secure the border, or show strength on the global stage has served as an invitation to our adversaries to plot destructive agendas. The men and women of law enforcement do a commendable job keeping us safe, but their jobs have been made unnecessarily more difficult under the America Last policies of the Biden-Harris Administration.

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