Homeland Security Chair: ISIS Killers ‘Gain Access’ To US Via Refugee Program

12.07.2015 | News | Daily Surge |

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul announced Monday that the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) has obtained specific evidence indicating that ISIS is targeting President Barack Obama’s Syrian refugee plan.

“I don’t want to get into specifics to protect my sources, but ISIS members in Syria have attempted to exploit it to get into the United States,” McCaul explained during a speech at the National Defense University.

McCaul said that intelligence officials approached him “earlier this week” with the information.

“The U.S. government has information to indicate that individuals tied to terrorist groups in Syria have already attempted to gain access to our country through the U.S. refugee program,” the intelligence agency told McCaul in a letter.

“The refugee system, like all immigration programs, is vulnerable to exploitation from extremist groups seeking to send operatives to the West,” the agency added, noting that a small number of Iraqi refugees were arrested on terror charges in 2010.

McCaul said he finds it “very disturbing” that the Obama administration has not yet released this information to the public. “That was very courageous for them to come forward with this, to tell me about this personally, given the political debate on the Hill,” McCaul said on Monday.

The White House has yet to confirm or deny McCaul’s claim, which he was initially reluctant to link to the NCTC.