The next president will have to address a daunting list of national security threats: expanding violence in the Mideast, the specter of Islamic extremist terrorism, the possibility of Iran becoming nuclear-armed, and an unknown number of illegal border crossers in the US who are on the terrorism watch list. Lisa Fletcher reports.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
No recent event highlights the ever-present danger of terrorism more than last year’s surprise attack on Israel by Islamist terrorists in Gaza.
America provides not just moral and monetary support to Israel; we give the country many of the weapons it’s using. So, no surprise that makes the US a target.
Earlier this year, FBI director Christopher Wray summed up the threat facing America this way.
Christopher Wray: It’s the first time I’ve seen in a long long time the threats from homegrown violent extremists, that is, jihad-inspired extremists, domestic violent extremists, foreign terrorist organizations, and state-sponsored terrorist organizations all being elevated at one time.
To better understand what our next president will have to deal with in terms of national security threats, we sat down with retired Brigadier General Robert Spalding, an expert on China who also served in President Trump’s National Security Council.
Lisa: Some have recently said that the terrorism warning lights are blinking red again, just as they were before 9/11. Do you agree with that?
Robert Spalding: I agree that we’ve taken a number of actions that have brought the situation into the country.
Lisa: What’s the worst thing we’ve done?
Spalding: Well, I mean, it’s really the southern border. I mean, we just have no idea who’s come across the border. And I think what’ll happen is this next administration will likely start to see the implications of the tens of millions of people that have come across the southern border.
On the campaign trail this year, President Trump has repeatedly called out the Biden/Harris administration for allowing so many illegal border crossers, including known terrorists, into the country.
Recent government figures show more than 400 migrants with terrorism ties have been encountered at the northern and southern borders in the last fiscal year.
But Spalding sees national security threats all over the map, especially when we look across the Pacific to China.
Spalding: For example, TikTok, which is a digital platform that, through ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. What did you see on that after Hamas’ attack of October 7th? Massive propaganda in support of Hamas. And so, if you kind of carry that forward, and you realize, okay, 30% of young people in America get their news from TikTok, and this is what’s going on.
Another rising foreign threat: cyber attacks against infrastructure. From American power stations to hospital IT systems.
Spalding: Nashville 2020, Christmas, and a former AT&T contractor pulls his RV in front of the switching center and lights it off, doesn’t kill anybody, but takes out the entire network for Tennessee and surrounding states for several weeks.
Beyond terrorism and online threats, Spalding says whoever occupies the White House next will also face a challenge that’s often ignored these days – nuclear weapons.
Spalding: A terrorist attack is bad; it creates a lot of spectacle, it does create attention in the media, but it is nothing; it is nothing compared to nuclear war. And I think when we stop thinking about that, and being concerned about that and being afraid of that, then we actually have allowed these conditions to materialize that bring us closer to it. That’s, to me, the most fearful thing that we face right now. It has never gone away. It’s still there.
It’s more than 50 years since the US lived with the real prospect of a nuclear strike from the USSR. Russia still rattles the nuclear sword; China has an expanding nuclear force, and Kim Jong Un both tests and taunts the world with his nuclear ambitions. All as clear and present dangers for the next president.
For Full Measure, I’m Lisa Fletcher in Washington.
Watch video here.
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