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Hours before Barack Obama is to announce an expanded military campaign against Islamic State (Isis) militants, his senior homeland security official assessed that the organization poses no imminent danger to America at home.
“At present, we have no credible information that [Isis] is planning to attack the homeland of the United States,” Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson told a Manhattan audience on Wednesday.
Johnson is the latest in a string of top US officials to concede that the jihadist army currently in control of much of eastern Syria and northern and central Iraq is not targeting the US at present, despite beheading two captured American journalists.
Last week, the head of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Matthew Olsen, issued nearly the exact same phrase. Earlier on Wednesday, Olsen’s deputy told a congressional panel that al-Qaida’s affiliates pose the greatest threat of a domestic attack, with Isis threatening US interests primarily “inside Iraq right now.”
Similarly, when the leaders of US intelligence agencies provided their annual threat assessments to congressional oversight committees in January and February, they stressed a domestic threat emanating from a rival jihadist group. The Nusra Front, al-Qaida’s preferred Syrian affiliate, “does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland,” director of national intelligence James Clapper said, weeks after Isis invaded the Iraqi city of Fallujah. He and his colleagues gave relatively scant focus to Isis, which has now upended the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
The discrepancy between Isis’s assessed threat to the US and the buildup of US military action – thus far standing at 154 air strikes in Iraq and over 1,100 ostensibly noncombat troops deployed – has sparked accusations of fearmongering. A member of the House intelligence committee, Republican Mike Pompeo of Kansas, wrote that Isis presents an “existential threat to America”.
Shortly after Johnson’s speech, the Justice Department announced a guilty plea from a Colorado woman for providing “material support” to Isis, which it identified as an al-Qaida “affiliate” despite al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri specifically rejecting and disclaiming ties with the group. The White House promoted the announcement in advance of Obama’s speech.
Despite the assessed lack of imminent threat, Johnson portrayed Obama’s forthcoming anti-Isis strategy as a responsible approach against the “serious threat” posed by a “depraved” adversary.
“After 13 years of war since 9/11, the decision by the president to take on a new fight against this enemy was not an easy one,” said Johnson, who signaled that one of his main tasks in the coming months will be preventing Isis fighters from entering the United States.
Johnson said he had arranged new deals with foreign airports for enhanced passenger screening, which he called an “imperative” that he seeks to expand. Additional intelligence sharing between the department, the FBI and intelligence agencies in the US and Europe will attempt to identify people attempting to enter the US from Syria. Identifying “terrorist travel patterns” will be a priority, he said, with more nations enlisted for the effort.
That likely indicates a renewed focus on the government’s various and highly controversial watchlists – right as legal challenges mount to the lists, which focus overwhelmingly on Muslims and do not require specific ties to terrorist organizations for inclusion.
Johnson, known for being one of the administration’s more liberal senior officials, also acknowledged “unfortunate examples” in which the government went “too far” on the pretext of protecting Americans.
“In the name of national security, our government should not overreact, or react out of fear, anger or prejudice,” he said.
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