ISIS ... in America? ... that's just crazy talk! At least if claimed by a Republican in Congress and heard at MSNBC -- while a House Democrat making a comparably ominous warning is ignored by the same network.
It was all Rachel Maddow could do last night to contain her mirth at the apparently preposterous possibility that suspected ISIS terrorists have been caught at the US-Mexican border, as claimed by Congressman Duncan Hunter, Republican of California.
Maddow reacted as if Hunter suggested that a deranged man armed with a knife could somehow slip through several layers of security at the White House put in place by our mercilessly efficient Secret Service, until he was belatedly tackled well inside by an off-duty agent. Yeah, right, like that could ever happen! Next we'll be hearing wild-eyed claims that Ebola might make the leap from Africa to Europe, and possibly to the United States.
Maddow's mockery stemmed from Hunter's appearance on Greta Van Susteren's Fox News show Tuesday night --
HUNTER: I know that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas. There's nobody talking about it ...
VAN SUSTEREN: How do you know that?
HUNTER: Because I've asked, because I've asked the Border Patrol, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: And the Border Patrol, they just let ISIS, ISIS members, come across the border?
HUNTER: No, they caught them at them at the border, therefore we know that ISIS is coming across the border. If they catch five or 10 of them, then you know there are going to be dozens more that did not get caught.
This struck Maddow as hilarity at its highest --
MADDOW: Greta's like, what?! (makes goofy face, laughs). According to Republican congressman Duncan Hunter, ISIS is in this country! (as if such a thing is remotely possible!). Duncan Hunter says the United States Border Patrol has captured at least 10 ISIS fighters who have come across the southern border (the same one that tens of thousands of illegals have already crossed this year ...) into the United States! Wow! Is that true or is that false? False! False! False! False! You would have heard about it. (As you would if someone fired bullets into the White House ...).
Maddow said her show "reached out" (awww ...) to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, and one of its crack staff of communications specialists put out the following statement --
The suggestion that individuals who have ties to ISIL have been apprehended at the Southwest border is categorically false, and not supported by any credible intelligence or the facts on the ground. DHS continues to have no credible intelligence to suggest that terrorist organizations are actively plotting to cross the southwest border.
Agreed, the notion that the Obama-led Border Patrol might actually catch ISIS terrorists does comes across as far-fetched.
Maddow said her show contacted Hunter's office for elaboration and an email back-and-forth with Hunter's staffers ensued. Hunter's staff cited a story at Judicial Watch's "Corruption Chronicles" blog claiming that four ISIS terrorists had been arrested in Texas in the previous 36 hours, according to "Homeland Security sources." In late August Judicial Watch reported that Islamic terrorists in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez were planning to attack targets in the US with car bombs or other vehicle-borne explosives.
In an email to the Maddow show, a Hunter staffer said it would have been "more accurate" to refer "to them as foreign nationals with IS associations." As for Homeland Security denying Hunter's claim, the Hunter staffer responded, "of course DHS is right -- they are always right, aren't they?"
"Of course they would say that," Maddow said sarcastically in a stage whisper. "Maybe they're sort of ISIS-y too." (MRC's recording of the Maddow show ended just before she said this; here's a link to her program).
Something tells me that Maddow would not be nearly so snide toward a similar claim made by one of Hunter's colleagues in the House -- Democrat Tim Bishop of New York. In a jaw-dropping revelation that's received little attention in the media (go figure), Bishop at a campaign stop in mid-September warned that dozens of homegrown ISIS terrorists who have already fought in the Middle East have returned to the United States (Bishop's remarks below start just after 30 seconds into this clip): --
I think (President Obama) is correct to recognize the threat. It clearly is a threat to the stability of the Middle East and a region that is already remarkably unstable. It is not yet a threat to the homeland but there is a concern that it could metastasize in such a way that it could become a threat to the homeland and one of the concerns is the number of US citizens who have left our country to go and join up with ISIS. It is believed that there have been some number, up to 100, that have done that. It is also believed that some 40 of those who left this country to join up with ISIS have now returned to our country. Those 40 are under FBI attention and surveillance, so they are known and they are being tracked by the FBI.
Don't hold your breath waiting for Bishop to appear on Maddow's show to elaborate. When it's crazy talk from a Republican, he's vilified on MSNBC. When it comes from a Democrat, MSNBC has never heard of him.
(h/t, National Review's Jim Geraghty)
