The White House won't call
last week's attack on Philadelphia police Officer Jesse Hartnett terrorism, and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said Tuesday that's because officials are in a "state of denial."
"I think we all know what it is," McCaul told
Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program. "The American people know what it is."
Edward Archer, the man arrested in the ambush shooting of Hartnett, confessed to the attack and pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State, Philadelphia police said. But not labeling the attack as being related to Islamic terrorism, McCaul said, "it's an insult to the police officer" by not facing the real threat.
"When the defendant, the suspect, calls it an act of Islam, when he says he pledges allegiance to ISIS, and that we're going to backtrack and we're not sure what the situation," we all know what it is, said the Texas Republican, whose new book,
"Failures of Imagination: The Deadliest Threats to Our Homeland and How to Thwart Them" was released on Tuesday.
"This is the 79th arrest in the United States related to ISIS," he said. "That's a pretty disturbing statistic. When you look at that. In addition to all the foreign fighters out there and the people radicalized over the Internet, that's what my book addresses."
In his book, McCaul says, a "failure of imagination" has led to many of the nation's tragic attacks, even the one committed by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor.
"We failed to see Pearl Harbor and it was foreseeable," said McCaul. "We're right back in that same scenario now where we're not imagining what could happen and what we need to do to stop it. I think this is a public service book. The proceeds go to wounded warriors and their children. I think, I hope this becomes a 2016 presidential point of much conversation."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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