A counter-terrorism bill will come on the House floor Tuesday night to provide more assistance to state and local governments to deal with IEDs, suicide bombers, and active shooter scenarios such as those playing out in the streets overseas, as the "battleground has been brought to the streets of the United States," House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul said Tuesday.
"Our law enforcement needs the proper training to deal with active shooters, pressure cooker bombs, IEDs and suicide bombers," the Texas Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Bill Hemmer.
"This will go a long ways in terms of preparation to prevent what is a war in the streets of America."
McCaul said intelligence officials are seeing that potential terrorists are being recruited, but being told to wage attacks from home.
"What we are seeing more and more after the 9/11 ceremony last week, they are saying less and less come to Syria and join the fight," said McCaul. "Now they are saying stay where you are and kill where you are."
Meanwhile, it's still not known if New York City bombing suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami was acting alone, but DNA evidence was found on the unexploded pressure cooker bomb in New York that was connected with unexploded pipe bombs in New Jersey, said McCaul, so there is a known connection between the weapons.
"What we don't know is, does that indicate another actor or conspirator to this offense?" said McCaul. "Other individuals were seen in the video both in New York and New Jersey. So that is something investigators are looking at closely. It's significant if it goes beyond just one lone wolf into a terrorist cell operation."
There are reports that Rahami's wife left the country just days before the bombing took place in New York City on Saturday, and McCaul noted officials are looking at three trips Rahami took to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"When he came back, he reportedly had been radicalized upon his return to the United States," said McCaul. "This is a classic scenario when radicalization takes place and yet it's not reported to authorities. It's unfortunate that wasn't done in this case."
The Afghan-born man, though, had been investigated for a domestic violence charge after he stabbed a relative in the leg, but a grand jury decided not to indict him, said McCaul.
"That possibly could have revealed more information," said the Texas lawmaker. "I'm always interested in who he met with overseas, who he talked to. Was he radicalized over there? One thing is clear, something happened to him when he went overseas.
"By all accounts, by his girlfriend's account and friends, he became a different person, a deeply religious person in the Islamic faith, and turned into a terrorist."
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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