Read Todd Bensman’s Investigative Project on Terrorism story about the two Yemeni terror suspects that CBP announced were caught at the California border.
Interview with OAN’s Chanel Rion, who asked what was significant about the two apprehensions of Yemeni migrants on the FBI terror watch list.
Bensman: “The two Yemenis that were apprehended in California are the most visible way that we have been able to see – in a long time – what this threat issue is. Those two Yemenis were both on the FBI terrorism watch list, and one of them was on the No Fly list. A press release went out about those two Yemenis. Within 24 hours, that press release was taken down. And I have a feeling that was not a local decision but was coming from on high.”
Chanel Rion: “The problem of terrorists entering a porous border seems to be aggravated by current policies we’re watching take place or not take place at the border right now. What do you say to that?”
Bensman: “There’s a near war and a far war. The near war, as I write in the book, is about what we do at the border to catch these guys and after we catch these guys, what we do with them. The FBI and probably some other three-letter agencies are down there interviewing face-to-face with those guys, dumping their cell phones, taking that SIM card that one of them was hiding in his shoe and downloading that, leading to other investigation. That is happening – when we catch them. But… if you have mass migration – tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who are collapsing normal border systems – the possibility that you’re going to catch these people is reduced and certainly the possibility that we’re going to be able to get in there and do what’s necessary investigative-wise also will wane. Because everybody’s busy taking care of kids and processing and moving people out of ICE detention as soon as possible. And people like this could get lost in the crush of activity. I’m glad that did not happen in the case of those two Yemenis. But again, we don’t know what we don’t know.”