NEW YORK -- Black–cowled ISIS militants are now on US soil, according to Texas Governor Rick Perry. Despite admitting there was "no clear evidence" of this, the likely 2016 Republican Presidential candidate informed a Washington audience on Thursday that "common sense" suggests that terrorist hordes have permeated the US mainland via the country’s soft southern border.
"I think there is the obvious great concern that because of the condition of the border, from the standpoint of it not being secure and us not knowing who is penetrating across, that individuals from ISIS or other terrorist states could be [entering]," he said.
"We have no clear evidence of that, but your common sense tells you, when we see the number of criminal activities that have occurred — I'm talking about the assaults, the rapes, the murders — by individuals who have come into this country illegally over the last five years, the idea that they would not be looking at and managing any of those types of attacks from that region is not a good place to be."
ISIS under the bed?
The border has become Perry’s cause célèbre in recent months, while the growth of the Islamic State, formerly ISIS, has become an issue of huge concern in the US, particularly following the butchering of journalists James Foley earlier this week. A conflation of the issues adds a sense of urgency to the border crisis, while allowing Perry, who is currently battling corruption charges, to appear at the forefront of the war against the Jihadists.
On the crisis in Iraq, Perry lambasted President Obama for stating that he would not send ground troops to the region. "I think signalling to your enemies what you are not going to put on the table is very very bad, both strategically and tactical errors by this administration," he said, adding: "We need to have all of our options open. For many Americans, of course, just the last thing we want to think about is more conflict in Iraq and what that might involve."
Perry is not the first person to suggest ISIS is already on the US mainland. In a recent interview with Fox News, Dennis Michael Lynch, a conservative filmmaker, whose past fare includes They Come To America (illegal immigration) and We Ride To DC (liberal bias in the media), also said that the radical Islamist sect has gained access to the US via the Mexican border.
UPDATE:
On Friday a Defense Department spokesman said that there was "no indication" that ISIS militants had crossed the Mexican border into the US. Speaking on CNN, John Kirby said, "We have no information that leads us to believe that. That said, we do know they have aspirations to hit western targets and it’s something, as Secretary Hagel said yesterday, that we’ve got to take seriously and with have to try to be ready for it."
