RUTHFULLY YOURS

On Sept. 8, the Homeland Security Department’s inspector-general reported that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mistakenly granted citizenship to at least 858 individuals who were under deportation or removal orders.

On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress the actual number is “somewhere around” 750. But Johnson could not say how many of them were from countries known to be havens for terrorists.

“Were any of them from special interest countries?” Sen. Ben Sasse, a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, asked Johnson.

“Not off hand,” Johnson replied. “I — I can’t — I can’t give you that breakdown offhand. It is a — I suspect it is a knowable fact, which we can provide you.”

Johnson said a process to “denaturalize” those people is now under way. “And we’re going to continue to do that.”

“Were any of them from Iran, Syria, or Libya?” Sasse asked Johnson.

“I’d have to check. I don’t know sitting here right now, sir,” the secretary responded.

“How — how would you not know that?” Sasse asked. “Why would that not be something that’s urgent to you to understand the categories under the 700–”

“Oh, yes. It’s a knowable fact,” Johnson repeated. “I can get you the information. Just sitting here right now, I don’t have the list in front of me. You know, I don’t want to be wrong.”

“Do you think any of them were terrorists?” Sasse asked.

He might want to talk to his boss about it. Because his boss is the one bringing them here to enrich us and become “part of our story”. Just like in New York, Boston and Orlando.

Intelligence and law enforcement agencies worry that a surge of violent extremists will eventually move from ISIS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq into Western nations with the aim of committing terrorist attacks, FBI Director James Comey told Congress on Tuesday.

“The caliphate will be crushed,” but hundreds of people will remain and become part of a “terrorist diaspora” in the next two to five years. “When ISIS is reduced to an insurgency, those people will try to come to Western Europe and here,” Comey said in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

They’re already coming here. And Obama has brought thousands into this country. We’ve already seen ISIS acts of terror on our soil due to our immigration policies.

Comey testified alongside Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, at a hearing examining threats to national security 15 years after the 9/11 attacks. The hearing took place just over a week after bombings in New York and New Jersey and a separate stabbing attack at a Minnesota mall.

Rassmussen said the U.S. watchlisting system “allows us to have confidence that if we have an identity, we are very likely to prevent an individual from getting into the United States.”

Arcan Cetin, the suspect in the deadly Sept. 24 Cascade Mall shooting in Washington State, is facing prosecution for killing five people in just 60 seconds at a Macy’s store. Cetin used a Ruger rifle with a 25-round clip. He already had a criminal record going back two years and was charged in 2015 for assaulting his stepfather. After his arrest, he received a mental evaluation to determine his mental competence. Subsequently, he confessed to the crimes.

In addition, he may be facing additional investigation into his voting record and citizenship.

Cetin was born in Turkey and is not an American citizen, according to federal authorities cited by KING 5 News in Washington. This means that he cannot legally vote in the United States. However, records show that he registered to vote in 2014 and voted in three election cycles, including the May presidential primary.

The young Muslim man emigrated to the U.S. from his native Turkey as a minor and is permanent resident of the U.S. While permanent residents may apply for U.S. citizenship, KING’s sources say that Cetin’s status has not changed.

In the State of Washington, voters can merely attest their American citizenship when registering online or registering to vote at an office of the Department of Licensing. State law in Washington does not require any proof of citizenship. It is thus that state officials contend that the voter registration process operates under an honor system rather than rigorous proof.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman said that an investigation is going forward in an effort to preserve public confidence in the integrity of elections, and due process for Cetina. In an interview with KING, Wyman said “We don’t have a provision in state law that allows us either county elections officials or the Secretary of State’s office to verify someone’s citizenship.” In Washington State, the penalty for voting as a non- U.S. citizen can result in five years of prison time or a $10,000, according to state law.

FBI Director James Comey returned to the Hill for a third time Wednesday to defend the integrity of the bureau’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email setup, and for a third time he encountered dubious Republicans who peppered him with questions to which he didn’t always have a satisfying answer.

Via Politico:

“You can call us wrong, but don’t call us weasels. We are not weasels,” Comey declared Wednesday at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. “We are honest people and … whether or not you agree with the result, this was done the way you want it to be done.”

The normally stoic FBI chief grew emotional and emphatic as he rejected claims from Republican lawmakers that the FBI was essentially in the tank for Clinton when it recommended that neither she nor any of her aides be prosecuted in connection with the presence of classified information on Clinton’s private email server. He acknowledged he has “no patience” for such allegations.

“I knew there were going to be all kinds of rocks thrown, but this organization and the people who did this are honest, independent people. We do not carry water for one side or the other. That’s hard for people to see because so much of our country, we see things through sides,” Comey said. “We are not on anybody’s side.”

Congressman Trey Gowdy was one of the Republicans trying to get some answers regarding the integrity of the FBI investigation.

He started off by dryly “acknowledging progress” in the Clinton email matter.

Referring to the House Judiciary Committee hearing, he quipped, “This morning we’ve had nine straight Democrats talk to the FBI about emails without asking for immunity.”

“You and I had a discussion last time about intent,” the South Carolina firebrand told Director Comey. “You and I see the statute differently. My opinion doesn’t matter — yours does, you’re the head of the bureau…but in my judgement, you read an element into the statute that does not appear on the face of the statute.”

The former prosecutor agreed that “intent” is often very hard to prove.

“Very rarely do defendants announce ahead of time, ‘I intend to commit this crime on this date. Go ahead and check the code section, I’m gonna do it,'” Gowdy pointed out.

He added, “That rarely happens so you have to prove it by circumstantial evidence.”

Republican senators sharply criticized FBI director James Comey Tuesday for his agency’s handling of recent terrorism incidents, including a bombing in New York and a shooting in an Orlando nightclub.

“Let’s just admit we’re not perfect and we made mistakes here,” Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on global terrorism. “Because if we don’t admit to mistakes we’re not going to get better.”

Paul said the FBI should make better use of existing tools instead of requesting more power. In addition, he suggested officials keep investigations open longer to prevent potential terrorists from slipping through the cracks after inquiries are closed — citing recent incidents as examples.
Comey defended the agency’s handling of both attacks and pledged transparency. But he did not concede to missing important details in either ca

“Sitting before you is a deeply flawed and fallible human being who believes deeply in admitting mistakes when they’re made,” Comey said.

In 2014, FBI officials investigated Ahmad Rahami — the 28-year-old accused of setting off bombs earlier this month in New York and New Jersey — but found no links to terrorism and subsequently dropped their case. The FBI also investigated and questioned Orlando gunman Omar Mateen several years prior to his June rampage.

Appearing with Comey, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said the landscape of terrorism has become less predictable and more dangerous since the 9/11 attacks in 2001. We have moved from a world of “terrorist-directed attacks” to one in which internet propaganda and self-radicalization take center stage, Johnson said.

Johnson pointed to recent bombings as examples of the “evolving” threat of homegrown extremism and the imperative of working more closely with community leaders.