Terror Attacks Are Coming Here

The events in Paris over the past week have been a real wake-up call to the West and those countries that live in freedom.

In the past 40 years, there have been hundreds of attacks around the world by radical Muslim extremists, dozens of which targeted Americans at home and abroad: the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001; the Khobar Towers in 1996; our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998; the attack on the USS Cole in 2000; and the Ft. Hood massacre in 2009, just to name a few.

According to published reports, there have been at least 13 attempted attacks in New York alone since Sept. 11, 2001.

In the aftermath of everyone of those attacks, the response from our government, world leaders, and the press and media, have been the same: shock and surprise, anger and outrage, assumptions and opinions as to why, increased terror alerts, and calls for action!

The world’s response to the attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and Kosher supermarket in Paris that killed 17 people has been no different.

How is anyone in January 2015 shocked or surprised that a European nation has been attacked by radical Islamic extremists?

Al-Qaida, ISIS, ISIL, Al-Shabaab, Hamas, Hezbollah, and dozens of other radical Muslim extremists groups have been threatening United States, Europe, Israel, and other nations for the last 40 years. Do we still not believe them?

We’re outraged over the Paris attacks, but are we no longer outraged about 9/11 or the USS Cole, or our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania?

I’ve listened to so called terrorism experts over the past week, who wouldn’t know Osama bin Laden if he were standing next to them, give their opinions and assumptions as to why the French magazine was attacked.

Are you kidding? Does anyone really have to ask?

I heard one journalist make an inference that the attack may have some how been justified by Charlie Hebdo’s insistence on publishing cartoons that offended the extremists. That is insanity!

They’re offended by a cartoon, but not at the social media visuals of children being slaughtered, journalists and others being decapitated, or the mass executions of innocent men, women in Iraq and Syria?

There is nothing that justifies the barbaric behavior of these mass murderers. Nothing.

So as usual, we have now rasied the state of alert around the globe… again!

In the past few days, the FBI and U.S. State Department issued new terror bulletins, urging local and state police to watch for increased terror activity, and cautioned American travelers abroad they are at risk of attack or kidnapping.

“Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests . . . Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, shopping malls, and other tourist destinations both in the United States and abroad where U.S. citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.”

These are close to the exact same warnings that were published after 9/11, and the bombings and attacks in Bali, Mumbai, Madrid, Beslan, Russia, London, Egypt, Amman, or the attempted Times Square car bombing.

We’ve been warned and overwarned, but we’re still shocked and surprised and wondering why?

So for those that still don’t believe it can happen here . . . it’s coming, and coming sooner than you think.

I believe that there are Islamic extremist operatives like Said Kouachi, one of the two brothers involved in the Paris attack who traveled to Yemen to train with al-Qaida, right here in our own backyard. Some are born here and some not. I’ve been saying it since 2003.

The Justice and Defense Departments both admit that there are American citizens presently fighting with ISIS/ISIL abroad, who will eventually return here. Does anyone believe they are melting back in to their communities, never to be heard from again?

There are sleeper cells in this country — operatives that we are completely unaware of, who are not on a watchlist, and who are waiting for the right time to spring into attack mode.

The terror alert today should remain as is, just like Israel and other countries that are the constant target for Islamic extremism.

The terror threats of today will not diminish over time. They are increasing, and will continue to increase unless we eradicate this threat.

Last, stop the calls for actions unless you really mean it! It’s embarrassing and makes us look stupid. You’re either going to fight and defeat the enemy, or your not . . . but all talk and no action makes us look extremely weak.

Airstrikes and drone attacks will help, but we need boots on the ground — military or contractor — one or the other. Just do it.

If we know who the Americans and Europeans are that have gone into Syria and Iraq to join the jihad, charge them criminally for bearing arms for a foreign nation, or charge them with treason. If our present laws do not cover these people, Congress need to create laws that do.

The United States government spares no expense to train our U.S. military’s special operators — Green Berets, SEALS, Rangers, and others — who protect U.S. interests abroad, while local and state police are tasked with the protection of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, yet there is limited funding for resources and training dedicated to major city swat teams and Tier I counter terror/hostage rescue units, which will be called upon to confront our highest level threats.

Ask the people of Paris, France today is they believe that their local and state police should be demilitarized or diminished in anyway. I think I know the answer.

We need to face the fact that there is a chameleon type unconventional enemy that wants every non-Muslim American dead. Some of that enemy is here, and others are trying their best to get here.

Please believe their threats. The barbaric behavior of Islamist extremism in this century will far surpasses the atrocities of Nazism in the last, if we don’t stop it.

It’s not like we have not been warned.

In 1986, Kerik joined the New York City Police Department where he earned the medal for valor. In 1991 he was transferred to the U.S. Justice Department's New York Drug Enforcement Task Force. In August 2000, Kerik served as police commissioner of New York. He led New York City through the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. After retiring from the NYPD, Kerik accepted a request by the White House to lead Iraq's provisional government's efforts to reconstitute the Iraqi Interior Ministry. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.