I can reveal today that the U.S. government has information to indicate that individuals tied to terrorist groups in Syria have already attempted to gain access to our country through the U.S. refugee program. – Mike McCaul
Cairo has flights into JFK, and they’re going to open another one at Dulles… As long as we have flights coming directly to the United States, I think it’s putting Americans at risk. – Mike McCaul
We should be careful not to vilify encryption itself, which is essential for privacy, data security, and global commerce. – Mike McCaul
Now we’re dealing with a younger generation of terrorists that are very, very savvy with computer skills, very savvy over the Internet, and very savvy with social media of the likes that we have never seen before. – Mike McCaul
What is our capability when someone posts a public social media posting that says that they’re going to conduct attacks on the United States on behalf of the Islamic State. Why can’t we pick up that information and then stop that act of terror? – Mike McCaul
I think there’s kind of a simplistic, kind of knee-jerk response that all you have to do is build a 2,000-mile wall, and problem solved. – Mike McCaul
We know there are terrorists communicating with individuals in the United States. We just can’t see what they’re saying. – Mike McCaul
I’m over here with the French counterterrorism experts talking about the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ case, how we can stop foreign fighters from coming out of Iraq and Syria to Europe, but then we have this phenomenon in the United States where they can be activated by the Internet, and, really, terrorism has gone viral. – Mike McCaul
The dark space is one of the biggest concerns on the part of counterterrorism officials right now. Comey did a good job of explaining how they jump into a direct messaging box and then go into platforms designed specifically to be secure. There’s no way, even if we have a lawful court order, to be able to access those communications. – Mike McCaul
I cannot support a program that could potentially bring jihadists into the United States. – Mike McCaul
I am extremely concerned that Syrian and ISIS recruiters can use the Internet at lightning speeds to recruit followers in the United States with thousands of followers in the United States and then activate them to do whatever they want to do. – Mike McCaul
I think there is a failure in foreign policy. And you have to acknowledge that under Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton was the architect of that foreign policy. Whether it was malevolent or not, I don’t know. – Mike McCaul
We think there should be a better countering-violent-extremism effort, that there should be a lead agency tasked to handle that. – Mike McCaul
Violent extremism is going viral, but our response to it is moving at bureaucratic, sluggish speed. – Mike McCaul
200,000 ISIS tweets a day, 1,000 investigations in all 50 states. It’s really hard to stop all of it. But we have to get control over this Internet propaganda that is poisoning the minds of the United States. – Mike McCaul
I think the effective thing is, I passed this bill to combat violent extremism in the United States as effective outreach to the Muslim community, so you can pull the religious leaders really on to our team, if you will, to protect us from radicalization from within those communities. – Mike McCaul
The sad fact is, because we’ve had a failed policy and failed leadership, now we’re having to rely on Russians and the Iranians to go into Syria to fight and destroy ISIS. – Mike McCaul
There’s a conspiracy going on online every day between these top U.K. individuals within ISIS leadership out of Syria. – Mike McCaul
Do we want a back door in an iPhone where the government can go in to track movements if they have probable cause? I know the director of the FBI and local law enforcement want that capability. – Mike McCaul
I was in Cairo, Egypt, where Sinai – ISIS conducted the Russian airliner downing. We’re concerned about safety and security at these last point-of-departure airports flying directly into the United States – in that case, JFK. – Mike McCaul
We need to look at how we can better fortify our force protection at military installations. But also, how can we deal with these mental health issues with our returning veterans? And our suicide rate in the military is twice as high as the average population. – Mike McCaul
