releases: http://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-reaction-to-islamic-state-tie-to-ca-terror-attack
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| http://barletta.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/barletta-reaction-to-islamic-state-tie-to-ca-terror-attack | Barletta Reaction to Islamic State Tie to CA Terror Attack | 2015-12-04 | 2015 | 2015-12 | Republican | House | PA | Lou Barletta | B001269 | barletta.house.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON Congressman Lou Barletta, PA-11, today reacted to disclosure by law enforcement officials that one of the two shooters in the San Bernardino, California terrorist attack had pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State on Facebook, according to news reports. Tashfeen Malik, the reported wife of the other shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook, posted about her fidelity to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the emir of the Islamic State, prior to the two attempting to erase their electronic tracks. Farook, a native-born American, reportedly found his Pakistani wife online and brought her to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia on a fiance visa. At some point along the way they became radicalized. Barletta, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee who sits on the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee, issued the following statement: There can no longer be any doubt that what happened in California was a terrorist attack pulled off by Islamic extremists, whether they were formal members of the Islamic State or not. These terrorists do not wear uniforms, and they dont belong to a regiment. They can be working in concert with Islamic State leaders, or they can act on their own. Their common thread is a twisted religious ideology that is dedicated to destroying freedom wherever it exists, whether it is in San Bernardino, Paris, or anywhere else in the world. I am troubled by the fact that this attack could possibly have been prevented if neighbors of the terrorists had come forward with their suspicions about activities going on in and around their home. It is painful to hear that neighbors were fearful of being accused of racial profiling and being branded racists if they alerted authorities to questionable behavior they were witnessing. We have gone from If you see something, say something, to If you see something, keep your mouth shut, at just the moment when we need public awareness the most. From where I sit on the Homeland Security Committee, I can see gaping holes in our security apparatus. This goes well beyond our illegal immigration problem, which continues to be in desperate need of repair. We must learn more about the process that allowed Farook to bring Malik in from Saudi Arabia, and exactly how the screening failed in this instance. I am very concerned about our visa waiver program, and our inability to track those who have arrived in United States legally, but never returned to their native countries. Visas are an extreme problem area, with people being allowed to bring in family members and others, without proper screening. We should also suspend our entire refugee program, as I have said before, until we can be certain that we are not letting in people whose goal in life is to kill Americans. There are clearly fatal flaws in our vetting systems, and they must be addressed. The Islamic State, or ISIS, is on the march. They are not the JV Team as the president infamously called them they are in the big leagues now, and they have a lot of fans. As Americans, we had better recognize that we are at war with them, because they are most assuredly at war with us. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |