A Report from the Hill

Round 4: Joint House/Senate Homeland Security Committee Hearing on Radical Islam’s Terror Threat to U.S. Military Communities

Must-see video of brief exchange between Rep. Dan Lungren and Obama official!!

by Lisa Piraneo, Director of Government Relations

Last Wednesday, I Tweeted live during the 4th of Chairman Pete King’s hearings on radical Islam in our nation, entitled “Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities Inside the United States.” Last week’s hearing, was slightly different from the previous three, in that it was a JOINT hearing convened by both the House Homeland Security Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

To accompany the hearing, Chairman King released a Congressional Majority Investigative Report, also entitled, “Homegrown Terrorism: The Threat to Military Communities inside the United States.” The report offers numerous details on the dangers faced by our military and their families on U.S. soil, noting,

 “The Department of Defense considers the U.S. Homeland the most dangerous place for a G.I. outside of foreign  warzones – and the top threat they face here is from violent Islamist extremists. While our troops at overseas bases train their weapons outward to prevent armed enemies from getting “inside the wire,” one way militant Islamists are penetrating our defenses is through enlistment in the U.S. Armed Forces. A significant and growing number of military personnel, such as alleged Fort Hood mass murderer Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, pose a serious danger to their brothers and sisters in arms who wear the same uniform.”

Last week’s hearing covered a great deal of ground, which you can find out by downloading my more detailed report HERE. For the remainder of this e-mail, however, I want to focus on one particular exchange that you just HAVE to see to believe.

Wednesday Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) opened a hearing to examine the emerging threat to the military from homegrown terrorists within the U.S. and named the armed services as the “most sought-after” target for radical Islamist extremist groups.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.) asked Paul Stockton, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, whether “we are at war with violent Islamist extremism.”