Federal authorities have arrested a 17-year-old Texas teenager, and plan to try him as an adult, after accusing him of plotting to assassinate Rep. Keith Self, a Republican lawmaker.
The teen, who was being watched by the FBI, had become “radicalized” and planned to kill Rep. Self for his anti-Muslim and anti-Sharia views. The attack was planned at a fundraiser, the FBI alleges.
The teenage boy was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 5 and the fundraiser, a chili cook-off with celebrity guests, carried on as scheduled on Oct. 17.
Drawing from his own experience in the U.S. Army National Guard, Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) told “Washington Watch” the military’s job is to protect the “external perimeter” to keep the nation safe.
“Inside the United States, you have law enforcement,” he stated. “They have to play by a different set of rules because people in the United States have civil liberties and constitutional rights.”
Working within those protected rights, Rep. Evans said, the “inner perimeter” of the nation must be protected, too.
“And we know that the global threat environment is, in fact, a very dangerous place,” said the Congressman, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee.
Of all the world’s nations, he added, Iran remains the leading cause of terrorism around the globe.
Reacting to the planned killing of Rep. Self, Rep. Evans said federal, state, and local law enforcement must cooperate, talk to each other, and share information.
“To put all of the pieces of the puzzle together,” he said, “in order to identify and interdict attacks before they happen.”
That lack of law enforcement cooperation, Evans recalled, was uncovered after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when local law enforcement was watching suspicious activity by the eventual hijackers.
Evans himself witnessed the lure of radical Islam up close. As a police officer on the Arvada Police Department, he was involved in the 2014 arrest of a Muslim convert, Shannon Conley, 19. After she met an ISIS fighter online, she planned to travel to Syria to work with ISIS as a battlefield nurse.
Conley was arrested by FBI agents as she boarding a flight to Turkey.
“The challenge moving forward right now is you have states, unfortunately, like Colorado, that absolutely refuse to let state and local law enforcement coordinate with their federal counterparts,” the Congressman warned.
