Jeh Johnson concerned terror threat at 'heightened level'
Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says the nation's terror threat is at a “heightened level” following the vehicle attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day that killed more than a dozen people, urging the current and incoming administrations to “not take our eye off the ball.”
“Well, no matter who the president is, no matter whose administration it is, I believe there needs to be an intense focus among counterterrorism officials in multiple agencies right now on this evolving, heightened threat picture that we see right now, no matter who the president is,” Johnson, who led the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under former President Obama, said in an interview Friday morning interview on "Fox & Friends."
"We saw a spate of these in 2014, 2015, 2016, when I was in DHS. And that threat has not gone away, and I'm concerned that it's at a heightened level right now," he added.
Authorities said that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was responsible for plowing a rented Ford pickup truck in a crowd on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more.
Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and served in the Army from 2007 to 2020, was killed by law enforcement in the aftermath. Authorities then said that they found an Islamic State (ISIS) flag in the suspect’s vehicle and posts on social media where he expressed sympathy for the transnational terrorist organization.
During the interview, Johnson stated that ISIS “feels emboldened” after the New Orleans car attack and the recent fall of Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian government in early December.
With more major events coming up, including the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Trump and the Super Bowl, Johnson said he would advise the current DHS staff to not just “respond to the last attack. Anticipate the next one, which may be of a very different character.”
“Now, we've known for some time that the possibility of an attack with a vehicle, a vehicle is a weapon, or a mass shooting, is something to anticipate and prepare for,” the former DHS secretary said. “We should not believe that we've seen the last of this type of vehicle attack.”
"...But I always encourage my people, be vigilant and think about what could come next,” he added. “Don't just plug the last hole.”