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BLITZER: He murdered four U.S. Marines, obviously, it is a top priority.
All right. Pamela, thank you.
We're joined now by a prominent member of the U.S. Homeland Security Committee as well as the Intelligence Committee, Republican Congressman Peter King of New York is joining us.
Congressman, the chairman of your committee, you know him, Mike McCaul, he says that in his experience this attack was ISIS inspired. At a minimum, what do you know about this?
REP. PETER KING (R), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Well, as you know,
Pamela Brown just said the FBI is going through all the electronic devices and there may not be any specific evidence they have yet. That it was ISIS inspired. But what Mike McCaul was saying is, on the totality of indications so far, this is something that certainly could have been inspired by ISIS.
And if it was not inspired by ISIS, it's certainly been inspired by the whole world of Islamic terrorism because we've been hearing for months about the need for ISIS and others to attack law enforcement, to attack the military. There's been these repeated calls coming over the Internet through social media and the general media. So one way or the other, he got the idea from someone and since it follows this pattern of attacking the military, and the -- and arrest in Ramadan, to me, it's almost semantics whether he was actually inspired by ISIS or whether or not he just inspired generally because Islamic jihadists.
BLITZER: Or if he was instructed, he was actually ordered to do something like this, maybe while he spent last year, seven months in Jordan. That's a possibility as well.
KING: Absolutely, Wolf. That's a whole separate issue. And that's why the FBI is putting such a full court press on this. The fact is that he did spend several months in Jordan. That has to raise alarm bells now looking back at it. Why, you know, a young man of his age, you know, went over there to join -- that's a long period of time to be out of your own country, to be in Jordan.
And while Jordan is one of our very, very closest allies in the entire world, there's no doubt that there are Islamist forces in Jordan as well. So all -- by the way, I can guarantee we will get total and full cooperation from King Abdullah and his intelligence forces in Jordan to the extent that they have any idea what -- you know, what this assailant was up to when he was in Jordan.
BLITZER: Have you been briefed now by the FBI, other U.S. law enforcement intelligence community officials?
[17:45:04] KING: I have through my staff. Yes, I receive pretty extensive briefings. And I would say basically what we're hearing privately is pretty much what you're hearing publicly, is that this is all out there. And the FBI is putting on a full court press. And the main thing right now is the electronic devices and also whatever they can get from Jordan, as to what he did when he was over there. That's where the key components right now.
And I guess, as Jane Harman said before, you know, we're in the first 24, 30 hours of this investigation and there is so much more that could come out. Like with the Boston marathon bombing, it was really weeks and maybe even longer than that before the full story came out about the Tsarnaev brothers. So I think we should be -- again just keep in mind that this is clearly an Islamist act.
And the question now is whether or not he acted on his own, whether he was inspired, whether he was directed and whether or not there could be other friends and associates of his who somehow could still be involved in this, or that's what the FBI has to be looking at.
And also one thing I may want to add on this, Wolf, is that it is very hard to stop these type people just by monitoring social media. That's why I think it's more important than ever that local police be brought in by the FBI, that's what we've seen in New York City where you had the five arrests last month.
The police on the ground, they get information that the FBI would not be able to get through their sources and methods. So the two working together. So for instance, the fact that his father was investigated several years ago. I hope the FBI made that known to local police. Because in that case then the police can keep an eye on other members of the family. Not a full scale surveillance but certainly monitor and see what's happening because again the FBI is limited in what it can do and just by, you know, limited amount of manpower.
So that's why it's really important, we're going to find out who these either lone wolves are or people who are actual accomplices. You have to have on the ground, police on the ground with no substitute for combining the federal capabilities with having cops on the ground. That's a great marriage. That's what we've seen in New York with the FBI and the NYPD and the JTTF.
BLITZER: And he apparently wasn't on any terror watch list or anything like that.
Stand by, Congressman, I have more questions. Especially about U.S. military soft targets. Does more need to be done right now to protect the men and women of the United States military?
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[17:51:48] BLITZER: We're back with Republican Congressman Peter King of New York. He's a member of the Homeland Security and Intelligence Committees.
Congressman, as you know, this guy Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, he attacked what's called a soft target. Yes, two U.S. military targets but the military personnel there are not armed.
Should officials at these recruitment offices -- there are some off Long Island, they're in your district, all over the country, they're at shopping centers, they're at the strip malls. They want people to come in, young people, men and women to get information about serving the country in the military. Should first of all there be heightened security at these recruitment centers? And should these U.S. military personnel, whether Marines or others be armed?
KING: Two things, Wolf. My understanding is the NYPD has already increased security at the -- any of these recruiting stations in New York City. Secondly, I believe that yes. I think that the personnel in there, at least several of them, should be armed. The world has changed. And we know right now whether it's ISIS or other Islamist forces, that they have said that all military personnel, particularly military and police. All uniformed personnel are now targets. So in view of that, this is such an unfortunately a soft, open target.
I think that they should be armed and also we should reinforce them as far as bullet proofing the glass to the extent we can. Maybe have some type of alarms. Because again that's not the type of where we want to live in. But unfortunately, we've been put in that situation and we saw the consequences of it yesterday.
BLITZER: We know the governor of Oklahoma took a step today to do some of those -- take some of those steps. Should the governor of New York, Governor Cuomo, do that?
KING: Mary Fallon is a hero of mine now in Oklahoma, so I'm not surprised that she did it. As far as Governor Cuomo, in New York, that is primarily a local obligation. And New York City has gone ahead and done it, and I would think other municipalities should. If they believe they need assistance from the state police then yes. The governor should get involved. Yes.
BLITZER: As far as you know, the fact that he was on watch list, no terror list, not even on a no fly list, or anything along those lines. Was there an intelligence failure there?
KING: Wolf, I wouldn't say it's intelligence failure but I think it shows the need to have more comprehensive analysis going on. For instance, in the Boston marathon bombing, the FBI was told by the Russians to be suspicious of the older brother. The FBI did an investigation and found nothing and dropped it. Never told the Boston police.
I would think in each of these instances, the FBI should do its own investigation which they did of the father. But then they should let the local police know and ask for any additional help from the local police and the local police should keep a -- at least a monitoring of that -- of those people. And in doing that, you may have found out something about Mohammad himself here. So it shows in the new world in which we live, there has to be more surveillance. And that's why I think it's been wrong when you have elements like the "New York Times," the Civil Liberties Union who go after, like the NYPD, for carrying out surveillance.
It's necessary to do that to pick up the type of rumors and discussions or whatever, that should be looked into by cops on the ground. They're the ones who combine what they get with the FBI's overview.
BLITZER: All right.
KING: And that to me is the only way that we -- to hopefully have of stopping these type of attacks.
[17:55:07] BLITZER: Congressman Peter King of New York. Thank you.
KING: Wolf, thank you very much.
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