“The I&A report does not include data from other intelligence community sources,” Christensen explained. “It is clear on its face that it is an incomplete product that fails to find evidence of terrorism by simply refusing to look at all the available evidence.”
While DHS was asked to draft a comprehensive report on the seven countries, Christensen added, the draft document circulated by the media “was commentary from open source reporting versus an official, robust document with thorough interagency sourcing.”
“Any suggestion by opponents of the president’s policies that senior DHS intelligence officials would politicize this process or a report’s final conclusions is absurd and not factually accurate,” Christensen claimed. “The dispute with this product was over sources and quality, not politics.”
Christensen stated that the seven countries pose a risk to national security either because of their lack of ability to properly vet their citizens due to the absence of functioning government infrastructure or demonstrated unwillingness to provide adequate information on their citizens who desire to travel to the United States.
The DHS determined in its report that terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen pose an immediate threat of attacks to the United States, however, groups in Iran, Libya, Somalia and Sudan focus on regional attacks.
Trump’s recent executive order intended to bar travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the United States for 90 days. Trump is expected to reveal a revised executive order of the travel ban soon.
