BRUNSWICK, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King said Friday that anti-Muslim rhetoric propagated by U.S. presidential candidates such as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is “worrisome” and “counterproductive” to U.S. efforts to quell terrorism.
King cautioned that isolating Muslims in the United States, as some candidates have proposed, could create “cauldrons of discontent” similar to those he saw this week in Europe.
“It’s what ISIS wants,” King said. “They want the West to marginalize Muslims” and isolate them, making them more susceptible to being radicalized.
King spoke Friday morning at Bowdoin College, hours after returning from a trip to Poland, Ukraine, France and Germany with other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The group was in Paris on Tuesday morning when terrorist bombs exploded in Brussels, Belgium, only a few hundred miles away. The group then met with counterterrorism and intelligence officials throughout the day.
Europeans in general have been expecting attacks such as the one in Brussels, King said. “I think these things, for a while anyway, are more or less inevitable,” he added.
“As we are tightening the noose on Syria and ISIS — and I am in no sense declaring victory — the danger of an attack in the West is probably increasing,” King said. “They’re seeking to burnish their brand, and their brand is killing.”
The United States and Western countries must confront “radicalization” of terrorists on the ground in Muslim countries “and not just try to arrest or kill our way out of it,” he said.
King cautioned against isolating Muslim communities to the extent that they are in Europe because that feeds discontent, which could become a recruiting tool for those who view Western civilization as an enemy.
“It’s crucial that in this country we not discriminate against or marginalize our Muslim community” or “drive a wedge between Muslims and the community as a whole so they feel they have no choice,” King said.
“Here’s what we learned,” he said of this week’s trip. “Europe today is where the U.S. was before Sept. 11, [2011],” he said. “Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are separated, fractured, stovepiped, siloed” — much like U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies were before the terrorist attacks in this country.
King said European countries, separated by different languages, governments and “rivalries,” don’t communicate with each other, despite an open border policy, which he said creates “the worst of all possible situations.”
“In fact, that happened,” he said of the November 2015 attacks in Paris. “The plot was hatched in Belgium, then they went to Paris. … The combination of lack of communication and open borders creates a very dangerous situation.”
King said he suggested that although European countries are historically reluctant to share information with each other, more sophisticated terrorists and open borders make it more necessary. He said he suggested they use Interpol as “a neutral repository” to share intelligence “without threatening sovereignty.”
“The open border policy is very important to them, but if there are many more attacks like this, they’re going to have to rethink this,” he said.
King said he is frustrated that the United States, where Facebook, Instagram and other social media was created, is “not equipped to confront the war of ideas.”
“The thing that keeps me up at night is [the thought of an] American citizen radicalized online,” he said. “On Facebook, he gets a terrorist [All Points Bulletin] from ISIS, he gets a gun and he goes and kills somebody.”
While concerns about terrorism were heightened by the Brussels attack, King said the FBI and other agencies have made amazing progress protecting the U.S. against attacks. But there always will be vulnerabilities, he said.
“The problem is, if you’re 99.9 percent effective, you’re still going to lose lives,” King said.
King said the very freedom inherent in the United States makes citizens vulnerable to attack.
“Could we have prevented the [Boston] marathon bombings? Sure, if we had National Guard troops shoulder to shoulder all along the 26-mile route,” he said. “But we want our freedom. We don’t want a police state.”
King said he would not discourage family members from traveling because of heightened concern about terrorist threats.
“Sure, there’s a risk. But there’s a risk crossing the street. If we stop moving, that’s what they want,” he said.
King said the United States may need to increase its spending on defense and intelligence “in certain areas,” but he added that leaders of European countries realize they will need to shoulder more of the cost of defense against ISIS and other threats, so the financial burden doesn’t fall disproportionately on U.S. taxpayers.