“I worry a lot that we’ve let down our guard on counterterrorism, and I don’t say this to scare anybody or to exaggerate, but I think we are not paying enough attention to resurgent terrorist actions,” said former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell at the VOICES 25th Anniversary Symposium, an event reflecting on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Clinton was a New York senator when planes struck the World Trade Center in Manhattan 25 years ago. Other hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field after passengers revolted and nearly 3,000 people died altogether.
Ten years later, Clinton, then secretary of state, was in the Situation Room with former President Barack Obama as the mission against Osama bin Laden – a Saudi Arabian who organized the attacks – unfolded. Obama announced in May 2011 that the U.S. had finally killed bin Laden, who was also the leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group.
During those 10 years between the attacks and the Obama administration’s takedown of bin Laden, the administration of former President George W. Bush got the U.S. into a war in Iraq. While no link between Iraq or its leader at the time, Saddam Hussein, has been found, the Bush administration presented the war on Iraq as being part of a larger “war on terror.”
“The United States became embroiled in a bloody war of occupation that lasted eight years and cost it dearly, damaging its global reputation and empowering anti-American forces throughout the Middle East and worldwide. [Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations] historians ranked the invasion of Iraq as the worst U.S. foreign policy decision,” the Council on Foreign Relations noted.
Troops were also sent to Afghanistan, and the administration of former President Joe Biden pulled them out in 2021. Current President Donald Trump has criticized that move.
Today, the U.S. still faces threats and there have been many “close calls” with terrorist plots over the years, according to Clinton.
“The threat did not go away – it receded – but it is still there, and there are still many thousands of extremists in the world who wish us a great deal of ill,” she said.
Trump has again brought the U.S. to war in the Middle East this year. In February, he announced that we had joined Israel to attack Iran. This conflict has dragged on for months despite attempts at a peace deal, resulting in inflated gas prices here in the U.S.
In addition, putting the U.S. in active conflict with Iran and its allies, the war is unpopular stateside. According to the Silver Bulletin, more than 55% of Americans oppose the war. Recent NBC News polling found that even support for the war among Republicans – members of Trump’s own party – has drooped.
To face today’s terrorist threats, Clinton said that the country needs to overcome its internal divisions, NBC reported. She said threats come from Iran, China and Russia as well as non-state adversaries and terrorist groups.
“When you’re more interested in building your ballroom than figuring out what the intelligence is coming out of Afghanistan – that is absolutely contrary to any kind of sensible decision-making,” Clinton said, referring to Trump’s controversial demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make way for a large ballroom.
Clinton also “accused the Trump administration of dismantling parts of the federal government, including within the State Department, that traditionally collected intelligence and evaluated these terrorist threats,” said NBC. With those cuts, she said we’re now missing crucial information from places like western Africa where extremism is taking hold.
“The administration cut thousands of jobs across the federal government last year as part of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency effort, including at the CIA and the State Department,” NBC added.
The White House referred NBC News to the Department of Homeland Security when asked for comment, said the outlet.
“I am increasingly concerned because I don’t think we are focused. I know there are very dedicated people still in the government, you know, in the FBI, in the intelligence agencies. I understand that,” Clinton said. “But they don’t have… the resources, and they’re not given the kind of mission focus that they need right now to adequately do their jobs.”
