February 23, 2015
|
Americans urged to heed mall warning By: Jack Encarnacao The nation’s top Homeland Security official is urging vigilance after the al-Qaeda-linked terror group that carried out a deadly attack on a Kenyan mall two years ago issued a video urging attacks on American malls, a threat a former Homeland Security senior adviser said Americans should take seriously. “It is very rare for the secretary or any senior law enforcement official to specifically talk about a real and credible threat against any target,” Bradley Schreiber, president of Homeland Security Solutions and a former senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security, told the Herald. “I think we all have to raise our heads up, take a look around and make sure that we understand what’s going on around us.” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on ABC’s “This Week” yesterday that Americans have to be “particularly careful” at malls after a weekend video from al-Shabaab urged attacks on U.S. malls, including the Mall of America in Minnesota. The group was responsible for the 2013 attack on a mall in Kenya that killed 67 people. “Any time a terrorist organization calls for an attack on a specific place we’ve got to take that seriously,” Johnson said. “There will be enhanced security there that will be apparent, but public vigilance, public awareness and public caution in situations like this is particularly important.” Johnson said he doesn’t have knowledge of a specific plot unfolding against any particular malls in the U.S., and agency officials said they were not advising people to cancel their shopping plans. Herald wire services contributed to this report. |
