The Mall of America, located near Minneapolis-St. Paul, is the largest shopping center in the nation, where 100,000 people shop daily. The center increased security after Nairobis horrific mall attack in 2013 that killed over 60.
The threat was discussed on Sundays Fox morning show with the former Assistant Director of the New York FBI office, Jim Kallstrom:
KALLSTROM: You look at the Mall of America, you look at all the malls and then you start to backtrack and say it would be nice if we knew who comes and goes into the country. We dont have a clue, we basically dont have a clue. . .
[The mall is] going to move the perimeter out into the parking area, videos going to be everywhere and of course the people are going to be a lot more alert. I mean, it puts a chill on what our countrys about. . .
[The FBI has] a huge job in front of them because its very difficult to control. Now why people are coming, going why people are going to these training camps and coming back and going into the population is bewildering to me. Why theyre not arrested at the border, why they even get on the airplanes is bewildering to me.
TUCKER CARLSON: And how they got to America in the first place.
Speaking of how they got here in the first place, Refugee Resettlement Watch recently noted that the feds are importing 800 Somalis per month, to add to the 100,000 Somalis already here.
Members of Congress, like House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, have questioned importing Syrian refugees because of the security threat they pose. What about Somalis?! They are just as bad if not worse.
Since ISIS has moved into the position of the baddest Muslim headchoppers on the planet and young wanna-bes have been switching to ISIS, so Al Shabaab may be trying to increase its brand strength with this move.
Al Shabaab calls for attack on Mall of America in new video, Fox News, February 22, 2015
A new video from Al Shabaab purportedly shows the terror group calling for an attack on Mall of America, in Bloomington, Minn.
According to Fox 9, the mall is one of three similar targets the terror group specifically names, including West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Oxford Street shopping area in London.
The video purportedly shows 6 minutes of graphic images and the terrorists celebrating the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi, Kenya, that killed more than 60 people.
An image of the Mall of America is shown in the video, alongside its GPS coordinates. The mall says it is ramping up its security in response.
We will continue to monitor events with the help of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Mall of America said in a statement. As always, we take any potential threat seriously and respond appropriately. Mall of America has implemented extra security precautions, some may be noticeable to guests, and others wont be. We will continue to follow the situation, along with law enforcement, and will remain vigilant as we always do in similar situations.
Jim Kallstrom, the former assistant director of the FBI’s New York office, said the FBI has a “huge job in front of them.
“You look at the Mall of America, you look at all the malls then you start to backtrack and say you know it would be nice if we knew what comes and goes into the country,” Kallstrom told Fox News on Sunday. “We don’t have a clue.”
The Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a joint statement Sunday saying that both agencies were aware of the video.
In recent months, the FBI and DHS have worked closely with our state and local public safety counterparts and members of the private sector, to include mall owners and operators, to prevent and mitigate these types of threats, the statement read.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on NBCs Meet The Press that “there needs to be an awareness.
Were in a new phase now, and Im afraid that this most recent video release reflects that, Joshnson said during an appearance on ABCs This Week.
Al Shabaab, Somalias Islamic extremist rebels, claimed responsibility for a Friday attack on a hotel in Somalias capital that killed 25 people and wounded 40, the countrys government said Saturday.
One Islamic extremist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of the Central Hotel, and another went in and blew himself up, a statement from Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarkes office said.
Government officials were meeting at the Central Hotel at the time, and the statement said Mogadishus deputy mayor and two legislators were among the dead. It was unclear whether the governments report of 25 dead included the two bombers.
Despite the loss of key strongholds in Somalia, Al Shabaab, which is linked to Al Qaeda, continues to stage attacks in the capital, Mogadishu, and elsewhere.
The group, designated as a terrorist organization by the State Department in 2008, has close ties to Al Qaeda through its senior leaders. It has attracted several radical volunteers from Minneapolis and Americans began traveling to Somalia in 2007 to join the group.
Somalias president, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, condemned the Friday attack and said it would not derail efforts by his government to restore peace to Somalia, which is recovering from decades of war.
This is the second attack on a hotel in Mogadishu in less than a month. On Jan. 22, three Somali nationals were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at the gate of a hotel housing the advance party of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited the country days later.
Al Shabaab controlled much of Mogadishu during the years 2007 to 2011, but was pushed out of Somalias capital and other major cities by African Union forces.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
