Terror plots against U.S. planned by foreign nationals in seven countries on Trump’s ban list

Nationals from seven countries listed on a travel ban issued by President Trump have participated in ongoing terrorist plots against the U.S., according to congressional and law enforcement reports that challenge the widely circulated media criticism that no one from those nations has ever staged an attack on American soil.

A Senate Judiciary Committee report last year found that of the 390 foreign nationals arrested on terrorist-related charges since the Sept. 11 attacks, 67 come from the countries listed in the travel ban.

Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and an analyst on Islamic terrorism, said the Cato Institute study cited repeatedly in the mainstream media is an “over-simplistic and inadequate” assessment of the terrorist threat. Jihadis driven from their strongholds in other countries are using the banned countries as refuges and jumping-off points for their next missions, he said.

The Homeland Security Department “is seeking to project where [the Islamic State] will go as they lose territory in Syria and Iraq. Countries in chaos or which lack any security relationship with the U.S. are the likeliest destinations,” Mr. Humire said.

Terrorist groups based in Yemen and Somalia have plotted to attack and infiltrate the U.S. for years. Iran’s intelligence service has also tried to mount high-level assassinations, military-type assaults and cyber-attacks.

One of the most noted cases involved a 2011 plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador by bombing a fashionable restaurant in Washington where he often had lunch.

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