Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s pick to be his national security adviser, claimed in an August radio interview that Arabic signs were present along the United States border with Mexico to guide potential state-sponsored terrorists and “radicalized Muslims” into the United States.
Flynn further said in the interview he had personally seen photos of such signs in Texas.
A CNN KFile review of available information about the terror threat along the US-Mexico border could not corroborate Flynn’s claim. CNN’s KFile asked Flynn for clarification about the Arabic signs, but received no reply. A Trump transition spokesman declined to comment. A spokesperson for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “respectfully” declined to comment.
“I know from my friends in the Border Patrol in CBP that there are countries — radical Islamist countries, state-sponsored — that are cutting deals with Mexican drug cartels for some of what they call the ‘lanes of entry’ into our country,” Flynn said in an interview with Breitbart News on SiriusXM radio. “And I have personally seen the photos of the signage along those paths that are in Arabic. They’re like way points along that path as you come in. Primarily, in this case the one that I saw was in Texas and it’s literally, it’s like signs, that say, in Arabic, ‘this way, move to this point.’ It’s unbelievable.”
“This rise of Muslims and radicalized Muslims coming into our country illegally is something that we should pay very, very close attention to,” he added.
Shawn Moran, a vice president at the National Border Patrol Council, the labor union of border patrol agents that endorsed Trump, told CNN’s KFile the group was not aware of the signs Flynn referenced, but that they were concerned about the threat of terrorism at the southern border.
As previously reported by CNN’s KFile, Flynn has often promoted conspiracy theories in his speeches and on his social media accounts. Flynn’s son was recently removed from Trump’s presidential transition team for promoting a false conspiracy theory about a DC pizzeria.
Earlier in the interview, Flynn discussed Hezbollah activity with drug smugglers in South and Central America. The Drug Enforcement Administration in February announced that Hezbollah was working with South American drug cartels to move drugs into the US. A series of arrests, the DEA said, was meant to stop the organization from using millions in drug money to fund terrorist activity in Syria and Lebanon.
“I talk about this in the book — about the threat in Central and South America from countries like Iran who have organizations like Hezbollah who run a large transnational organized criminal organization which move narcotics and other commodities as well as humans into our country and they do it for a specific purpose,” Flynn said.