Should Trump Add Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to His New ‘Extreme Vetting’ EO?

A massive terrorist attack this week may cause President Trump and his advisers to rethink the scope of the second edition of his coming executive order on “extreme vetting.”

Pakistan suffered a massive blow at the hands of the Islamic State terror group Thursday when a suicide bomber self-detonated at a Sufi shrine, killing at least 88 and wounding hundreds more. Pakistani security forces have responded, killing more than 100 militants in the day after, according to the Hindustan Times. As chaos continues to unfold inside the country, President Trump has to evaluate whether to accept visa applicants from Pakistan.

Pakistan is dealing with a current wave of terror that its security forces have thus far been unable to quash. Several terrorist groups operate inside the country, including the Islamic State, Taliban, the Haqqani network, al-Qaeda, and countless others. There are also troubling issues concerning Pakistan’s harboring of terrorist leaders and Islamic militants.

Notably, neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia – the two most popular countries of origin concerning foreign terrorist attacks in the United States – were on the list of countries included in President Trump’s temporary travel ban executive order (affecting Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, and Somalia). It is unclear which countries will be affected by the president’s next “extreme vetting” order.

Since 1975, the U.S. has seen 14 Pakistani nationals charged with terrorist-related activites inside the country. The most recent case of a Pakistani committing terrorism in the United States involved Tashfeen Malik, one of the perpetrators of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino that killed 14 people and injured 22 others.

Pakistan was also the home base for Osama bin Laden as he plotted international terror operations against America. The deceased al-Qaeda leader’s compound in the city of Abbottabad was located a mile away from a military academy, leading experts and officials to speculate whether Pakistani intelligence knew about his whereabouts.

The country of origin of the most foreign-born terrorists in America is Saudi Arabia, which was also not on Trump’s original list. Most infamously, 15 of the 19 hijackers involved in the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is one of the top bankrollers of international terror and allows for radical Islamist entities to grow within its borders.

President Trump has promised to roll out his latest national security/immigration executive order next week. Will he add Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to his new moratorium? (For more from the author of “Should Trump Add Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to His New ‘Extreme Vetting’ EO?” please click HERE)

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