US is worried that ISIL can cross its border: Maloof

A former Pentagon official says the United States is becoming increasingly concerned that militants from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant can “team up” with illegal immigrants and cross into the US.

Michael Maloof made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday as he commented on Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s suggestion that the US should use drones on its borders to stop illegal immigrants from crossing into the country.

“I think what the Texas governor is getting at is using drones for reconnaissance purposes to see what groups are coming in, it’s not to bomb or anything of the sort,” said Maloof.

Given the lack of complete electronic surveillance along the long and vast border areas in the south of the US, Maloof says, reconnaissance drones can help Washington identify the different groups of people who cross the border into the US.

“One of the things that is going to be of increasing concern” to US officials is that a lot of ISIL militants “could team up with this avalanche of people coming into the United States through the border,” he stated.

“We already know that al-Qaeda has linked up with drug cartels in Latin America and also the MS-13 which is a terrorist group,” Maloof said. “The cartels and the MS-13 exist in some 1,200 US cities.”

While several reports, observers, and even some US officials including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) have said the terrorist militants in Iraq and Syria have been funded, trained, and armed by Washington, some US officials – including President Barack Obama, his former ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and Republican Sen. John McCain – have repeatedly raised concerns about the threat posed by these militants to America.

“I think that this is really becoming more and more worrisome to security and law enforcement but publicly the administration is not going to say anything because they don’t want to create a sense of hysteria in the United States but I think that this is going to be a growing trouble that has to be watched,” Maloof concluded.