Syrian refugees in US planning next 9/11: Trump

Presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has warned that the Obama administration’s effort to step up asylum for Syrian refugees has put the United States on the verge of another large-scale terrorist attack.

Trump said on the National Border Patrol Council's "The Green Line" radio show on Sunday that Syrian refugees residing in the US would plan the next 9/11 attack.

The September, 11, 2001 attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks, were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists – 15 of them were Saudi citizens -- but many independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

“Bad things will happen. A lot of bad things will happen,” said Trump, whose campaign has been marked by controversial statements, including with disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

“There will be attacks that you wouldn’t believe," Trump said. "There will be attacks by the people that are, right now, that are coming into our country, because — I have no doubt in my mind.”

The billionaire businessman said Syrian refugees should not be allowed to enter the US and that he would be strict and vigilant about them if elected president in November.

"Our country has enough difficulty right now without letting the Syrians pour in, and again, we don't know that they're Syrians. We don't know where they come from; we have no idea. They could be ISIS [Daesh]. They could be who knows, but we're going to stop that immediately," he said.

He added that people coming into the US are being financially supported by Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government. They now control large parts of Iraq and Syria.

“I mean you look at it, they have cell phones,” Trump said. “So they don’t have money; they don’t have anything. They have cell phones. Who pays their monthly charges, right? They have cell phones with the flags — the ISIS flags on them. And then we’re supposed to say, 'Isn’t this wonderful that we’re taking them in?'”

"We’re led by people that are either incompetent or they don’t have the best interest of our country at heart,” he continued.

Since March 2011, the United States and its regional allies, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have been conducting a proxy war against Syria.

The years-long conflict has left more than 470,000 Syrians dead and half of the country’s population of about 23 million displaced within or beyond the Arab country’s borders.

The administration of President Barack Obama has planned to take in at least 10,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the fiscal year.

Obama said in December that Muslim refugees coming from Syria are “part of what makes America great,” rejecting Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from entering the US.

In December 2015, Trump ignited a political firestorm by floating the idea of a “total and complete” ban on all Muslims entering the US.

The White House has said the billionaire’s plan to bar Muslims “disqualifies” him from becoming president.

Obama’s plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the US this year has been met with resistance from some Republican members of Congress and state governors.

More than seven months since Obama vowed to resettle the most vulnerable Syrian refugees, the United States has let in only 1,736 through the end of April.

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