Florida 6th Congressional frontrunner talks tough on securing our borders
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- He's not calling for an all-out ban on Muslims entering the US like GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, but Adam Barringer, himself the frontrunner for Florida's 6th Ciongressional District in the 2016 elections, is just as adamant that immediate steps must be taken to secure our borders to try and avert terrorist attacks.
Barringer, 49, said one of the issues he's been most vigilant about in his quest for Congress in the 2016 elections, is "defending and securing our borders."
And he's not just talking about The US Southern border with Mexico, which is porous, to say the least.
But also those looking to come here by way of plane or boat or by invitation of the US government for humanitarian reasons such as refugees who have fled ISIS-controlled territories within Iraq and Syria, many waiting in temporary camps in nearby Jordan.
"I truly believe in my heart that we do need to take a pause with immigration," Barringer, former mayor of New Smyrna Beach and a Republican in the 6th Congressional race, insisted in an exclusive on-camera interview from his beachside home with Headline Surfer® for internet viewers today in what is considered the holiest Christian day of the year -- Christmas.
"I truly believe in my heart that we do need to take a pause with immigration," Adam Barringer, former mayor of New Smyrna Beach and a Republican candidate in Florida's 6th Congressional District race race in the 20016 elections, insisted in an exclusive on-camera interview from his beachside home with Headline Surfer® for internet viewers today in what is considered the holiest Christian day of the year -- Christmas.
With the precursor of the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Bernardino with 14 people gunned down in cold blood and another 22 seriously injured at the hands of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple living in the nearby city of Redlands, before they, too, were killed in a subsequent gun battle with cops.
They were identified as Islamic Jihadists, who had aborted a similar attack several years ago before this operation took hold.
'Lone wolf' attack' in Daytona, Palm Coast, anywhere in US, for that matter not far-fetched after nondescript San Bernardino
The harsh reality for the Obama administration is such a scenario playing itself out again in what has been described as a "lone wolf"attack" by one or more "radicalized" terrorists and where and when on American soil has become a frightening proposition.
Even here in Daytona Beach, home of NASCAR and the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, or any number of communities in the 6th Congressional District such as Palm Coast in Flagler County, Eustis in Lake County or Deltona in Volusia County.
And that localization as a target of terrorism is foremost in Barringer's Christmas Day message to constituents of the need to secure the nation's borders and put the safety of Americans first, even if it means a temporary halt on immigration and providing safe haven to Syrian refugees here in the US.
There is no way the US can absorb 10,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing ISIS and expecting to be taken in by the US government where trying to weed out ISIS terrorists blending in is like trying to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.
"If we can't even vet a fiancé coming in on a visa, how are we go to vet 10,000 refugees? And the narrative is 10,000 refugees. It could be many more than that.
The reference to a visa by Barringer was that of Tashfeen Malik, who along with her husband, were responsible for the deadly San Bernardino terrorist attack.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had issued a statement that Tashfeen Malik was "subjected to numerous background checks…and those…did not reveal any derogatory information about Malik.”
But what the federal agency didn't know, which was subsequently discovered by the FBI after the bloodshed were Malik’s direct private messages about jihad and evidence that she and Farook had been showing signs of radicalization long before the couple got engaged.
These frightening facts were revealed publicly by FBI Director James Comey in San Bernardino after the Jihadist couple massacred 14 people and wounded 22 others during a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center, before they, in turn were killed in a gun with law enforcement after a motor vehicle chase on Dec. 2.
With the underbelly of radicalized sleeper cells in San Bernardino and the carnage that befell Paris, France, on the night of Nov. 13 -- with a larger cell clearly connected to ISIS and radical Islam, far greater devastation than San Bernardino, but much closer to the Middle East -- the world has become , 130 innocent lives lost and another 368 injured, nearly a third of them seriously, by connected to ISIS,.
And Paris had been on heightened alert the January 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 17 people, civilians and police among the victims.
And as Barringer is all too aware, the more recent attack on the French capital was the worst since World War II.
For the US, the San Bernardino attack was the worst since 9/11.
It was the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by using hijacked American airliners that ushered in the "war on terror. There was the which saw devastation on a much grander scale with hijacked airliners crashing into the Twin Towers in Manhattan, a third plane striking the Pentagon and a fourth crashing in a field in Shanksville, Pa., when passengers on board had learned their fate was sealed in phone calls with loved ones as the hijackers had taken the cockpit.
For it was on this doomed flight that one of the passengers reportedly told several others "let's roll," as they used a drink cart to push open the door to the cockpit before the airliner nose-dived and slammed into the ground -- killing everyone on board.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were the handiwork of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, devastation that was years in the making to carry out.
ISIS, though, and its Caliphate -- ruler of Muslims worldwide, or at least the hope of the Sunni-sect Jihadists, with its foundation in parts of Iraq and Syria, is clearly now the terrorist organization most feared and showing no signs of weakening despite an air campaign stepped up by the Obama administration in Syria, in what has been for several years now a civil was with proxies -- the US and its allies opposed to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Iran and Russia while the US and its allies -- namely Turkey in the region, are opposed to Assad. And among the rebel groups is ISIS, which remains entrenched.
War on Terror: Barringer intends to fight it through political advancement; his wife has lived it far longer by virtue of grown son's tours in Iraq & Afghanistan
Adam Barringer isn't the only one in his household or extended family caught up emotionally and intellectually in the myriad Middle East warring factions on political, religious and ideological levels.
His wife of nearly five years, Shannon Sumner Barringer, 45, had been riding the emotional roller coaster every mother goes on when a son or daughter is doing a military tour of duty on foreign soil where bloodshed is all too real.
Her son, Colby Sumner, since retired from the US Marine Corps, did two tours of duty in war zones in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
In his four years of military service, from 2007-2011, the younger Colby, now 27, rose to the rank of corporal and was an infantry squad leader.
Sumner's first tour of duty was a year in Ramaldi, Iraq, from 20087-2009, and his second was in Marjah, Afghanistan, from 2010-2011.
It wasn't until his second tour of duty was over that Shannon Sumner and Adam Barringer finally married after years of dating.
"Those years with my son on the battlefield were tough,"Shannon Barringer recalled. "It was difficult watching the news."
As for her husband's candidacy for Congress, Shannon Barringer said he's well schooled on the Middle East having been a part of her life and that of her son -- his step son, who the former mayor of five years, 2009 to 2014, often referred to when giving speeches during Memorial Day and Veterans Day speeches. Barringer has an 18-year-old son, Zack, from a previous marriage.
Shannon Sumner Barringer believes believes her husband is prepared to do what is best for the constituents in the 6th Congressional District.
"He knows the issues -- he understands the need to secure our borders," she said. "Adam Barringer is a strong leader will fight for us in Washington against terrorism just as my son did in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Shannon Sumner Barringer and her husband, Adam Barringer, pose for a holiday photo, as part of his Christmas message to constituents in the 6th Congressional District campaign for election in 2016. In the inset photo, Shannon Sumner Barringer's son & Adam Barringer's stepson, Colby Sumner, is shown (far left) on the battlefield in Afghanistan.
As for her husband's candidacy for Congress, Shannon Barringer said he's well schooled on the Middle East having been a part of her life and that of her son -- his step son -- who the former mayor of five years (2009-2014), often referred to during Memorial Day and Veterans Day public speeches. Barringer has an 18-year-old son, Zack, 18, from a previous marriage.
Shannon Sumner Barringer believes believes her husband is prepared to do what is best for the constituents in the 6th Congressional District.
"He knows the issues -- he understands the need to secure our borders," she said. "Adam Barringer is a strong leader will fight for us in Washington against terrorism just as my son did in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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