Incidents such as the New Year's Day attack in New Orleans or the explosion outside a Trump-owned hotel in Las Vegas are often pulled off due to the element of surprise, but once something has happened, that surprise shouldn't happen again, Rep. Jack Bergman said on Newsmax Saturday.
"You should only be surprised once, no matter what the situation is security-wise, especially whether it's a place like New Orleans or a place like Las Vegas, any office building, whatever it happens to be, go back to Oklahoma city a long time ago," the Michigan Republican, a retired three-star U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant general, told Newsmax's "Saturday Report."
"Bad things happen," Bergman added, "because in a very small percentage of the cases, the perpetrators are doing something that hasn't been done before."
The problem in today's world, though, is that bureaucracies such as the FBI are "lagging" by using "yesterday's tactics, techniques, and procedures," he said.
"The internet has been around a long time, decades, and that's what the bad guys have used to train, recruit operationally," including with violent extremist organizations or small groups, said Bergman.
"I think what we're seeing now [is] the longer-term effect of social media and how that is affecting men and women who could be at risk for whatever reason, mentally," he continued. "We need to ensure that whether it's our FBI or law enforcement, our military, are attuned completely to what's going on with the new tools used by those who would create havoc in our country."
Another part of the problem is when there are "uneducated young people who don't have a strong moral basis, a reason for being part of something positive," said Bergman.
"You've got a target group that these terrorist groups feel comfortable with sometimes," he said. "They're grooming these types of people to take action on their own and claim victory in a jihad kind of situation."
New Orleans also made a "huge mistake" by not having barriers up on Bourbon Street, which allowed Wednesday morning's attacker to drive into the crowd, killing several people.
"When I was in command of the Marine Corps Reserve, I saw New Orleans at its best and at its worst, and its worst was right after Katrina in 2005 when the city fell apart," said Bergman. "But everybody came together to bring it back together and it's been a success story, but they have not continued to utilize the security procedures necessary in the coordination."
Meanwhile, both suspects in Wednesday's incidents had military backgrounds, but Bergman said that in cases like that of the New Orleans man, a U.S. Army veteran, the military has "no visibility" on people once they leave active or reserve status.
"That's where the coordination amongst the FBI and all the other law enforcement agencies is going to be so important going forward that we have the ability to look into a person's emails, look into social media to see," said Bergman. "That's where I believe at the federal government level, the federal government has to be a coordinated bureaucracy … remember, only about 10% of our population has ever worn a uniform of any kind, whether they're currently wearing it, wearing it, or wore it in the past."
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