[Transcript]

Harris Faulkner: Thank you very much. For more on the intelligence aspect on the terror aspect of the investigation let's bring in Pete Hoekstra, former Michigan Congressman and former House Intelligence Committee Chairman. Always good to have you on the program, sir. What is it that is driving, if you will, this idea that change needs to be made but we're not actually seeing it from abroad? And we need to make change here at home too.

Pete Hoekstra: Well what's driving it, Harris, is that the evidence of this increasing threat from radical Islam, radical Jihadists, whatever you want to call it is very, very obvious. In 2011 roughly 3200 people per year were losing their lives because of these types of attacks. By 2014-2015 that had grown to almost 27,000 people. And it was moving in and spreading into Northern Africa, spreading into [cut off] Asia and the real fertile grounds for this is Europe.

Faulkner: So Pete, when I say how did we get to this point...Enough is enough from the Prime Minister today. Enough is enough, from what you just said, enough is enough was like a long time ago. So what is changing now? And when she says, Theresa May, the Prime Minister of Britain, oh go on and live your lives. When the mayor of London says oh you know you just got to press on through past the fear, what is the message that they are giving their citizens?

Hoekstra: Well clearly with what is happening with the threat level and with the actual attacks that are being carried out the public is asking the same question. What are you telling us? Clearly we are not winning in this. You are not providing us with increased security, you're telling us—or excuse me—you're telling us that maybe we're safe and go on living our lives but you're not changing anything and we continue to find ourselves to be more and more vulnerable. We need more effective leadership that is actually going to confront this threat that is going to contain it, and ultimately defeat it.

Faulkner: You know one of the things that they're concentrating on through the Prime Minister that we're reading is social media, Google and Twitter, and this came out a little while ago. The Prime Minister made a statement about the internet companies being complicit in the terror attacks by giving the extremists views "the safe space it needs to breed." Is she concentrating on the right thing?

Hoekstra: Sure she can work on that but that's not the most important thing. The problem that they have in the UK and much of Europe is that for the last 20 years they have welcomed people with this radical ideology into their country, especially the UK, inviting groups like the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) into the country in the 1990s. Then failing to assimilate them, and then in the last 24 months really allowing another, you know massive inflow of people from Syria, from Libya, and Iraq into Europe, into the UK without proper vetting. You put all that together and you've got a toxic mix that allows this ideology to grow and you know that's where these individuals come out. Whether they were born in the UK or whether they immigrated really is immaterial. They live in the same cesspool of ideology where these attacks come from.

Faulkner: Is the intelligence changing, Pete, from when you were House Intel Committee—since you were a member until now?

Hoekstra: Oh yeah, absolutely. Back in 2007 to 2010 you know the threat level was roughly 3000 people per year were dying. It was diverse but it was really, the attacks were really concentrated in the Middle East. Now our intelligence community they have to be overwhelmed. They're looking at the Middle East, they're looking at Northern Africa, they're looking into Asia now, Indonesia, the Philippines. They're looking into Europe. Oh yeah these folks are overwhelmed. Then you throw in a little bit of Russia, a little bit of North Korea, you throw in some Iran and I don't think they've got the capacity to handle the threats that are out there today.

Faulkner: What's the answer?

Hoekstra: The answer is to get serious about this. We need – take a look at who the victims are. The victims are Muslim number one. The Muslim community needs to stand up. The religious leaders need to identify this for the threat that it is. The Christian community needs to stand up. You know there's been a genocide of Christians throughout the Middle East and Christians have been silent. The Middle East governments, they're a target, they need to step up. The West needs to step up—

Faulkner: Do you really think Christians have been silent?

Hoekstra: I really think that they have. I'm a person of Christian faith and you know I think—

Faulkner: What would you have them do?

Hoekstra: I really think that, you know, they need to recognize the threat. We as Christians believe that through our faith and through our love of Jesus Christ we can change the world. We need to demonstrate and we need to demonstrate this love of Jesus Christ in an effective way along with these other communities, along with Muslim community and then along with the secular organizations, the government. It has to be a full court press. We need to recognize that this does involve religion. For those who say that religion is not a component of this, we need to recognize that it is.

Faulkner: Pete Hoekstra, thank you very much we appreciate your time.

Hoekstra: Harris great being with you. Thank you.