Jihadists from Europe threaten US, says Obama

Nearly 800 French citizens have spent time fighting in Syria’s civil war, according to latest estimates, and Belgium says 200 of its people have done the same. Britain puts its number at 400. 

Those holding French, Belgian and British passports — along with a host of other European countries — do not need visas to visit the United States, meaning they can potentially avoid scrutiny.  ‘We have seen Europeans sympathetic to their (militants’) cause traveling into Syria and may now travel into Iraq, getting battle-hardened. Then they come back,’ Obama warned in an interview that aired Sunday on the US broadcaster ABC. 

These combatants ‘have a European passport. They don’t need visas to get into the United States,’ he told ‘This Week.’ Responding to Obama, Republican lawmaker Peter King said the president’s don’t go far enough.