Top leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico did not inform rank-and-file personnel about an attempted breach by two Jordanian nationals in a box truck until two weeks after the incident occurred, a new report has revealed.
The breach, initially reported by a local news outlet and confirmed by Capt. Michael Curtis, a base spokesperson, took place earlier this month.
Marines were not notified until May 16, according to Matt Strickland, who first alerted the local news site about the incident.
“After I raised the alarm, I had people who work at Quantico messaging me saying, ‘Holy f—k, when did this happen?’” Strickland told The New York Post. “Two weeks after it happened, Quantico finally put an email out to employees on base letting them know.”
Strickland, a former infantry combat medic, Blackwater contractor, and combat incident analyst at the National Ground Intelligence Center, expressed frustration over the delay.
“It was basically ‘F**k, guys, I guess we aren’t going to be able to keep this secret, we should try to do some CYA,’” he said.
Strickland, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2016, criticized federal authorities for withholding details of the incident.
“Every American has a right to know what happened at Quantico. Citizens have a right to know what is going on in their backyard,” he stated.
Reports speculated that the two men arrested had recently crossed the southern border into the U.S., and one was on the government’s terrorist watch list. Strickland indicated that one of the individuals had a Virginia ID while the other was labeled a terrorist, though The Post stated that it could not independently verify these claims.
Both men are currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, with authorities stating they will remain detained until deportation.
Strickland questioned the rationale for withholding information in the attempted breach which occurred on May 3 involving two people in a box truck stopping at the front gate as part of the breach. The scheme involved claiming that the two men work making a delivery for a company subcontracted by Amazon.
“Who would they be keeping that information from? The reasoning would be so the terrorists, or whoever the Jordanians are working for, don’t know all the information. But whoever those two Jordanian men are working for already know what they planned to do and that they were apprehended. The only people who don’t know what happened are the American people,” Strickland stated.
He also criticized the handling of the southern border, noting that over 7.5 million migrants have been apprehended and 1.7 million have illegally entered the U.S. during the Biden administration. Strickland expressed concern about the potential threats posed by some of these migrants.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham also questioned Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to the Fox News report.
“Please explain how they came to the United States. Were they here illegally? Are either of them on any terrorist watchlist?” he wrote in a letter to Mayorkas.
