Ex-CIA chief says ISIL can soon execute 9/11-style attacks in US
The former director of the US Central Intelligence Agency warns the ISIL terrorist group is likely to be in a position to execute 9/11-style attacks on American soil that could result in mass casualties.
"If we don't get ISIS under control, we're going to see that kind of attack," Michael Morell told USA TODAY, referring to the attacks of September 11, 2001.
US efforts haven't been effective so far in countering ISIL’s success in recruiting hundreds of American citizens, Morell said. "And we're not effective at it because it's very hard to do."
Morell retired from the CIA in June, 2013 after serving 33 years at the spy agency, including as deputy director and as acting director twice in 2011 and from 2012 to 2013.
"They today have the ability to bring down an airliner in the United States," Morell says. "If that happened tomorrow, I would not be surprised."
He argued that the so-called US war on terror is likely to stretch for "for as far as I can see."
Elsewhere in his remarks, Morell also claimed that ISIL inspired two Americans to carry out the deadly attack on an anti-Islam exhibit depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) near Dallas, Texas, last week.
A security guard was shot in the lower leg during the shooting. The two gunmen were then shot and killed by police.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told CNN on Sunday that the United States is "certainly vulnerable" to attacks by militants linked to ISIL.
US officials have previously warned the public and law enforcement agencies across the country about young Americans wanting to join the ISIL terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.
The ISIL terrorists, many of whom were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. They have engaged in crimes against humanity in areas under their control.
Morell said he thinks the NSA's mass collection of metadata on telephone calls in the United States, which was revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, has been "a very important tool" against terrorism, although he acknowledged it is hard to point to a particular plot it has disrupted.
A federal appeals court last week concluded the NSA spying program was illegal, and Congress is now debating whether to revise the way it works before it expires on June 1.
AHT/HRJ
China slams Biden over 'xenophobic' and 'cheating' claims
FM: Iran informed US of retaliatory strikes against Israel
Google workers arrested after protesting company’s giant deal with Israel
VIDEO | Press TV's news headline
Explosion heard near Isfahan due to activation of air defenses
‘Iran retaliation against Israel ensured no aggression would go unanswered’
US vetoes Palestinian request for full UN membership
Iran sufficed to strike only part of Israel’s military positions: FM to UN chief
IRGC: Israel’s Dimnoa nuclear reactor not among Op. True Promise’s targets
VIDEO | West Asia awakens
'Stop any further Israeli adventurism,' Iran FM tells Security Council
This makes it easy to access the Press TV website
