ISIL bigger threat to US than al-Qaeda: FBI chief
Iran Press TV
Thu Jul 23, 2015 1:1PM
The ISIL terrorist group's ability to inspire Americans through social media has made it a bigger threat to the United States than al-Qaeda, says the FBI director.
Addressing an audience at the Aspen Security Forum on Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey warned that ISIL has influenced a significant but unknown number of Americans through its year-long propaganda on social media urging sympathizers to carry out attacks where they are.
'ISIS has become a bigger threat to the United States than al-Qaeda,' Comey said, using another acronym for the terrorist group.
Twitter handles affiliated with ISIL have more than 21,000 English-language followers across the globe, the FBI chief added.
He said the FBI has arrested several Americans who have been radicalized by the ISIL group over the past eight weeks.
The bureau has also tracked dozens of US citizens who have traveled to Syria or Iraq to fight alongside the ISIL terrorists, Comey said.
The FBI chief warned that the ISIL recruiters are using encryption technology to evade US eavesdropping. 'I worry very much about what I can't see.'
When ISIL operatives encounter a potential recruit "we see them giving directions" to move to an encrypted mobile messaging application before they disappear, Comey told Congress early this month.
The ISIL terrorists, many of whom were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.
The US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq and Syria since last year.
Observers say while the US and its allies claim they are fighting against terrorist groups like ISIL, they in fact have supported and trained those organizations to affect their policies in the Middle East.
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