On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly spoke at George Washington University and revealed that the FBI has launched terror investigations in all 50 states as America is facing its “highest terror threat in years.” Kelly said that the threat that terrorism poses to the United States is just as high as it was during September 11, 2001.
“The threat to our nation and our American way of life has not diminished,” Kelly said. “In fact, the threat has metastasized and decentralized, and the risk is as threatening today as it was that September morning almost 16 years ago.”
Kelly then went on to say that the FBI currently has open terror investigations in all 50 states. He added that there have been 37 ISIS-linked plots to attack the United States since 2013.
“As I speak these words the FBI has open terrorism investigations in all 50 states, and since 2013, there have been 37 ISIS-linked plots to attack our country,” he said.
Kelly warned that while those facts were less than favorable, it only gets worse.
“This is all bad news, but it gets much worse,” he said. “Experts estimate that perhaps 10,000 citizens of Europe have joined the caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Thousands more are from nations in Asia, Africa and the Western Hemisphere. They have learned how to make IEDs, employ drones to drop ordnance, and acquired experience on the battlefield that by all reports they are bringing back home.”
Kelly noted how easy it is for terror to flourish in the age of technology.
“If you are a terrorist with an Internet connection, like the one on your ever-present cellphone, you can recruit new soldiers, plan attacks and upload a video calling for jihad with just a few clicks,” the Secretary of Homeland Security said. “And thanks to new and ever improving and proliferating encryption and secure communication techniques, it’ll be a lot harder to find you and stop you before you take innocent lives.”
[revad2]
