FBI head: Khorasan Group diminished; ISIS bigger threat than al QaedaAspen, Colorado (CNN)FBI Director James Comey says U.S. military strikes have diminished the al Qaeda offshoot Khorasan Group, but the bigger threat faced by the U.S. is now ISIS.
Comey, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, used an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum to raise concerns about encrypted communications the FBI can't access, comparing ISIS militants to needles in a regional haystack.
"If you imagine a nationwide haystack, we are trying to find needles in that haystack. And a lot of those needles are invisible to us either because in they are communicated or just because they have communicated in a place that we can't see them," Comey said. "And knowing there are needles out there that you can't see is very worrisome."
Comey said Wednesday SIS has become a bigger threat to the United States than al Qaeda.
"The threat that ISIL presents and poses to the United States is very different in kind, in type and degree than al Qaeda," Comey said. "ISIL is not your parents al Qaeda. It's a very different model. And by virtue of that model, it's currently the threat we are worried about in the homeland most of all."
Also at the security forum was Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who said the imminent threat comes from the potential smaller-scale attacks within the United States, giving the recent shooting in Chattanooga as an example.
"Abdulazeez was not on our radar and I wouldn't consider Chattanooga a high risk area," Johnson said.
Johnson said the long-term effects could come from concerns that the terror organization, ISIS, will use the large portion of land it has obtained to train fighters and then send them to the West.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/22/politics/fbi-james-comey-isis-khorasan-group/
