FBI director warns of potential ISIS-K style attack in U.S.

Federal law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the potential for a large-scale, coordinated terrorist attack in the United States akin to the deadly ISIS-K assault on a Moscow concert venue last month, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In prepared testimony before the House of Representatives on Thursday, Wray planned to sound the alarm over what he called an unprecedented confluence of threats to public safety and national security, the Daily Wire reports.

"Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once," Wray's remarks state.

The FBI Director specifically pointed to the November attack in Russia, where ISIS-K terrorists stormed a packed concert hall, unleashing gunfire and setting the venue ablaze in an assault that left over 140 people dead.

"An increasing threat in the U.S. is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall a couple weeks ago," Wray was expected to tell lawmakers.

In his testimony, Wray was also set to push Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a critical surveillance authority used to monitor foreign threats that is set to expire next month without congressional action.

The program has faced scrutiny over past abuses by some federal officials. However, the Justice Department has implemented new safeguards, including requiring agents to justify each query, undergo annual training, and obtain approval for broad data pulls.

According to a recent Washington Post editorial, these changes have led to a 98% drop in queries of U.S. persons in the 702 database from 2021 to 2023. Audits have found near-total compliance, and the FBI has instituted escalating disciplinary consequences for any misuse.

Ian Miles Cheong

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Ian Miles Cheong is a freelance writer, graphic designer, journalist and videographer. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter.

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