CIA Chief: ISIS Working to Send Operatives to the West

Western countries can expect more terror attacks directed or inspired by the so-called Islamic State, a grim-faced CIA Director John Brennan said Thursday. “Our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,” Brennan testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee just days after the deadly, apparently ISIS-inspired attack that killed 49 at an Orlando gay nightclub. He further predicted the group would keep trying to carry out high-profile attacks like those in Paris and Brussels, and also inspire further violence, using the group’s formidable media outreach to groom future killers. “ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West,” Brennan said. “There’s great concern about how ISIL has been able to consume and co-opt other groups,” he continued. The CIA chief put ISIS at between 18,000 and 22,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, down from 33,000 last year—with an estimated Libyan presence of 5,000 to 8,000; as many as 1,000 inside Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula; several hundred in Yemen; and hundreds in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

—Kimberly Dozier