FBI director: ISIS' loss will create a 'terrorist diaspora' like we've never seen before
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As US-led coalition forces prepare to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS, the FBI gave a harrowing assessment on the threat of terrorism back home.
In a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey reiterated the threat that destroying ISIS on the battlefield was bound to create.
"The so-called caliphate will be crushed. The challenge will be: through the fingers of that crush are going to come hundreds of very, very dangerous people," Comey said according to Politico. "They will not all die on the battlefield in Syria and Iraq. There will be a terrorist diaspora sometime in the next two to five years like we've never seen before."
The statement comes at a time when ISIS forces have felt the pressure of airstrikes that have crippled their sources of revenue and control of Iraq. From the ground, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have surrounded Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and one of the remaining ISIS hubs in Iraq.
Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson also echoed Comey's statement, however, he emphasized that the US's efforts had been sluggish enough for ISIS to recuperate at different locations.
"We haven't reduced their capability. The diaspora has already begun," Johnson said according to Politico. "We're poking the hive. We've done some damage to it but the killer bees are leaving the hive. They're setting up new hives."
As far as the quantifiable nature of the threat, Comey has in the past drawn a comparison between ISIS forces and radicalized Al Qaeda militants in the 1980s and 1990s.
"This is 10 times that or more," he said at a cybersecurity conference in July. "This is an order of magnitude greater than anything we've seen before."
Comey's concern over the metastasizing threat echoed what former FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorism Task Force Clint Watts wrote over the summer.
"For those homeless foreign fighters, the choice is simple: They can either die in place fighting for a crumbling caliphate or they can go out as martyrs striking their homelands or regional or international targets," writes Watts, who is currently a Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Program on the Middle East.
Watts continued, "The Islamic State owns the largest number of homeless foreign fighters in history. As the group loses turf, they'll likely become part of the largest human missile arsenal in history and be directed against any and all soft targets they can reach."
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- Catan adds climate change to the latest edition of the world-famous board game
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- Tired of blatant misinformation in the media? This video game can help you and your family fight fake news!
- JNK India IPO allotment – How to check allotment, GMP, listing date and more
- Indian Army unveils selfie point at Hombotingla Pass ahead of 25th anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas
- JNK India IPO allotment date
- JioCinema New Plans
- Realme Narzo 70 Launched
- Apple Let Loose event
- Elon Musk Apology
- RIL cash flows
- Charlie Munger
- Feedbank IPO allotment
- Tata IPO allotment
- Most generous retirement plans
- Broadcom lays off
- Cibil Score vs Cibil Report
- Birla and Bajaj in top Richest
- India Equity Market