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TOM BATCHELOR
SLAMIC State (ISIS) jihadis are plotting Paris-style lone wolf terror attacks on the US, the former boss of the CIA has warned.
The evil death cult “poses a significant and lethal threat” to America and is believed to be expanding its reach in the States.
Former acting CIA director Michael Morell said ISIS was “almost certainly” planning Paris and Jakarta-style lone wolf attacks in the US.
Mr Morrell said the group had emerged from “nothing” a year ago to dominate nearly 20 countries, adding that “ISIS has gained affiliates faster than al-Qaeda ever did”.
He said: “They have conducted attacks that have already killed Americans and they carry the potential to themselves to grab large amounts of territory.”
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Mr Morrell was speaking in Washington alongside Michael Vickers, former under secretary of defence for intelligence, and former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.
The respected trio of Washington officials said ISIS was now more dangerous than ever.
The FBI is thought to have more than 900 open investigation into homegrown terrorists in the US and more than 36,000 fighters have fled to Syria to join the group, with around 6,600 believed to have Western passports.
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Mr Ford said he feared ‘ISIS 2.0’ would emerge as an even stronger force if, after the group was defeated in the coming years, efforts were not then made to bring political stability to Syria.
He said: “In order to mobilise Sunni Arabs to contain the Islamic State, there must be efforts at national reconciliation.
“This is important because we don’t want the Islamic State to be put down militarily and then revive, as happened between 2011 and 2013.
“I really don’t want to see an Islamic State, version 2.0.”
Mr Vickers added that the existing military campaign against the warped regime was “a fraction of what it should be” and called for a renewed push to remove Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.
