The flow of terrorists from the Arab world to Western Europe and the United States is going to “dominate” the FBI’s attention for the foreseeable future, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.
“The threat that I believe will dominate the next five years for the FBI will be the impact of crushing of the caliphate,” Comey said on a panel at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington, D.C.
“They’re going to flow out to maybe other places to metastasize, but a huge number are going to fly north to Western Europe. Being equipped for those, the Paris-, Brussel-type attackers, looking to take the fight here and maintain ISIL’s cred in the global jihad world, is going to dominate our lives,” he added.
Comey said that as the Islamic State loses territory in Iraq and Syria, its adherents will place a greater emphasis on engaging in “lone-wolf” attacks in the West in order to remain relevant, and focus on disseminating more of its propaganda online.
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“I think ISIL will start to lose its ability obviously to attract travelers, because the caliphate will be crushed,” Comey said. “I think their ability to produce this type of propaganda that allows them to motivate screwed-up people, that’s going to stay with us.”
CIA Director John Brennan, who spoke on the panel with Comey, said the solution will involve shifting back to more traditional methods of gathering intelligence, as well as flushing out radical remnants that elude authorities in their home countries.
“Whether we’re talking about Syria or Iraq, [it’s] going to continue to be a problem for the local governments, because they’re going to continue to go to a number of areas where the local governments don’t have control,” Brennan said. “I do think the key is going to be having an international architecture.”
Brennan reported in June that his agency estimated more than 30,000 Islamic State fighters had spread throughout the Middle East. The Pentagon estimated in August that up to 45,000 had been killed in the preceding year, with approximately 20,000 remaining.
