The United States needs to work with Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Russians to defeat the Islamic State, said a former top CIA official.
Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell, appearing Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” said while Assad is clearly a part of the problem, he “may also be part of the solution.”
“An agreement where he stays around for a while and the Syrian army, supported by the coalition, takes on ISIS may be the best result here, may give us the best result,” he said. “I think we need to have that discussion again.”
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2575923
“Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked if that meant the U.S., Syria and Russia all working together. “Exactly,” Morell replied.
Morell said he does not think the current U.S. strategy, which includes and sending special operations forces to support rebel groups in Syria, is doing an adequate job to combat the Islamic State.
On implications from Friday’s terror attacks in Paris, Morell said the Islamic State will eventually attack the United States in a similar fashion.
“ISIS for the last year has been trying to build an attack capability in Western Europe,” said Morell. “I think this is the first manifestation of that effort and that success. And eventually, they will try to build a similar attack capability in the United States.”
Morell said he thinks the assault that left 128 dead and at least 350 injured was the result of a coordinated effort and suspects the attackers communicated via encrypted apps, which helped masked their plot from authorities.
Commercial encryption, he said, “is very difficult, if not impossible, for governments to break and the producers of which don’t produce the keys necessary for law enforcement to read the encrypted messages.”
Dickerson pressed Morell on what legislative steps and tools are need to counter this kind of encryption.
Another public debate on privacy rights will follow, an issue previously defined by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Morell said.
This time around, Morell said, “[i]t’s going to be defined by what happened in Paris,” he said.
