FBI Director Christopher Wray said late Thursday, weeks after an ISIS attack on a Moscow concert hall killed 145 people and injured hundreds more, there was growing concern among law enforcement officials that there was “an organized attack” within the United States. He plans to warn lawmakers that there is growing concern about “attacks against the United States.”
“Our greatest fear is that individuals or small groups will take perverse inspiration from events in the Middle East and carry out attacks here at home,” Wray told the House Appropriations Subcommittee. talk.
“But now we are increasingly concerned about the possibility of a coordinated attack here in our homeland, similar to the ISIS-K attack we saw at a concert hall in Russia a few weeks ago.”
On March 22, four gunmen affiliated with the terrorist organization ISIS-K, which operates primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan, attacked and killed the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, ahead of a packed concert. at least 145 Another 551 people were killed and injured.
we Officials’ claims The U.S. government warned the Kremlin before the attack, but Russian authorities say they did not take sufficient steps to stop the violence.
Wray’s new warning about the threat environment is expected to come during testimony on the department’s fiscal year 2025 budget request.
“As I look back on my career in law enforcement, it would be difficult to remember a time when so many threats to our public safety and national security were so heightened at once,” he said. I would say in my prepared remarks.
“But as I sit here today, it’s true. We’re not in a position to give up here.”
Wray has issued similar warnings in the past, particularly in the months following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people, including 33 Americans. .
“This is definitely not the time to relax or backtrack,” he would say. “Now is a time when we need your help the most. We need every tool, every manpower, every resource we need to combat these threats and keep the American people safe.”
His testimony will come against a backdrop of deep misgivings about the agency among some House Republicans, some of whom have suggested defunding the FBI due to its bias against conservatives. There is.
Wray also plans to press Congress to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on April 19th.
An attempt to pass rules to renew that oversight authority exploded on the House floor Wednesday with 19 Republicans voting against it.
Wray will say updating FISA is “critically important to keeping our country safe, and we are at a critical juncture.”
