Clapper: ISIS Capable of Paris-Style Attacks in US

Has Local Cells in 'Multiple Locations' Across US

Speaking today on CNN, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned that ISIS has the capability of launching attacks in America on the level of the November attack in Paris, using local cells which it has deployed in multiple locations around the United States.

Such comments have been made by intelligence officials in the US at times, but the administration itself has repeatedly insisted ISIS doesn’t have nearly the capability of attacks within the US as it does in Europe, an assertion President Obama reiterated in his own comments on CNN.

National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the administration isn’t sure “whether or not” ISIS can actually attack the US, but did insist that the administration “would do our utmost to try to prevent it.”

Clapper insisted that ISIS did not pose an existential threat to the US, and that the cells within the US might not necessarily get direct orders from the parent organization for an attack, but rather would launch the attack on their own.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.