KTXS :
The director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says the United States has not underestimated the threat posed by the Islamic State group.
John Brennan said Monday the success by the United States and its coalition countries in containing the group’s momentum inside Iraq and Syria is “why I think they are looking abroad” to make attacks.
Asked whether the U.S. had underestimated the threat, Brennan said, “I don’t think we are underestimating the capability of ISIL,” using an alternate name for the group.
He told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, that while it was “inevitable” that the Islamic State will try to carry out such attacks, “to me it is not inevitable that they are going to succeed. Czech authorities say they are planning to boost security in the capital on Tuesday, the anniversary of the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution. Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka says the presence of extra force in the streets of Prague is meant as precaution. Interior Minister Milan Chovanec says authorities have information some unspecified extremist group might misuse the national holiday but did not give any details. Chovanec says: “We’re ready to show that police is ready to protect the citizens.”
Police also say in a statement they plan an increased presence also in other major cities across the country and that the decision is a reaction to the Paris attacks. German authorities are investigating claims that an Algerian man warned fellow migrants last week of an imminent attack in Paris. A spokesman for prosecutors in Arnsberg says the unidentified 39-year-old was detained at a refugee shelter in the western German town, after two Syrian men contacted police Saturday.
Werner Wolff confirmed Monday a report by public broadcaster WDR that the man had told the Syrians that Paris would be subjected to “fear and terror.”
New York Police Commissioner William Bratton says his department is operating as though attacks like those in Paris could happen in New York City. Bratton said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that his force has beefed up security and staffing, including at the French consulate, France’s mission to the United Nations and Times Square. Bratton says the Paris attackers’ use of suicide vests is of particular concern, and officers are trying to learn more about the capability and types of arms used in the vests. He says New York police team will go to Paris this week.
