Blinking Red: In the four years before 9/11, CIA Director George Tenet testified publicly 10 times about the threat al Qaeda posed to the United States. In eight appearances before Congress in recent months, FBI Director Christopher Wray has been sounding similar warnings.
In addition to threats from al Qaeda and ISIS, the United States is also facing threats from state-sponsored terrorists and home-grown domestic terrorists. All three threats are “simultaneously elevated,” Wray told the Senate Appropriations Committee this month.
Former acting CIA Director Michael Morell and influential national security analyst Graham Allison said Wray’s testimony should be taken seriously. “Put simply, the United States faces a serious threat of a terrorist attack in the months ahead,” they wrote in Foreign Affairs.