FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that he remains concerned about the possibility of a large-scale attack planned or inspired by al Qaeda despite the killing of its top leader in a US drone strike in Afghanistan last week. of last week.
Both al Qaeda and the Islamic State, as well as their affiliates, “intend to carry out or inspire large-scale attacks in the United States,” Wray said during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, a key architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks, was killed during an early Sunday morning attack on a safe house in central Kabul.
Asked if al Qaeda or the Islamic State would attack the United States if given the chance, Wray said, “Oh yeah!”
In the short term, however, al Qaeda, with its leadership degraded, is more likely to focus on “cultivating its international affiliates and supporting small-scale attacks” in regions such as East and West Africa, he said.
In his first public comments on al-Zawahiri’s killing, Wray said he was “not surprised but disappointed” that the al Qaeda chief was found hiding in a safe house allegedly owned by a senior member of the Haqqani Network.
Al-Zawahiri, who took over as al Qaeda leader after Osama bin Laden was killed in a US raid in 2011, was on the FBI’s most wanted list with a $25 million reward for his capture.
After the attack, the Biden administration accused the Taliban of violating a 2020 agreement under which the group pledged not to allow any terrorist group to use Afghan soil to threaten the United States or its allies.
Taliban officials said they were unaware of al-Zawahiri’s residence in Kabul.
Asked by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham if al-Zawahiri’s presence at the Haqqani safe house suggested that the Taliban and al Qaeda continued to enjoy a close relationship, Wray briefly replied, “Not good.”
‘Intelligence gaps’
The “over the horizon” attack on al-Zawahiri has increased the view of some experts and Biden administration officials that the United States can continue to conduct such counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan without maintaining a presence on the ground.
Still, Wray said he is concerned about the “potential loss and collection [de inteligencia]following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“So we’re going to have growing intelligence gaps,” he said.
“And I am concerned that we will see al Qaeda rebuilding, ISIS-K potentially taking advantage of the deteriorating security environment, and I am concerned that terrorists, even here in the United States, will be inspired by what they see there.” he said. ISIS-K refers to the affiliate of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, the Islamic State Khorasan.
Providing an assessment of the national security threats facing the United States, he said the potential dangers have never been “bigger or more diverse.”
The biggest threat emanates from “lone actors or small cells” who tend to radicalize online and attack easy targets, he said.
The FBI divides domestic threats into two groups: domestic violent extremists, such as violent white supremacists, and domestic violent extremists, such as ISIS-inspired jihadis.
Wray confirmed that the FBI is investigating several Afghan refugees who were flown to the United States last year despite security concerns.
The refugees were among more than 80,000 Afghan evacuees who fled to the United States after the Taliban took power last August.
In a February report, the Defense Department’s inspector general blamed the National Counterterrorism Center for failing to fully investigate the evacuees, allowing at least 50 Afghans with “potentially significant security concerns” to enter the country.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said a whistleblower recently came forward to claim that as many as 324 Afghans had been admitted to the United States despite appearing on a Defense Department watch list.
“This is a watch list that identifies individuals whose biometric data was collected and determined to be threats or potential threats to national security, including known suspected terrorists,” Hawley said.
When asked if the Departments of Defense or Homeland Security had reported the new number to the FBI, Wray said he didn’t know the exact number.
“I know there are a number of people through our joint counterterrorism task force that we’re actively trying to investigate as a result” of the inspector general’s report, he said.
Wray said the FBI has “a lot of information about where people are,” but he couldn’t say whether the FBI knew of their whereabouts “at any given time.”
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