FBI Director Christopher Wray issued a stark warning at an event in Washington DC on Tuesday in which he claimed that ISIS and Al-Qaida have adopted “mafia” tactics as part of plans to launch a new attack on the United States.
Wray was speaking at the American Bar Association luncheon when he made the warning, adding that the FBI is actively working to stop such attacks.
“Foreign terrorists, including ISIS, Al Qaeda and their followers, have renewed their calls for attacks against Jewish communities here in the United States and throughout the West in statements and propaganda,” Wray said, according to ABC News.
“The foreign terrorist threat and the possibility of a coordinated attack here at home, like the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russian Concert Hall a couple of weeks ago, is now increasingly concerning.”
In that massacre, which took place at Crocus City Hall, 144 people were killed by Tajik citizens who were members of an Islamic State group, security officials in Russia said. The victims were waiting for a concert to start.
After the shooting, the perpetrators set fire to the building.
FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke at the American Bar Association luncheon when he made the warning, adding that the FBI is actively working to stop these types of attacks.
An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack on Crocus City Hall, the deadliest on Russian soil in years
In Russia, a total of nine suspects have appeared in court so far and are in pre-trial detention.
Wray added that thanks to Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, there is likely to be “a pipeline of radicalization and mobilization for years to come.”
The director, appointed by Trump, named Russia, China, Iran and North Korea as the biggest “bad actors” the United States currently faces in the world.
Wray also alleged that Russia was targeting “underwater cables” to destabilize global communications.
He added that the Kremlin does not care if its operations affect the lives of civilians and that since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, agents “continue to target critical infrastructure” in the United States.
Meanwhile, Wray said China is more likely to “play the long game.”
He compared China to terrorist groups and said they too have adopted “mafia” tactics with a cyberattack division that outnumbers their American counterparts 50 to one.
Asked about a GOP proposal to cut the FBI’s $500 million budget, he responded: “China is not going to cut its budget.”
Wray said the budget cut would help “violent criminals, child predators, the Chinese government, hackers and ransomware actors, cartels and terrorists.”
“It hurts our law enforcement partners, the state and local law enforcement partners who depend on us every day and in so many ways, and ultimately it hurts the American people in the neighborhoods” Wray continued.
Last month, Wray said the FBI was actively working to thwart any foreign attempts to influence the 2024 presidential election.
“The United States has faced threats of foreign malign influence in the past,” Wray said at a national security conference. “But in this election cycle, the United States will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace and thanks to new technology.”
Last month, Wray said the United States expects to face swift threats to this year’s U.S. elections as artificial intelligence and other technological advances have made interference and meddling easier than before.
“The United States has faced threats of foreign malign influence in the past,” Wray said at a national security conference. “But in this election cycle, the United States will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace and thanks to new technology.”
Wray highlighted advances in generative AI, which he said had made it “easier for more and less sophisticated foreign adversaries to exert malign influence.”
The comments underscored the US government’s growing concerns about influence operations, sometimes difficult to detect, that are designed to shape public opinion.
Although officials have not cited successful efforts by foreign governments to directly alter election results, they have sounded alarms over the past decade about foreign influence campaigns.
Wray suggested the FBI would share information this year about the threats it sees.
“As intelligence professionals, we need to highlight threats in a specific, evidence-based way so that we are usefully arming our partners and, in particular, the public against the types of foreign influence operations they are likely to face.” he said.
In 2016, Russian agents attempted to boost Republican Donald Trump’s electoral chances by stealing and leaking Democratic emails and using a hidden but powerful social media campaign to sow discord among American voters.
In 2020, U.S. intelligence officials said, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized influence operations to denigrate Democrat Joe Biden and help Trump in that year’s election.
China “considered but did not deploy” influence operations, while Iran’s aggressive efforts sought to exploit vulnerabilities in state election websites as Tehran sought to hurt Trump’s re-election chances, officials said.
Despite those threats, according to intelligence officials, there was ultimately no evidence that any foreign entity changed votes or otherwise disrupted the voting process.