FBI Director Christopher Wray warns ISIS could soon inspire ‘large-scale’ terror attack in the U.S. and reveals the BIGGEST threat to the American people as he defends his $11billion budget

FBI Director Christopher Wray will warn Congress on Thursday that the US is at risk of insider terrorist attacks masterminded by ISIS.

He will say that the “greatest terrorism threat” to the US “comes from lone actors or small cells of individuals who typically radicalize to online violence.”

Domestic terrorism investigations have “more than doubled” in the past four years, with a focus on racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) and anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists (AGAAVEs), Wray told Congress say.

At the end of fiscal year 2023, the FBI conducted 2,700 investigations within its domestic terrorism program and 4,000 investigations within its international program.

Wray, who led the FBI under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, will make his pitch on Capitol Hill for an $11.6 billion budget in 2025. Republican leaders have made “deep cuts” in their recently adopted 2024 budget from about six percent to the FBI. , bringing the budget to $10.7 billion.

“Over the past year, the threats facing our nation have escalated. These threats come from myriad sources: nation states, hostile foreign intelligence services, and criminals,” Wray will warn the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations.

“They range from homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) to sophisticated cyber attacks, from internet-facilitated child sexual exploitation to human trafficking, from violent gangs and criminal organizations to public corruption and corporate fraud.”

Wray will say that the FBI “remains concerned about the intentions of FTOs, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda and their affiliates, to conduct or inspire large-scale attacks in the United States.”

During the war in Gaza, Wray warned in a speech earlier this week: ‘The ongoing war in the Middle East has taken the threat of an attack on Americans in the United States to a whole new level.

The FBI appears to have shifted its focus abroad from Hamas to ISIS-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K.

Wray, whose office focused heavily on the Hamas threat after the October 7 attack in Israel, will now tell Congress that we have no information indicating that Hamas has the intent or ability to conduct operations inside the United States feed, although we cannot and do not do so. no, ignore that possibility.’

But after an ISIS-K attack on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia, which killed 134 people, countries around the world are on high alert.

More than 140 people were killed and more than a hundred injured in the terrorist attack during a concert at Crocus City Hall in Moscow

Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall concert hall shooting

Members of Congress have been demanding secret briefings about the threat from ISIS-K and the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has raised concerns about the US’s ability to conduct “over-the-horizon counter-terrorism operations” in Afghanistan to thwart the group’s future operations.

ISIS-K, the Islamic State group’s deadly Afghanistan affiliate, is now centralized in Asia and the Caucasus and has brought in surviving fighters from al-Qaeda.

United Nations experts believe ISIS-K has between 4,000 and 6,000 fighters.

Wray noted that ISIS is exhausted in the Middle East, is “successful” in social media and messaging, and is luring followers from the U.S.

Last month, Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, leader of Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that ISIS-K “retains the ability and will to attack U.S. and Western interests abroad in just six months with little to no warning.”

Wray continued, “Despite the loss of physical territory in Iraq and Syria, ISIS remains relentless in its campaign of violence against the United States and its partners – here at home and abroad. ISIS and its supporters continue to aggressively promote its hate-fueled rhetoric and attract like-minded violent extremists willing to carry out attacks on the United States and our interests abroad.”

“ISIS’s” successful use of social media and messaging applications to attract individuals is an ongoing concern for us. Like other foreign terrorist groups, ISIS has advocated attacks by lone perpetrators in the United States and Western countries through videos and other English-language propaganda that have specifically advocated attacks on civilians, the military, law enforcement personnel, and intelligence community personnel.”

Wray will also address the threats from North Korea, Iran and China, telling Congress that “the greatest long-term threat to our nation’s ideas, innovation and economic security comes from the foreign intelligence services and economic espionage of the People’s Republic of China.’

“The People’s Republic of China strives to reform the international rules-based system to its advantage, often with little regard for international norms and laws.”