FBI: Al-Qaeda determined to strike at US despite leader's killing
FBI Director Christopher Wray
said on Thursday that he remains worried about the potential for a large-scale
attack planned or inspired by Al-Qaeda despite the killing of its top leader in
a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan last weekend.
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
attacks of September 11, 2001, was killed during the early Sunday morning
strike on a safehouse in central Kabul.
Asked if Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State would strike at the
United States if given the opportunity, Wray said, "Oh, yeah!"
In the near 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 remarks
about al-Zawahiri's killing, Wray said he was "not surprised but
disappointed" that the head of Al-Qaeda was found hiding in a safehouse
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 U.S. raid in 2011, was on the FBI's Most Wanted List with
a $25 million reward for his capture.
After the strike, the Biden administration accused the
Taliban of violating a 2020 agreement under which the group pledged not to
allow any terrorist groups 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 whether al-Zawahiri's presence in the Haqqani safehouse suggested the Taliban and Al-Qaeda continued to enjoy a close relationship, Wray tersely responded: "Nothing good."
The
"over-the-horizon" strike against al-Zawahiri has augmented the view
held by some experts and Biden administration officials that the United States
can continue to carry out such counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan
without maintaining a presence on the ground.
Still, Wray said he's worried about the "potential loss
of and collection [of intelligence]" in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal in
Afghanistan.
"So, we're going to have growing intelligence
gaps," he said.
"And I'm worried about the possibility that we’ll see Al-Qaeda reconstruct, ISIS-K taking potential advantage of the deteriorating
security environment, and I’m worried about terrorists, including here in the
United States, being inspired by what they see over there," he said.
ISIS-K refers to Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan.
Providing an assessment of national security threats facing
the United States, he said the potential dangers have never been "greater
or more diverse."
The greatest threat emanates from "lone actors or small
cells" who tend to radicalize online and attack soft targets, he said.
The FBI divides the domestic threats into two buckets:
domestic violent extremists such as violent white supremacists and homegrown
violent extremists such as ISIS-inspired jihadists.
Wray confirmed that the FBI is investigating a number of
Afghan refugees who were airlifted to the United States last year despite
security concerns.
The refugees were part of the more than 80,000 Afghan evacuees moved to the United States following the Taliban takeover last August.
In a report in February, the
Defense Department's inspector general faulted the National Counter-Terrorism
Center for not fully vetting the evacuees, allowing at least 50 Afghans with
"potentially significant security concerns" to enter the country.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley said a whistleblower recently
came forward to claim that as many as 324 Afghans had been admitted into the
United States despite appearing on a Defense Department watchlist.
"This is a watchlist that identifies folks whose
biometrics have been collected and determined to be threats or potential
threats to national security, including known suspected terrorists,"
Hawley said.
Asked if the Defense or Homeland Security departments had
communicated the new figure to the FBI, Wray said he did not know the exact
number.
"I know there are a number of individuals through our
joint terrorism task force that we're actively trying to investigate as a
result of" the inspector general report, he said.
Wray said the FBI has "a lot of information about where people are located," but he could not tell whether the FBI knew their whereabouts "at any given time."
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