By Theodore Shoebat
Rep. Peter King has affirmed that ISIS is urging its Islamic follower in America to target American soldiers and police officers. According to the report:
Rep. Peter King said Saturday that the Islamic State was using social media to “urge people to … kill in place” and hinted that the terrorists may have improvised explosives that could be used on drones to attack large open areas.
“The main targets are anyone who is in uniform — police officers, military personnel,” the New York Republican, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee told Fox News host Uma Pemmaraju. “They are the targets.
“They have to constantly be on their guard — whether it’s an Army recruiting station, whether it’s a police station, whether it’s a police officer walking a beat, whether it’s a cop sitting in a patrol car — they are all now targets of ISIS.”King declined to be more specific on the group’s forays with improvised devices, however, only saying that “they are very unconventional. They think outside the box.
“They’re always trying to stay one step ahead of us,” he added. “And they are entirely ruthless. Unlike some organizations, some of their violence, they actually put it on the Internet.
“They want to highlight how destructive and homicidal they can be. So any type of explosive attack — drone or otherwise — we have to definitely, definitely be on our guard.”
King’s remarks followed a speech by FBI Director James Comey at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado that the Islamic State’s efforts through social media to push troubled Americans toward violence was more of a terror threat to than an external attack by al-Qaida.
King agreed, telling Fox on Saturday that the jihadists have “really mastered how to appeal to different types. They get people on the fringes of society, who are slightly deranged and homicidal. These are people. … ISIS is able to contact them.”
He noted that five people who were arrested in the New York area in attacks planned for July Fourth were ISIS followers.
“ISIS is really able to communicate directly through the gate — through the use of social media — with people who are both deranged and are lone wolves and others who are actual followers of ISIS.”
King underscored a special problem Comey highlighted for law enforcement: intercepting the Islamic State’s encrypted messages, known as “dark zones.”
“We have to get these telecom companies, Internet companies, to work a way where the government can — with a court order — break through this encryption,” he told Fox. “Otherwise, ISIS can ‘go dark’ — as they call it — and we have no idea what they’re following next.”