FBI, Concerned for Online Militant Training, Dismisses Iraq’s Info on ‘Terror Plot’

FBI expressed its concern over the use of Internet in terrorist training.

According to FBI Director James Comey, people can get any information related to terrorist training on the net. He said that potential involvement of American citizens in terror attacks in the United States was one of the major concerns of the agency. Comey also said that FBI was able to identify the Islamist terrorist who had appeared on beheading videos of U.S. journalists.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Comey talking about potential terror attacks on America. He said that militant groups in Syria and Iraq had been planning to launch a terror attack on Western airlines. The airstrikes by U.S.-led troops in Iraq and Syria were apparently not enough to disrupt their terror plots, he said. Comey, on the other hand, said that there was no evidence to support Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's claim on Thursday that Islamic State terrorists had plotted attacks on Paris and the United States. According to U.S. officials, the alleged plot has not been verified.

The Telegraph reported that al-Abadi claimed to have information from Iraqi intelligence that Paris and the U.S.A were under threat by a terror network. He said that the foreign fighters working for the Islamic State were responsible for the terror plots. The Iraqi PM, who was talking journalists at Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria Hotel, also said that the plot had not been disrupted yet.

The White House National Security Council, on the other hand said that there was no confirmation of such plots. "We have not confirmed such a plot, and would have to review any information from our Iraqi partners before making further determinations," spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said, "We take any threat seriously and always work to corroborate information we receive from our partners." FBI, however, said that it was aware of what the Iraq prime minister had said as the agency was in the process of evaluating its "validity."

Comey, meanwhile, expressed his concern over the Islamic State's possibility of motivating and radicalising "domestic extremists" in the U.S. He said that such terrorists would not have to attend any militant training camp overseas. They can gather all the relevant information by getting trained online. He said that the Internet had opened up the possibilities which the agency had not idea about around 10 years back.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au