FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday warned that U.S. intelligence officials are concerned about the possibility of a “coordinated attack” in the U.S. similar to the massacre at a Russian concert hall last month that killed 143 people.
“We need funding to protect America from terrorism. I touched on this earlier, but there was already a heightened risk of violence in the United States before October 7th. Since then, we've seen a rogues gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies,” Wray told a House Appropriations subcommittee. “And given those calls for action, our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw some kind of twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home.”
“But now,” Wray continued, “increasingly concerning, is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia concert hall just a couple weeks ago.”
Wray shared his concerns while urging Congress to fund his agency through 2025 and reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows the government to collect the overseas communications of non-Americans on U.S.-based platforms without the use of a warrant. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives failed to pass a rule that would've allowed for the consideration of FISA renewal after Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to kill it.
