According to The Hill, FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned that the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan could spark a new wave of extremism in the United States.
Wray told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that extremist groups have never stopped plotting attacks on American soil.
“We are concerned that, with developments in Afghanistan, among other things, that there will be more inspiration to the first bucket,” Wray told the committee. “So I think we anticipate, unfortunately, growth in both categories as we look ahead over the next couple of years.”
This comes as National Counterterrorism Center Director Christine Abizaid testified to the committee that the country’s terrorism threat is less “acute” than it was two decades ago, according to the report.
Abizaid also stated that US officials have been keeping an eye on how terror organisations al Qaeda and ISIS could rebuild their forces and launch an attack on the US.
“In the wake of our withdrawal, the question is, at what point does that regional threat build to a capability and intent that is focused externally and particularly focused on the homeland?” Abizaid said, as per the report.
“I would say from an intelligence community perspective, that’s one of our highest priorities, is just to monitor and assess the degree to which those groups actually present an external threat.”
