FBI Director James Comey told reporters at FBI Headquarters that a least 10 people radicalized by ISIS were arrested in connection with plots to kill Americans on July 4th.
“I do believe that our work disrupted efforts to kill people, likely in connection with July 4th,” Comey said.
Comey did not release details of the arrests or investigations but said they involved “very serious efforts to kill people in the United States.” He could not confirm all those arrested were plotting Independence Day attacks but said “some of them were focusing on the Fourth of July.”
Comey had previously told Congress this week that ISIS and westerners being radicalized by the Islamic terror group had been using sophisticated encryption to keep investigators from being able to track their plans.
He said that because of the system being used, ISIS can activate potential terrorists on any day or the terrorists themselves could just decided to launch their plans.
“Rahim in Boston, I believe, was bent on doing something in the future,” Comey said referring to terrorist Usaama Rahim, “and woke up on the morning of June the 2nd and said, ‘You know what, I think today is the day,’ and just went out to try and kill people.”
Federal officials say that security measures across the country will be increase ahead of the July 4th holiday weekend.
Police say that they are concerned about ISIS sympathizers in the country who might heed the group’s call for major terror attacks during the month of Ramadan.
New York Congressman Peter King told ABC there was “great concern” about terror attacks and that it was unusual for officials to put out warnings so far in advance of a holiday unless they had major reason for concern.
“ISIS is incomparable as far as terrorist organizations as far as being able to reach,” King said on “This Week.” “They can reach the disaffected, they can reach the deranged, they can also reach the ideologically committed.”
King is not alone in his concern.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here a week from today talking about an attack over the weekend in the United States. That’s how serious this is,” Former CIA deputy director Michael Morrell told CBS News.
The warnings come on the heels of three coordinated terrorist attacks in Europe that were claimed by ISIS.
The FBI is currently conducting an operation to disrupt potential domestic terrorists who are being radicalized by ISIS.
ABC News confirmed that the operation is taking place and that the latest arrest happened in New York on Saturday. A college student thought al-Qaeda was “getting soft” and was “making efforts to prepare an explosive device for detonation.”
Fareed Mumuni, 21, has been charged with attempting to murder a federal employee after attacking a FBI agent with a knife during his arrest.
The arrest was part of an operation to take down Munther Omar Saleh, a 20-year-old American citizen now facing charges of conspiring to to provide material support to ISIS.
The papers filed by prosecutors claim Salah endorsed the ISIS attack on Charlie Hebdo in France and the attempted assault on the Draw Muhammad contest in Texas. He also endorsed several terrorists beheadings by ISIS.
Authorities said that investigations were underway in all 50 states and have already led to five arrests of suspected terrorist sympathizers.
On the heels of France approving dramatic expansion of their spy powers which would allow the government to collect the metadata of all citizens without a warrant, now Canada is moving toward expanding their spy powers.
The Anti-Terror Act was spurred by last year’s attack on the Parliament. The bill flew through House of Commons and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been a strong supporter of the bill. The Senate is expected to approve the act before June.
The act gives the spy agency permission to work overseas along with making preventative arrests of terrorism suspects. The police would also be allowed to make arrests and detain individuals without a charge. Promotion of terrorism by any means including the internet would become a crime.
“There is a high probability of jihadist attacks from within,” Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney said. “The threat of terrorism has never been greater.”
Critics say the bill is too sweeping. The opposition includes four former Prime Ministers and five justices of the Canadian Supreme Court.
“This bill will almost certainly lead to a chill on freedom of speech,” said Allan Weiss, professor of humanities at York University. “It is filled with vague wording that would make it possible for the government to label virtually anything it disagreed with as harmful to Canada’s national interests.”
German security officials told reporters that they had stopped an Islamic terrorist plot similar to the bombings at the Boston Marathon.
A 35-year-old Turkish man and his 34-year-old wife were taken into custody near Frankfurt. Special police forces found a bomb, firearms, ammunition and chemicals that can make explosives.
Authorities say that the man had been under surveillance as a suspected Islamic extremist.
“According to our current information we have prevented an attack,” said Stefan Mueller, the chief of police for western Hesse state.
The speculation among police is that the target was a professional cycling race scheduled for Friday.
“Of course we talked about the Boston attack last night,” said Mueller, explaining why security officials decided to go ahead with the raid. The race “is a soft target, and of course since the Boston Marathon it’s part of the security assessment for every marathon in Germany, and of course this is true for cycling races too.”
Weapons found in the home included a pipe bomb, 100 rounds of ammunition, a training rocket for an anti-tank weapon and a gallon of hydrogen peroxide along with other chemicals. Hydrogen peroxide can create a substance called TATP which is what shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to use to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight.
“I want to emphasize that an attack was prevented, but it will have to be seen whether a concrete attack against tomorrow’s cycle race was planned,” Mueller added.
A number of California airports increased security measures over the weekend after intelligence officials intercepted messages about a possible terror plot against the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security did not release details of the threat other than saying they had intercepted chatter and other information that raised concerns. They also confirmed the chatter was connected to ISIS.
“Over the last few months, we have made a number of security adjustments, including enhanced screening at select overseas airports and increasing random searches of passengers and carry-on luggage on flights inbound to the U.S., reflecting an evolving threat picture,” a spokesman with the department told CNN.
In addition to the airport security upgrades, DHS confirmed they had been increasing security at federal installations since February.
“The department has conducted significant outreach efforts … with state and local law enforcement partners regarding these trends and engaging in a series of meetings and events with local community leaders across the country to counter violent extremism,” the spokesman stated.
The TSA alerted local law enforcement that the airlines might not be the target but rather an individual actor focusing on uniformed personnel at various locations.
The increase in DHS actions and security comes after the head of the FBI admitted they have intelligence of people in all 50 states with sympathy toward the terrorist organization ISIS.
“Those people exist in every state” Comey said at a law enforcement event. “I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago there was 49 states. Alaska had none, which I couldn’t quite figure out. But Alaska has now joined the group, so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states.”
A massive anti-terrorism operation in Italy has arrested several terrorists including one cell that had plans for an attack on the Vatican.
Authorities say that some of the cell members had contact with Osama bin Laden before his 2011 death and that they had recordings of the exchanges from wiretaps.
Prosecutor Mauro Mura said that intelligence showed the group had planned attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan along with domestic attacks. The plot against the Vatican first came up among the terrorists in 2010 discussions.
Police say some of the suspects arrested Friday had been under surveillance for a decade.
The group was also smuggling currency to other terror networks. One of the suspects arrested today was captured on a flight from Italy to Pakistan with 55,000 euros.
Investigators say the group tried to grow by smuggling migrants into Italy. They would attempt to recruit the migrants to be a part of the al-Qaeda network.
The raids, which police called a “first-of-its-kind operation”also took out the terrorist’s headquarters on the island of Sardinia.
Australian officials say that five teenagers were arrested Saturday accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a Veterans’ Day ceremony.
The aim of the attack was police officers.
Australian Federal Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Neil Gaughan told reporters that two of the 18 year olds were plotting an attack on the ANZAC Day ceremony in Melbourne. Two other 18 year olds and a 19 year old were arrested. All of the arrests took place in Melbourne.
“At this stage, we have no information that it was a planned beheading. But there was reference to an attack on police,” Gaughan said. “Some evidence that we have collected at a couple of the scenes, and some other information we have, leads us to believe that this particular matter was ISIS-inspired.”
ANZAC Day is April 25th, the anniversary of the first major military action by Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during World War I.
Two of the teens had connections to Numan Haider, an 18 year old who stabbed two police officers before being shot and killed in September.
Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan told reporters the teens had been “on the radar” for months.
“This is a new paradigm for police,” Phelan said. “These types of attacks that are planned are very rudimentary and simple. … All you need these days is a knife, a flag and a camera and one can commit a terrorist act.”
Two female roommates in Queens, New York are charged with plotting a terrorist attack on American soil.
Noelle Velentzas, 28 and Asia Siddiqui, 31, are both U.S. citizens. The complaint against them was unsealed Thursday at Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
“The investigation has revealed that Velentzas espouses violent jihadist beliefs and has repeatedly expressed an interest in terrorist attacks committed within the United States,” the complaint stated.
A source told Fox News the women were plotting to use pressure cooker bombs similar to the ones used in the Boston Marathon bombings. They were also in possession of propane tanks along with instructions on how to turn them into bombs.
Both of the women had “repeated contact with members of the foreign terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” One of the women said that Osama Bin Laden was her “hero”.
In communications with terrorists, Velentzas asked why they would need to come to the middle east when there were plenty of opportunities for “pleasing Allah” in the U.S.
The women face life in prison if convicted on all charges.
The royal family of Saudi Arabia is taking pro-active steps to fight the Islamic terrorist group ISIS by building a 600-mile long wall to block the Iraq/Saudi border.
The fence will run from Jordan to Kuwait. The fencing system will five layers of barbed wire fencing, a ditch, a patrol road, underground motion sensors, 40 watchtowers, radar, day/night cameras and rapid intervention teams.
The entire system will also be connected through a fiber-optic network.
The royal family had first thought about a wall in 2006 during the U.S. invasion of Iraq but put the plan in motion after ISIS tried to sneak into the country through the border town of Arar.
The Saudi military has already sent 30,000 additional troops to the border to secure it.
ISIS top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has called on Sunnis within Saudi Arabia to being terrorist attacks on the royal family.
