Former deputy director of the CIA Michael Morell warns that if the United States does not “degrade ISIS in Iraq and Syria and around the world, then we will face an attack like [Brussels] someday here.”
Appearing on “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday, Morell said that “in the last nine to 12 months, 15 months, ISIS has built this attack capability in Western Europe,” but it is much more difficult to attack the U.S. (RELATED: Former CIA Deputy Director: Obama Admin Has Done ‘Very Little’ To Degrade ISIS [VIDEO])
Host Norah O’Donnell asked Morell, “Here is what concerns me. Terrorists have struck a European capital two times in the past four months. They’re on a roll. You said, yesterday, they are winning. What is next?”
“This network in Europe is very large. We are talking about 5,000 guys who went from western Europe to Iraq and Syria to fight,” Morell said. “Some of them are still there. Some them have died on the battlefield, some are coming home with battlefield experience– hardened jihadists and more radicalized.”
“They’re now the threat we now face. Western intelligence, (U.S., European intelligence) simply don’t know how many individuals are out there, how many cells are out there. They are worried,” Morell said.
Fellow co-host Charlie Rose followed up with Morell asking, “Because we are separated here in the United States by an ocean, does that make us any safer?”
Morell replied, “It’s much more difficult for them to do that here for all sorts of reasons. The Muslim communities here are nowhere near as isolated as they are there. It’s much easier to get people there. They’ve had more people to go and fight. So it’s harder to do it here, Charlie but not impossible. And if we don’t degrade ISIS in Iraq and Syria and around the world, then we will face an attack like this someday here, absolutely.”
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