[WND.com  08.21.14]

WND EXCLUSIVE

INHOFE: ISIS STRATEGIZING TO 

'BLOW UP' U.S. CITY

 

America now in 'most dangerous position we've ever been in'

 

 BOB UNRUH 

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially.

 

 

The ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee in the U.S. Senate is warning that ISIS terrorists, those who this week beheaded an American journalist, are trying to develop the capability of blowing up an entire American city.

The comments from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., came in an interview with the Fox affiliate in Oklahoma City.

 

 

He said the U.S. now is in "the most dangerous position we've ever been in."

Responding to questions about terror and the threat facing Americans, he said: "They're crazy out there. And they are rapidly developing a method of blowing up a major U.S. city. You just can't believe that's happening."

He told the station the threat is significant, and he blamed it on the cuts in defense spending made by President Obama.

"He's going to have to come up with something we're going to do because they're holding another hostage ... and the problem is the president, he says all these things and he never does them."

ISIS members, he said, are "really bad terrorists."

"They're so bad that al-Qaida's afraid of them."

The threat to the U.S. should not be underestimated, he said.

"This idea they're coming in, infiltrating the United States. Sure some are coming in that are associated with ISIS, but a majority of them are still over there and they are undoing a lot of the good that has been done," he said.

Get Inhofe's book, "The Greatest Hoax," from the WND Superstore.

According to a report in The Hill, ISIS, also known as Islamic State, "has long threatened to carry out a catastrophic attack on American soil, with a spokesman recently boasting that the militant group would fly its flag over the White House."

WND reported just a day earlier that ISIS is training jihadists to attack targets in the U.S. and Europe.

U.S. intelligence sources said the al-Qaida splinter group includes thousands of European and American jihadists who fought in the Syrian civil war and came to Iraq to train and fight, first on behalf of various jihadist groups and now ISIS.

ISIS has declared the establishment of a caliphate that includes portions of northeastern Syria and western and central Iraq. It has threatened to expand throughout the Levant, which includes Syria, southern Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

ISIS could join forces with other al-Qaida groups such as Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP, and Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM.

The development would make Europe particularly vulnerable from the south, especially through Spain, as WND recently reported.

Sources report in all, there are more than 2,000 Europeans and some 100 Americans who have gone to Syria to join ISIS.

The International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College in London believes among the Europeans are some 700 French, 500 British, 100 Dutch, 300 German and 300 from various other countries, including Spain.

In June, Spanish officials arrested eight men attempting to recruit militants to fight for ISIS and then return to Spain.

Last fall, Britain's MI-5 domestic security service stopped a plot to conduct an attack in London on the scale of the one conducted in Mumbai, India, in 2008.

The intelligence sources tell WND that officials in Europe and the U.S. are unprepared for what could be large-scale attacks.

WND also reported military experts are warning the Obama administration's $1 trillion cut in defense spending will put U.S. military forces at a serious technological disadvantage in future conflicts.

In the past, U.S. technology has acted as a force multiplier, giving American fighting forces a huge advantage in combat situations.

The concern arises not only as ISIS threatens American interests in Syria, Iraq and possibly beyond. It also comes as Russia and communist China are increasing their defense spending for technological development.

"The loss of a long-held technical advantage would be a body blow to the U.S. military," according to analysts of the open intelligence Langley Intelligence Group Network, or Lignet.

The technologies that would be affected include robotics for specialized combat duties, development of next-generation navigation and reconnaissance systems, unmanned mini-submarines and faster helicopters, the analysts said.

"Times are changing," the analysts said. "After more than a decade of war, perennial federal budget deficits and a foreign policy notable for its reticence rather than vision, the U.S. defense budget for the next five to 10 years is likely to contract significantly" with a projected $1 trillion in cuts.