Clapper Talks ISIS at Intelligence and National Security Summit
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Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — ISIS is a group of “very sophisticated recruiters and motivators.”
That’s what Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told intelligence experts at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington Thursday when asked about raids in Australia the day before that resulted in the arrests of 15 people involved in a terror plot connected to ISIS.
“It’s emblematic of the world we’re in — a lot of the discussion about ISIL and the potential threat it may pose to the homeland. People conjure up the image of another 9/11 attack or something of that magnitude,” Clapper said. “…In this case with this group, who are very sophisticated recruiters and motivators…we continue to worry, I think, more than any other single threat — you know the homegrown version, which are very hard to detect. So I think what’s happened in Australia is a manifestation of that threat.”
Clapper also unveiled the 2014 National Intelligence Strategy, which is entirely unclassified. It lays put the intelligence environment and tried to identify emerging threats. This year, Clapper put the code of professional ethics for intelligence gathering right in front in the report. It’s seven points are mission, truth, lawfulness, integrity, stewardship, excellence and diversity.
The DNI chief noted that AFPAK fighters in Syria, in terms of a threat to the homeland, perhaps pose the same threat as ISIS.
As for government funds that would be allocated to counterterror efforts, Clapper added that many people in government have high security clearances, which largely go unused, that cost the government large sums of money that could be better spent.
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