Islamic State is the 'preeminent global threat,' U.S. intelligence director says - latimes

Islamic State has taken advantage of weak and collapsing governments to expand its reach, and remains determined to attack the United States, the top U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

The Sunni extremist group, which is based in Syria and Iraq but has affiliates in Africa and Asia, has become the “preeminent global threat,” Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper told the Senate Armed Services Committee in the annual “worldwide threats” hearing.

In what he called a “litany of doom,” Clapper outlined a diverse list of threats facing the United States, including terrorism, cyberattacks sponsored by China and Russia, drug trafficking, missile tests by Iran and continued enrichment of nuclear material by North Korea.

Violent extremists are active in about 40 countries, he said, including seven that are experiencing a collapse of central government authority and 14 others threatened by conflict.

Clapper appeared later before the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with CIA Director John O. Brennan, FBI Director James B. Comey, National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers and Marine Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s top spy agency. - Read More at the latimes

Islamic State is the 'preeminent global threat,' U.S. intelligence director says

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