CIA Director John Brennan said Friday that changing technology and social media websites have “greatly amplified” the security threats facing the free world.
Mr. Brennan told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that the Islamic State group, for example, uses new technologies to “coordinate operations, attract new recruits, disseminate propaganda, and inspire sympathizers across the globe to act in their name,” Reuters reported.
The CIA director said that the Sunni radical terror group has grown to roughly 20,000 fighters from more than 90 countries.
“The overall threat of terrorism is greatly amplified by today’s interconnected world, where an incident in one corner of the globe can instantly spark a reaction thousands of miles away; and where a lone extremist can go online and learn how to carry out an attack without ever leaving home,” he said.
Mr. Brennan said the January attack on France’s Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper was an example of how social media can aid and promote decentralized terror threats.
French brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi killed 12 people Jan. 7, including the paper’s editor, before dying in a shootout with police.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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