Director of US Intel Worries about ISIS Attacks; Says ISIS Has Ability to Stage Paris-Style Attack

The Obama administration's top U.S. intelligence official warned yesterday that ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) has the capability to stage a Paris-style attack in the U.S. -- using local cells to strike in multiple locations and inflict scores of casualties -- the CNN website reports today (May 4, 2016).

"They do have that capacity," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told CNN's Peter Bergen in an exclusive interview.

"That's something we worry about a lot in the United States, that they could conjure up a raid like they did in Paris or Brussels," where March attacks on a train and at an airport left 32 dead and 300 people injured, Clapper said. The November Paris attacks killed at least 130 people.

However, President Barack Obama views ISIS attacks as less likely to occur in the U.S., due to a plethora of preventive measures being used to thwart such attacks.