House Intelligence Chair Says US at ‘Highest Level’ of Potential Terrorist Threat

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday that the United States is currently at its “highest level” for the possibility of a terrorist attack occurring on American soil.

During an interview with CBS News, Mr. Turner was asked about reports of recent arrests with individuals with ties to the ISIS terrorist group in the United States.

“What’s important about these reports and what we’re seeing, especially in conjunction with [FBI] Director [Christopher] Wray’s public statements, that we are at the highest level of a possible terrorist threat, that the administration’s policies have absolutely directly related to threats to Americans,” Mr. Turner said.

“We have actual administration officials stepping forward and certainly our committee and our committee members have concurred on the intelligence that we’re seeing,“ Mr. Turner told the outlet. ”That as a result of the administration’s policies allowing people to cross the border unvetted, we have terrorists that are actively working with inside the United States that are a threat to Americans.”

His comments came in light of reports, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that claimed that at least eight Tajikistan nationals with alleged ties to ISIS were arrested in several major cities including New York and Los Angeles. The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify those reports.

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“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard pressed to think of a time when so many different threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once, but that is the case as I sit here today,” the FBI director said at the time, while pushing for increased funding for the federal law enforcement bureau.

He also made reference to a terrorist attack at a concert hall in Moscow that left scores of people dead that ISIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan, claimed responsibility for.

“We’ve seen a rogue’s gallery of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks against Americans and our allies,” Mr. Wray said, adding that what is “increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall in March.”