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 A joint intelligence bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies by
the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security urged members of the
U.S. military to erase from their online social media accounts
anything would draw attention from "violent extremists," or reveal
service members' identity, the news network said.
ABC said the government indicated late Sunday it had obtained
intelligence that Islamic State militants, who have taken over parts
of Iraq and Syria with the intention of setting up a fundamentalist
caliphate, were targeting the United States within its borders.
"The FBI recently received reporting indicating individuals overseas
are spotting and assessing like-minded individuals who are willing
and capable of conducting attacks against current and former
U.S.-based members of the United States military," the bulletin
said, according to a Reuters source.
 An FBI spokesman confirmed the accuracy of the ABC report, but
declined to provide a copy of the memo.
U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the
advisory "reinforces the guidance that our combatant commanders had
put out several weeks ago."
The Pentagon had most recently advised personnel to check their
social media after two Canadian soldiers were killed in their
country in October in separate attacks that police said were carried
out by converts to Islam, he said.
"The department has long been aware and mindful of the potential for
homegrown extremism and we have continued to encourage and to advise
all of our personnel to exercise the maximum amount of vigilance,"
Warren said.
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A U.S. government source told Reuters the warning most likely was
issued in response to an upsurge in social media postings by
suspected militants threatening U.S. service members.
The source also said one concern was that many military personnel
would be traveling in uniform over the holiday period, but the
bulletin was not circulated until the Thanksgiving holiday weekend
was nearly over.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Aruna Viswanatha and David Alexander;
writing by Bill Trott; editing by G Crosse, Bernadette Baum)
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