“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard
pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public
safety and national security were so elevated all at once,”
Christopher Wray is set to tell lawmakers during a budget
hearing. “But that is the case as I sit here today.”
The March 22 attack on a concert hall in suburban Moscow killed
at least 144 people, the deadliest in Russia in 20 years. A
branch of the Islamic State militant group claimed
responsibility, but Russian President Vladimir Putin, without
citing evidence, has sought to blame Ukraine.
U.S. officials have been worried about the possibility of an
attack carried out by an individual or small group inspired by
the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. But the FBI is growing
concerned about a more coordinated attack following the concert
massacre in Russia, Wray will say during testimony.
Of inceasing concern "is the potential for a coordinated attack
here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the
Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago,” he will say.
Wray also plans to press lawmakers to renew a U.S. surveillance
program set to expire this month, calling it an indispensable
tool against U.S. adversaries. A modest overhaul of that program
was blocked in the House on Wednesday amid concerns from members
of both parties that it did not go far enough in curbing the
government’s surveillance powers.
“It’s critical in securing our nation, and we’re in crunch
time,” Wray plans to tell lawmakers.
(Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Ross Colvin and
Stephen Coates)
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