Islamic State likely planning attacks in US: CIA chief

On the conflict in Syria, Brennan says there will be no way forward on the political front without Russian cooperation

The head of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Brennan, said on Wednesday he would be surprised if Islamic State was not plotting attacks within the United States and against US targets abroad.

On the conflict in Syria, Brennan, who was speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said there will be no way forward on the political front without active Russian cooperation.



In a recent mass shooting to rock US, the gunman, Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, was quoted pledging allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The US Justice Department and the FBI released what they said was the complete transcript of the phone conversation between the shooter and 911 police operators as he threatened to strap explosives to his hostages.

From inside the gay Orlando nightclub, the gunman, Omar Mateen told police negotiators to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that was why he was “out here right now.”



Mateen threatened to detonate a car rigged with bombs and to strap hostages into explosive vests, according to transcripts of the 911 calls he made while police tried to rescue people trapped in the club.

The FBI and Justice Department said they had released a redacted transcript of the conversations because of sensitivity to the interests of survivors and victims’ families, and the integrity of the investigation.