The CIA knew ISIS was planning an imminent attack just days before the barbaric terror group slaughtered 130 people in Paris.

CIA Director John Brennan told 60 Minutes that the 'system was blinking red' shortly before ISIS launched its horrific gun and bomb attack in the French capital.

Brennan said the intelligence agency was aware of an impending atrocity but was unable to intercept encrypted messages the terrorists were using in the build-up to the massacre.

Scroll down for video

The CIA knew ISIS was planning an imminent attack just days before the barbaric terror group slaughtered 130 people in Paris, the intelligence agency's chief John Brennan (pictured) said

CIA Director John Brennan told 60 Minutes that the 'system was blinking red' shortly before ISIS launched a gun and bomb attack in the French capital

'We knew the system was blinking red,' Brennan said. 'We knew just in the days before that ISIL was trying to carry out something.

'But the individuals involved have been able to take advantage of the newly available means of communication that are walled off, from law enforcement officials.'

The CIA chief said the main thing he had learned from the Paris attacks was that ISIS has a lot of plans that the intelligence community does not have 'full insight' into.

Brennan insisted the CIA has stopped 'numerous' attacks, including detaining ISIS militants travelling from Syria and Iraq into Europe.

They have been stopped and interdicted and arrested and detained and debriefed because of very, very good intelligence,' he said.

He added that ISIS want to attack the U.S., but may not succeed.

A total of 130 people were killed in Paris in November the worst terror attack in Europe since the Madrid bombings in 2004. Pictured, a bloodied victim outside the Bataclan theater

A French fire brigade crew help an injured man near the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in November last year

'I'm expecting them to try to put in place the operatives, the material or whatever else that they need to do or to incite people to carry out these attacks, clearly,' Brennan said.

'So I believe that their attempts are inevitable. I don't think their successes necessarily are.'

However, he added that if ISIS did manage to strike in the U.S. then it would 'encourage us to be even more forceful'.

A total of 130 people were killed in Paris in November the worst terror attack in Europe since the Madrid bombings in 2004.

The attacks started at the Stade de France, where three terrorists blew themselves up after being denied entry to the ground, killing one other person.

The booms were heard inside the stadium, where the French President Francois Hollande was watching France play Germany at soccer.

Minutes later, separate attackers opened fire on a cafe and a restaurant in central Paris, killing 15, moments before more militants sprayed other establishments in the city with bullets, claiming more innocent lives.

Another suicide bomber detonated his vest after sitting down in a cafe. The blast injured several but no one but the attacker died.

As this was happening, three machine gun-wielding jihadis stormed the Bataclan theater, where the Eagles of Death Metal were playing to audience of around 1,500 people.