Defense FBI 'disrupted' July Fourth plots, director says Agents arrested more than 10 people in the last four to six weeks who had been inspired by ISIL, James Comey told reporters.

The FBI disrupted plots to kill Americans on or around the Fourth of July, Director James Comey told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Agents arrested more than 10 people in the last four to six weeks who had been inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, “some” of whom were planning violence in connection with July 4, Comey said in a media briefing. He described the suspects as “products of this ISIL online recruiting, directing, motivating effort.”


“I do believe that our work disrupted efforts to kill people, likely in connection with July Fourth,” Comey said.

He would not specify the number of arrests and said not all the charges were connected to terrorism. He also would not talk about what the plots entailed.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security had put out a bulletin in advance of July 4 notifying police departments to be on alert for terror-related threats on the holiday.

Comey noted that one of the ways ISIL differs from “your grandfather’s Al Qaeda” is that it doesn’t rely on long-plotted, deliberate attacks, but rather uses people who are “highly unpredictable” and who would be rejected as Al Qaeda operatives. ISIL uses a mix of directing, exhorting and inspiring those individuals to commit violence, Comey said.

He acknowledged it’s impossible to know how many of those arrested would have committed violence on the Fourth as opposed to another day. Comey said that means the bureau cannot wait until July 3 to catch someone who might just as easily decide to kill someone on June 2 — which is what authorities believed happened in the case of Usaama Rahim, who was shot and killed by Boston police and the FBI after officers say he lunged at them with a military knife.

Rahim had been under investigation by an anti-terrorism task force, The Boston Globe reported at the time.

“Rahim in Boston, I believe, was bent on doing something in the future, and woke up on the morning of June the 2nd and said, ‘You know what, I think today is the day,’ and just went out to try and kill people,” Comey said Thursday.

Comey added that some of the people the FBI arrested had moved to encrypted messaging applications to interact with ISIL — a phenomenon that law enforcement refers to as “going dark.”

The FBI has been waging a campaign against the unbreakable encryption that U.S. companies like Apple and Microsoft are marketing, an effort that included two Senate appearances on Wednesday for Comey. On Thursday, Comey said “dozens” of individuals have been observed by the FBI communicating with ISIL on Twitter then being directed to secure messaging apps, some of whom have later been caught by authorities, including some of the recently arrested suspects.

But Comey said the fact that the FBI has been able to catch some of the so-called dark targets doesn’t undercut his argument against encryption that even tech companies themselves can’t decode.

“What I’m telling you is the tools I have are significantly diminished by this phenomenon. We’re going to stay after it,” he said. “What I’m trying to do is make sure the American people … understand these tools you think we have are being changed significantly. And I can see that future in which that change continues to grow. So I don’t think it makes my job impossible, I don’t accept that my job is impossible, but it makes it increasingly difficult.”