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BLITZER: Let's dig a little bit deeper right now. We're watching the breaking news. Joining us is the Independent senator from Maine, Angus King. He's a member of both the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees. Senator, thanks very much for joining us.
SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: Glad to be here, Wolf. A tough case on all fronts. More questions than answers right now.
BLITZER: That's certainly true. But I know you've been looking into this together with your staff. What can you tell us? What have you learned about Muhammad Youssuf Abdulazeez's plans? For example, as far as how long he was plotting what was going on, other related information?
KING: Well, there's no -- I haven't had a briefing -- well, I did have a briefing an hour ago but not on these kinds of details. I think there's a lot of focus, as you suggest, on this trip to Jordan. He was there for seven months. Jordan is a relatively peaceful country in the Middle East, but there are known ISIS and al Qaeda radicals there. He could have easily fallen under their influence.
You know, this is the tough case. The FBI has made something like ten arrests in the last two weeks of people involved in these kinds of plots. But the problem is, you know, if you did the percentages, they were over 90 percent successful. But we still have four Marines dead. That's the problem with trying to keep track of these essentially lone wolves that don't give us any signals, that aren't writing on Facebook that they want to do jihad and those kinds of things. These are the toughest cases of all.
And we're still trying to get to the bottom of whether he was directed -- I think the key two words that you've used are "directed" or "inspired". Directed would mean that ISIS or some other radical group picked him up on Facebook or some social media as a potential recruit and then got in touch with him, perhaps in an encrypted way offline. We don't know that. Or was he just responding to the kind of general, I call it a terrorist APB. We don't know that yet.
But these are the hardest cases to deal with. We can disrupt a case where there's a plot and there's communications and plans and all those kinds of things. But if somebody just decides they're going to go out and commit a violent act -- you know, the guy down in Charleston, nobody knew that he was going to do such a thing -- those are the hardest ones for law enforcement.
BLITZER: Or was he instructed and trained to do something while he spent those seven months last year, for example, in Jordan, as you correctly point out? They're really spending a lot of time investigating together with Jordanian authorities. There's a very close U.S. intelligence law enforcement military cooperation between the U.S. and Jordan. We'll see what happens on that front. [17:15:02] Senator, we have a lot more to discuss. I want to take a
quick break. Much more with Senator Angus King right after this.
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BLITZER: We are following the breaking news. The FBI now revealing new details of the attack by a gunman on two U.S. military centers in Chattanooga that left four Marines dead. That case is now being investigated as an act of terror.
[17:20:08] We're back with the independent senator, Angus King of Maine. He's a member of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committee.
Senator, the chairman, as you know, of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Mike McCaul, is a very serious guy. He says that, based on his experience, this attack was, in fact, ISIS- inspired. At least ISIS-inspired. What information do intelligence have -- intelligence officials have about what may have happened, if in fact, they're reaching that conclusion?
KING: Well, I don't think Chairman McCaul was saying necessarily there was intelligence to that effect. I think he was looking at the overall picture. And also I noted he particularly said we do know that there were ISIS plans or plots or suggestions, if you will, over the last month to do just this kind of thing.
And I think that is what he was really saying. I know of no specific intelligence, at least at this point, that connects this guy to ISIS or any other -- any other particular group. I do think...
BLITZER: Well, let me interrupt, Senator, for a second. Let me interrupt for a second. Because U.S. intelligence officials for weeks have now been saying that they believe, during the closing days, especially of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, there would be attacks and that there would be attacks against U.S. military targets. It's one of the reasons the U.S. military just before July 4th went on a higher state of alert.
KING: Well, that's -- and that's what Chairman McCaul was referring to. And I don't disagree with that. The circumstantial evidence certainly points to this being that kind of attack. Whether there is a direct connection between this fellow and ISIS, I think, is what we don't have yet, or some other radical group.
Remember, there are -- there are hundreds of these different groups. ISIS is the one that we know the best. But there are other groups out there that are trying to foment this kind of activity in this country.
So I don't disagree with the chairman's conclusion. But I don't -- I don't think that he would assert there is specific intelligence on this. But it certainly looks that way. I don't disagree with that at all.
BLITZER: Abdulazeez, he wasn't apparently on the radar of U.S. intelligence, law enforcement, FBI, but he did have a blog in recent days talking about jihad. In one of his blogs, he wrote, and I'm quoting him, he said that "The event we've most worried about," he said that there were these kinds of events that would be good for jihad and for Islam. What do you make of that?
KING: Well, that's -- that's the kind of signal that the FBI is looking at. And as I mentioned earlier, they made about a dozen arrests. I think ten, actually, over the last several weeks, based on a variety of kinds of evidence.
And that -- this points up, I think, something important, Wolf, that I haven't heard mentioned. One of the issues -- and now that we're on alert and on notice that this is something that we're facing, I believe we need to talk about a more focused effort here in the U.S.
We've got the FBI. We've got the counterterrorism center. We've got the fusion centers around the country. We've got the Department of Homeland Security. And I think there has to be a central focus of somebody that's in charge of dealing with this kind of threat. When everybody's in charge, nobody's in charge. And I think that's one of the things that this issue points out.
This is a classic case where there has to be close coordination with local law enforcement, as well as people that are watching the social media, that are watching these kinds of blogs and trying to pick these things up.
But that's -- I think this is -- as I say, the FBI has done a good job. They've made a series of arrests over the last two weeks, and it looks like they've thwarted a series of these plots. And they've batted over 90 percent. But that's not good enough in this situation, sir.
BLITZER: It certainly isn't. Four Marines, unfortunately, are dead as a result of what happened in Chattanooga. Thanks very much, Senator, for joining us.
KING: Always a pleasure, Wolf.
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