Rep. Pete King says Islamic State (ISIS) leader
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is probably on the money about U.S. and Russian airstrikes have negligible impact against his "caliphate."
"I would expect al-Baghdadi to say that," the New York Republican who sits on the Select Intelligence Committee said on
"Fox News Sunday."
"We've had some impact, but, unfortunately, overall he's probably right," King said of al-Baghdadi's statement, released on Saturday. "That after 16 months of air attacks by the U.S. it's had really minimal impact on ISIS considering how long those attacks have been going on."
The Russians haven't even been focusing on ISIS, he noted, making most of their air attacks against the Syrian resistance forces, which the United States supports.
"ISIS is stronger, I believe, than it was 16 months ago," King said. "They certainly have a larger land mass under their control."
The group has spread past Iraq and Syria and now is working on Afghanistan and Libya, he said. "In the last several months it has become clear that they do want to launch an attack on the U.S."
King has caught flak for pushing for surveillance of mosques in the United States much as Italian Americans were targeted for mob crimes, but said Sunday he is undeterred by his critics.
"They can cry all they want. The fact is that's where the threat is coming from," he said. "We can say that 98 percent, 99 percent of Muslims in this country are good people. I'm actually swearing in the first elected Muslim on Long Island into office; she's a good friend of mine. This is nothing against Muslims, but the fact is that is where the threat is coming from."
King said that "more often than not" mosques are uncooperative with authorities even when they knew of members who spoke about radical jihad.
"When you talk to police off the record, they will tell you they get very little cooperation," he said.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.