Via WFB:
The United States’ top counterterrorism official warned that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) is stealing some $1 million dollars a day to fund its operations and could have the ability to convince its American sympathizers to conduct terror strikes “here at home with no warning.”
Matthew Olsen, director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, recently delivered a candid and at times surprising assessment of ISIL’s capabilities and threat, concluding that the group “poses a direct and significant threat to us,” according to a transcript of his remarks before the Brookings Institution.
As President Barack Obama prepares to delivery an address to the nation Wednesday evening about ISIL, Olsen warned in his speech that, “left unchecked, [ISIL] will seek to carry out attacks closer to home.”
ISIL already has recruited upwards of 10,000 extremist fighters, including some from America, and currently controls territories “similar in size to the UK,” according to Olsen, who discussed the ways in which ISIL funds its terrorist activities.
“ISIL takes in as much as one million dollars per day from illicit oil sales, smuggling, and ransom payments,” Olsen said, adding that the group is quickly becoming a threat larger and more equipped than al Qaeda.