Ex-CIA Officer: ISIS Most Dangerous Security Threat to US

Former Central Intelligence Agency officer Gary Berntsen tells Newsmax TV that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the jihadist group behind the violence in Iraq, "is the most dangerous national security threat to the United States that exists."

Berntsen told Ed Berliner on "MidPoint" on Newsmax TV Thursday that Osama "Bin Laden, at his peak in the 1990s, never had more than $30 million to $50 million at his disposal to conduct attacks on the United States."

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"ISIS stole more than $450 million from one bank in Mosul, and probably got a billion out of that city," he said. "Their wealth is so much greater than al-Qaida ever had."

ISIS also controls a lot more land than al-Qaida did, he said.

"Bin Laden lived off of other countries," Berntsen said. "He was in Sudan for awhile, he had a base of operations there and a base of operations in Afghanistan."

"ISIS now controls three times the territory of Lebanon," he said. "ISIS also has, estimated by foreign intelligence services, at least a thousand individuals with foreign passports and that is passports from Belgium, the Netherlands, France, England, and America."

"These are disturbing trends and though Americans may not want to have much interest in ISIS," he added. "ISIS is interested in us."

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