It is "inevitable" that the Islamic State (ISIS) will try to carry out attacks on the United States, CIA director John Brennan said on CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday.
"I'm expecting them to try to put in place — the operatives, the material or whatever else that they need to do or to incite people to carry out these attacks clearly," he said.
"I believe that their attempts are inevitable," Brennan added. "I don't think their successes necessarily are."
In the interview Brennan added that U.S. intelligence has prevented "numerous" ISIS attacks from occurring so far.
"Believe me, intelligence security services have stopped numerous attacks — operatives that have been moved from maybe the Iraq to the Syria theater into Europe," he said.
"They have been stopped and interdicted and arrested and detained and debriefed because of very, very good intelligence."
However, despite U.S. intelligence being successful thus far, Brennan added that the intelligence agency did in fact know that the terrorist organization was planning an attack in the days leading up to the deadly November attack in Paris,
The Hill reports.
Because of encryption technology, Brennan noted intelligence was unsuccessful in preventing the Paris attack, which killed 130 individuals.
"We knew just in the days before that ISIL was trying to carry out something … but the individuals involved have been able to take advantage of the newly available means of communication that are — that are walled off from law enforcement officials," Brennan said.
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