Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Thursday that he is considering expanding a ban on larger electronic devices aboard to all airline flights because "the threat is real" from terrorist groups around the world.
"It could be everywhere, frankly," Kelly, 66, the retired Marine Corps general, told Bloomberg News. "The threat is real.
"There are any number of cells out there who could be doing their very best to figure out ways of beating our security.
"The United States still has the best security in the world," he added. "It's the hardest target to get to, but it's also the target that they want to get to the most."
In March, U.S. and British officials Britain banned devices larger than a cellphone from airports in 10 Muslim-majority countries after intelligence showed Islamic State terrorists were developing a bomb that could be hidden in such electronics.
Kelly said Thursday "some very serious intel about a very serious threat" led to last month's decision.
"We focused on that part of the world where that threat most likely would come from," he told Bloomberg's David Gura. "I decided to inconvenience people so that they are no longer to read their Kindles.
"They actually might have to buy a book or a magazine, or talk to their kids. But their lives are more important to me than the small inconvenience.
"But the threat is real," Kelly reiterated. "This thing could expand – and I'm looking at it three, four, five, six times a day.
"It is the thing that keeps me awake at night."
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