As the Islamic State (ISIS) released its latest video beheading another British hostage, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Friday that he remained "concerned" about copycats using the group's terroristic tactics.
"This is a relatively new phenomenon from the days of 9/11," Johnson told Bret Baier on his Fox News program. "These men have very strict propaganda and literature that have the capability of inspiring somebody who has never met a member of the group or been to a terrorist training camp.
"We're very concerned about the possibility of that and we're addressing it," Johnson said, declining to be more specific.
Johnson's comments came as the Islamic State posted another Internet video, this one showing
the beheading of British hostage Alan Henning, 47, a taxi worker who was working for a charity delivering aid to Syria when he was seized last December.
Henning is the fourth foreign captive to be executed by Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate on territory it seized in Iraq and Syria. The group has now killed two Americans and Britons each.
ISIS said in the video that Peter Kassig, 26, an American aid worker, would be the next victim.
The group had warned of Henning's murder in a Sept. 13 video that showed the execution of U.K. aid worker David Haines, who was 44. Henning’s wife this week urged ISIS to release him.
The Americans who were beheaded by ISIS were both journalists: James Foley, 40, and Steven Sotloff, 31.
The latest video was reported by
SITE Intel, a group based in Bethesda, Md., that monitors jihadist groups.
Islamic State is believed to be holding as many as 10 Western hostages in Syria. The remaining hostages include British journalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in three videos for the terrorist group.
In his Fox interview, Johnson said that Henning's slaughter further demonstrated that ISIS "is an extremely dangerous terrorist organization that simply has to be dealt with — and we are taking the fight to them, through air strikes, through an international coalition.
"They have shown … a depravity and a willingness to behead people publicly because of the fact that they're Americans, or because they're British," he added. "We have simply got to take the fight to the terrorists."
Turning his attention to the Ebola crisis, Johnson said the administration would not ban West African travel because "we believe that the best way to attack this disease is at its source," including in such countries as Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
He added that the DHS was taking other steps to screen passengers "at travel points and arrival points" and "alerting airlines, alerting passengers themselves."
Johnson noted that about 150 people come into the United States every day from those countries, with about 75 percent traveling through only four airports.
They are John F. Kennedy International in New York, Dulles International in northern Virginia, Newark International in New Jersey, and O'Hare International in Chicago.
"We're focusing on those points," Johnson said.
He added that a travel ban would also prevent the United States from sending healthcare workers to the affected areas.
"Shutting down the ability to travel entirely is not the way to go in our judgment," Johnson told Fox. "We're screening people. The host governments are screening people."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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