The killing of a suspected terrorist in Boston shows the nature of the threat the Islamic State (ISIS) is posing to the United States, Rep. Peter King said Wednesday.
"The FBI and the Boston police did what they had to do," the New York Republican told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "It shows the nature of the threat. ISIS is, in a significant way, changing the battlefield by being able to recruit people over the Internet."
Others have tried that tactic, but have not been successful, King, a member of the House Homeland and Intelligence committees, said, but ISIS "seems to have protected the art."
King said that at this stage it's a "good assumption," that ISIS was somehow involved in the Boston plan, but he can't say for sure until all the details come out.
But authorities "don't move on a person unless they believe it's becoming operational," said King about officers' move early Tuesday to take action.
Early Tuesday morning, a knife-wielding man, Usaama Rahim, was shot and killed in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston. Members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force approached the man to ask him about "terrorist-related information," and he refused to drop a large military-style knife as he walked toward them, leaving officers no choice but to shoot him,
according to a Boston Globe report.
Authorities also arrested another man, David Wright, in Everett, Mass., who is being accused of conspiring with Rahim to attack police officers. Wright was to be arraigned in federal court on Wednesday.
King told Blitzer that the attempted attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon-drawing event in Garland, Texas, "heightened people's awareness," and it is known that ISIS is recruiting even more over the Internet.
"We have to wait for the details to come out," he emphasized. "They [U.S. authorities] have been at a high alert for a long time, and especially for the last two years."
It is taking a great deal of manpower to conduct full-time surveillance on potential terror suspects, said King.
"The FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force are monitoring people that are with ISIS, and it's done in [many] ways," he said. "It's really an extra dimension to a threat that we face."
Also Wednesday, King said he is "looking into it" when asked if he plans a presidential campaign, but told Blitzer that he "can't wait too much longer, put it that way."