It's "highly likely" terror is the leading theory of what brought down an EgyptAir plane – and the U.S. response should be a strategy "to take out ISIS" and "overhaul" the TSA, House Foreign Affairs Committee head Rep. Ed Royce said Sunday.
In an appearance on ABC News'
"This Week With George Stephanopoulos," Royce warned "ISIS and al Qaida have been focusing on "trying to develop an undetectable bomb."
"This is one of the concerns we've had about allowing ISIS to operate in Raqqah, with their facilities to try to develop … that type of bomb technology," he said. "The same is happening with al Qaida in the Middle East," he said.
"In my view, it's highly likely [ISIS caused the crash] because of the amount of effort that ISIS and al Qaida have put over the last few years into trying to develop an undetectable bomb," he said in answer to whether terrorism continues to be the leading theory of the EgyptAir crash.
But Royce said there needs to be a "wider strategy" to protect against terrorism.
"There are management problems at TSA," he said, adding it's "important the administration move in with an overhaul of management at then TSA to make them more effective." He declined to say if that should include removing TSA head Peter Neffenger.
There also has to be a strategy to "take out" ISIS, he said.
"The challenge is to the extent that we don't have an overarching strategy to take out now ISIS with its training camps and its bomb-making equipment," he said, warning it will ultimately reach the United States "unless we're effective in deploying a strategy to take ISIS out now. "
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