Brennan Says That ISIS has Put ‘Roots Down’ - from TRUNEWS

CIA Director John Brennan said on Sunday (May 1) that Islamic state was able to grow because the group “had a resonance.”

“It has put its roots down in territory. It has been able to attract a number of individuals from outside of that Syrian-Iraq area, over tens of thousands of individuals who have traveled to join this so-called caliphate. So I think it has had a resonance, unfortunately, that has appealed to the hearts and souls and minds of individuals who have been mis-lead by their narrative of it being a religious banner,” Brennan said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Brennan said the group was able to grow out of Al Qaeda because of the opportunities that were presented in Iraq and Syria.

“When we see that President Bashar al-Assad was carrying out these horrific attacks against his citizens as part of this Arab Spring and was using chemical weapons, this is something that extremists and terrorists seized upon. So I think ISIS was able to use those instances, whether it be in Syria or Iraq, and abuses and corruption on the part of these governments to appeal to a broad swath of people and so it gained strength very quickly, quicker than we thought.”

Director Brennan also reacted to growing interest in the 28-page section of the still-secret sections of a congressional inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which examined Saudi Arabian support for Islamist militants.

ISIS AND THE SAUDIS

Interest in the 28-page section of the report was raised after an imprisoned former al Qaeda operative, Zacarias Moussaoui, said in deposition transcripts filed this week that more than a dozen prominent Saudi figures donated to his group in the late 1990s. Saudi officials have denied this.

“I think there’s a combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate and I think the 9/11 commission took that joint inquiry and those 28-pages or so and followed through on the investigation and they came out with a very clear judgment that there was no evidence that indicated that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi officials individually had.. provided financial support to Al Qaeda,” he said.

Current and former U.S. officials familiar with the report’s classified section, which documented the involvement of Saudi families and entities in financing terrorism, were divided over whether it should be released.

Some said it should not be published because it included material that had not been thoroughly investigated, while others, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no good reason to keep it secret.

People familiar with the report said most of the material that remained classified originated with the FBI.

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