The FBI is warning journalists to be on high alert after receiving “credible information” showing ISIS terrorists are looking to kill American media members both in the U.S. and abroad — listing them among other “high-impact targets.”
“We shouldn’t be surprised that they would look to perhaps other public figures, such as people in the media, that could create the kind of sensationalized impact that unfortunately we’re seeing all over the place right now,” said Kieran Ramsey, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “While we have no specific intelligence to indicate that there is a threat here ... it should come as no surprise to anybody as to their intentions.”
Yesterday’s bulletin warned that “members of an (ISIS)-affiliated group are tasked with kidnapping journalists in the region and returning them to Syria” and referenced a Sept. 16 Islamic State Internet post that identified “journalists, TV anchors, talk show hosts, news broadcasters, correspondents on the ground and other media operatives” as “desirable targets.”
The bulletin also cautioned that “members of this group might try to mask their affiliation with (ISIS) to gain access to journalists,” a warning GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni said he “isn’t taking lightly.”
“I’m not surprised, they obviously don’t like journalists, as evidenced by the terrible things they’ve already done to Jim Foley and Steven Sotloff,” Balboni told the Herald yesterday of the beheadings. “If they can strike here in America, I’m sure it would make them very happy. So I think we need to be careful, I think we all need to be careful.”
Balboni, who tried to negotiate the release of Foley, a GlobalPost reporter, before he was executed by an Islamic State militant, said “steps” have been taken to “enhance security” around his journalists working in Lebanon and Iraq.
Fred Burton, with StratFor, intelligence and security analysts, and a former deputy chief of counterterrorism at the Diplomatic Security Service, said ISIS has demonstrated that it is a danger to reporters oversees. He said stateside, the threat comes from lone-wolf terrorists like the ones who struck in Canada.
“It’s the aspirations of the outsider who can’t travel, but desires to be useful within the organization,” he said.
The Fox News Channel said in a statement they are always careful on overseas assignments.
“We’ve been taking extra precautions for several years now, including added security when we went in and out of Damascus to speak with (Syrian President Bashar) Assad,” the station said.
CNN would not discuss the threat out of a sense of “caution.”
Edith Flynn, terrorism expert and professor emeritus at Northeastern University, said high-profile journalists have always been considered prime targets for terror groups.
“Just the idea of killing a well-known news anchor would be very shocking,” Flynn said. “Singling out a person of note would be considered a tremendous coup for them and I hope and pray it doesn’t happen.”
Are Anchors & Reporters the Next Target of ISIS?
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