The global terrorist threat has evolved because of independent actors, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Friday, as they may "strike with little or no warning to law enforcement, to our intelligence community," and much of the focus centers around aviation security.
"I directed enhancements to aviation security at what we call last point of departure airports overseas that have flights directly into the United States,"
said Johnson on Friday's MSNBC "Morning Joe" program.
"We continue to evaluate whether more is necessary concerning aviation security," he said, especially given concerns about "the independent actor or small group of actors who are not necessarily directed by a terrorist organization but are inspired."
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It's important to continue to put out joint intelligence bulletins as well, including about events that "may provoke, like we saw in Garland, Texas," said Johnson, speaking about a thwarted attack on persons at a cartoon contest for images depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Meanwhile, the disclosures made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about the agency's spy programs have made matters more complicated, said Johnson.
"The Snowden disclosures have been one of the drivers toward the demands for more and more encryption in the marketplace," he said. "That has made it harder for us to detect crime and it has made it harder for us to detect potential terrorist activity."
The difficulties are also hitting police departments on the local level, making it more difficult to track criminal activity because of encryption, said Johnson, "so we have to find a solution to this and we're thinking about this actively right now."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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