Peter King: ISIS 'More of a Threat to the US' Than Pre-9//11 Al Qaeda

Rep. Peter King (R-NY), chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, argued that, “ISIS is more of a threat to the United States now than Al Qaeda was prior to September 11” on Friday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Wolf.”

“Al Qaeda spent only several hundred thousand dollars to attack the world trade center and the pentagon. ISIS now is over $1 billion” King said. “ISIS, I believe, controls more land mass than the entire country of Great Britain. That’s what we’re talking about. Not like prior to 9/11 where we’re talking about the Taliban and Al Qaeda operating in the mountains of Afghanistan. We’re talking now about a caliphate that’s been set up, a state that’s been set up.”

King also criticized some aspects of the president’s Iraq policy, stating, “I support the air strikes. That is important. But having said that, why he says the US is not going to provide more military help until there’s a more diverse government in Iraq. If ISIS is a threat to the US, and it is, then we shouldn’t let our security depend on the whims of the Iraqi Parliament.” 

“Also, when the president says that we’re not going to use-we’re not going to go beyond these air strikes – I can’t understand why a commander-in-chief would ever tell the enemy what we’re going to do or not do,” which he argued was “sending a false signal … encouraging the enemy … [and] dispiriting our allies.” King also declared, “If you’re dropping bombs, you’re in combat. We do have over 800 troops in Iraq, which is more troops in Iraq than President Eisenhower had in Vietnam.”

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