State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf reported that the Iraq did not have intelligence showing a “direct threat to the United States” despite an earlier statement by the Defense Department that ISIS was planning an attack on Thursday’s broadcast of “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“The Iraqi Prime Minister himself spoke to the State Department in a meeting this afternoon saying there was not a direct threat to the United States that he was answering a general question about the threat that foreign fighters could pose. He made very clear to us and we are saying publicly we are not aware of any credible direct threat to the United States” she stated. Earlier, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby referred to “the attack that we know they [ISIS] were planning” when asked about the terror plot against subways in the US and UK by ISIS reported by Iraq’s Prime Minister.
Later in the interview Harf responded “I have no idea why certain tweets are taken down or not taken down” when asked why the US State Department was forced to remove tweets endorsing the musings of a cleric who issued a fatwa against the United States.
She also said “we did not expect them [Iraqi Army] to just disintegrate in places like we saw” when asked whether the US failed to anticipate the ability of ISIS to capture massive amounts of territory in Iraq.
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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