Worst year for global terrorism? 2014
Testifying on Capitol Hill, the country's top intelligence chief said 2014 was the worst year on record for global terrorism.
National Intelligence Director James Clapper told members of Congress that terror attacks reached their highest number since such records started being archived.
"When the final accounting is done, 2014 will have been the most lethal year for global terrorism in the 45 years (since) such data has been compiled," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
His comments appeared to be in disagreement with remarks made Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry, who said "We are actually living in a period of less daily threat to Americans and to people in the world than normally."
Clapper said in the first nine months of 2014, there were 13,000 terror acts that killed some 31,000 people," Fox News reported.
In all of 2013, the numbers were 1,500 terror strikes and about 22,000 fatalities.
The 2014 records showed the Islamic State terrorist group was responsible for most of the atrocities. About 50 percent of all the attacks occurred in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Clapper said.
Some of the group's most vile acts were to post videos of members chopping off the heads of journalists and aid workers from countries including the U.S., Britain, and Japan.
Clapper also told the committee that the U.S. had elevated its appraisal of cyber threats from Russia.
"While I can't go into detail here, the Russian cyber threat is more severe than we had previously assessed," he said. He didn't elaborate.
But a written report that accompanied his testimony cited Russian "actors" developing ways to hack electric power grids, mass transit systems and fuel pipelines.
With News Wire Services
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