Intel report says terrorists scrap large-scale plots for stealth solo attacks

A confidential government report says terrorist groups such as the Islamic State have all but abandoned trying to put together huge plots such as the Sept. 11 attacks and warns counter-terrorism agencies of a “new landscape” where lone killers strike and massacre quickly thanks to the digital age.

The report by the National Counter-terrorism Center marks a historical shift that requires the FBI, CIA and other agencies to try to locate the mobile and digital-savvy loner, and not necessarily detect a complex plot.

“The steady rise in the number of lone actor operations is a trend which coincides with the deepening and broadening of the digital revolution as well as the encouragement of such operations by terrorist groups because intensified [counter-terrorism] operations have disrupted their ability to launch larger plots,” the NCTC says in a report obtained by The Washington Times. “Lone actors now have greater capability to create and broadcast material than a decade ago, while violent extremists can contact and interact with potential recruits with greater ease.”

The report was circulated Dec. 28 to counter-terrorism agencies across the country.

The analysis says the new faces of extremist violence are “small autonomous cells” and “individual terrorism.”

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