IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Concerns Rise of ISIS-Inspired Attack in U.S. as July 4 Nears

There is a heightened state of concern among U.S. intelligence and law enforcement about an ISIS-inspired attack through the July 4 weekend.
Get more newsLiveon
By Richard Esposito and Robert Windrem

U.S. intelligence and law enforcement authorities share a growing concern of an ISIS-inspired attack in the country through the July 4 weekend, sources told NBC News.

The threat "is based on both intelligence and analysis,” the intelligence and law enforcement sources said, declining to go into detail.

The analysis of the threat is based in part on the "new normal" of ISIS planning, which uses social media to encourage followers worldwide to attack on both small and large scales.

Information regarding the Fourth of July threat came before Friday's terror attacks in France, Tunisia and Kuwait, the intelligence and law enforcement officials said.

Richard Esposito

Richard Esposito is the senior executive producer of the NBC News Investigative Unit, and supervises investigative correspondents, producers, and reporters across all broadcasts and platforms of the NBCUniversal News Group.

Esposito, who began as a copy boy at the New York Daily News in 1977, has more than 25 years of newspaper and television experience. He has overseen investigations and run the metropolitan news operations at two of the largest newspapers in America, the New York Daily News and Newsday, and was most recently senior investigative reporter for ABC News.

He has shared in Peabody and Pulitzer awards, and has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer. Honors include the 2012 Murrow Award for his work in reporting the death of Osama bin Laden, a 2005 Polk Award for his investigation into the CIA’s network of secret prisons and harsh interrogation techniques, a 2006 Emmy Award and a 1990 Sigma Delta Chi award, among many other awards. 

Esposito is the co-author of the books “Bomb Squad: A Year Inside the Nation’s Most Exclusive Police Unit,” and “Dead on Delivery: Inside the Drug Wars.” 

 

Robert Windrem

Robert Windrem is an investigative reporter/producer with NBC News, specializing in international security.