[Free Beacon] Europe serves as a "launching pad" for ISIS jihadists to initiate attacks against the United States due to the absence of a cohesive information-sharing strategy among Western nations, former acting CIA director John McLaughlin said Wednesday.McLaughlin, a 30-year CIA employee who served as acting director under the George W. Bush administration, warned that the absence of effective coordination between European intelligence agencies exposes the United States to greater risk of attack.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, McLaughlin said the Trump administration must work with European allies to establish an intelligence-sharing platform that coordinates Europe's extensive network of security services.
Western Europe has come under heightened pressure to establish such a network as ISIS loses ground in Iraq and Syria, raising the possibility that discouraged terrorists will return home to Europe.
"We have to recognize that as [ISIS is] defeated in Iraq and Syria, if they're not killed and if they don't melt into the population in those areas and retire from a life of extremism, they will go home and they will go home to European services," former CIA director David Petraeus said in congressional testimony.