Kerry urges Americans not to panic

By Nick Glass

Secretary of State John Kerry, ahead of a busy week of Thanksgiving travel across the country, has a message for the American people when it comes to the threat of another Paris-style attack at the hands of the Islamic State: Don’t panic.
“Well I can assure that you that we don’t have a specific threat stream or specific evidence in front of us, but there is always, as we have said to people for years, the threat of some actor, some lone-wolf person, someone who slipped through. That’s the world we’re living in today, and we understand that,” Kerry told NBC’s “Today” in an interview from Abu Dhabi, where his traveling, on Monday morning. Preceding Kerry’s interview: a segment on New York City Police Department preparedness, including a drill for a terrorist on the subway wearing a suicide belt, ahead of Thursday’s annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, where millions are expected to attend.

Pressed on whether recent attacks in Paris, Beirut and elsewhere show that the U.S. policy attacking ISIL is not working, Kerry acknowledged that the terrorist group “has not yet been defeated” but also stressed that the year-old coalition to root out the terror group has taken back part of the territory. At the same time, he said, “the pace has to be picked up, and more needs to be done and everybody understands that.”
The administration has faced a host of criticism in recent weeks on its anti-ISIL strategy, even from former Cabinet-level officials and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“I don’t think the approach is sufficient to the job,” Feinstein told CBS’ “Face the Nation” in a Sunday interview.
On Monday, Kerry said that President Barack Obama has “made major decisions” and “took additional steps, some of which I can’t talk about on the line here” to address the threat.
“Now, yes, ISIL has brought in people in other countries. It hasn’t expanded by moving to those other countries. It has taken terrorists who already exist in other countries, and they have pledged loyalty to Daesh,” Kerry explained, using his preferred nomenclature for the group. “That’s different. And we know there are people who are terrorists in Libya, in Yemen, in Afghanistan and other places. What Daesh has succeeded in doing is attracting them because of what they’ve been doing on the ground in Syria and in Iraq. And we have been focused on attacking them in Syria and Iraq, and I am convinced that will increase even more so in the days ahead.”
The terror group, he added, “is going to be defeated.”
“There is a united front, and I am absolutely convinced that Daesh will be defeated, and there will be increased steps taken in order to do so,” he explained, noting an imminent meeting with the Saudis as part of his visit to the United Arab Emirates. He will also visit Israel and the West Bank during his overseas trip to the region.
On the home front, he said, “what we need to do is not succumb to fear. People need to not panic.”
“There is a strategy in place, growing by the day, and I have no doubt whatsoever that with the help of all of the nations that are united against Daesh, they are going to be defeated,” he said. “And we’re going to do everything in our power to hasten that journey.”