ISIS representatives specifically identified 15,000 Christian Americans for death and instructed jihadists already in America to begin widespread murder, according to public reports. However, Circa News reports Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials didn't notify those U.S residents targeted on the "secret kill lists." The list ostensibly was created from an Internet search of church directories and other online sources.
British police last week publicly warned its 5.4 million Christians to be on alert and in some areas increased security.
"To date, the terror group that goes by the acronym ISIS has published on encrypted web sites several hit lists naming more than 15,000 people it would like to see killed by sleeper cells or lone wolves in New York, Texas, Florida and California," stated Circa News, whose staff obtained copies of some of the lists and several individuals named on the lists.
In Texas, Circa News representatives said they contacted 24 people marked for death. They found that 22 of those people had no idea there was such a list, or that they were on it.
Michael Snyder of Charisma News reported a situation a reader submitted, for which the reader said the FBI did inform him that he and his wife are on the list. After further research, they discovered his pastor and other members of his church also were on the ISIS list.
Christian leaders and pastors are being encouraged to contact local FBI and law enforcement officials to investigate if they are on the list, and also request that security measures be taken to protect their congregation.
Daily Mail reported that hacked ISIS accounts exposed eight kill lists. They included the names and addresses of 70 plus military personnel or family members, 56 New Jersey state police officers, 36 Minnesota state police officers, 11 county board members in Tennessee, 50 federal employees, and dozens of New York residents.
John Cohen, a former counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security and a professor at Rutgers University, said the task of informing thousands of people that they were on ISIS' radar was simply too much for the resources available to the FBI. Cohen said in The Inquisitr it was ultimately up to the agency's leaders to determine who was really at risk and to use their limited resources to thwart the threat.
Snyder has been urging churches to take security more seriously. He cites a recent report about a 21-year-old Islamic radical who purchased a gun and admitted to police that he planned to go into a Detroit megachurch and start shooting people inside on a Sunday morning. After the radical was arrested and subsequently charged in court, the suspect told authorities that because he could not do his jihad in the Middle East, he intended to "do my jihad over here."
