From cybercrime to terrorism, America faces many threats raised ‘all at once’

The country is facing increased threats from many corners at a time when law enforcement agencies are struggling, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in an exclusive interview, adding that “it’s hard pressed to think of a time in my career mine where so many different types of threats are raised all at once.”

Wray spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday while visiting the Minneapolis field office to talk about partnerships between law enforcement agencies and also with other entities. His remarks come as the FBI faces heightened concerns about terrorism, both domestic and international, as well as Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and interference in foreign elections.

“I’m concerned that the combination of so many threats is heightened at once, with the challenges facing the men and women of law enforcement in general,” Wray said in his office in suburban Brooklyn Center. “And the one thing that I think helps overcome those two challenges is partnerships. That’s how we go. We all work together.”

Wray’s assessment of an elevated threat landscape is consistent with the alarm bells he has sounded for months. Shortly after Hamas’ October 7 attack in Israel, Wray began warning that the storm could serve as inspiration for militants “the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago follow”.

The FBI has also struggled to address security concerns at the US southern border, with officials disclosing in June that eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group had been arrested and were being held on immigration violations.

Officials also face the specter of foreign election interference. The FBI and other federal agencies said Monday that Iran was responsible for a hack targeting the Trump campaign and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign, part of what officials described as an eager and aggressive effort to meddle in politics american.

Wray declined to talk about any specific investigation or threat, but said investigations into cyberattacks, including those against election infrastructure, candidates or campaigns, require help from the private sector.

“One of the things that we’ve doubled down on every day is, it’s about partnerships, because ultimately you’re talking about being able to connect the dots, whether it’s against some kind of threat of electoral influence or a different kind of threat,” Wray said. “You have to have partners sharing information with each other to put the two pieces together to see the big picture.”

Law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty at a rate of about one every five days, Wray said, noting that four first responders died in Minnesota alone in 2024. They include a Minneapolis officer killed in more while trying to help someone. , and two officers and a paramedic who died in Burnsville in February when a heavily armed man opened fire.

Such violence “breaks my heart every time,” the director said.

The FBI has not been spared such attacks: Days after agents raided Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to retrieve classified documents, a gunman who claimed on social media that federal agents to be killed “on sight” died in a shootout. after trying to break into the FBI office in Cincinnati.

Wray said the FBI has worked to strengthen traditional partnerships with state and local law enforcement while creating others with business and academia to help counter threats to cybersecurity or intellectual property. In Minneapolis and other offices, he said, authorities are cooperating with school resource officers and mental health professionals to help at-risk teens in hopes of averting future threats.

Working with industry is important to protecting innovation and artificial intelligence from foreign threats, Wray added.

“AI is in many ways the most effective tool against the bad guys using AI,” he said. “So we need to work closely with industry to try to make sure that American AI can be used to help protect Americans from AI-enabled threats coming the other way.”

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

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