While ISIS has issued direct threats against the US in the past week now that the US is officially droning and "humanitarianly advising" it (after having armed it for the past year), until now it was largely broad, diffuse statements. That changed in the last few hours when ABC reported [8]a photo has emerged via Twitter which shows a hand holding up an image of a flag for ISIS, displayed on a smartphone, on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House fence, an area which is frequented by thousands of tourists every day. The photo was tweeted from an apparently pro-ISIS Twitter handle @sunna_rev [9] on Aug. 9.
[10]
And while the president is busy with his vacation, occasionally suffering a harsh interruption of his golf game to read off the teleprompter with the usual 30 minute delay when addressing such trivial topics as domestic rioting and yet another military intervention in Iraq, the secret service is on top of it, because threatening Americans is one thing, but closing in to a few hundred feet of the US president is something totally different. From ABC [8]:
The Secret Service did not respond to an additional question about whether the tweet was believed to be authentic. The FBI has not yet responded to ABC News' request for comment on the tweet, its suspected origin, or whether it signifies a serious threat to the U.S.
A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABC that use of Twitter is consistent with ISIS practices. The group has shown to be at the forefront of social-media use among terrorist and militant groups, the official said.
"We have an intelligence division whose mission is to assess information that we receive every day for dangerousness or potential threat level," Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told ABC News. "We are aware of the image and will take the necessary and appropriate follow up steps."
In addition to the White House threat, there was a second photo in the tweet, one dated June 20, which shows two American flags appeared over an arched entryway.
[11]
The photo also shows a note which reads "Soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will pass from here soon," followed by a Koran verse that read, "and Allah is perfecting His Light even though the disbelievers hate (that)."
The underlying tweet carries the following message:
We are in your state
We are in your cities
We are in your streets
Everywhere but Martha's Vineyard apparently.
