The Secret Service may consider an image of the ISIS flag displayed on a smartphone outside the White House as a potential terrorist threat.
The image appeared on a pro-ISIS Twitter account.
#AmessagefromISIStoUS We are in your state We are in your cities We are in your streets You are our goals anywhere pic.twitter.com/1EYMgCWJse
— قهر الطواغيت (@Sunna_rev) August 9, 2014
“We have an intelligence division whose mission is to assess information that we receive every day for dangerousness or potential threat level,” said Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan. “We are aware of the image and will take the necessary and appropriate follow up steps.”
The FBI did not respond when asked if it thought the photo was legitimate and if it posed a terrorist threat to the White House.
In a recent VICE Media documentary Abu Mosa, the spokesman for ISIS, said the group “will raise the flag of Allah in the White House.”
Officials in Garwood, New Jersey recently told a resident to remove an ISIS flag from his private property. The police ordered the removal after people complained that the display was inappropriate.
Scary! Seen this morning at 117 Winslow Place Garwood, New Jersey: #ISIS #Turkey #Terrorism #Jihad @DHSgov @FBI pic.twitter.com/cOov774tMN — Marc Leibowitz (@Marc_Leibowitz) August 12, 2014
The flag displayed outside the home in New Jersey and the one allegedly displayed with the White House in the background did not originate with ISIS.
“This is not an ISIS flag,” said Khurrum Ali, civil rights director for the NJ Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“It has been misappropriated by ISIS. Many Muslims display this flag in their homes, and it’s not meant to be protesting anything. I think this provides an opportunity to clarify and educate about the flag’s meaning.”
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