Ex-CIA Chief Talks ISIS Says 'This Is The Most Dangerous Time'

Following the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and at least 350 injured, former acting CIA Director Jack Devine said that current times are unprecedentedly dangerous while speaking on the “The Cats Roundtable” radio show on New York's AM-970 in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.

“I think this is the most dangerous time in terms of sustained violence,” he told host John Catsimatidis, reported The Hill. Following the events in Paris, French authorities raided Wednesday an apartment in Saint-Denis, a suburb of Paris, and in the process killed Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who is suspected of planning the attacks.

“I have never felt more uncomfortable than I do today,” Devine said. “Some percentage of the world today is always either unbalanced or radicalized. When you have a small group of people who are willing to lose their lives and kill anyone they can, we’re all vulnerable.”

The Islamic State group, also know as ISIS, claimed responsibility for the coordinated attacks on six sites around Paris, including restaurants, the Stade de France stadium and the 1,500-capacity Bataclan concert hall. Devine noted that the Islamic State group's disregard for human life makes the fight more complicated.

“I dealt with terrorists in South America in the 1970s, but they never attacked innocent women and children indiscriminately,” he said, according to The Hill. “You have a group in ISIS today that is frankly uncivilized. These folks could get stronger and stronger. We basically have to destroy ISIS over there.”

ISIS has also claimed responsibility for bombing a Russian jet over Egypt that killed 224 passengers on Oct. 31. Following the attacks in Paris it has further threatened the West, notably New York City and Washington, D.C. The Islamic State group, which controls large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, most recently claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Baghdad that killed 10 people.

Devine, who mostly served during the Cold War, said the best way to defeat ISIS is to go after top officials and for a coalition that includes Russia, France, the U.S. and others to work together.

“We killed three-fourths of their leadership,” he said of al Qaeda, reported The Hill. “We have to do the same thing with ISIS. “We have to destroy their refuge over there. When they start to lose, their recruiting numbers start to fall.”