egyptian government. i think that s why the egyptian government is saying it s not a terrorist event, russians don t want it to be. they don t want a homeland security issue themselves. uk basically calling this an isis event. our officials are waiting until all the evidence comes in. i think that s appropriate. but, you know, this is interesting. if isis is now sort of evolving now into bomb making and blowing up airplanes, that s a major shift. al qaeda was the one that owned that space. if isis is doing this, that is a direct threat i think not only to europe and the middle east but to american flights as well. the president of the united states has just spoken out about this. we re going to show our viewers or play for our viewers what he just said. standby. mike mccaul chairman of the house homeland security committee. much more right after this.
and then this morning from the fbi, national counterterrorism center, homeland security officials on this incident. i think the comments are correct that you can t rule out mechanical failure at this time, but while it hasn t been confirmed officially, there are intelligence reports that it is likely that this could have been a bomb placed on the airplane by isis and that is our grave concern at this point in time. congressman, isis has never been known for bombs, for bomb making, aqap were the premier bomb makers among terror groups. this would be a whole new level of activity if this were the case. that s very perceptive and insightful. aqap has been the premier bomb maker, crown jewel of al qaeda is the aviation sector. the idea that isis now would have the capability to target
well? well, they ve got loads of chechens and russian nationals from just the and that would feed the blood loss that they have for russia. the idea of this being blowback, as the ambassador said, if you look at it, most are not against isis. it s against the free army. what do we know about isis and bombmaking? well, these guys are extraordinary adept and they really came into their own in iraq. they were masters of the vehicle-born explosive devices. they ve retrofitted cars to blow through checkpoints.
off someone who you know is listening in on your communications. isis in the sinai peninsula has shown bomb making capabilities before, but if the terrorists are responsible for smuggling a bomb aboard this flight, it would mark a significant step in their capabilities to launch further attacks. at this point we don t have information to make our own determination about what exactly occurred. but we do have enough information at this point to not rule out the possibility of terrorist involvement. there was no indication so far that passengers or crew aboard the flight had any connection to terror groups. so investigators are looking at a possible inside job. an unsophisticated bomb planted by an employee at egypt s sharm el sheikh airport. other than someone physically being on the plane initiating the device, we re really kind of limited to either a timing situation or a barometric pressure switch bringing down an aircraft. tonight egypt and russia are
allegiance toize s izsis it sta training militants that isis trains fighters on various factions. there s been dismissal for them being responsible for this because they don t necessarily have the capabilities to launch a surface-to-air missiles. what about bomb making? is that in the repertoire of their training? we know that al qaeda attempted to down an airliner over detroit at the end of 2009, what we know as the failed underwear bomber who smuggled unconventional explosives that would have air in igniting on the plane but could have actually had devastating outcome. so terrorist groups have attempted that. groups have things that can down helicopters, for example, but only a maximum of 16,000 feet but they don t have anything more powerful to that. to the bomb making though.