: ISIS has cells in UK, Germany, and Italy,says a US Officer

 America's top intelligence
official, James Clapper, said Monday that ISIS has
clandestine cells in the United Kingdom, Germany
and Italy, comments that come as President Barack
Obama concludes an overseas visit where he asked
Europe to contribute more to the fight against ISIS.
When asked by a reporter if ISIS had British, German
and Italian underground cells like the ones that
carried out the deadly March terrorist attacks in
Brussels, Clapper, the director of national intelligence,
said, "Yes they do."
Clapper added, "We continue to see evidence of
plotting on the part of ISIL in (the UK, Germany and
Italy)." ISIL is the administration's preferred acronym
for ISIS.
He was speaking at a reporters' breakfast held by the
Christian Science Monitor newspaper.
Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy told CNN that reports of ISIS activity in
these countries "is not new" but added "it's new that
Clapper is saying it."
READ MORE: Obama looks for allies' support on ISIS
Levitt, the former deputy assistant secretary for
intelligence and analysis at the Treasury Department,
said that while the focus has rightly been on France
and Belgium, arrests of suspected terrorists were
also taking place in the UK and Germany as well.
In a speech in Hanover, Obama said, "These
terrorists are doing everything in their power to strike
our cities and kill our citizens, so we need to do
everything in our power to stop them."
He called ISIS "the most urgent threat to our nations"
and while he acknowledged Europe's contribution to
the counter-ISIS campaign he added, "Europe,
including NATO, can still do more."
Germany has provided trainers and financial
assistance to local forces but its military is not
involved in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Obama underscored the need to share intelligence
among allies, saying "If we truly value our liberty,
then we have to take the steps that are necessary to
share information and intelligence within Europe, as
well as between the United States and Europe, to
stop terrorists from traveling and crossing borders
and killing innocent people."
READ MORE: Obama: 'Depraved' ISIS now on
defensive
Levitt said that Europe's "biggest problem is a lack
of seamless intelligence sharing and collaboration."
Clapper also added that ISIS has "taken advantage to
some extent of the migrant crisis in Europe,
something which the nations I think have a growing
awareness of."
Obama during his visit with Chancellor Angela
Merkel, lauded her stance on refugees, saying
"Chancellor Merkel and others have eloquently
reminded us that we cannot turn our backs on our
fellow human beings who are here now, and need our
help now."
Merkel has been criticized at home and abroad for
her welcoming policies towards Syrian refugees,
criticism that has increased following the terrorist
attacks in Paris and Brussels.
Frank Cilluffo, director of George Washington
University's Center for Cyber and Homeland Security,
told CNN that all of Europe faces the threat of ISIS-
linked operatives infiltrating the refugee flow.
"Given the significant number of foreign fighters from
all over Europe that have traveled to Syria and Iraq to
join ISIS, it's not surprising that some of them are
coming