McCain: Reports of Paris Terror Suspect Ties to Al-Qaeda ‘Not a Surprise’

WASHINGTON, January 9 (Sputnik) — US reports of ties between one of the suspects in the attack on a Paris-based satirical magazine early this week and the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda are not unexpected, US Senator John McCain said during a Friday radio show.

"That's not a surprise," McCain told Arizona radio station KFYI in response to official US government reports that one of the brothers suspected in the Paris attacks traveled to Yemen in 2011 and had direct contact with al-Qaeda. "There's a network here. This was not a spontaneous act."

McCain, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted that US national security is threatened by Islamic extremists who have a safe haven in Iraq and Syria from which to launch terrorist attacks against the West.

"I have never been more concerned [about American national security] as I am today," stated McCain, adding he is "more concerned about attacks on America" than he was after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

McCain, who has been critical of US President Barack Obama's strategy against Islamic State, warned that recent statements by the head of Great Britain's top intelligence agency MI5, Andrew Parker, that there will be planned attacks against the West, should be "sufficient for rousing this president to do something meaningful."

MI5 Director General Parker stated in a rare press appearance on Thursday that a group of al-Qaeda terrorist in Syria are "planning mass casualty attacks against the West," including "iconic targets."

On January 7 masked gunmen stormed the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in central Paris killing 12 people and injuring 11.