A Republican senator says he sees the threat of ISIS militants intentionally infecting themselves with the Ebola virus and then traveling to America as a "real and present danger."
"Well, it's certainly something I've been thinking about ever since this Ebola outbreak started," Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said Wednesday of ISIS using Ebola on America's Forum on NewsmaxTV.
NewsMaxTV cited Al Shimkus, a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, who said last week that that ISIS fighters could infect themselves with the Ebola virus and then travel to U.S. as a form of biological warfare.
Johnson said America should be preparing to defend ourselves against such a scenario, calling it "a real and present danger."
"You really don't even want to think about," he said. "You really don't even want to talk about, but we should do everything possible to defend ourselves against that possibility because I think that is a real and present danger."
The director of the FBI said Thursday there were no concerns about ISIS militants using Ebola.
The Department of Homeland Security has likewise dismissed such claims.
"We've seen no specific credible intelligence that ISIS is attempting to use any sort of disease or virus to attack our homeland," DHS chief Jeh Johnson said in remarks to the Association of the United States Army Monday.