By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – Top U.S. security personnel told Congress that they believe domestic extremists – notably white supremacists – pose a similar threat to Islamic State militants.

Timothy Langan is the Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division. He stated that FBI had been concerned by domestic extremists motivated by racism and decided to raise the level of the threat.

Langan stated to a House Intelligence Subcommittee that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has detected an increase in violence threats from domestic extremists during the past 18 months.

The bureau is conducting approximately 2,700 investigations on domestic violent extremism. There have been 18 lethal terrorist attacks against U.S. religious buildings in which 70 persons were killed in recent years.

FBI engaged tech companies about their roles in fueling extremism. It has succeeded in disrupting planned acts violence and will continue “trying to close the gap” in its inability legally to decode mobile encryptions.

John Cohen, Acting Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis within the Department of Homeland Security stated to the subcommittee, “hatred of immigrants” and racial superiority were both major concern concerns.

His department considers the greatest domestic threat to be posed by small, isolated offenders as well as those indoctrinated with extremist ideology. He stated that extremist ideologies are combined with personal grievances fuel the threat.

Cohen observed that domestic extremists are so openly discussing on social media the need for intelligence gathering on threats may sometimes not be required to identify them.

Some Republican subcommittee members suggested that U.S. spy agencies shouldn’t be gathering information about U.S. politics unless they have a link to foreign actors.