McCaul: ‘High Degree of Probability’ that ‘Something Will Detonate’ in Russia During Olympics

Michael McCaul (R., Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he thinks there is a “high degree of probability that something will detonate” in Russia during the Winter Olympics, adding that such an attack is likely to take place outside the heavily secured Olympic Village in Sochi.

The location of the games in a region with a history of terrorist activity by Chechen separatists and radical Islamist groups made an attack likely, he said.

“I hope I’m wrong in this assessment,” McCaul said. “But you’re talking about an area of the world where suicide bombers go off all the time. And the fact is right now, the eyes of the world are upon these Olympics, and the Chechen extremists know this, and they want to make a global statement, they want to make a jihad statement. And what better time to do it than right now?”