When the top United States intelligence official speaks, people listen.

People listened when Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, director of Defense Intelligence Agency, testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Oh, did they ever listen.

Because what he said is what no one in America wants to hear (unless that American has pledged their allegiance to a certain prominent terrorist organization based in the Middle East).

Because what he said was that U.S. intelligence has learned that ISIS is planning to attack directly on American soil in the coming year as they continue to infiltrate a number of Iraq and Syria refugees coming into the country.

He also said that Europe will be a target as well.

This from CNN:

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who was also at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, estimated that violent extremists were active in about 40 countries and that there currently exist more terrorist safe havens “than at any time in history.”

Clapper warned that ISIS and its eight branches were the No. 1 terrorist threat, and that it was using the refugee exodus from violence in Iraq and Syria to hide among innocent civilians in order to reach other countries.

Clapper said ISIS was “taking advantage of the torrent of migrants to insert operatives into that flow,” adding that they were “pretty skilled at phony passports so they can travel ostensibly as legitimate travelers.”

Clapper mentioned that al-Qaeda is making gains in the new year too.

Topics the testimony also covered: the Iranian nuclear deal, cybersecurity, cyber espionage, North Korea’s nuclear program and Russia’s growing military.