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Was This ISIL's First Terror Attack on America?

Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley was ISIL’s "first terrorist attack against the United States" and called for the Obama administration to "pick up the pace" of airstrikes against the terror group in Iraq.

"What ISIL is trying to do is intimidate the United States into backing off the attacks we’ve done over the last several weeks. And I think our response should be and our response will be to not do that. In fact, we should pick up the pace here. The definition of terrorism is political violence, violence for political effect. So, we should mark this date down because this is ISIL’s first terrorist attack against the United States," Morell said on CBS This Morning.

Morell’s concern is shared by NBC’s Richard Engel who reports ISIL is currently "collecting" western hostages in Syria.