FBI Director James Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that "upwards of 200 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Syria" to participate in the armed conflict currently underway there. "Conflicts in Syria and Iraq continue to serve as the most attractive overseas theaters for Western-based extremists who want to engage in violence," Comey said, according to his prepared statement. Comey is appearing before the committee in a rare open hearing to discuss counterintelligence, and the ongoing problems the Bureau is experiencing with advances in encryption. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, said that the FBI has previously briefed them about cases where the bureau has known of communications by ISIS terrorists inside the United States, but had no way to intercept and read them, even with a court order, due to the complexity of modern encryption.

--Tim Mak