ISIS attacks foiled by FBI ahead of 4th of July

WESTWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- As so many Americans were busy celebrating on Fourth of July, the FBI said it was busy foiling several terrorist plots.

"I have hundreds of these investigations in every single state. And we have disrupted just in the last few weeks very serious efforts to kill people in the United States," FBI Director James Comey said.

Comey said investigators have arrested more than 10 people inspired by ISIS in the last month, some with plans to attack on the July 4 holiday. He did not lay out specifics of the attack.

"I cannot see me stopping these indefinitely. I'm not trying to scare folks. I just want people to know that this a change in my world, the top responsibility of the FBI, that implicates this growing dark problem," Comey said, adding that ISIS is utilizing a sophisticated social media strategy to recruit followers.

"ISIL is reaching out primarily through Twitter to about 21,000-now English language followers," Comey said.

He said they try to encourage people to join them in the so-called caliphate of Iraq and Syria or launch attacks around the world.

"If you can't come, kill somebody where you are. Kill somebody in uniform, kill anybody," Comey said the messages urge. "If you cut their head off, great, videotape it. Do it, do it, do it."

"If those loudest voices are attracting you and you feel a community within that space, then that's what happened," said Courtney La Bau, a partner with the Truman National Security Project.

La Bau lived in the Middle East for years and has studied how individuals become radicalized. While witnessing Egypt's elections, she witnessed it firsthand.

"Why do kids join gangs? Why are people white supremacists? It's the same sort of mentality, as this feeling of wanting to belong," La Bau said.

La Bau now advises the Los Angeles Police Department on strategies to reach out to the Muslim community. She said top officers regularly meet Islamic leaders.

"The message is that we are all one, we are all Americans, we all live here, we all belong," she said.