ISIS had intended the Paris attacks to be even worse

A memorial at the site of the Cafe Belle Equipe attack.
(Image credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images)

The Islamic State operatives behind the devastating 2015 Paris attacks had likely planned to hit even more targets, an investigation by CNN has found. Following a review of 90,000 pages of documents from internal European investigations, CNN reports that ISIS terrorists use encrypted, secure apps such as Viber and WhatsApp to disguise who they are contacting and from where, refer to each other with pseudonyms, and are only given as much money and information as needed to reach the next step in the planning of attacks.

A senior counter-terrorism official added that the Paris attacks that killed 130 people were a "slimmed-down version of an even more ambitious plan to hit Europe":

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.