Fresh plot to 'bring down airplanes'

America may be facing a terrorist threat it hasn't seen since Sept. 11, 2001, a leading lawmaker warned Sunday, in the form an Islamist group determined once again to "bring down airplanes."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that former disciples of al-Qaida and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden are regrouping in Syria under the name Khorasan. He warned their plans may pose an even "more immediate" threat to the U.S. than the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

"Al-Qaida always has been on … an immediate path of conducting Western attacks. We shouldn't forget it," Rogers told host Bob Schieffer. "That's more immediate [with] this … Khorasan group. We described it as deployed al-Qaida operatives who were engaging with al-Qaida and the Arabian Peninsula to develop a terror plot to bring down airplanes. They haven't lost that interest in doing it.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

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"That means it's serious," Rogers continued. "They have … capability, financing and people. All of that's dangerous."

Fellow "Face the Nation" guest Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., confirmed Khorasan as a legitimate threat, lumping the terror cell together with ISIS and Yemeni bombers as major groups that "affect our national security."

"Each one of these is capable one day, some sooner than later, of a strike against our country," Feinstein said. "This is not a good situation."

Former Democrat Congresswoman Jane Harman of California worried what might happen if Khorasan partnered with foreign fighters who could get their hands on clean passports.

"That group could harm the U.S. even sooner than [ISIS]," she said of Khorasan.

The New York Times reported Saturday that American officials are warning Khorasan may be the most intent of the various terror cells on striking the United States or its installations overseas.

The officials reportedly believe the group is led by Muhsin al-Fadhli, a senior al-Qaida operative who, according to the State Department, was so close to Bin Laden that he was among a small group of people who knew about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks before they were launched.

In 2012, the Times reported, the State Department identified al-Fadhli as al-Qaida's leader in Iran, working with wealthy "jihadist donors" in Kuwait, his native country, to raise money for al-Qaida-allied rebels in Syria.

James R. Clapper Jr., director of national intelligence, gave similar warnings about Khorasan on Thursday.

"In terms of threat to the homeland," Clapper said, "Khorasan may pose as much of a danger as the Islamic State."