Last week during a trip to Mississippi, FBI director James Comey said there were ISIS cases under investigation in all states but Alaska. “At all 56 of our field offices, we have opened cases all over the place focused on this threat,” said Comey. However, federal and state law enforcement offices have contradicted Comey’s comments with implications for West Virginia.

Speaking under anonymity, an FBI special agent explained Comey’s words about a case in each state was slightly misleading for two reasons. First, not all states, including West Virginia, have FBI field offices. Second, Comey was wrong to say there is a specific case in each state. It’s true that specific leads may exist that FBI agents cannot confirm or deny, but in reality, said the FBI source, a general case file for ISIS exists and any relevant information goes into that case file.

Despite not having a field office in West Virginia, the FBI works closely with the West Virginia Intelligence Fusion Center in Charleston. “The fusion center is an intelligence-sharing agency that has representatives from federal, state and local law enforcement,” said Lawrence Messina, the West Virginia communications director for military affairs and public safety. “It’s all about making sure that everyone is aware of what’s come to light on these different levels and other places in the country.” The center was created by a directive of President George W. Bush in 2006 in response to the intelligence failure leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.

This week the fusion center’s Messina was willing to admit, “There are no known terrorist training camps in West Virginia, but we are very attentive to reports that citizens give us.” However, he would not confirm or deny if they were pursuing any ISIS-related threats.

The FBI and the fusion center may be unwilling to speak of specific leads, but the FBI will discuss the type of behavior they find suspicious and worth monitoring. “If you have somebody who has a connection overseas, or who is seeking training overseas, or who is providing material support, whether it’s money or some other resources to a terrorist organization,” said Greg Heeb, an FBI special agent based in Pittsburgh, “those would be the kind of cases we would look into.”

Heeb went on to say, “We take a balance with these types of investigations because we obviously want to respect people’s First Amendment rights and at the same time determine if a crime is being committed.” Even though this balance would always be sought, the FBI and the fusion center both said they are not currently investigating any of West Virginia’s seven mosques.

“We wouldn’t look into a mosque unless there was some nexus to international terrorism or criminal activity.” Said Heeb. Monitoring a mosque “as far as ISIS is concerned, if there were anybody here that has any connection, then yes that would be somebody we would look closely at.”

While there are no known connections to Islamic terrorism in West Virginia today, the state has a history of radical Islam. In 1986 in the northern panhandle town of Bethany a terrorist member of al-Fuqra attacked a devout Hare Krishna. Al-Fuqra is a Pakistani-based Islamic terrorist group that was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center attack.

In 2003 and 2004, Asra Nomani, a moderate Muslim woman, challenged the leaders of a mosque in Morgantown for preaching a version of Islam that she considered too extreme. This led to a battle between her and the mosque, including the mosque expelling her. The conflict caused such a rift in the mosque that PBS chronicled the events in a documentary entitled “The Mosque in Morgantown.” The FBI and fusion center said they were unaware of any current terrorist connections at the Morgantown mosque.