Americans are deeply worried that the a “catastrophic terrorist attack” by Islamic militants, like the one Wednesday on a Paris magazine staff, will happen in the United States, according to a new poll.

According to the survey from national pollster McLaughlin & Associates, 74.2 percent of likely voters said they fear terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State will strike U.S. targets if they aren’t stopped. The poll was provided to Secrets.

Worse, they believe the terrorists will use chemical or biological weapons, not just the guns used in Paris on the staff of the humor magazine Charlie Hebdo, which published cartoons the extremists didn’t like.

The poll was commissioned by author Joel C. Rosenberg, the New York Times bestselling author of the new terror thriller, “The Third Target.”

He told Secrets today: “The Paris attack is a horrible reminder that we can’t get complacent about radical Islam generally or ISIS specifically.”

As with past books, Rosenberg’s newest about the Islamic State threat is partly built on interviews he conducted with former CIA directors, a leader of Israel’s Mossad, and Middle Eastern rulers including the prime minister of Jordan.

“My original plan was to write a novel that would warn people that ISIS was going to become a serious threat to the U.S., Israel and our Arab allies over the next five years or so. But events have moved much faster that I realized. When I started, President Obama was calling ISIS a ‘JV’ team. Now they are creating genocidal conditions in Syria and Iraq,” he told Secrets.

In the poll, Americans also said that they are worried about an ISIS attack on Israel. Just over 72 percent said they expect an attack there if ISIS isn’t stopped. Below is the poll:

EXCLUSIVE POLLING ON AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE THREAT OF ISIS

1. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “A terrorist organization known as ISIS or the Islamic State is brutally killing and torturing Muslims, Christians and other minority groups in Syria and Iraq. Its leaders are also threatening to launch terrorist attacks against other countries. If ISIS forces are not defeated soon, I worry they will launch a catastrophic terrorist attack inside the United States of America, and might even use chemical or biological weapons”?

· 74.2% agree

· 20.0% disagree

· 5.8% don’t know/refused to answer

2. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “If the terrorist forces of ISIS are not defeated soon in Syria and Iraq, I worry they will soon launch a genocidal attack against the State of Israel, and might even use chemical or biological weapons if they can capture or develop such weapons”?

· 72.7% agree

· 19.9% disagree

· 7.4% don’t know/refused to answer

3. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: “The terrorist forces of ISIS are currently trying to bring down the governments of Syria and Iraq. If ISIS is not defeated soon, I am afraid they will also try to overthrow the King of Jordan – an important, moderate Arab ally of the United States – and use Jordan as a base camp to launch terrorist attacks against America and Israel?

· 64.9%% agree

· 20.2% disagree

· 14.9% don’t know/refused to answer

[Source: Survey of 1,000 likely U.S. voters conducted by McLaughlin & Associates (3.5% +/- margin of error) on November 4, 2014, for Joel C. Rosenberg, author of The Third Target. www.joelrosenberg.com ]

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted atpbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.