FBI Director Kash Patel has ramped up initiatives aimed at identifying and tracking Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells possibly operating under Tehran’s direction.
Iran reportedly sent a direct threat to the United States ahead of President Donald Trump's military strikes on Iranian nuclear targets.
According to NBC News citing US officials, the Iranian regime warned that if the United States proceeded with its planned attacks, the country may activate terrorist sleeper cells already embedded within the American homeland. The threat was reportedly delivered through an intermediary during last week’s G7 summit in Canada.
729 of the over 1,500 Iranian nationals who illegally entered the US at the southern border and were arrested during the Biden administration were released back into the country, according to Fox News. Additionally, there were over 2 million known gotaways at the border during the Biden administration. Because they were never apprehended, there is no way of knowing where they were from.
On Friday, two days before the strikes, it was reported that the Trump administration was already boosting efforts to monitor suspected Iran-backed operatives in the US. FBI Director Kash Patel has reportedly ramped up initiatives aimed at identifying and tracking Hezbollah-linked sleeper cells possibly operating under Tehran’s direction.
Hours after Trump addressed the country following the strikes in Iran, the DHS issued a memo warning of a "heightened threat environment" in the US. The memo didn't cite any specific threat, but came as Iranian officials promised retaliation against the US.
Tehran has previously vowed retaliation against officials involved in the 2020 assassination of Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani — a strike ordered by then-President Trump. The regime has frequently invoked Soleimani’s death as a justification for potential revenge operations.
Just last year, US federal prosecutors charged an operative with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and two individuals inside the United States with plotting assassinations of prominent critics of the regime, including President Trump himself. The foiled plot confirmed fears that Iran’s reach has extended beyond rhetoric, involving direct attempts to conduct terror on American soil.
The New York Times reported this week that US intelligence has picked up signals that Iran-backed militias are preparing retaliatory strikes on American military installations in Iraq and Syria.
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