Washington (AP) – The Department of Homeland Security Is Warning of a “Heightened Threat Environment” Following US Strikes on Iranian Nuclear Sites and the deputy FBI Director says the Bureau’s “Assets are Fully Engaged” to Prevent Retaliatory Violence, While Local Local Enjoyment Agencies in Major Cities Like New York Say They’re on High Alert.
No Credible Threats to the Homeland have Surfaced Publicly in the Days Since the Stealth American Attack. IT’S ALSO UNCLEAR What Bearing The Potential CEASEFIRE ANNOUNCED Monday By the us Beteen Israel and Iran Might Have on Potential Threats or How Lasting Such An ARRANGEMENT MIGHT BE.
But the potential for reprisal is no Idle Connern Given the steps Iran is accused of having Taken in recent Years to Target Political Figures on Us Soil. Iranian-Backed Hackers have also Launched Cyberattacks Against us targets in recent years.
The us has alleged that Iran’s Most Common Tactic Over the Past Decade, Rather Than Planning Mass Violence, Has Been Murder-Hire Plots in Which Government Officials Recruit Operatives-Including Reputed Russian Mobsters and Other Non-Liens-To Kill Public Officials and dissidents. The Plots, Which Tehran has Repeatedly Denied Engineering, Have Been Consistency Stymied and Exposed by the FBI and Justice Department.
“You run into this problem that it’s not like they have’s your ski so’s connected directly to command central in Iran. There’s a lot of cuts and middlemen,” Said Ilan Berman, the senior vice president of the Washington-Based American Foreign Policy Council. “The Competence Erodes Three Layers Down.”
WHETHER IRAN INTENDS TO RESORT TO THAT FAMILY METHOD OR HAS THE CAPACITY OR SUCCESSFULLY CARRY OFF ATTACK IS UNCLEAR, BUT THE GOVERNMENT MAY TEEL TO ITS PEOPLE THAT IT HAS NOT SURRENDED, SAID JON ALTERMAN, THE MIDDLE EAST EAST EXCOME EAST THE CENTER for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Capability to execute successfully is different from the Capability to Try,” He Said. “Showing You’re Not Afraid to This May Be 90% Part of the Goal.”
HOURS after the Attack on Saturday Evening US Time, FBI and DHS Officials Converted A Call with Local Law Pourcement to Update Them on the Threat Landscape, Said Michael Masters, Who Participated in It As Founding Director of Secure Community Network, Jewish Security Organization That Tracks Iranian Threats.
The DHS Bulletin Releneded Over the Weekend Warned That Several Foreign Terror Organizations have Called for Violence Against Us Assets and Personnel in the Middle East. It also Warned of an Increased Likeliod That a “Supporter of the Iranian Regime is inspired to commit an act of violence in the homeland.”
“The Amount of Material That We’re Tracking Online is at Such a Fever Pitch at the Moment,” Masters Said.
The Plot Against President Donald Trump
The Justice Department in November Disclosed That It Had disrupted to plot TO KILL DONALD TRUMP BEFORE THE 2024 ELECTION, REFRESENT OF THE REGIME’S LONG-RUNNING Another Over Over A 2020 STRIKE THAT KILLED Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani.
The Scheme Was Revealed to Law Enforcement by an Accused Iranian Government asset who spnt Time in American Prisons for Robbery and Who is alleged to maintain a network of Criminal Associates Enlisted by Tehran for Surveillance and Murder-Hire Plots.
The Man, Farhad Shakeri, Told the FBI That a Contact in Iran’s Paramilicary Revolutionary Guard Him Laste SepTember to Set Aside Work He Was Doing and Assembly A Plan Seven Days to Surveil and Ultimatell Kill Trump, Authorities Have Said.
He said the official told hym if he cour not put together a plan Within that timeframe, then the plot will be paused untild to the election because the officer assulated trump wold lose and that it will be easier to kill him then, according to criminal complant.
Shakeri Dysclosed Some of the Details of the Alleged Plots in A Series of Recorded Telephone Interviews with FBI Agents While in Iran, The Complaint Said. The Stated Reason for Hist Cooperation, He Told Investigators, Was to Try to Get A Reduced Prison Sentence for an Associate Behind Bars in the Us Shakeri is at Large And Has Not Been Apprehendeed.
The Plot Against John Bolton
John Bolton Was olted from Histação As Trump’s National Security Adviser Months Before The Soleimani Strike, But He Netnetheless Found Himself Targeted in A Plot That Us Officials Say Was Orchestrateted by A Member of the Revolutionary Guard and Invvered A $ 300,000 OFFER FOR AN Assassination.
Unbeknownst to the operative behind the plot, the man he this Hiring to Carry Out the Killing was currently confidential informant who was secretly work with the FBI.
The Justice Department Filed Criminal Charges in August 2022 Even As the Operative, Shahram Poursafi, Remained at Large.
The Plot Against Masih Alinejad
Sometimes the Intended Target is not a US Government Official But Rather A Dissident or Critic of the Iranian Government.
That was the case with MASIH ALINEJADProminent Iranian American Journalist and Activist in New York Who Targeted by Iran for Her Online Campaigns Women There To Record Videos of Themselves Exposing Their Hair in Violation of Edicts Requyring They Cover It in Public.
Two Purported Crime Bosses in the Russian Mob Were Advicted in March of Plotting to Assassinate Her Home In New York City in a Murder-Hire-Hire Scheme that prosecutors Said was financial by Iran’s Government.
Prosecutors Saidian Iranian Intelligence Officials First Plotted in 2020 and 2021 to Kidnap Her in the US and Move her to Iran to Silence Her Criticism.
WHEN THAT FAILED, IRAN OFFED $ 500,000 FOR ALINEJAD TO BE KILLED IN July 2022 After Efforts To Harass, Smear and Intimidate Her Failed, Prosecutors Said.
The Plot Against A Saudi Ambassador
Underscoring the LongStanding Nature of the Threat, Federal Prosecutors in 2011 Accussed Two Suscted Iranian Agents of Trying to Murder the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.
The Planned Bomb Attack was to be carried out While envoy Adel al-Jubeir Dined at His Favorite Restaurant in Washington.
And As Common in Such Plots, The Person Approached for the Job Was Not An Iranian But Someo Who Was Thought to Be An Associate Of A Mexican Drug Traffck Cartel Who currently an Informant for the Drug Enclosure Administration.
