A terrorism analyst on Monday explained how the United States-Israel war against Iran might have activated sleeper cells and has concerned law enforcement.
Alex Plitsas, counterterrorism program director for the Atlantic Council, told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that recent attacks had suggested increased activity among terrorist sleeper cells. Plitsas cited the attempted attack Saturday by two men charged with using weapons of mass destruction and supporting the Islamic State after throwing a bomb near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Gracie Mansion, in addition to two other recent terrorism-related incidents — the attack on a nightclub in Austin, Texas, and a bombing outside the U.S. embassy in Oslo, Norway. He also described a new report that revealed an encrypted transmission was intercepted by the U.S., which has prompted concern among security experts and law enforcement.
Tapper asked Plitsas how worried he was about the recent attacks.
“Significantly concerned,” Plitsas said. “You know, not that there’s a particular plot that I’m aware of and not to be alarmist for folks who are listening, but let’s we can kind of walk through some of the facts that we that have come out and come to light recently about why I would make that comment. So there’s been three cells that have been arrested in Qatar, in the UK and Azerbaijan over the last week that were affiliated with the IRGC, the Quds force — that’s Iran special operations folks — that have an external cell that were engaged either intelligence collection or surveillance and preparation, likely for sabotage or terrorist operations. We saw a bombing outside of the U.S. embassy in Oslo. We still don’t know who was responsible for that. And then there was reporting that came out earlier today that code words appear to have been intercepted where the Iranians may have activated sleeper cells globally amongst their IRGC folks or potentially Hezbollah. And so they’ve been known to have folks slip in and out of the United States, intelligence officers from Iran in covert status who have been in the United States conducting surveillance on targets who have also attempted to contract hitmen in some cases you know, there was a plot against President Trump himself.”
He also mentioned how these operations had targeted others.
“There’s a very famous female dissident who lives in Brooklyn, they were attempting to assassinate her as well,” Plitsas said. “They’ve become exceptionally bold in recent years. And this all sort of came to light during the Obama administration when it was revealed and disrupted that they were looking at actually bombing a restaurant in Washington at one point, where the Saudi ambassador was said to have been eating. So the threat is real. And as Iran gets further backed into a corner and its military capabilities are further degraded, there’s a possibility it could turn to asymmetric threats.”
Plitsas argued there could be more attacks and that law enforcement would continue investigating.
“And as we like to say in the business, you know one time is an instance, two times a coincidence, three times is hostile enemy action,” Plitsas added. “We had three cells arrested this week, a bombing outside Oslo. And then potential chatter now about sleeper cells being activated. So the JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force) and speaking to contacts within the FBI and law enforcement community are actively monitoring and aggressively pursuing any leads that are out there right now, including with international partners. So confidence in the efforts are federal law enforcement along with their local partners, have but they only have to be right once, and we have to be right every time.”
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