The main 3 factors that increase the risk of terrorist attacks in the country of origin

As a former military intelligence officer, serving in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), I tracked foreign threats to the U.S., identifying adversary plans, intentions, and capabilities that could harm Americans. I predicted Russia’s attack on Ukraine, more than a year before it happened. In March, my Fox News Digital article, titled “Ignore FBI Director’s Urgent Terror Threat at Your Peril,” predicted terrorist attacks on America’s homeland, like those in New Orleans and Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. Vegas.

Here are the top three reasons why we will face more terrorism in America this year. This time, it’s going to be something we’ve never seen before.

Bureaucratic inertia stops the defense against threats

Bureaucratic red tape prevents government agencies from acting on threats they themselves identify and warn about. Last year, at an annual congressional briefing on the “global threats” facing the United States, FBI Director Christopher Wye warned that terrorist threats had reached a “whole other level” of escalation. Rai cited the “elevated” threat posed by “home-grown extremists, jihadist-inspired extremism, internal violent extremism, foreign terrorist organizations and state-sponsored terrorist organizations.”

He also called out ISIS-affiliated terrorists and smugglers entering the country through the southern border. This was in March 2024.

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New Orleans police and federal agents investigate a terrorist attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 1, 2025. (Chris Granger/New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Wray’s threat, however, has not translated into an improved security posture that should have been embraced by intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies and could have saved American lives by avoiding the tragedies in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

Millions of immigrants, especially men of military age, continue to enter our country, including criminals, terrorists, and foreign intelligence operatives. The most dangerous transnational criminal group from Venezuela, Train de Aragua, has established operations in 16 states, including New Jersey and New York, since November. They are attacking Americans at will.

To date, the border is not fully secure, enabling millions of illegal crossings, weakening local law enforcement and making communities unsafe. The popular free mobile app called CBP One App continues to be widely distributed on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Foreign nationals of all types who want to enter the United States use it to schedule remote interview appointments for asylum and eligibility to enter our country. This is all by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Has the FBI implemented any of the 18 recommendations made by the 2012 William Webster Commission to improve and identify terrorist threats? What actions were taken following Wray’s March warning? These are fair questions for Americans to ask their government. Specifically, two assassination attempts on President-elect Trump, secret drone flights over our military installations, and numerous crimes committed by members of transnational gangs — all since March.

In the year FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on June 4, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Samuel Korm/Getty Images)

Threats ‘over the horizon’ seem to be ignored

There is a new threat looming over the horizon. And it has not yet entered the government job list. Drone warfare is a prime example of such an emergency, democratized by high-tech capabilities, such as unmanned aircraft systems (UASs). UAS is a general term for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV – aircraft or drone), but includes the entire operating system of the UAV, including the ground control station (accommodating the pilot operating the UAV). communication hardware (connecting the UAV and the controller); Payment (cameras, sensors, explosives, etc.); and flight planning software.

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UAS present the most dangerous threat our motherland has ever faced for simply three reasons. They are commercially available, relatively inexpensive, highly mobile, extremely difficult to detect and identify, and have unlimited load capacity. They can outfit a UAS with a non-kinetic payload, such as a sensor or camera, or a kinetic or lethal capability, such as an explosive device, bomb, or WMD (chemical, biological, radiological).

A masked Islamic State terrorist holds an ISIS flag in 2015. (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

First employed by our army for surveillance purposes and later as an anti-terrorist tool to eliminate terrorist leaders, drones are now widely available, including terrorists. Drone warfare is practical and complete in the conflict zones of Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East.

Drones are perfect for hitting soft targets and crowded areas, which is full of its homeland. A 2023 study by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security states: “The growing use of UAS in both private sector and government operations means that more people will be able to use these systems in the future, and will have the knowledge to use them. The likelihood of using UAS for attacks is increasing. The study states that “UAS operators He highlighted the fact that he could operate anonymously and give him a greater chance to avoid detection and capture. Actors can be very attractive.

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In the year In early 2018, the US government became aware of the drone threat. Current Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen wrote in a Washington Post article that “America was unprepared for the growing threat of drones” and had no defense against them. “Terrorist groups like the Islamic State are interested in using armed drones against American interests at home and abroad,” she said.

And yet, to this day, we are vulnerable to drone strikes. With the recent mysterious drone incidents, it became very clear to everyone how defenseless we are against such attacks. For weeks since November, unidentified drones have reportedly been flying over military bases and critical infrastructure in several East Coast states, including New Jersey and New York, and neither federal nor state security agencies have stopped them. The White House and Pentagon admit they don’t know the origin of those drones.

A Ukrainian Air Intelligence Serviceman maneuvers a drone over Bakhmut, Ukraine on May 10, 2024. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The politics of intelligence turns to the wrong targets.

The entire government’s security apparatus is now politicized, shifting its focus from foreign threats such as terrorism to US opponents. Instead of identifying and stopping those who are hell-bent on harming Americans, our government agencies are targeting our citizens who oppose the spread of vigilantism in our society. Catholics whose religious beliefs prevent them from accepting things like transgenderism, and parents protesting against left-wing religious ideology perpetrating their children, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) engulfing our public schools, are now counted out by government agencies. Domestic threat actors.

This offensive politics comes from the top. President Biden is downplaying the terrorist threat to his country, including from ISIS. In June 2021, Biden said: “According to the information community, terrorism from white supremacy is the deadliest threat to the country today. Not ISIS, not Al Qaeda – white supremacists. FBI Agent: Is it surprising that there is no connection between the first New Orleans shooter and terrorism or ISIS? Although the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas, had an ISIS flag draped over his Ford pickup truck, he deliberately drove into a group of civilians celebrating New Year’s in the French Quarter, killing 14. .

On November 5, 2009, US Army Dr. Major Nidal Malik Hasan was convicted of shooting and killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas.

Similarly, the FBI failed to identify Major Nidal Hasan, the military psychiatrist involved in the 2009 terrorist attack at Fort Hood, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded 31 others — even though Hasan was in regular contact with known terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki. In the letter, Hassan, an American-born Muslim, asked whether it was permissible to kill kidnappers and “kill innocent people for a noble cause.”

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In the year According to the November 5, 2009, report of the William Webster Commission on FBI, Counterterrorism, Intelligence, and Events at Fort Hood, Texas, FBI agents from the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force knew that Hassan had been contacted. – Before firing the launcher several times. However, the FBI’s Washington field office determined that Hasan was “not involved in terrorist activities.” Therefore, the FBI did not alert the Department of the Army and the Pentagon about Hasan’s terrorist connections, both of which classified the incident as workplace violence and not an act of terrorism. A 2012 report made 18 formal recommendations for the FBI to improve and identify terrorist threats.

The incoming Trump administration has promised to depoliticize government agencies. Appointing former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence as part of a Republican administration is a step in the right direction. Intelligence should be non-partisan. Intelligence officers should not be afraid to speak truth to power, even if their line of analysis conflicts with established presidential policies. But eradicating the government’s tyranny will be a tall order. Let’s see if the DOGE can compel government bureaucrats to fend off the drone threat and save Americans.

Click here to read more from Rebecca Koffler