Warnings about “the threat from foreign terrorists” from senior U.S. national security officials such as FBI Director Christopher Wray have been sounded repeatedly in recent months.
U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Erik Kurilla likewise has been emphasizing the capabilities of Islamic jihad terror groups including al-Qaida (AQ), the Islamic State (IS), and its offshoot, the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) in Afghanistan.
Both Wray and Kurilla note the wide open U.S. southern border, at which hundreds of individuals on the U.S. terror watchlist have been apprehended over the last several years.
This does not include unknown numbers of possible terrorists or others with malicious intent who have successfully penetrated our northern and southern borders as so-called “got aways” or completely undetected.
In Senate Homeland Security Committee testimony (October 2023), FBI Director Wray focused specifically on the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose regime, he warned, continues to plot assassination operations against both current and former U.S. government officials as revenge for the January 2020 take-down of Qods Force commander Gen. Qassem Suleimani on orders from then-President Donald Trump.
Among those provided 24/7 protection because of those credible threats — that include the actual presence of Iranian hit teams inside the U.S. — are former U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton and former CIA Director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
We may note also that the month of Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar, which this year overlaps with July 2024. July16-17 2024 specifically commemorated Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram, a date associated with the 680 C.E.
Battle of Karbala in which Hussein ibn Ali, his forces, and family were defeated and killed by the army of the Sunni Umayyad Caliphate General Yazid, son of the Caliph Mu’awiya.
It’s significant to note that top Iranian regime figures, including the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have been identifying their Gaza terror proxy Hamas with the martyred Hussein and (rather oddly) portraying Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces as the modern-day incarnations of Mu’awiya and Yazid.
Iranian regime officials have issued a steady stream of threats, verbally and in online postings, against the United States, and named U.S. officials ever since the January 2020 Suleimani strike.
For example, in January 2021, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted an apparent online threat on Twitter showing an image of Trump golfing with a caption “vengeance is definite.”
Earlier, on January 10, 2020, this author posted an article at the Center for Security Policy, “Iran’s Red Flag of War Flies over Jamkaran.”
That piece referred to the red flag that the Iranian regime hoisted over the Jamkaran mosque, where Shi’ites expect the 12th Imam to appear at the end of times.
That flag signifies a pledge of vengeance against the U.S. for Suleimani’s killing.
Farsi words on the flag say “Oh, ye avengers of Hussein” and indicates not only the Shi’a connection of Suleimani’s death to Hussein and the Battle of Karbala that solidified the intra-Islamic split between Sunni and Shi’ite, but an abiding commitment to revenge for Suleimani’s death.
The flag supposedly flies until that vengeance is exacted.
Even as recently as June 2024, during Iran’s presidential election campaign, Khamenei spoke openly in threatening anti-American terms to crowds chanting “Death to America.”
This connection may matter because as media are only now informing us, the U.S. Secret Service (subordinate to the Department of Homeland Security) at some unspecified but recent date received intelligence from a human source about an Iranian regime plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
U.S. government sources hasten to add that there is no known connection between that intelligence information and the July 13, 2024 attempted assassination of Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At this time, it is premature to either, as the FBI has done, announce with any certainty that shooter Thomas Crooks acted alone — or to point to external hostile actors like Iran as somehow involved.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., announced on July 17, 2024 that he would be setting up a bipartisan special task force to investigate the attack against Trump.
Other congressional committees, including the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees, are scheduling their own hearings to include invitations to testify to FBI Director Wray, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Director of the Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle.
Congressional briefings from FBI, Justice Department, and Secret Service officials also are being scheduled.
There are many pressing questions to be answered by these officials before any conclusions about the assassination attempt against President Trump should be drawn.
Bu these U.S. government officials must be pressed urgently by both Congress and the media to provide answers to those questions to the American people.
This column was published at Newsmax
The views expressed in CCNS member articles are not necessarily the views or positions of the entire CCNS. They are the views of the authors, who are members of the CCNS.
