The senior FBI officials and national security organized conference calls with some of the governors and senior officials responsible for enforcing the law on Sunday to discuss how the United States missiles in Iran impact an already dangerous threat environment, sources told ABC News.
The calls included one with hundreds of officials in charge of enforcing state and local law throughout the country and another with state governors and their staff.
An FBI official said in the call that the agency’s “position will be improved” after US military action against Iran. The FBI is asking more personnel to be in the office and continue with “canvas sources” and monitor intelligence.
The sources said that there is currently no specific intelligence of a direct and credible threat against the American homeland. The call with the governors was destined to ensure that the states were aware of the current threat environment and encourage them to communicate with the relevant state agencies, the infrastructure partners and others that may be at risk, the sources said.
Federal officials specifically urged governors to the call to be attentive to an increase in cyber activity within their states and encouraged them to communicate with the relevant state agencies, infrastructure partners of the private sector and others that may be at risk, including Jewish institutions or groups associated with Israel.
The call with the police also included a representative of Secure Community Network (SCN), a Chicago -based organization that helps protect Jewish institutions throughout the country and shares intelligence with the FBI and DHS.
The National Director and CEO of SCN, Michael Masters, said in the call that the decision of the United States government to join the Israel military campaign against Iran “opens a new chapter for all of us” and that Jewish institutions and Jewish leaders within the United States “must be considered at a high risk” due to violence in reprisals.
The FBI seal is shown in the Electoral Security Command Center at the FBI headquarters on November 4, 2024.
ABC News
He said that in the hours just after the United States launched its attacks, SCN identified more than 1,600 “violent positions aimed at the Jewish community on social networks.” A number that said continues to grow.
Expressing concern for what Iran could do in response to the US military action. UU., Masters said: “Historically, as many of us know, the intelligence community has determined that Iran would not hit the United States unless a red line has crossed … the so -called red line of the Iranian response doctrine was crossed.”
And Jim Dunlap, Undersecretary of Analysis of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the National Security of the Department of National Security, said that the American strike against Iran “raises the threat environment here in the United States.” But he also said that, “from a terrorism perspective, we evaluate that Tehran’s retaliation efforts against the country probably depend on the extent to which he believes that the actions of us threaten the stability of the regime.”
“We have not yet observed that the Iranians request direct violence in the homeland,” he added, although he said that the DHS is “closely” monitoring “specific calls to violence and threats against the homeland.”
Without offering details, Dunlap said that “the recent interruptions of the application of the law” in the United States “could challenge Iran’s ability to execute a plot in the homeland within the immediate period.”
The calls occur after national security issued a newsletter that asked the public to report anything suspicious to officials with the secretary of the DHS, Kristi Noem, strongly affirming that what is happening in Iran provides the potential of a greater threat to the homeland in the form of “possible cyber attacks, acts of violence and crimes of antisemy hate.”
All state governors were invited to the call, but not everyone could achieve it for several reasons, so some of their staff attended, the sources said.
