Senator Tim Scott issued a sobering warning to Americans during Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate.
Senator Tim Scott issued a sobering warning to Americans during Wednesday night’s GOP primary debate about the growing threat to the American homeland amid Israel’s war against Hamas. “I believe we have sleeper terrorist cells in America,” the senator said. “Thousands of people have come from Yemen, Iran, Syria, and Iraq.”
Fortunately, NBC News speedily reassured its readers that Scott’s assessment was “likely false.” Not the part about the thousands of Middle Easterners streaming into the United States since 2021 — that much is true. The notion that these “special interest aliens” from countries that promote terrorist activity present a terroristic threat to the U.S. — to say nothing of foreigners from trouble spots all over the globe who enter the U.S. legally and overstay their visas or evade the scrutiny of law enforcement — is simply unfounded, the outlet maintained. “While Scott said he ‘believes’ there are sleeper cells, he did not cite any evidence,” NBC News authoritatively declared, “and there is scant proof of any such sleeper cells.”
The logic NBC’s fact-checkers articulated certainly justifies skepticism toward Scott’s claim, but it does not warrant the certitude that informs it’s “likely false” verdict. Scott isn’t the only federal lawmaker who has warned in recent days that foreign agents inside America pose a threat to U.S. security. “The threat of Hezbollah attacks within the US is very real,” former congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Peter Meijer agreed.
Their concerns are not informed by their gut instincts alone. In fiscal year 2023, at least 151 apprehensions at the U.S. border involved “migrants with positive terrorism watchlist matches,” CBS News reported. That disquieting revelation coincides with FBI director Chris Wray’s warning regarding a recent uptick in foreign terrorist organizations seeking to recruit agents for attacks inside America. Wray was vague in the unclassified setting in which he issued this admonition, but New York Times reporters were privy to additional details from law-enforcement sources with access to the specifics. “The call from al-Qaeda urged ‘Islamic movements’ to form sleeper cells and support ‘operations against the Jews and their interests,’” the paper reported.
Why any of this would be hard for NBC News’s fact-checkers to believe is a mystery. The arrest and prosecution of terrorist “sleeper” agents actively planning attacks inside the U.S. is not an unheard-of phenomenon.
“Their networks are present in the United States,” said Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies at a 2018 congressional hearing. Experts and members of Congress alike warned of the extensive training and support “Iran’s proxy terror networks in Latin America” receive from Tehran, and the active efforts by the Islamic Republic to help its assets infiltrate American borders.
The following year, an Iranian asset inside the U.S. was convicted of being a self-described “sleeper agent” actively planning attacks on civilian targets. “Ali Kourani was recruited, trained, and deployed by Hezbollah’s Islamic Jihad Organization to plan and execute acts of terrorism around New York City,” said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. He surveilled “critical infrastructure, federal buildings, international airports, and even daycare centers” in selecting targets for a mass-casualty event. The prosecution of Kourani and another Hezbollah operative, Samer el-Debek, in 2017 led the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center to conclude that “Hezbollah is determined to give itself a potential homeland option as a critical component of its terrorism playbook.”
Also in 2019, New Jersey resident Alexei Saab was arrested after he allegedly spent decades in the U.S. “training with and scouting terror-attack locations” for Hezbollah. “He posed as a regular guy,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Adelsberg. “In reality, he was a sleeper agent for Hezbollah ready to strike.” Iranian assets reportedly recruited Saab for his mission inside the United States in response to a conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. It doesn’t strain credulity to suspect that the present conflict between Israel and one of Iran’s terrorist proxies in the Gaza Strip would create similar incentives to engage in related behavior.
Why is it so hard to believe that Iran would conduct itself precisely as it has conducted itself in the past? Why is NBC News so convinced that Scott’s refusal to specifically divulge the intelligence to which he may be privy constitutes evidence that the senator is simply making things up on the fly? Scott’s claim, while light on details, is neither unsubstantiated nor unbelievable.