It’s difficult to predict the scope of Iran’s possible retaliation against the United States in the wake of Saturday’s military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets, but the day after the U.S. offensive, NBC News reported on a new domestic security warning.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a new bulletin [on Sunday] warning of a ‘heightened threat environment’ following the U.S. strikes on nuclear facilities in Iran. The bulletin warns that ‘low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks.’ DHS also warns of possible violence by independent actors.
NBC News’ report added that U.S. officials have long considered Iran to be among our top cyber adversaries in the world — which is notable in part because the Trump administration has made significant cuts in recent months to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as well as Donald Trump’s decision in April to fire Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who led U.S. Cyber Command.
And therein lies the point: As the Department of Homeland Security raises new domestic security concerns, it highlights an unsettling context to the White House’s recent agenda, especially in areas of counterterrorism.
For example, ProPublica published a report this month about Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old “with no apparent national security expertise” who is now “a Department of Homeland Security official overseeing the government’s main hub for terrorism prevention.”
The same week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the demise of the Quiet Skies program, described by The New York Times as “a counterterrorism program used to conduct surveillance on air travelers.”
Soon after, NBC News reported on a different but related move: “The Trump administration plans to eliminate a Department of Homeland Security terrorism prevention program that former government officials and experts say has helped thwart attacks in the United States. The DHS budget submitted to Congress last month cancels the $18 million terrorism prevention grant program, saying it ‘does not align with DHS priorities.’”
The same report quoted a current senior DHS official who said the decision to scrap the program, which specifically focused on preventing lone-wolf attacks by individuals, would likely cost American lives. Referring to the “does not align with DHS priorities” phrase, the source said, “That line should be quoted after every future mass casualty event in this country.”
This also dovetails with a separate NBC News report that explained, “As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a ‘brain drain’ in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyberattacks from Tehran, according to six former senior DOJ and FBI officials.”
The Justice Department’s counterintelligence and export control section — “which tracks foreign espionage in the U.S. by Iran and other foreign rivals” — has lost roughly a third of its workforce since Trump returned to the White House. That came on the heels of a related report in The Washington Post that noted, “President Donald Trump’s sweeping freeze on U.S. foreign assistance has threatened programs intended to counter al-Shabab bombmakers, contain the spread of al-Qaeda across West Africa and secure Islamic State prisoners in the Middle East, according to U.S. officials and aid workers.” The Post added that some of the cuts to foreign aid would affect programs designed to respond to national security threats and that their suspension “could endanger the United States and its international allies.” And then, of course, there’s Joe Kent, the man the president tapped to serve as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, despite his connections to right-wing extremists, his associations with white nationalists, his weird conspiracy theories, and his stated belief that the FBI — an agency he’d presumably be working with — is “corrupt” and needs to be brought “to heel.” (The Senate has not yet confirmed Kent’s nomination.) It wasn’t too surprising to see the Department of Homeland Security issue a new bulletin over the weekend warning of a “heightened threat environment,” but perhaps we’re overdue for a national conversation about the Trump administration’s capacity and wherewithal to deal with this heightened threat environment?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post
Recommended
