Trump administration boosts monitoring of possible Iran-backed cells in U.S. -- as Trump weighs strikes, sources say

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

June 19, 2025 / 6:08 PM EDT


As President Trump is contemplating potential U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, law enforcement officials have stepped up surveillance of Iran-backed operatives in the United States, multiple sources told CBS News.

FBI Director Kash Patel has increased efforts to monitor possible domestic sleeper cells linked to Hezbollah — a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization backed by Iran — since Israel's Operation Rising Lion offensive began earlier this month, U.S. officials said. Both the White House and FBI declined to comment. The threat from Iranian operatives has worried current and former administration officials since Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was assassinated on Mr. Trump's orders in January 2020.

Late last year, federal prosecutors charged an operative of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and two U.S.-based people with plotting to surveil and assassinate critics of the Iranian regime. The IRGC operative allegedly told investigators he was pushed by unnamed IRGC officials to plan an attack against Mr. Trump.

For years, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials have been concerned about Iran's ability to direct or inspire attacks within the United States — a concern that has ramped up since Soleimani's killing. The FBI, Department of Homeland Security and others have devoted significant resources to countering the threat.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-monitor-iran-backed-cells-trump-weighs-strikes/

[Walleye]

1. Iran does not threaten the existence of the United States. That threat is coming from within.

Just because it’s from a foreign country, doesn’t make it anymore dangerous than the terrorists we have right here. No one country will conquer us from the outside

[BoRaGard]

2. Things look different from inside G.O.P. casinos

in Sin City ( R).

[johnnyfins]

3. I was waiting for this.

While I agree that sleeper cells probably exist in CONUS, it is also a highly convenient excuse for more monsters from the right wing boogeyman factory.

[Bayard]

4. So now, ICE goon squads will be snagging everyone who looks vaguely Middle Eastern

Better watch out, Kash.

[timms139]

5. If they have

knowledge that there are people here who are waiting for orders to carry out some kind of plot against the country, why haven't they been rounded up by the ICE goons and placed in their detention areas. Are our ICE goons and their dog killing leader afraid of them? Seems to me these kinds of people would be a real danger instead of a farm worker trying to better their families lives .