Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. government is intensifying a manhunt for an Iranian intelligence operative who the Federal Bureau of Investigation believes has been plotting to assassinate current and former American officials, including one-time Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
- The FBI’s Miami field office on Friday issued a public alert seeking information on Majid Dastjani Farahani, a suspected member of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, who the Bureau alleged has been recruiting “individuals for operations in the U.S., to include lethal targeting of current/former USG officials.”
- The Iranian government has repeatedly vowed over the past four years to avenge the 2020 death of Major General Qasem Soleimani – a commander of Iran’s elite Qods Force – whom the Trump administration assassinated in Baghdad using a drone strike on his convoy.
- The DoJ indicted members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) in 2022 for allegedly plotting to murder Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton
- U.S. officials told Semafor they believe Pompeo and Trump’s special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, are also on Tehran’s hit list. The U.S. government is currently providing both men with around-the-clock security due to the severity of the threat.
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI, DHS warn of ‘threats to public safety’ during holiday season, amplified by Israel-Hamas conflict
- The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are warning the public of heightened threats to public safety this holiday season and through winter associated with the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
- The FBI says it is “closely monitoring threats to public safety during the holiday season which may be amplified” by the war
- The bureau says these targets are likely to remain “attractive to lone actors inspired by a range of ideologies due to their accessibility and symbolic nature.”
- The bureau points to terrorist media organizations having called for “lone actor attacks in the United States” as well as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” having called for violence and celebrated attacks on the Jewish community.
- The FBI says hate crimes have spiked nationwide since Hamas’ deadly assault Oct. 7 on Israel that set off the war.
- “We have also observed an increase in hoax bomb and active shooter threats targeting synagogues across the United States, likely intended to disrupt services and intimidate congregants. Calls for violence may increase in the days leading up to the holidays and before other notable events this winter,” the FBI said. “We therefore urge everyone to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement.”
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI Director Warns House Panel Threat of Terror Attack Now at Whole ‘Nother Level’
- The directors of the FBI and Homeland Security were in front of Congress Wednesday warning Americans to stay vigilant given the situation in the Middle East.
- Those most responsible for protecting the country fear lone wolf attacks could happen here based on antisemitism, islamophobia, or just hate for America.
- “In a year where the terrorism threat was already elevated, the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole ‘nother level,'” FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House panel.
- Wray confirmed multiple investigations were underway nationwide into people who may have connections to Hamas.
- “Our most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will draw twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,” he said
- Concern quickly shifted the conversation to the southern border after nearly 200 people on the terror watch list were encountered there.
- “200 is alarming to me, does that give you concern?” asked Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX).
- “Certainly, the numbers give us concern. I think it’s important in some ways to say that numbers alone don’t really tell the problem. We’ve all seen how much damage just a small number of foreign terrorists could cause. As crazy as it sounds people tend to forget it was 19 who killed 3,000,” Wray replied.
- “That’s the point I was going to make. It only took 19 to create 9/11,” McCaul said.
- One point Wray stressed to the American people is, that while continuing to live their lives, there should be a heightened awareness.
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI Director Wray warns terror threat to Americans at ‘whole other level’ amid Hamas-Israel conflict
- FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday warned
- “The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of an attack against Americans in the United States to a whole other level,” Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
- “We assess that the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration, the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate several years ago,” Wray said. “In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West.”
- Wray warned that the most immediate concern is that individuals or small groups will draw inspiration from the events to attack Americans, including homegrown violent extremists who are inspired by foreign terrorist organizations, or by domestic violent extremists who are targeting Muslim or Jewish targets.
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Watch out Jews, jihad is coming’: FBI investigate Cornell University messaging board after vile anti-Semitic threats are made against students
- The FBI are investigating a Cornell University messaging board after vile anti-Semitic threats were made against Jewish students.
- The Ithaca, New York-based Ivy institution has already seen anti-Semitic graffiti on its walls and a professor forced to take a leave of absence after calling the attacks ‘exhilarating’ and ‘energizing.’
- Authorities were investigating at the school’s Center for Jewish Living Sunday night after revolting anti-Jewish threats were discovered online.
- Of the several messages left on the school’s Greekrank page – a forum meant for fraternity and sorority reviews – were messages with the headlines ‘Eliminate Jewish living from Cornell Campus’ or ‘Israel deserved 10/7.’
- One member wrote: ‘Watch out Jews, jihad is coming.’
- Another was even more revolting, writing: ‘I will bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig Jews. Jews are human animals and deserve a pig’s death.’
- The commenter, who went by username ‘hamas’ and also made threats of sexual violence toward female students, added: ‘Liberation by any means. From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’
- One specific message singled out the Center for Jewish Living, which also includes the school’s Kosher dining hall.
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Important Takeaways:
- Call for ‘Day of Jihad’ prompts greater vigilance by FBI, Jewish groups
- FBI Director Christopher A. Wray on Thursday warned of attacks in the U.S. as security around Jewish institutions ramped up, prompted by an increase in threats against Jews and a former Hamas leader’s call for a global “Day of Jihad” against Israel on Friday.
- “We cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas, or other foreign terrorist organizations, could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks here on our own soil,” Mr. Wray told a briefing organized by the Secure Community Network, the North American Jewish community’s security organization.
- Former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Muslims to “mobilize for jihad” on Friday. Now the head of Hamas’ diaspora office, he called for protests in support of the Palestinians and for neighboring countries to join the fight against Israel.
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Important Takeaways:
- Threats of Violence as Trump’s prosecution moves forward. It should be remembered that there are those that want chaos in the streets so they can prove that you’re the villain. Don’t fall for it.
- At the federal courthouse in Washington, a woman called the chambers of the judge assigned to the election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump and said that if Mr. Trump were not re-elected next year, “we are coming to kill you.”
- At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, agents have reported concerns about harassment and threats being directed at their families amid intensifying anger among Trump supporters about what they consider to be the weaponization of the Justice Department. “Their children didn’t sign up for this,” a senior F.B.I. supervisor recently testified to Congress.
- And the top prosecutors on the four criminal cases against Mr. Trump — two brought by the Justice Department and one each in Georgia and New York — now require round-the-clock protection.
- As the prosecutions of Mr. Trump have accelerated, so too have threats against law enforcement authorities, judges, elected officials and others
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Important Takeaways:
- The FBI’s former top spy catcher in New York pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions by taking money from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in exchange for information on a rival.
- Charles McGonigal, former special agent in charge of counterintelligence at the FBI’s New York office, told the court he received $17,500 from Deripaska, laundered from Gazprom Bank in Russia to Cyprus to a business bank account in New Jersey and then McGonigal’s private account.
- McGonigal, who left the FBI in 2018, signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that does not include a cooperation agreement and could lead to a maximum sentence of five years in jail.
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Important Takeaways:
- An armed Utah man accused of making violent threats against President Joe Biden was shot and killed by FBI agents hours before the president landed in the state Wednesday, authorities said.
- Special agents were trying to serve a warrant on the home of Craig Deleeuw Robertson in Provo, south of Salt Lake City, when the shooting happened at 6:15 a.m., the FBI said in a statement.
- Robertson was armed at the time of the shooting, according to two law enforcement sources
- Robertson posted online Monday that he had heard Biden was coming to Utah and he was planning to dig out a camouflage suit and begin “cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle”
- Neighbors described Robertson as a frail, elderly man — his online profile put his age as 74 — who walked with the aid of a hand-carved stick.
- “The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!” authorities say Robertson wrote in a September 2022 Facebook post
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Important Takeaways:
- FBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep
- The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday.
- During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children.
- The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers.
- “Sex traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause their victims unimaginable harm,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “This operation, which located 59 actively missing children, builds on the tremendous work the FBI has undertaken over many years to rescue minor victims and arrest those responsible for these unspeakable crimes.
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