The United States is extremely vulnerable to a "catastrophic" terror attack, a former FBI assistant director warned.
In a recent interview, Chris Swecker, who retired from the FBI in 2006, told Newsweek that he has never seen America as open to attack by Islamic terrorists as it is right now.
"I worked counterterrorism up close and I've never seen this country so vulnerable to a catastrophic attack," Swecker said. "Much of this is caused by the open borders, which seem to me to neutralize all our other counterterrorism efforts.
"Now we have the holidays when terrorists like to strike," he said, adding that the U.S. is "projecting weakness."
His comments echo warnings from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, which earlier this month advised law enforcement of the heightened risk of an Islamic terror attack since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah "need to stir up conflict" with the United States, Swecker told Newsweek.
With the FBI focused on the far-right and the border not under control, Swecker said that Islamic terror cells are already present within the U.S.
While serving as an FBI chief in North Carolina in 2000, Swecker said he indicted a group of Muslim men for funding Hezbollah; after completing 21 years of a 30-year prison sentence, one of the men, Mohamad Youssef Hammoud, returned to Lebanon in June.
Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the terror threat has increased substantially since the Middle Eastern conflict began.
"I see blinking lights everywhere I turn," he told the committee.
The FBI director said, since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, the number of terror threats is at a "whole other level."
"I've never seen a time where all the threats, or so many of the threats, are all elevated all at exactly the same time," he said.
Wray cautioned that terrorists may try to take advantage of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border and stressed that the FBI is working to "identify and disrupt potential attacks."
"Our top concern stems from lone offenders inspired by — or reacting to — the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, as they pose the most likely threat to Americans, especially Jewish, Muslim and Arab-American communities in the United States," he said.
"We have seen an increase in reported threats to Jewish and Muslim people, institutions and houses of worship here in the United States and are moving quickly to mitigate them."
Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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