Ex-FBI Asst Chief: I've never been more terrified of a terror attack (2024)

America's top law enforcement officials couldn't be any clearer: the threat of a terror attack inside the U.S. is now imminent.

'Every morning, we worry,' Attorney General Merrick Garland told a House hearing on Tuesday.

The risk of a strike, he said, has 'gone up enormously.'

FBI Director Christopher Wray – testifying just across Capitol Hill in the Senate – issued the same urgent warning, saying U.S. domestic security is in the worst condition he's ever seen.

His agency has recently disrupted 'multiple terrorist attacks in cities and communities around the country,' he revealed.

It was only in December that Wray first publicly sounded the alarm about this growing menace in the aftermath of Hamas's cowardly October 7 attack on Israel.

'Given the steady drumbeat of calls for attacks by foreign terrorist organizations since October 7, we're working around the clock,' he said then.

I, too, recognized the danger.

I worked as the FBI's Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigation Division from 2004 to 2006.

I'm now retired. But, in January, I sent an urgent letter - co-signed by ten other former high-level colleagues - to Congressional leaders urging them to secure the wide-open 1,800-mile southern border.

I understood then – and regretfully acknowledge now – that terrorist murderers intent on striking the U.S. homeland may have already infiltrated America, hidden among more than 10 million illegal immigrants who have entered the country on Biden's watch.

And yet, our President has dithered – opting to play politics instead of prioritizing national security.

As recently as last month, Biden ludicrously declared 'white supremacy' to be 'the most dangerous terrorist threat' in America.

Such obvious political pandering from the Commander-in-Chief needlessly diverts resources.

Now, the President's belated and frankly f*ckless attempt to address the crisis by executive order is too little, too late.

The October 7 massacre was the most dastardly act of international treachery since Pearl Harbor – but the conflict it sparked was not intended to be confined to the Middle East.

It is the goal of Hamas, Hezbollah and their blood-stained sponsors in Tehran to export their barbarism to the West.

Moving up the FBI ranks, I worked for 24 years as a Special Agent and on-scene commander of FBI resources in Iraq where Iranian-sponsored terrorists killed almost 1,000 Americans.

That work taught me the twisted truth of our enemy's ideology: their lifeblood is the slavish commitment to extinguishing Western civilization - no matter how long it takes.

For the last 40 years, Iranian surrogates have been trying to burrow into the US, waiting for the order to activate. Then America suddenly dropped its defenses.

Biden's systematic dismantling of border security started on day one of his administration and it completely overwhelmed the ability of law enforcement to vet individuals entering the country.

Permissive Democrat policies transformed Border Patrol Agents from guardians into Walmart greeters processing thousands of migrants crossing daily.

America's enemies took notice.

Border officials reportedly arrested 169 people whose names appeared on an official terrorist watch list over fiscal year 2023. Compare that to the 98 potential terrorist crossers detained in 2022 and just 15 in 2021.

And it gets worse: for there are more than 1.7 million known 'gotaways' - illegal immigrants who completely evaded Border Patrol – now inside America since Biden took office.

U.S. intelligence agencies have no idea who is crossing our border nullifying decades of intel gathering to identify potential threats.

And when one considers that all it would take is three or four trained terrorists to unleash a devastating attack, the implications are chilling.

Director Wray said as much in his testimony this week, warning: 'Increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russian concert hall.'

On March 22, a cell of just four Islamic State savages killed at least 145 people and injured more than 550 others at a music hall outside of Moscow.

Furthermore, consider the loss of life caused by 19 Al Qaeda terrorists who had snuck into the US and launched the September 11 attacks.

The conflict in Israel has also revealed another insidious threat: a fifth column within US colleges and universities of sympathizers and supporters of designated terrorist organizations.

It's not hard to imagine violent radicals incubating inside these groups.

Add to this overall threat landscape so-called 'lone actors' activated remotely by social media, terrorist propaganda and direct instructions.

The risk to the country is now immeasurable.

Every possible U.S. intelligence resource must immediately be mobilized to address this imminent threat. An 11th hour executive border order – riddled with exceptions and unlikely to be enforced - is not nearly enough.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security should be given free rein to surge to the southern border to investigate, interview and document via biometrics every migrant hailing from countries identified as breeding grounds for terrorists or otherwise hostile to America.

This would have the dual effect of building up our human intelligence base and deterring further infiltration.

Our leaders must realize that we have neither the time nor energy to divert our precious assets to advance this administration's political agenda.

Border security must be restored immediately by ending catch and release policies that only incentivize illegal border crossing by allowing illegal migrants into the U.S. on the condition that they appear at elusive court hearings half a decade later.

It is also imperative that we bring back Donald Trump's 'Remain in Mexico' policy, which requires migrants to make asylum claims before crossing into the country.

After 9/11, the front door to America – at airports, train stations and sanctioned border crossings – was slammed shut.

Two decades later, the Biden administration has flung open the side doors, windows, and garage creating gaping security vulnerabilities.

We must protect the Homeland lest we meet the same fate as our friends and allies in Israel.