For those Americans wondering if they're safe from the kind of attack Hamas carried out against Israel, the answer from terrorism experts is not encouraging.
Under questioning by FBI agents, New Yorker Ali Kourani admitted in 2017 to being a member of something called "Unit 9-10." It's the Black Ops unit of Hezbollah, controlled by Iran. Kourani told agents he was trained to be a suicide bomber and was scouting targets in New York City. He's now in prison.
Another Unit 910 member imprisoned this year, 42-year-old New Jersey resident Alexei, alias Alex Saab, had also scouted potential targets around New York City.
While the exact number of Hamas and Hezbollah sleeper cells operating within the United States is not known, a comprehensive study by George Washington University last year found the most Hezbollah activity in Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and California.
Iranian Muslims carry a banner with flags of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah at pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 13, 2023. (AP Photo)
Former FBI Special Agent Eric Caron, now a security and counter-terrorism consultant to governments, told CBN News, "We have over a thousand joint terrorism task force cases going on here in America today relating to Muslim extremists."
So far this year, authorities have caught 151 people on the FBI's Terrorism Watch list trying to illegally enter the U.S. through the southern border, 50 times higher than two years ago.
Most are coming through Panama's Darien Gap, where journalist Michael Yon says he's seeing 3-to-5,000 migrants pass through every day on their way to the U.S.
"I see a lot of Chinese coming through," Yon said. "Most of the people you see coming through are military-age males. I see Afghans coming in by the thousands sometimes."
Then he added, "I've had people come through that say they're from Gaza."
CBN News correspondent Chuck Holton has also reported from the Darien Gap and says he has no doubt dangerous persons are headed for the U.S. border.
"I interviewed a guy from Afghanistan. We found many people from Somalia and Yemen. We found people from Syria, Iran," Holton said.
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Caron is especially concerned about America's ports where Customs and Border Protection says it scans every incoming container for radiation but physically inspects only three percent.
"We have 328 ports of entry into America. They all have to be secure, and many of them are soft," Caron said.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy warned this week that what happened in Israel could happen here. "We should wake up ourselves," McCarthy said. "We could have the same thing happen next week to us. Your intel is never perfect and we've got a wide-open border."
Former special agent Caron said, "The idea that they don't want to attack us again like a 9-11, but even bigger is foolish. They want to attack us. They want to destroy America."
READ Could US Face an Attack Like the One in Israel? Franklin Graham Warns of Terrorists Already Among Us
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