US Homeland in Danger: Hamas and Hezbollah Sleeper Cells Are Here

NOTE: This story was first produced in 2023, but it may be more relevant now than ever

For those Americans wondering if they're safe from the kind of attack Hamas carried out against Israel on October 7, 2023, 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 in 2023, 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 in 2022 found the most Hezbollah activity in Michigan, New York, North Carolina, and California. 

Iranian Muslims carry flags of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah at a pro-Palestinian rally in Tehran, 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."

In 2023, 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. 

During the Biden presidency, most had been coming through Panama's Darien Gap, where journalist Michael Yon says h saw 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 also reported from the Darien Gap and said he had no doubt that dangerous persons were headed for the U.S. border when it was still open.

"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 that what happened in Israel could happen here. "We should wake up ourselves," McCarthy said in 2023. "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