Is the war with Iran making the homefront less safe?

The consequences of the U.S. and Israel's war were first felt in Iran and then throughout the region, and now they are spilling out across the world. You see it most obviously in the shock to oil and gas supplies and the global economy, but there's another risk, too. You're also going to see it in the potential for terrorism. That's Juliette Kayem. She was an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. Now she's at Harvard. There's two types of terror that we worry about in a war like this. One of course is state-sponsored, which Iran is known for. The other is the kind that is harder to detect, which is of course this radicalization of individuals who are angry about the war, who are tied to ISIS or tied to a motivation. And that is why the agencies that are responsible for protecting Americans from terrorism are taking extra precautions right now. The NYPD remains on heightened alert. That's New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tish. Which means extra counterterrorism deployments, heavy weapons teams, drones. Tish was speaking at a press conference after an attempted bombing last weekend that happened despite all of that extra preparation. Two teenagers from Pennsylvania are charged with terrorism-related crimes for allegedly throwing improvised explosive devices at anti-Muslim protesters. This evidence so far does not show a connection to the war in Iran. How worrying is it that a couple of guys from Bucks County can just drive into Manhattan with potentially viable devices? Is it alarming and is there anything you can do to stop it? Thank you. So when we talk about heightened threat environment and when we talk about lone-actor threat, this is another incredibly sobering reminder we have. That's Rebecca Weiner, who heads the NYPD's counterterrorism program. Of course, some individuals will mobilize to violence without tripping the wires that we extensively set. And in that point, then it is the bravery of our officers who contend with a threat as it's unfolding on our streets and in this case, incredibly bravely. Weiner said incidents like the one in New York were part of a trend in the U.S. and throughout the West. Younger and younger individuals who are radicalizing and mobilizing to violence. And this is taking place against the backdrop of social media, the dynamics of online culture. It's not limited to ISIS. It's across the ideological spectrum. Yesterday, just three days after that press conference, there were two more attacks. One at a synagogue in the suburbs of Detroit and one at a university in Virginia. The FBI is investigating both. Consider this. The foreign conflict and online radicalization are accelerating threats of terrorism. Can anything slow it down? From NPR, I'm Scott Detro. This message comes from WISE, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive an up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get WISE. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. Tease and seize apply. It's considered this from NPR, even before the war in Iran. The terrorism threat in the U.S. had been evolving. So how do the attacks of the past week fit into that picture? NPR's domestic extremism correspondent, Odette Yusuf, is tracking all of this closely and joins me now. Hi, Odette. Hey, Scott. What's going on with what we know about these incidents right now? Well, the attempted attack in New York City last weekend allegedly involved two young men from Pennsylvania. According to charging documents, they were there to hurt people who were conducting an Islamophobic protest at the mayor's mansion. They allegedly made explosive devices that contained a material TATP that is not readily available. Fortunately, Scott, nobody was seriously hurt, and now they face charges of material support to a foreign terrorist organization, ISIS. Then yesterday we had two attacks. One at Old Dominion University, where one victim was killed. Investigators have not yet stated a motive, but the suspect, who was found dead, had served time in prison previously after pleading guilty to material support of ISIS. Separately, there was the attack at a synagogue outside of Detroit. There the only fatality was the suspect himself. Here two investigators are looking into a motive. What we know is that the individual was a naturalized Lebanese-American citizen. NPR learned that last week an Israeli strike in Lebanon killed two of his brothers and wounded his parents and sisters-in-law. This happened at Temple Israel yesterday. There has been more and more concern about rising anti-Semitism in the US. How does this attack fit into the bigger picture? Yeah, I spoke about this with Michael Masters. He's the national director of the Secure Community Network, which does threat monitoring and safety training for the Jewish community across North America. We have said for a number of years that we are in the midst of the most complex and dynamic threat environment facing not just the Jewish community, but the United States in our country's history. This threat environment continues to get worse. Now Masters says there have been three big inflection points in recent years, Scott. First was the war in Gaza. We all recall the attention that fall on anti-Semitism on college campuses. There were attacks on Jews, including a group in Boulder that was holding a vigil for the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. But also you'll recall the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC. Then Masters said there was a resurgence of threats against Jews this past summer when the US bombed a nuclear facility in Iran. But he says since attacks on Iran began this month, there has been an unprecedented increase. They monitor social media. And Masters says typically they see about 3,000 violent posts directed toward the Jewish community on an average week. That has increased 95% since the conflict began. It seems like there's this sudden uptick in attacks or attempted attacks where ISIS comes up or is involved or is a motivation. What's going on here, which we understand? So again, we still don't know very much about the attack at Old Dominion. But since the US war on Iran began, there has been a surge of calls by ISIS and other militant jihadist groups overseas to commit these kinds of attacks in the US and Western countries. Now since ISIS was essentially run out of Syria and Iraq years ago, it has doubled down on a more decentralized model, Scott. So instead of directing attacks, it's using online platforms to indoctrinate and assist violent actors across the world. Now we should note that ISIS-inspired attacks account for a small proportion of violent extremist attacks in the US. Last year there were about seven. But even so, one of those was the deadliest terrorist attack of that year. It occurred in New Orleans. As you talk to people and look at all of these facts, are you finding any come threads? Yeah, a couple of things. First, across the board, whether we're talking about anti-Semitic terrorist attacks or ISIS-inspired attacks, there is concern that social media is part of the problem. Over the last year, tech companies have greatly pulled back on content moderation. And over that time, ISIS recruitment propaganda and anti-Semitic content have become more and more present on mainstream social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. You're talking about this and it just seems hard to say one or two or three policies or steps would really make a difference. It's really tough. I think every time there's an incident like this, people ask, could law enforcement have stopped it? And this hope just seems less and less possible with these individual actors who may be radicalized by the internet or by the war or by dehumanizing hate speech that's increasingly tolerated in this country. That is NPR's Odette Youssef. Thanks so much. Thank you. This episode was produced by Connor Dotovan and Mark Rivers with Audio Engineering by Ted Meabane. It was edited by Andrew Sussman and Courtney Dornig. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan. Before we go, a word of thanks to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the show. You make it possible for NPR journalists to report the stories you hear on the podcast. Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors and unlock bonus episodes of Consider This. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detro. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? 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