The Homeland Terror Threat is Growing + Other Headlines

Tuesday Digest (06.25.24)

The Looming Terror Threat on U.S. Soil

On Sunday, the former CIA deputy director Mike Morell told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that a looming terror threat to the United States was increasing, and needed to be treated with a sense of urgency by the government.

This interview was a follow-up to a piece he wrote in the publication Foreign Affairs earlier in June. It was called “The Terrorism Warning Lights Are Blinking Red Again” and it compared the present moment to security concerns active in the days prior to September 11. The vulnerability of the southern border and the potential for attacks on American soil motivated by the October 7 attacks by Hamas, and Israel’s subsequent war, were putting the U.S. in a uniquely vulnerable place.

Politico describes Morell’s concerns:

“There needs to be a sense of urgency about this, and I think the American public needs to understand what the threat is. That’s why we called for a public congressional hearing just on the terrorist threats to the homeland,” Morell told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We need to hear what the administration is doing about this in a broad sense.”

Morell was the CIA analyst who delivered the President’s Daily Brief to George W. Bush, including on the morning of September 11, 2001. He knew what the days were like before that terrible moment, and he sees parallels between those months and today.