Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. intelligence community sees Iran posing a threat to the U.S. homeland on three fronts, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
At one time, such a concern was viewed as a distant challenge, but now it is taken more seriously.
According to intelligence analysts, the threat to homeland security includes Iran’s increasing inroads into Latin America, cyberwarfare and ballistic missiles.
Iran has a kinship with Latin American countries that are opposed to Western sanctions.
“Iranian officials – probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now willing to conduct an attack in the United States,” according to James Clapper, director of the Office of National Intelligence.
In cyberwarfare, analysts see Iran making major investments. Because of its experience in having a portion of its nuclear program attacked by the Stuxnet cyber-worm, the Iranians have embarked on a billion dollar effort to establish a cyber command on its own. It will be a dedicated cyber command under the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology. The billion dollars will go into enhancing its own cyber defense and cyberoffensive capability.
“Iran’s intelligence operations against the United States, including cyber capabilities, have dramatically increased in recent years in depth and complexity,” Clapper further warned.
Iran’s ballistic missile program similarly has alarmed U.S. officials. In 2009, when the U.S. issued its U.S. missile defense strategy, Iran’s ballistic missile program was viewed as a “phased adaptive approach.”
Such an assessment suggested that the missile program wasn’t yet a threat to the homeland but would pose a threat to the U.S. and its allies at overseas locations. That assessment, however, no longer applies.
While the threat remains to U.S. overseas assets, the threat from Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles has become more imminent.
“Iran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East and is expanding the scale, reach and sophistication of its ballistic missile forces, many of which are inherently capable of carrying a nuclear payload,” according to a recent U.S. intelligence assessment.
Uzi Rubin of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies also says that the Iranians have “an exceedingly robust, well-staffed and well-resourced ballistic missile program.”
Iran, he said, is making major headway toward an ICBM capability through long-range missile tests and has developed a broad engineering base and missile survivability effort.
Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.
For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, subscribe now.
