The recent arrest of two Iranians for spying in the United States has raised security concerns, but now U.S. lawmakers are warning it represents a much larger intelligence effort by the mullah-led, Islamic regime.
WND reported last week Ahmadreza Mohammadi-Doostdar, 59, and Majid Ghorbani, 38, were arrested on charges of conducting surveillance and collecting intelligence on individuals and groups considered to be enemies of the Iranian regime, the Justice Department said.
Officials said they were collecting photographic evidence of Chabad and Hillel Jewish centers in Chicago.
Now, the Washington Free Beacon reports there's much more.
"This is the tip of the iceberg," Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., told the Free Beacon. "This is not a surprise and this is a result of the Iran regime getting financial support from the Obama administration in the Iran deal."
The deal included the secret delivery of $400 million in cash piled on wooden pallets to the rogue Islamic regime.
Iran is "acting with impunity, that deal emboldened them," Roskam said. "This is an unmasking of that. Unfortunately it's all too predictable. Give a malevolent regime huge amounts of cash with no restraining influence and this is what happens."
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., agreed.
"I am deeply alarmed by the Justice Department's new indictment against alleged Iranian agents," he told the Free Beacon. "Iran's regime has sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans abroad and our allies, and may now be seeking to target American citizens, as well as Jewish or Israeli facilities, on U.S. soil."
An unidentified U.S. official said: "If there's anything that's become obvious in the last few months, it's that the Iranians are running vast espionage and information operations in the United States. The Trump administration has been warning since day one that some of the windfall Iran got from the nuclear deal has been going into malign cyber operations."
The Free Beacon noted Iran "has publicly stated multiple times over the past years that it has a vast espionage network that includes the United States."
Roskam said that admission should be taken seriously.
"They were declarative during the Iran negotiations: They were not willing to make any commitments as it relates to their state sponsorship of terror," he said. "It's clear they haven't. This can't be a surprise to anyone. It is entirely consistent with what they've been communicating."
Reuters reported the accusations against the two Iranians also include gathering information on backers of the militant Iranian opposition Mujahideen-e Khalq.