Name: US needs to be on 'heightened alert' for sleeper cells: Former DHS official
Uploaded: 2026-03-09T23:01:53.000Z
Duration: 4 min 48 s
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Meanwhile, the federal government's alerting law enforcement agencies Iran may be activating sleeper cells.

The alert says the US Intercepted encrypted communications that may serve as an operational trigger for sleeper assets.

ABC's contributor, former Homeland Security official Elizabeth Newman's here for more on that.

So you say officials are concerned Iran's proxy Hezbollah might have agents inside the U.S.

so, given that context, how concerning is this new alert and how are law enforcement agencies monitoring for these potential threats?

Anytime we go to war overseas, there is a homeland threat component to it, especially a country like Iran does not have the capability to beat us militarily.

So they will look to use cyber attacks, they will look to use proxies like Hezbollah criminal agents to try to disrupt things here in the homeland.

So I'm not surprised that we're seeing this bulletin.

I'm a little concerned that it took a week for this to come out.

I've talked to a number of state and local partners over the last week.

Everybody knew that this is the likely scenario.

We should expect that their proxies are possibly being activated and we all need to be on heightened alert.

And Elizabeth, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on President Trump to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to lower gas prices.

What impact could that have and what does the president need to consider here?

Well, traditionally, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is not going to drop our gas prices significantly.

What we just heard from Elizabeth Scholzie is something that we as consumers are going to have to deal with for, for probably some time, for the amount of time that this military conflict takes to come to an end.

But there is some, some benefit, especially if you think about the fuel that the government needs to use.

I think about even in the Department of Homeland Security's mission.

It is a very large department with a ton of mission.

We have Coast Guard, we have Border Patrol.

We have any number of emergency management needs where fuel is really important to be able to keep the lights on if you have a blackout.

So it's important that we keep the fuel moving.

I'll defer to the Economist as to whether or not the release actually helps those of us who have to go fill up the car this week.

So how do rising gas prices affect Homeland Security operations?

Like we are used to trying to predict a bit of a stable understanding of what the oil prices are going to be and when you budget for your spend in an agency.

And this isn't just the Department of Homeland Security.

This would be any agency with operators that drive for the purpose of doing their patrols.

This is true for state and local law enforcement as well.

We rely on gas for getting people to where they need to be to keep us safe.

So those prices go up pretty significantly, then.

That blows your budget, which would be fine if we actually had acting budgets and grant funding that had been released.

I am really concerned right now that the Department of Homeland Security is technically shut down with the exception of ice.

That has led to delays in funding for state and local partners.

They've been six months without their Homeland Security grant fund, and

they need those funds to be able to do things like purchase the more expensive fuel, but

also to pay for law enforcement who might need to be on surge.

We might need to be having extra patrols to make sure that mass gatherings or protests, as we saw in New York, remain safe.

We need that grant funding to be released.

You say the US Appears to be pursuing several different objectives in Iran at once.

Well, you know, over the last week, we've heard a rotating series of commentary from different members of the administration, including the president, and

we keep hearing different things about what the objectives are.

I have no doubt that the military knows what their objectives are from an operational perspective and that they will in all likelihood be successful at accomplishing their objectives.

There are planners, military planners, and those that oversee the execution of their military operations are excellent.

But I am concerned that strategically, we don't actually know what the end goal is here.

And that's what I would like to hear from the president and from the Secretary of State.

What are we ultimately hoping to accomplish with this military action?