Are Hezbollah sleeper cells a threat in the United States?

Members of Hezbollah. Washington Free Beacon/Getty. 

Congress is raising concerns about the possible threat that the Iranian backed Shiite militia group Hezbollah could pose a threat in the United States. Washington Free Beacon. Iranian individuals linked to the group have already been caught plotting terror attacks in New York. The threat from Hezbollah has been there for a long time, but as tensions rise between Iran and the United States over the nuclear deal, the fear is that sleeper cells could be activated. Congressman Peter King (R-New York) says that Hezbollah is an extremely dangerous group that can exceed ISIS and al-Qaeda in terms of danger. The vast majority of Hezbollah's forces are in the Middle East but there is evidence of them working closely with drug cartels in the Americas.

My Comment:

It's not often I link to the Washington Free Beacon but I haven't seen this story reported elsewhere. I don't usually like to use them as a source since they are both biased, and biased towards neo-conservatism, and that bias shows a bit in this post. Obviously they are very anti-Iran though in this case it might be justified. 

Are there Hezbollah sleeper cells in America? No doubt in my mind that there are. Are they a huge threat? That I am not so sure about. Given how large and powerful Hezbollah is, and the fact that they are a defacto Iranian militia, I would be shocked if they didn't have operatives in the United States. And we have seen a few cases where their links to the country have been exposed. It would be foolish to argue that the potential threat doesn't exist, it clearly does. 

But I don't think the situation is as dire as the Free Beacon report painted it to be. Sure, Hezbollah is a dangerous group but if they were to go off the reservation they could invite war to Iran. Right now Iran doesn't seem to want that as they got a sweetheart deal with the Obama administration over their nuclear program. Trump keeps threatening to do something about that, but he's distracted by North Korea and domestic issues. Any attack by Hezbollah now would force the issue, and not in Iran's favor to say the least. I can't imagine them just attacking us out of nowhere without approval from Iran. 

I also think that these operatives are probably monitored and known to our intelligence services. Indeed, they might even be infiltrated and should any moves towards a terror attack occur, they could be taken out. There is always a chance that more could slip through the cracks, but I am guessing that any attempt would stand a decent chance at being disrupted or prevented. Then again, our intelligence services, especially the FBI, has dropped the ball so many times with so many preventable tragedies, that we might not want to count on them to get it right this time. 

Finally, Iran is part of Trump's travel ban. That travel ban won't do much to prevent the potential sleeper agents that are already here but it would prevent them from getting any reinforcements. That's not the end all be all solution to the problem but it does reduce the threat quite a bit. 

So if I am not that worried about the threat, why post about it? Because I think that there is a chance that something could happen unrelated to our relationship with Iran. Tensions may be high between the United States and Iran, but it's nothing compared to the tensions between Iran and Israel. They are in a de facto shooting war in Syria right now with Israel regularly bombing Hezbollah and Iranian military units. Iran is moving weapons into place, testing Israel's borders and even vowing revenge for men killed in Syria. 

The situation in Israel is very dangerous and could spiral out of control. If it does that America will likely be dragged into a war with Iran, either by our obligations to Israel or in response to a strike by Iran on our forces in the Middle East or even in the homeland itself. If a war does break out I would not be surprised if there were sleeper units of Hezbollah activated in the United States and they could pull off some terror attacks. This is the worst case scenario and it is one we should prepare for even if it doesn't happen.

Still, all of this is hypothetical. I don't really expect a de jure shooting war between Israel and Iran (or Saudi Arabia and Iran for that matter). Right now most of the Middle East conflicts are proxy cold wars where a lot of people are dying but nobody is actually at war with each other. As long as the fighting remains limited to Syria and Yemen, I don't see the threat of Hezbollah sleeper cells to be that dangerous. 

That being said, I would be a lot more comfortable if I had heard that these cells were being cleaned up. Just because there isn't an immediate threat doesn't mean we have to tolerate members of Hezbollah being in this country. I hope that a crackdown is coming, sooner rather than later. Why take any chances?