The 8000 lb gorilla. Part 2; The modern threats and current considerations
There’s a storm on the horizon, and this time, it’s not one we can see coming on radar.
The threats facing us today are multiplying, morphing, and mingling in ways that even seasoned professionals struggle to predict. Whether foreign or domestic, ideological or personal, calculated or impulsive; the faces of modern terrorism are many. Some we recognize. Others are still taking shape in the shadows. To understand where we’re headed, we first have to look at how we got here, and what we might have missed along the way.
When I first introduced the “8,000-pound gorilla,” it was to describe the uncomfortable reality we often avoid: that terrorism isn’t an abstract overseas problem, it’s an ever-present, evolving threat that adapts as we do. I’m now in my sixties, and I can still recall when “terrorism” meant airline hijackings, car bombs in Belfast, or faint news reports about conflicts far away. Admittedly, to me they all felt far away. Background noise, really. Then came 9/11; swift, brutal, and clarifying. For many of us, that was the day we woke up. Since then, I’ve kept a metaphorical finger on the pulse of the dark, restless and relentless heart of modern terrorism.
During my years in law enforcement, I learned that vigilance is both an attitude and a discipline. I couldn’t be everywhere at once, but I could look like I was. Slow patrols. A spotlight cutting across closed businesses at night. Sitting dark and still in high-crime areas, thinking like a bad guy to catch one. Being seen and trying to keep bad guys guessing, looking over their shoulder.
Criminals, after all, rarely commit bad acts in front of good guys.
…it will happen again.
That mindset carries over into the broader fight against terrorism. Anticipation is everything. No matter what we do, action is faster than reaction, so the more prepared we are to react to that dreaded but inevitable action, mentally, physically, and strategically, the better we respond when the unthinkable happens. Because it will happen again. We can’t deter every evil act, but we can refuse to be caught flat-footed.
And that brings us to the present, where intelligence, both official and open-source, is again flashing warning lights. Analysts like Sarah Adams have been sounding the alarm, connecting dots that others seem hesitant to see. So, before we move on, it’s time to take a hard look at what they’re saying, and what it might mean for the threats emerging right now.
Sarah Adams’ Warnings on Imminent Terrorism Threats
Sarah Adams, a former CIA targeting officer and counterterrorism expert, has recently highlighted severe risks of mass terrorist attacks in the US and Europe through interviews, podcasts, and her co-authored book The Gathering Storm. Based on her insights from ongoing intelligence analysis, here’s a breakdown of her key revelations:
- The Threat: Adams warns of a high likelihood of coordinated, multi-city terrorist attacks in 2025, modeled after the 2008 Mumbai attacks or the October 7, 2023, Hamas assault on Israel. These could involve simultaneous strikes on soft targets like public venues, leading to mass casualties and widespread chaos, potentially surpassing 9/11 in scale due to the number of operatives already embedded.
- Who’s Here to Do It: According to Adams, the primary actors are al-Qaeda affiliates (including a resurgent “Al-Qaeda 2.0”), ISIS-K, and other jihadi groups. She estimates at least 1,000 trained operatives have infiltrated the US via open borders, including members from Taliban-linked networks and other extremist cells. These individuals are not lone wolves but part of organized sleeper cells, many of whom entered under the guise of refugees or migrants.
- What They Plan: The objective is to execute synchronized attacks across multiple US and European cities to maximize terror and disruption. Targets could include grocery stores, concerts, malls, and other crowded civilian areas like churches or schools. Adams describes this as a “grand scale” operation aimed at avenging figures like Osama bin Laden and weakening Western societies, with potential for follow-on attacks to exploit initial panic.
- How They’ll Do It: Operatives could use automatic assault weapons, suicide vests, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), vehicle-borne IEDs (VBIEDs), vehicle ramming, and possibly chemical weapons. Attacks would be multifaceted, involving shootings, bombings, and hostage situations at various sites simultaneously to overwhelm response forces. Adams notes these groups have been rebuilding capabilities in safe havens like Afghanistan, coordinating via encrypted channels, and leveraging US intelligence blind spots.
- Why Here in the US: Adams attributes the vulnerability to policy failures like open southern borders, which have allowed unchecked entry of extremists from high-risk regions. She argues the US is targeted to exploit perceived weaknesses in domestic security, intelligence sharing, and political divisions, while also serving as retaliation for past US actions against terrorist leaders. Europe faces similar risks due to migration policies, but the US’s global influence makes it a prime symbolic target.
- Anything Else Relevant: Adams criticizes US government inaction, including ignored intelligence warnings and funding to entities like the Taliban that indirectly support terrorism. She urges community preparedness, such as discussing family escape plans and meeting points. Further, she highlights the role of cartels smuggling operatives in to the country. In her view, these threats stem from broader failures in counterterrorism post-Afghanistan withdrawal, with potential for attacks to coincide with or precede events in Europe for maximum global impact.
There are others who have echoed her warnings or issued some of their own.
- John Guandolo (retired FBI counterterrorism expert): Warned of imminent Al-Qaeda coordinated attacks in multiple US cities targeting soft sites, transportation, and hospitals, with secondary strikes; September 2025, sourced from direct briefings at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).
- Wayne Allyn Root (TV/radio host and podcaster): Echoed Guandolo’s alert on his podcast about simultaneous mass-casualty Al-Qaeda operations adapted from 9/11 tactics, urging personal preparedness; September 23, 2025, via interview with Guandolo and NCTC intelligence.
- CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies): Published the Global Terrorism Threat Assessment 2025, highlighting persistent risks to US interests from jihadist groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, including potential for inspired or directed attacks; March 28, 2025, based on open-source intelligence and expert analysis.
- Illuminated (@D3adStrain on X): Posted evidence of a highly coordinated multi-city attack on US population and infrastructure by embedded operatives; September 23, 2025, citing unspecified intelligence sources and urging emergency planning.
- Info-Blurbs (@info_blurbs on X): Detailed a three-pronged plot (aviation bombs, Mumbai-style assaults on DC, urban mass casualties at churches/malls) by jihadists positioning by mid-December; September 27, 2025, from open-source military/political intel.
- VAL THOR (@CMDRVALTHOR on X): Alerted on imminent Al-Qaeda multi-city attacks, confirmed to Congress; September 21, 2025, referencing congressional briefings from September 19.
- Wolf (@WorldByWolf on X): Predicted sustained Al-Qaeda/ISIS attacks over months across US/Europe by 10,000+ embedded fighters, potentially triggering civil war; July 11, 2025, based on geopolitical analysis.
- Vivid (@VividProwess on X): Shared FBI warning of elevated threats to Israelis/Jews in the US, including likely terrorist attacks; June 6, 2025, directly from FBI public statements.
- Aimen Dean, as detailed in a Daily Mail news article on Saturday, December 27th, 2025. He is a former member of Al-Qaida, who at one time pledged his allegiance to Bin Laden in person, but later was recruited as an operative for British intelligence services. He claims that potentially hundreds of potential Al-Qaida sleeper agents are living in the UK, waiting to be activated.
Government, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Agency Warnings (March 27–September 27, 2025)
- DHS (Department of Homeland Security): Issued National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin on June 22, 2025, warning of heightened risks from anti-Semitic/anti-Israel motivated attacks amid the Israel-Iran conflict, potentially inspiring lone actors or groups in the US.
- FBI and DHS: Released joint PSA via IC3 on June 5, 2025, highlighting elevated threats to Israeli/Jewish communities from foreign terrorist organizations exploiting Middle East tensions to inspire US-based attacks.
- ODNI (Office of the Director of National Intelligence): Published the Annual Threat Assessment on March 18, 2025 (borderline date, but impacts 2025), detailing immediate homeland threats from nonstate actors like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, including transnational criminal-terrorist ties.
- DHS: Released the 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment (finalized September 30, 2024, but briefed publicly in early 2025), noting enduring intent by ISIS and Al-Qa’ida for attacks or inspiration in the US, with declining but still risky watchlist encounters at borders.
- FBI and DHS: Issued NTAS Bulletin on June 23, 2025, alerting to rising terror threats to critical infrastructure from Iran-linked actors, including potential cyber-physical hybrid attacks on US targets.
All of these briefings and warnings should make anyone pay attention. But this last one, from our own government agency sums it all up briefly, in confirmation to much of the above.
- NCTC (National Counterterrorism Center): Briefed Congress on September 19, 2025, on imminent Al-Qaeda plots for multi-city simultaneous strikes, as relayed through experts like Guandolo; focused on urban guerrilla tactics and mass casualties.
It’s easy to hear both private and official government warnings like this and let them become background chatter. Each day that passes without a large attack we are tempted to believe that these warnings are just reports crying wolf. Something that happens, statistically speaking, to other people; ‘not me’. Too many people adopt that stance and the result will be playing into the hands of those who would destroy us.
Connect the dots
In September 2025, the US Secret Service uncovered a hidden telecom network in the New York tristate area with over 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards, capable of jamming cell service and 911 calls throughout the city. The network, linked to anonymous threats against US officials, was dismantled to prevent potential chaos during the UN General Assembly, with no arrests reported. Suspected nation-state actors, organized crime groups, cartels, and known individuals used the network for encrypted communications to facilitate swatting and other threats, though specific perpetrators remain unidentified.
For an approximately two year period, 2023–2025, US intelligence warned of escalating cyber and physical threats to drinking water systems, primarily from Iranian, Chinese, and Russian state actors exploiting vulnerabilities in operational technology to disrupt or contaminate supplies. Domestic extremists and foreign terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qa’ida have also been flagged for potential physical attacks, especially since the 2023 Israel-HAMAS conflict. The EPA, DHS, and CISA have issued alerts, with ongoing efforts to secure nearly 100 at-risk systems.
“…..prepare for hybrid warfare”
In the past few years, unknown actors recently shot at and damaged small-scale local power infrastructures in the US, such as electrical substations, as part of a suspected probing exercise to assess system vulnerabilities and gauge the potential impact of larger attacks. This aligns with intelligence warnings about escalating physical threats to critical infrastructure in 2024–2025, with over 175 reported attacks or threats in 2023 alone, aimed at testing response capabilities and exploiting weaknesses. While domestic violent extremists (DVEs) and foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) like ISIS or al-Qa’ida are primary suspects, motivated by ideological goals to destabilize US infrastructure, foreign state actors such as China, Russia, or Iran are also suspected due to their history of targeting critical infrastructure, potentially to gather intelligence or prepare for hybrid warfare, though no definitive evidence links them to these specific incidents.
These probes, attacks and incidents just mentioned are from news reports available to us all. Taken individually, one may find each one curious without any real impact, but taken together, as part of ongoing probing and prodding to test vulnerabilities and responses, the potential for any of this to be part of a larger coordinated event cannot be something we ignore.
Rising Polarization and Escalating Risks
The world is sliding deeper into political and ideological division, most visibly across Europe and the United States. Worldwide, the widening gap between left- and right-wing ideologies has pulled both sides further from the center, replacing conversations with confrontation and rhetoric with rage. This polarization is feeding internal instability even in countries once considered models of steady governance. The result is a growing climate of hostility, political violence, and radicalization, a volatile mix that has already led to several high-profile assassinations and attempted assassinations in recent years.
Deepening Ideological Clashes
…the multitude of echo chambers that turn grievance into action.
Since the turn of the century, patterns of domestic terrorism in the United States and Europe show the largest share of deaths stem from jihadist attacks followed by racially and ethnically motivated violence that have struck civilians and public gatherings with devastating effect. Other biases and hatreds, while less deadly overall, continue to pose an ongoing and unpredictable threat to the public at large, law enforcement and public institutions. Lone-actor attacks whether for personal grievance, mental instability or other reasons account for the remaining share of fatalities. Taken together, these trends reveal that modern terrorism grows from the collision of belief and belonging, fueled by alienation, radicalization, and the multitude of echo chambers that turn grievance into action.
Persisting Global Hostilities
While ceasefires and negotiations have brought temporary relief in flashpoints such as Armenia-Azerbaijan and the Israel-Hamas conflict, the world remains far from stable. The war in Ukraine grinds on despite multiple peace initiatives, underscoring the limits of diplomacy against entrenched geopolitical ambitions. China continues to escalate military pressure near Taiwan while strengthening its “no-limits” partnership with Russia, heightening global tension. Venezuela, meanwhile, is a flash point with increasing hostilities as the US takes out drug runners, claiming massive corruption and cartel involvement, with the stated goal of bringing down Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
Each of these arenas reveals the fragility of international peace. Rival powers are testing the edges of diplomacy while pursuing strategic gains; behaviors that history shows can spiral into broader confrontation when unchecked.
Fragmentation and the Threat of Convergence
The world’s political fractures aren’t limited to governments. Increasingly, extremist networks; religious, ideological, and anarchist alike, are finding common ground in their opposition to Western power structures and capitalism. Cooperation between cyber-activists, radical environmentalists, and militant anti-Western groups has been noted by Europol and the U.N., often centering on protests, information warfare, and digital sabotage. Though rare, even limited coordination across ideological lines demonstrates how shared enemies can override opposing doctrines. The far left is increasingly seen in cooperation and coordination with Palestinian, and extremist Islamic militant groups. They may have, at their core, ideological differences, but the concept of, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my ally’, brings them together to form a greater whole in their fight against Capitalism and western civilization.
Briefly, we must also add the fact that the world’s economic system has been wobbling precariously down a road where a crash would not surprise at any moment; and how the rise of AI is beginning to disrupt long established employment patterns, and you are left with the realization that conditions are ripe for a great conflagration.
The potential for a single catalytic event; a “spark” that merges these scattered hostilities and frailties into a wider global crisis, cannot be dismissed. In fact, for many it could even be expected. The ingredients are already in place: hardened polarization, active proxy wars, a teetering economy, and a growing chorus of fringe movements eager to exploit chaos.
The Path Forward
…leaving societies more brittle
Despite diplomatic breakthroughs in some regions, instability persists. Renewed threats; from interstate conflict to domestic terrorism and ideological extremism, are forcing leaders to navigate a dangerous and morally complex landscape. The possibility of open confrontation between major powers remains real as nationalist rhetoric and brinkmanship crowd out compromise.
Political speech itself now often amplifies risk: when activists and politicians normalize violence, they erode restraint and invite escalation. In this climate, every violent act becomes fuel for the next. As moderation gives way to “winner-take-all” politics, the space for reconciliation shrinks, leaving societies more brittle and adversaries more emboldened.
Conclusion
We are living in an age of increasing fragmentation; an unstable mix of ideological extremism, geopolitical rivalry, and eroding trust. The danger lies not only in any single crisis but in their convergence: the merging of domestic polarization, international tension, and extremist cooperation into something larger, a grotesque growing multi-headed menace that feeds itself eagerly. Whether the world can pull back from that edge depends on leadership, vigilance, and a renewed commitment to reason over rage. In the meantime, we must prepare our houses by best understanding the evils we face, for failure to understand the threat and prepare only aids the worst when we aim for the best.
Further reading