Is the war with Iran making the homefront less safe?
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
Even before the war in Iran, the terrorism threat in the U.S. has been evolving. So how do the attacks of the past week fit into that picture? Host Scott Detrow speaks with Domestic Extremism Correspondent Odette Yousef, who is tracking all of this closely.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The consequences of the U.S. and Israel's war were first felt in Iran and then throughout the region, and now they are spilling out across the world. |
| 0:09.9 | You see it most obviously in the shock to oil and gas supplies and the global economy. |
| 0:15.0 | But there's another risk, too. |
| 0:16.3 | You're also going to see it in the potential for terrorism. |
| 0:19.0 | That's Juliette Kayam. She was an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security |
| 0:23.8 | in the Obama administration. Now she's at Harvard. |
| 0:27.1 | There's two types of terror that we worry about in a war like this. One, of course, is state |
| 0:31.2 | sponsored, which Iran is known for. The other is the kind that is harder to detect, which is, of course, this radicalization of individuals who are angry about the war, who are tied to ISIS or tied to a motivation. |
| 0:47.1 | And that is why the agencies that are responsible for protecting Americans from terrorism are taking extra precautions right now. |
| 0:53.6 | The NYPD remains on heightened alert. |
| 0:57.0 | That's New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tish. |
| 0:59.0 | Which means extra counterterrorism deployments, heavy weapons teams, drones. |
| 1:05.0 | Tish was speaking at a press conference after an attempted bombing last weekend that happened despite all of that extra preparation. |
| 1:12.8 | Two teenagers from Pennsylvania are charged with terrorism-related crimes |
| 1:16.4 | for allegedly throwing improvised explosive devices at anti-Muslim protesters. |
| 1:21.9 | Evidence so far does not show a connection to the war in Iran. |
| 1:25.3 | How worrying is it that a couple of guys from Bucks County can just drive into Manhattan |
| 1:29.7 | with potentially viable devices? |
| 1:33.4 | Is it alarming and is there anything you can do to stop it? |
| 1:36.6 | Thank you. |
| 1:37.3 | So when we talk about heightened threat environment and when we talk about loan actor threat, |
| 1:43.1 | this is another incredibly sobering reminder. |
... |
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