The Transportation Security Administration has issued a classified warning about a potential attack by the Islamic State over the weekend against a target in the United States.
The Intercept reviewed a notice of the classified alert, which was sent out Friday afternoon by TSA’s Transportation Security Operations Center. A source, who reviewed the classified intelligence warning, described the threat as very general, with no specifics about location or type of attack — just the timing. The alert covers a 48-hour period that began late Friday afternoon.
The essence of the warning, according to a source, is that “ISIS plans an attack on U.S. soil.”
In response, the TSA deployed its Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response teams, or VIPR for short, to various locations. The VIPR teams have expanded in recent years, moving beyond airports to train stations and other busy transportation sites.
The warning appears significant in that it demonstrates that the U.S. intelligence community is now taking seriously the potential of ISIS to attack targets on U.S. soil, something the group has not yet done. ISIS has made broad threats against the United States in the past, but up to now, ISIS attacks on U.S. targets have been limited to Americans in Iraq and Syria.
A spokesperson for the National Security Council referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
AP Photo of VIPR team monitoring a section of Penn Station on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014, in New York.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
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