• What Happened: The U.S. intercepted an encrypted transmission believed to originate from Iran, relayed across multiple countries after Khamenei's death, that federal officials say may be "an operational trigger" for sleeper assets already positioned outside Iran.
  • Why It Matters: The signal was designed to bypass the internet and cellular networks entirely, built specifically to reach covert operatives with pre-shared encryption keys. After four years of open borders, nobody in U.S. intelligence can honestly say how deeply we have been infiltrated.
  • Bottom Line: Iran is losing the war in the air. They may be about to fight back on American soil.

Iran cannot match America in the sky, or sea. They may be planning to even the score on the ground.

The U.S. government has intercepted an encrypted transmission believed to have originated in Iran, relayed across multiple countries in the days following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on February 28. A federal alert reviewed by ABC News warns the transmission may constitute "an operational trigger" for sleeper assets already positioned outside Iran.

This was not a phone call. It was not an email. The signal was encoded for "clandestine recipients" who hold a matching encryption key, the kind of dead-drop broadcast designed to deliver instructions to covert operatives without touching the internet or cellular infrastructure that U.S. intelligence monitors most aggressively.

The alert is careful with its language. No specific plot. No identified location. But federal law enforcement agencies have been instructed to immediately ramp up monitoring for suspicious radio-frequency activity, and the warning is unambiguous: these transmissions could be "intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country."

Translation: Iran may have just turned on agents already living among us.

Law enforcement sources in California told RedState that SWAT-qualified officers in Glendale and Burbank have already been issued additional ammunition and Level 4 body armor for patrol vehicles, with two-officer minimums on all units going forward. Senator Ted Cruz warned plainly after the Iran strikes began: "Sleeper cells carrying out acts of terrorism here in the United States is a real danger."

Former DHS senior adviser Charles Marino put it even more directly: "Nobody, if they're speaking honestly, from U.S. intelligence or law enforcement can tell you as a matter of fact how badly we've been infiltrated."

Iran is on its heels. But a wounded regime with nothing left to lose is the most dangerous kind.