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OAN Commentary by: Richard Pollock
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Americans definitely shouldn’t live in fear. We need to carry on our daily lives. But reasonably, our police and national security establishment now are on high alert.
One of the first lone wolf attacks emerged two days ago in Austin, Texas. Here is a summary of a local news report:
Ndiaga Diagne, a Senegal immigrant, open fired upon people in people in a bar in Austin, Texas, killing two people and wounding 14. He was wearing a sweatshirt that said “Property of Allah,” and another shirt with an Iranian flag design, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
The shooting erupted a day after Israel and the United States launched an attack on Iranthat killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The FBI said it was investigating the shooting as a potential act of terrorism.
From Australia to New York national security officials now are organizing to find and suppress terror attacks and avert potential tragedies.
Last December, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Joe Kent in testimony before the House Committee on Homeland Security astonishingly told Congress that NCTC has identified around “18,000 known and suspected terrorists“ that are in our country.
WPIX, a New York news outlet, reported yesterday: “The heightened security situation was evident in a variety of high-profile locations throughout the city on Monday, including at Bryant Park, in Midtown. There, at midday, nearly a dozen NYPD emergency services officers in full tactical gear stood watch, carrying long guns. Standing beside them were the officers of a canine unit.”
According to J. Michael Waller, a highly respected counter terror expert, the tempo of terrorist attacks in the West is only beginning. “I anticipate more attacks. These are low-cost, high-impact military operations against us,” he told me.
Waller is the president of Georgetown Research, a political risk and private intelligence company in Washington, D.C. as well as a Senior Analyst at the Center for Security Policy. Waller is only one of many national security officials who now sees the possibility of new terror attacks threatening the Western world and especially Jewish communities outside of Israel.
The U.S. State Department now has issued a cautionary warning to Americans living abroad: “Following the launch of U.S. combat operations in Iran, Americans worldwide and especially in the Middle East should follow the guidance in the latest security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. They may experience travel disruptions due to periodic airspace closures. The Department of State advises Americans worldwide to exercise increased caution.”
Following Iranian missile attacks, the State Department closed our U.S. embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Thomas S. Warrick, affiliated with the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and a former deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism policy in the US Department of Homeland Security wrote for the Atlantic Council about security preparedness in the United States: “The Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the US Capitol Police will all be tested in the coming weeks and can afford zero failures. Iran will try every cyber trick it can mount, testing the Department of Homeland Security, the private sector, and US cyber defenses. Iran tried in the past, unsuccessfully, to meddle in US elections, and would almost certainly fail to have any impact this time.”
The British media outlet Sky News reports that the terror level in Britain is rising. It’s Prime Minister, Sir. Keir Starmer, cowardly said he would not permit the U.S. military to use British bases, but then after Hezbollah drones tried to hit a British military base in Cyprus, he reversed himself and said he supported raising the security threat and supporting the British military to take new actions to protect British subjects.
Britain, which also has a large Muslim population now is increasing its own threat level.
Asked on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips if the UK’s terror threat level is now under discussion, John Healey said: “Absolutely.
“When you get a regime like this lashing out in the Middle East indiscriminately and widely, hitting civilian as well as military targets, when you have some of its proxies capable of other actions on their behalf, then of course, our force protection in the region is at its highest.
“Our alert and our vigilance in the UK is also high.”
Since Thanksgiving, alleged and real terrorists have been arrested in Dearborn, Michigan, Montclair, New Jersey, Fort Worth, Texas, Wilmington, Delaware and in the nation’s capital where an Afghan immigrant killed a National Guard soldier and wounded another.
The tension for American Jews has become palpable in the past year. In December, a Jewish New Yorker was stabbed on the streets of Brooklyn as he left religious services. His attacker seethed as he raised his knife saying, “I’m going to kill a Jew today.”
And in January, a man rammed his car into the Jewish Chabad’s headquarters in Brooklyn while 1,000 students and rabbis were studying.
“These violent Jew-haters aren’t bothering to cloak their prejudice in the garb of political concern for Palestinians,” the New York Post editorialized. “They are mainlining pure antisemitism, spitting out bilious, transparent rage.”
We’re all aware of the Chanukah attack in Australia which left 15 Jews murdered and dozens wounded. The Australian government now says that the attack wasn’t a random father-son attack. They say the two were radicalized Islamic State assassins Following the attack, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett at a news conference said, “These are the alleged actions of those who have aligned themselves with a terrorist organization, not a religion,” Barrett said. An Islamic state flag was strewn on the front windshield of the attacker’s car along with improvised explosive devices – remotely controlled bombs.”
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
Richard Pollock is a former New Left activist and was a roommate with Chicago 7 defendant Rennie Davis. He understands New Left strategy and tactics. For four decades, Richard was an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C. Among his positions, he served as the senior investigative reporter for the Washington Examiner, the Daily Caller News Foundation, and at OAN. While at OAN he served in the Washington, D.C. bureau and hosted its investigative reporting specials. He is semi-retired and his posts from D.C. can be read on Substack.com
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