New U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy Comes Up Way Short

The White House 2026 U.S. Counterterrorism Strategy

Some very real and current terrorism threats seem to be either missing or somehow downgraded in this new document. Islamic terror, for example, is cited on page 5 as “Legacy Islamist Terrorists”, although Al-Qa’eda and the Islamic State are named briefly and specifically later on. In what seems a glaring omission, in the Regional breakdown of Counterterrorism threats, neither Iran nor its terror proxies are mentioned at all, even as the documented presence of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Force hit teams inside the U.S. remains unresolved and the extensive network of Hizballah operatives gets no mention at all. Neither is the role of the FBI in the domestic counterterrorism mission mentioned while DHS gets only cursory mention.

“Iran-Backed Iraqi Militia Commander Busted by FBI, Plotted Attacks on Americans and Jews Over Iran War” by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton at RAIR Foundation USA, May 16, 2026

• This is a recent example of both the ongoing Iran proxy threat as well as the key role of the FBI in thwarting it.

 “The Bureau of Missed Clues Strikes Again — Failure to Anticipate Old Dominion Shooting Shows Glaring Holes in FBI’s Lackluster Approach to Counterterrorism” by Liberato.us, Federal Government Watch, May 27, 2026 

• This one is an unfortunate example of the failure of FBI and law enforcement to monitor this shooter, who’d previously been convicted of terrorism in 2017, but then was released from prison in December 2024.

 “Obama secretly gave thousands of Green Cards to Iran’s Islamic regime leaders in disastrous nuke deal” by Christine Douglass-Williams at Jihad Watch, June 2, 2026

• This alert cites to a report from The Gateway Pundit (below) that ties into concern about the lack of mention of the Iranian regime or its terror proxies in the new White House 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy, noted above.
• “Obama Secretly Gifted Thousands of Green Cards to Radical Iranian Regime Leaders in Disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal — Dissident Who Exposed It Was Brutally Executed”, by Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit, June 1, 2026
  • We have to question whether the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, or local law enforcement across the U.S. are even aware that any number of Iranian regime figures and/or their children may still be here in the homeland.

 “Trump: ‘We Seem To Be Getting Along Quite Well’ With Mojtaba Khamenei” by Robert Spencer at Front Page Magazine, June 3, 2026 

• President Trump is known to troll our adversaries often—but does he or does he not really mean he’ll ‘probably meet with Iran’s Ayatollah at some point’?  (It may be noted here that neither Mojtaba Khamenei nor his late father Ali Khamenei ever achieved the Shi’ite clerical rank of ayatollah, but both only made it to the middling rank of hojatoleslam.)

 “Why Did Trump Demand that Netanyahu Stop IDF Attack on Hezbollah Sites in Beirut?” by Hugh Fitzgerald at Front Page Magazine, June 3, 2026

• Events in Iran as well as Lebanon continue to play out, so this ultimately may be seen as just one U.S. move in a multi-dimensional operation against the Tehran regime. But it does raise questions about the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the long-game U.S. strategy against Iran.

©2026 Clare M. Lopez. All rights reserved.