The partial government shutdown of the could impact how the federal government is able to address potential terror threats in the U.S., a public safety expert said, warning that the escalating conflict with Iran could encourage those wishing to harm Americans.
Jeffrey Halstead, a retired police chief in Fort Worth, Texas, and a former commander for Homeland Security for Phoenix police, told Fox News Digital that U.S. military actions could “escalate the mindset of some of these outlying or outlier terrorist entities” wanting to take action.Â
“We’ve seen historically that any time there is a conflict, especially in the Middle East with escalating tensions, military action and now a declaration of war, there is a significant impact on the ability for us to work collectively to share intelligence and gather information in a timely manner from our federal partners,” Halstead said. “With the current Department of Homeland Security shutdown, if something were to occur here in the United States, there could be some significant delays because FEMA and other very, very critical divisions of the federal government are basically shut down.”
He specifically pointed out the terrorist attack in Austin, Texas, over the weekend, which left 2 people dead and 14 injured. The suspect, Ndiaga Diagne, a 53-year-old naturalized citizen born in Senegal, was also killed.
Authorities said they are which took place at a bar at about 2 a.m. on Sunday, as a “potential nexus to terrorism” as Diagne appeared to wear a “Property of Allah” sweatshirt and an undershirt depicting the Iranian flag. A Quran was also later recovered from his vehicle, and an Iranian flag and images of regime leaders were found at his home.
That attack comes after U.S.-Israeli joint military strikes, which on Saturday morning, killed the Islamic Republics Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other leaders, triggering a wider conflict in the Middle East.
Halstead, who is also the director of strategic accounts at Genasys, a communications hardware and software provider that helps communities during emergencies, warned that events in the U.S. later this year, such as World Cup soccer matches and , could make the U.S. an “escalated target” if the conflict in the Middle East remains active.
He also said anytime there is a government shutdown, there seems to be a “pretty significant distraction, both politically and administratively, in every facet of our federal government and the manner in which the government operates.”
“Sometimes there is reduced staffing in some of these critical agencies, and some of the agencies aren’t being funded at all,” he said. “This will delay and possibly impede some of that critical intelligence, which could be terroristic threat level intelligence, that needs to be in the hands of local police, so that the beat officers, the patrol officers, as well as all the supervisors, understand the latest and greatest threats, including high-profile targets that could be on the radar of some of these active cells in the United States.”
He added that the government shutdown has an impact on the ability to “get that intelligence as fast as possible into the hands of those that need it” and that delays could be “very, very catastrophic” if the information is ignored or not sent.
Halstead noted that he has not seen any evidence that the shooting in Austin is directly tied to the government shutdown.
“However, when there are military actions overseas, especially in a lot of these high-profile terrorist organizations or terrorist hosting countries, it elevates the mindset for other people to take actions against American citizens and institutions in America,” he explained. “That could be schools and religious sites, and it could be the way that we live our lives with freedom.”
“When these incidents overseas happen that are terror-related, it does instill in the mindset of some of these lone wolf-style
