US Intelligence Chief Warns Iran’s Plots Against Americans Have Reached “Advanced Stages”

Iran has ramped up efforts to target US personnel, and lethal plots by Tehran against American citizens have reached “advanced stages,” a senior intelligence official in the Trump administration warned in a memo seen by Reuters. The alert came from the Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, in a message dated October 23 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. CIA Director John Ratcliffe was also copied in on the memo, which is unclassified and was first reported by Axios.

“Specifically, through various channels, we have received intelligence that Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel,” Clayton wrote. “The lethal plotting efforts by the Iranians against US citizens have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,” he added. The excerpts reported by Reuters do not name the other countries, and they do not describe any single plot.

Clayton runs the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the office that coordinates the work of the US intelligence agencies and prepares the assessments that reach the president. His memo put the warning in writing, from the top of that system to the Secretary of State, two days before the travel advisories moved.

The warning follows moves Washington has already made on the ground. The alert came after the United States scaled back staffing at its mission in Saudi Arabia earlier this week in response to intensified attacks by Iran-allied Houthi forces. On Wednesday, the State Department ordered non-emergency government employees and their family members to leave US diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia, and planned to withdraw family members from a number of other missions in the region, US officials told Reuters.

On Saturday, the State Department updated its travel advisories for more than a dozen countries across the Gulf and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Israel, citing an increased threat from Iran-aligned Houthis.

A US official explained the staffing decisions this way: “When it comes to our staffing at embassies, we constantly evaluate new information about the security environment.” The official added: “The threat of Houthi attacks and of Iranian terror plots targeting US officials are informing our decisions on staffing adjustments for embassies on RO Status in the region.” RO Status — Restricted Operations Status — gives the State Department more flexibility in personnel decisions without having to publicly announce a change in the status of a mission.

The Houthi attacks are one front of the nearly eight-month-old regional conflict triggered by the Iran war, and they have coincided with a rise in attacks on commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula through which a large share of the world’s seaborne oil passes.

The memo also lands on top of earlier reporting about Tehran’s intentions. Earlier this month, sources told Reuters that Iran was preparing a more forceful response if the United States resumes large-scale military attacks on its territory.

The Iran war is a week away from entering its ninth month, and Reuters notes it has significantly weighed on the approval ratings of President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections on November 3. Clayton’s memo does not say when the plotting he describes began, what form the advanced-stage plots take, or whether any of them has been disrupted.

Sources: Reuters.