Former FBI agent Chris Swecker has warned that Iranian sleeper cells could strike the United States if President Donald Trump orders nuclear strikes on Iran.
Swecker said domestic retaliation could bring devastating consequences for millions of Americans, warning that Iran-backed operatives already inside the country have the capacity to assault critical infrastructure, sabotage energy grids, and target civilian facilities.
The warning comes as Donald Trump conducts urgent meetings with his national security team to decide whether the American military will resume its bombing campaign against Tehran while diplomatic negotiations remain stalled.
State television in Iran began broadcasting emergency alerts around October 26, warning residents in populated areas that they could face atomic explosions or deadly radioactive fallout from nearby impact zones.
One official Iranian broadcast specifically stated: "If the US targets Mount Kalang near the Natanz facility with a nuclear bomb, the danger could reach the surrounding areas."
Threat of domestic sleeper cells
Swecker, who spent 24 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and holds 45 years of law enforcement experience, told the Daily Mail that any American nuclear attack would instantly elevate domestic risks.
The counterintelligence veteran, who previously served as assistant director of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division, said Americans must prepare for what could follow the first wartime nuclear detonation since 1945.
Swecker warned that Iran-backed Hezbollah cells are already positioned across the country and possess the operational capability to carry out attacks on their own initiative.
"I think the most realistic retaliation is that the many Hezbollah cells that are here in the United States already actually take matters into their own hands. They have that capability and they can conduct terrorist attacks here," Swecker said.
Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based political party and paramilitary organization funded by Tehran, which the United States designated as a foreign terrorist group in 1997.
Beyond physical strikes, Swecker detailed the potential for state-sponsored cyber terrorism designed to cripple financial networks or trigger catastrophic regional power outages.
"We face a cyber threat, we face the physical threat. And if the financial system were to be compromised or shut down, it wouldn't take a nuclear missile, it could be done via cyber means," Swecker explained.
"Or they cut an underground cable that runs under the ocean. We'd be back in the Stone Age for a while," he added.
Undersea fiber-optic cables carry more than 95 percent of international internet communications and trillions of dollars in daily financial transactions across oceans.
Attacks on power grids and energy networks
Swecker said Iranian operatives would be likely to prioritize American power plants and domestic energy infrastructure to maximize civilian panic.
"You could put one city and render it back in the Stone Age by taking out the power grid or financial system. That would create huge panic in this country," Swecker explained.
He added: "An economic ripple effect, if you will, just because of the way I think a lot of people in the United States don't believe that this sort of thing can happen."
The danger of hostile cyber operations was underscored on October 31, when the FBI confirmed that North Korea had successfully stolen $6.3billion from cryptocurrency giant Binance.
Swecker's assessment follows emergency alerts from the Pentagon, former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino, and several European governments urging the public to prepare for doomsday scenarios.
Swecker noted that Tehran's international allies, including North Korea, Russia, and China, possess intercontinental nuclear arsenals capable of reaching American territory.
However, the former FBI assistant director said it remains improbable that Beijing or Moscow would launch weapons of mass destruction to defend Iran.
"I think the biggest threat is the terrorism threat, the threats against US targets overseas that are more accessible, because I think the president has indeed put [Iran] in a state where they have limited capabilities," Swecker said.
Swecker also warned that American citizens living or traveling abroad would face immediate danger in the aftermath of a nuclear bombardment.
He noted that Tehran lacks the weaponry to strike the American mainland directly with conventional or nuclear missiles.
"[Iran] can't reach our mainland with any nuclear capabilities right now, unless we're dramatically wrong about what their capabilities are, but I don't believe that they have the capability to reach US soil with a missile," Swecker added.
White House debates tactical nuclear strike
Fears of nuclear confrontation have escalated sharply over the past month amid reports that Trump has reconsidered his previous position against deploying atomic weapons against Iran.
John Kiriakou, who served in the Central Intelligence Agency from 1990 to 2004, claimed that Trump is seeking to "break" the "final taboo" regarding nuclear warfare.
"I've heard the same thing from my own contacts at the White House, that the President is considering the use of a tactical nuclear weapon against Pickaxe Mountain so it will penetrate to the point that it will destroy everything that's underground," Kiriakou told Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Pickaxe Mountain, which Iranian authorities refer to as Mount Kalang, is located near the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran.
Tehran has openly announced plans to construct high-speed centrifuges inside the mountain to expand its uranium enrichment operations.
The fortified subterranean complex is estimated to be large enough to house a complete enrichment plant, leading Trump to declare that Washington will never allow Iran to produce weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads.
Public debate intensified on November 2 when podcast host and former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson claimed that an American nuclear strike was only "days away."
Iranian civil defence and propaganda broadcasts
Swecker told the Daily Mail that Washington's military preparations stem from the Iranian government's relentless drive to secure nuclear weapons.
"We can't discount the possibility that someone pushes the button," Swecker warned.
"That's one of the reasons that we couldn't have Iran with full nuclear capabilities, because they're not responsible, they're religious fanatics, and their goal is to basically subjugate Western civilization, eliminate Western civilization," he said.
In Iran, civil defence officials in Isfahan Province, the region surrounding Pickaxe Mountain, have released instructional broadcasts detailing atomic survival protocols.
The video clips, which range between two and eight minutes in duration, display simulated images of nuclear detonations hitting both the United States and Iran.
The safety guidance urges citizens to take refuge immediately in basements or interior rooms away from exterior windows, seal all entryways, and turn off air ventilation systems that pull in outside air.
Residents were instructed to remain indoors for at least 24 hours following any nuclear blast to avoid lethal fallout.
The broadcasts also advised citizens never to look at the blinding flash of an atomic explosion and instructed people to discard outdoor clothing to shed radioactive dust particles.
Swecker dismissed the instructional videos as state-run "propaganda" designed to intimidate the Iranian populace while framing Western nations as predatory aggressors.
"This is just part and parcel of how they subjugate and manipulate their population. They want to put fear into them," Swecker said.
The veteran investigator noted that evidence of Iranian fear demonstrates that American deterrence continues to function, but cautioned that Russia and China could rapidly rearm Tehran with covert funding, intelligence, and weapons if diplomatic pressure diminishes.
