JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It has been less than 72 hours since the United States and Israel began military strikes on Iran. In response, the Islamic Republic has fired missiles and drones at U.S. bases across the Middle East. Here in the U.S., authorities are also on heightened alert for any potential attacks. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us now. Hi.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: So Ryan, I'd actually like to start, if we can, with Austin, Texas, where there was a shooting over the weekend. Two people were killed, 14 wounded. And I understand that there are questions about whether that was in any way tied to the attack on Iran.
LUCAS: Well, right now, the short answer is it's too early to say. What we know as of now is that authorities have identified the gunman as a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal. The FBI has said that it's too early to say what the shooter's motive was. In Austin, FBI Special Agent Alex Doran has said that there were what he called indicators on the gunman and in his vehicle that suggest a potential nexus to terrorism. The gunman was wearing a sweatshirt that had the words Property of Allah on it and a T-shirt with the Iranian flag. Authorities also found a Quran in his vehicle.
Now, the FBI's joint terrorism task force is involved in the investigation, but again, it's still early in this probe and the FBI is analyzing video. It's combing through digital evidence, physical evidence to try to get an answer on that all-important motive question. And authorities also haven't pointed to anything, it's important to say, that would indicate that Iran was directly involved at all in the shooting.
SUMMERS: Right. And understandably, many people are concerned about the potential for Iran to conduct some sort of attack here. Does Iran have a history of carrying out attacks on U.S. soil?
LUCAS: Well, look, historically, the U.S. has been a difficult place for Iranian government agents to operate. Often a foreign intelligence service would then look to its diaspora to recruit potential operatives. U.S. officials I've spoken with say Iran hasn't had success doing that here in the U.S., and in part, that's because most Iranian Americans are families that fled Iran after the current regime came to power in 1979. What the Iranian government has tried to do instead - at least over the past 15 years or so - is to try to hire other people, often criminals, to conduct attacks here in the U.S.
The Justice Department has foiled several alleged murder-for-hire plots orchestrated, the Justice Department says, by the Iranian government to kill former U.S. officials - that includes former National Security Advisor John Bolton - and also targeting Iranian dissidents here in the U.S. Right now, in fact, a Pakistani man with ties to Iran is on trial in federal court in Brooklyn for allegedly trying to hire hitmen to kill American public officials. But again, these folks haven't been particularly competent. Iran hasn't managed to pull anything off. And it's also worth pointing out that these purported plots have all been very targeted at specific individuals. In other words, they aren't kind of mass casualty attacks, and I think that that's an important distinction.
SUMMERS: Yeah, and what about Iran's proxies, like Hezbollah? Could they do something?
LUCAS: Well, Hezbollah certainly has a track record of conducting terrorist attacks elsewhere in Europe, South America, targeting Israelis, but they haven't done anything similar on U.S. soil. But look, there is certainly concern that Iran or Hezbollah or another Iranian proxy may try something now in light of the current conflict and the killing of Iran's supreme leader. And that's why we've seen the NYPD, for example, say that it's beefing up patrols at sensitive locations in New York. We've also seen police in LA and other major cities say similar things out of an abundance of caution.
SUMMERS: Last thing, is the FBI taking any special steps to protect people here in the U.S. in light of this war?
LUCAS: Well, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media over the weekend that the bureau is fully engaged. He said counterterrorism and intelligence teams are on high alert. Joint terrorism task forces are working to disrupt any potential threats, but Patel did not mention that there are any specific threats.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ryan Lucas, thanks as always.
LUCAS: Thank you.
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