As the U.S. gears up to host massive events in the next few years, lawmakers and security officials want to ensure defense from next-generation threats while keeping the experience pleasant for attendees.
Rep. Michael McCaul joined the Threat Status podcast this week to discuss some of the lessons U.S. security officials have learned from past incidents at major events.
According to the Texas Republican, intel is king when it comes to defending attendees at soccer’s 2026 World Cup in North America and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“It’s a nuisance to some of the fans. Although I would say each of these events presents a target for those who wish us harm, and we have to be prepared,” he told Threat Status. “You have to have the information, and you have to have the information shared. You have to have good intelligence on what the threats are and who the threats are. And then secondly, you have to have a way to rapidly respond to an immediate threat to stop the killing of people.”
Mr. McCaul, chairman emeritus of both the Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees, now leads a House task force that studied incidents at previous large events, specifically the 1972 Olympic hostage crisis, in which Palestinian terrorists precipitated the death of 11 Israelis.
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The congressman said the lessons learned from historical tragedies are invaluable, but emerging threats like drone attacks are what U.S. security officials are focused on.
“The thing that keeps coming up in our discussions that keeps you up at night, that I think is gonna be the biggest threat and emerging threat that we have to be ready for, are these drones, these unmanned aerial vehicles, that could cross over into a stadium with an explosive device. And … our ability to take that out is very limited right now,” he told Threat Status.
Mr. McCaul added that cybersecurity efforts have been ramped up as the U.S. hopes to defend against large-scale attacks on infrastructure and public events. The congressman touted the role he played in establishing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which works to increase the flow of information between the public and private sectors.
State of the Middle East
Mr. McCaul told Threat Status that the downfall of the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan has had a destabilizing effect on the Middle East. The congressman specifically pointed to the rise of the Islamic State successor group ISIS-K. The regional terror group, operating out of Khorasan province in Afghanistan, grew in strength in the past decade following successful assaults on ISIS forces in Syria. While the Taliban-led Afghan government has pushed the group out of many of its provincial territories, ISIS-K is still an influential terror organization.
Tensions in the region are still running hot from the 12-day Israeli-Iranian war in June. Israel, with a massive punctuation from U.S. bombers, targeted many of Iran’s uranium enrichment sites, devastating three of the country’s most important sites: Natanz, Fordo and Isfahan.
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While the strikes stopped Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, Mr. McCaul told Threat Status that the next step should be diplomacy.
“It will set them back in a matter of one to two years. And as the president said, if they rebuild it again, we can always return,” he said. “I think what they had to do was show a face-saving measure, which they did with very limited missile strikes that we were able to take down. That gave them the opportunity to go to their people and say they responded in kind. You know, where it stands now, I think Iran’s greatly weakened. I think the sanctions should be fully enforced.”
He added that the U.S. should use sanctions on Iran’s energy sources to place further strain on the regime and, possibly, inspire a popular uprising in the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s position in the Middle East has been weakened. Israeli strikes in Lebanon and Gaza have shattered the leadership of two of Tehran’s proxy groups, Hezbollah and Hamas. Additionally, the collapse of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria has left Iran without a major ally to the west.
However, Israel’s war in Gaza has impeded normalization efforts between Tel Aviv and other Arab states. According to Mr. McCaul, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are eager to normalize relations with Israel if the war in Gaza ends quickly and humanitarian assistance is provided.
“My advice to the Israelis is: Accomplish your mission,” he said. “Wrap up Gaza as soon as they can, get deradicalization programs in there and humanitarian assistance. Then start talking about normalization, the Abraham Accords, too. I know the Saudis still wanna go forward with this because I talked to them, and so does the UAE. They want to have a normalized relationship with Israel. The longer this Gaza thing drags out, the longer it will take to get to that point.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.