Vehicle Smashes Through WH Barricade, Secret Service Intervenes

 A van crashed into a security barrier outside the White House early on Wednesday morning. The United States Secret Service is looking into the early-morning incident.

The Metropolitan Police and the Secret Service responded after the van broke through a barricade at Connecticut Avenue and H Street. The van’s driver was arrested. Police are questioning the driver. Whether charges are being brought is unknown. The incident did not result in any reported injuries.

Anthony Guglielmi, a representative of the Secret Service, said members of its uniformed division were “looking into a suspicious vehicle,” according to CBS News.

“Various entrances and the streets are temporarily closed as teams conduct their work. We will provide additional information once we get updated from officers later this morning,” Guglielmi said.

Multiple streets were closed after the incident, according to WJLA-TV.

Last month, as the war with Iran began, the Secret Service said it was taking extra precautions.

U.S. intelligence agencies are reviewing an encrypted communication believed to have originated inside Iran that may have been intended for covert operatives abroad, according to an alert reported by ABC News.

The message was described by officials as a possible “operational trigger” directed at what analysts refer to as sleeper assets — individuals embedded in foreign countries who maintain low profiles until receiving instructions.

The transmission was detected shortly after the reported killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike in Tehran on Feb. 28. Iranian authorities later elevated his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, to the position of supreme leader.

According to the intelligence alert, the encrypted signal was transmitted across multiple countries and flagged by U.S. monitoring systems. Analysts assessed that the communication was likely of Iranian origin and may have been intended for clandestine recipients who could decode the message using predetermined passcodes.

Officials said the transmission showed characteristics consistent with “international rebroadcast characteristics,” which can be used to distribute coded instructions over long distances without relying on internet-based communications.

The alert indicated that the transmissions resemble methods historically used to convey instructions to “covert operatives or sleeper assets” without relying on internet communications.

The signals could “be intended to activate or provide instructions to prepositioned sleeper assets operating outside the originating country,” the alert said, according to ABC News.

Concerns among security officials have increased regarding the potential presence of Iranian sleeper cells within the United States, especially as the conflict enters its second week.

Last year, the Daily Mail reported on what it termed a “passport pipeline” involving operatives linked to Iran traveling through Venezuela before reaching Western countries. This pathway could allow networks to establish a foothold close to the U.S.

Tensions have escalated as fighting intensifies between Iran, the United States, and Israel. Relations between Washington and Jerusalem have reportedly become strained after Israeli forces bombed Iranian oil depots. This action raised alarms among White House officials, who fear that such strikes could lead to an increase in gasoline prices for Americans.

Security experts caution that the threat could stem from both lone individuals sympathetic to Tehran and organized sleeper networks that are waiting for orders to act.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, former adviser to the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service supervisor Charles Marino stated that the United States could be facing a “convergence” of threats.

“Is it possible you have 10, 15, 20 people in the country that are part of a cell that then go out and carry out simultaneous or near-simultaneous attacks? Yes,” Marino said.

He cautioned that terrorists aiming for the highest number of casualties would likely target “soft” locations, such as concerts, sporting events, public venues, and other crowded gatherings.