As Iran war raises terror risk, U.S. enforcement agencies are spread thin, experts say

In the hours after the U.S. began its military operation in Iran, a cascade of national security departments and agencies, including the FBI and Homeland Security, began notifying the public that they would be stepping up their activities around the country because of a heightened risk of international and domestic terrorism.

But after a year of federal budget cuts, resignations, firings, layoffs and a reshuffling of the Trump administration's priorities, some national security experts are worried about the ability of those agencies to respond.

"The administration has reduced U.S. capabilities in this area, so the United States might be more vulnerable than it was a year ago," said Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare of Irregular Threats and Terrorism program at the non-partisan Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

"Key institutions like the CIA and the FBI have both had large-scale layoffs," Byman said. "Within these organizations, we've seen shifts in resources. So, FBI agents, for example, were transferred from counter-terrorism to policing immigration."