In recent days, a chilling warning came from one of America’s top counterterrorism experts: Iranian sleeper cells may already be embedded inside the United States—hiding in plain sight, waiting to strike. With tensions climbing after the president’s strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, that warning has taken on new urgency. The threat isn’t hypothetical. It’s now a likely reality.

And while most states are coordinating with federal law enforcement, tightening security, and staying alert, California has done the unthinkable:  

It’s opted out.

California is the only state in the Union that has withdrawn entirely from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force—the primary engine for federal, state, and local cooperation in detecting and disrupting terrorism. And they did it proudly, in the name of “civil liberties.”

Let’s be blunt: the FBI’s JTTFs have disrupted plots targeting New York, Boston, and cities across the country. They are essential to homeland security. Pulling out of that network—especially now—is the domestic equivalent of turning off radar at Pearl Harbor.

Add to that the fact that California is also a sanctuary state, where local officials are barred from cooperating with ICE or federal........

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