Former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams warns that the United States is unprepared for a new wave of terrorist attacks and says the next 9/11 is already being planned.
Old Dominion University Failure
An independent review found that Old Dominion University did not know that Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a convicted ISIS supporter, had been readmitted in January 2025. The school’s oversight allowed a known terrorist to walk onto campus unchecked.
Jalloh, released from an 11‑year federal sentence in December 2024, entered an ROTC classroom on March 12, 2026, shouted “Allahu Akbar,” and opened fire, killing Lt. Col. Brandon Shah and wounding two cadets. The attack exposed a critical information gap between federal authorities and the university.
Systemic Information Gaps
Virginia law bars universities from asking about criminal history on admissions, so readmitted students like Jalloh were never screened. Since 2022 the university required only new freshmen, transfers, and graduate students to complete a voluntary criminal‑history questionnaire, leaving readmitted students unasked.
Federal authorities knew Jalloh’s conviction and his supervised‑release conditions, but the FBI and the U.S. Probation Office refused to meet with investigators, preventing the review from fully mapping the failure. That refusal left the university blind to a known terrorist’s presence on campus.
Broader Counterterrorism Context
Researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that 72 of 209 Americans arrested on ISIS‑related charges have already been released, with 73 more expected to be freed within the next decade. The data show a large pool of formerly convicted individuals reintegrating into society.
While most released offenders show no new terrorist activity, cases such as Ali Shukri Amin demonstrate that outward stability does not guarantee disengagement; Amin resumed extremist contacts after violating supervised‑release terms.
Recommendations and Ongoing Gaps
Old Dominion has expanded its post‑admission questionnaire to include readmitted students and bolstered its Office of Threat Assessment, but the core problem remains: relevant threat information is not being shared. Security staff still rely on self‑disclosure, which is unreliable for high‑risk individuals.
The independent review urged the university to leverage its existing FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force relationship to create a formal notification process for terrorism defendants enrolling or already on campus. Such a system would close the information gap that allowed Jalloh to attack.
As of August 2026, no national mandate requires federal probation offices, the FBI, or the Bureau of Prisons to alert schools when a terrorism offender under supervision enrolls, leaving the information gap unfilled.
Without statutory requirements, individual institutions must rely on ad‑hoc arrangements. America built a sophisticated pre‑attack counterterrorism system, but it must now improve post‑release threat management to protect communities and campuses. Effective reintegration and threat assessment must go hand in hand.
