Sarah Adams’ chilling foretellings regarding a catastrophe for USA and the connections she stated with terrorism foreshadowing New Year’s incidents have garnered social media attention.
A podcast interview with former CIA analyst Sarah Adams in December 2024 went viral after her eerie warnings regarding terrorist attacks appeared to be paralleled with violence in regard to the New Year’s Day violence in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
The Viral Interview That Changed Everything
Former CIA officer Sarah Adams sat down with former Navy Seal and agency contractor Shawn Ryan during the latter’s December 13, 2024, episode of The Shawn Ryan Show. On December 12, 2024, Adams appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show for a two-hour interview that quickly amassed over 2.5 million views on YouTube.
The interview’s central bombshell involved Adams’ claim about terrorist presence on American soil. In it, Sarah Adams, who’s an ex-CIA targeter and counterterrorism analyst, claimed that over 1000 Al-Qaeda-trained militants were in the USA and were seemingly planning a coordinated attack on American soil, something similar to the Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023.
Specific Terror Predictions
During an extensive conversation, Adams outlined her chilling intelligence product. “The thousand is all of them, and so we are calling it, it’s an Al-Qaeda design attack. But amongst that thousand of terrorists, some of them are ISIS…”
When describing the methods of attack she,the next one was an event. “We have not had a man walk up to a building with a suicide vest on the United States. Americans do not realize this. Al-Qaeda does. So this is a new and innovative. Especially when you don’t have to, walk up to the side of the building. You can walk in the building because of the vest development,” Sarah Adams explained.
The ex-CIA officer outlined coordinated assault situations. “The other thing is in the United States we have not seen fedayeen attackers. So, the idea is the terrorist fights to the death. So, he is not a suicide bomber, but he will fight until all of us are dead or all his people are dead. We think it will be a swarming attack. Right. Multi-faceted attacks, at the same time in multiple cities.”
Sarah Adams’ Professional Background
CIA Credentials Verified
Sarah Adams is a former intelligence analyst and targeter with the Central Intelligence Agency. She has served as the Senior Advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Benghazi, Libya.
Her published works consist of reports for the government. Adams has co-authored The Benghazi Committee Report: Proposed Report of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi, published in July 2016. She has also authored Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy.
Extended Government Service
Adams has had several agencies and roles over her career history. Sarah Adams has also worked in the research and development space for the Department of Defense (DoD), and assisted in searching for answers about national security challenges. She has been a program analyst for the U.S. Air Force and project manager for the U.S. Navy. She has overseen intelligence missions in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.
The Timing Factor
Adams’ predictions gained renewed attention following violent incidents. Sarah Adams’ comments came less than a month before back-to-back attacks in the USA on New Year’s Day 2025 in New Orleans and Las Vegas, both suspected terror attacks. Amid these, her interview has now gone viral.
New Orleans Attack Details
There were fatalities involved in the New Orleans incident. The New Orleans incident, which occurred New Years Day, involved the killing of 42 year old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Jabbar struck a crowd of revelers early in the morning on Bourbon Street, using a Ford F-150 pickup truck. Their jurisdiction has announced, at least 15 were killed and more than 30 were injured before Jabbar was shot down by the eyes on the street.
Multiple Platform Appearances
Adams repeated similar warnings as when she was on the various outlets. Shawn Ryan’s show was not the only time Sarah Adams said what she did. When we were listening to Adams on Shark Coast Tactical Podcast last month, she indicated that Al-Qaeda was involved in assisting the Hamas attack which was a “dress rehearsal”.
She linked present threats to past grievances. She argued that the “real” one was for the USA as a “2025 multi-coordinated, multi-city, um, plot to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden.”
Expert Criticism and Skepticism
Unsubstantiated Claims Questioned
Intelligence experts have taken issue with Adams’ claims. The particularity accompanying what Adams has claimed are planned conspiracies by Al-Qaeda and what she claimed is the plural number of militants gives rise to some questions. If she genuinely had “specific” intelligence regarding a “coordinated multi-city if you will” operation, she is implying began with the attack on October 7, 2023, would not her own claim made public aware the “militants” their plans had already been revealed and would have to be moderated behavior until they undertook their plans for rogue action?
Pattern of Controversial Statements
Adams has built a reputation on outlandish and unsubstantiated claims, including her assertion that Al-Qaeda’s special forces are more advanced than the Taliban’s—a claim entirely devoid of evidence.
Intelligence experts have taken issue with Adams’ claims. The particularity accompanying what Adams has claimed are planned conspiracies by Al-Qaeda and what she claimed is the plural number of militants gives rise to some questions. If she genuinely had “specific” intelligence regarding a “coordinated multi-city if you will” operation, she is implying began with the attack on October 7, 2023, would not her own claim made public aware the “militants” their plans had already been revealed and would have to be moderated behavior until they undertook their plans for rogue action?
Social Media Impact
The interview reached an even larger audience through the virality of shorts and clips. The shorter clips have gained even more traction on additional platforms and social media. The Shawn Ryan Show’s official Twitter account featured clips that generated a slew of engagement and controversy.
CIA Targeter: “We have not had a man walk up to a building with a su!cid3 vest in America.” Sarah Adams outlines the enemy’s plan for a 2025 homeland attack. This is information every America should be made aware of. @TPASarah pic.twitter.com/z9hAIS4PLD— Shawn Ryan Show (@ShawnRyanShow) December 13, 2024
Host Background and Platform
Shawn Ryan’s Media Empire
Shawn Ryan, a former CIA contractor, has built his own reputation for entertaining edgy and often baseless accusations. Earlier in January, however, he interviewed a different former intelligence officer who made another baseless and outrageous charge, that Iranian missiles were transported into the United States.
Ryan’s platform gained mainstream attention with high profile appearances. And recent appearances, like Ryan’s on the Joe Rogan Podcast, have cast him as a conservative, conspiracy-centered commentator, targeting the U.S.
Intelligence Community Response
No official government agencies have confirmed Adams’ specific statements regarding 1,000 Al-Qaeda operatives. Adams was asked, as a matter of clarification, if she was “100 percent certain,” there were 1000-plus Al-Quaeda-trained fighters inside of the country. Sarah Adams indicated that the prediction came, based on the terrorist group itself explaining it.
Adams tried to support her numbers with a historical context. “First, I would say that I think there are more than a thousand Al-Qaeda members here in the United States, but as to the Homeland Attack, that was based on what Al-Qaeda is saying, so they could be exaggerating it, but they did have around 1,400 in the Hamas Attack so it is not that far off from what they were doing on the first attack,” she said.
The Broader Context
Post-9/11 Security Landscape
Adams’ alerts come in the midst of major national security discussions concerning border security, along with underlying domestic terrorism threats. While discussing the threat of “invisible bombs” that do not set off magnetometers, a response to Soleimani for the homeland attack may involve “sleeper cells” and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED).
Analysis and Fact-Check
The evidence at this time indicates that Adams’ contentions remain unverified by official intelligence sources. The claims of specific numbers and coordinated attack plans did not have cooperation by federal law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
The temporal relationship between her modeled predictions and some of the subsequent incidents, is interesting, however it does not prove cause and does not legitimize the greater conspiracy narrative.
Moving Forward
The interview remains controversial in national security circles and conservative media. Adams continues to be active in her media appearances, still pushing her theories through various other media appearances and through her own newsletter and efforts for the Shawn Ryan Show.
Sarah Adams’ claims have incited and upended an already volatile discussion related to former intelligence officials making public claims and the tension of the prevailing government is assessing and measuring domestic terror threats.
Disclaimer: This article provides reported responses and assessments for the purpose of journalistic analysis. The threat assessments specifically mentioned have not been verified by the agencies of the federal government. Readers should take all necessary steps and visit the official government websites to secure information related to current security assessments.