Tag: domestic terrorism

White House unveils strategy to battle domestic extremism

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The White House unveiled its plan for addressing domestic terrorism on Tuesday, rolling out a strategy that set goals and acknowledged challenges as much as it outlined specific steps for combating a growing threat. 

The strategy includes a call to bolster law enforcement partnerships and stem extremist recruitment paired with elements deemed more essential after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, including better analysis of social media and programs to boost civics education and battle disinformation.

It also touches on other priorities from President Biden, echoing previous calls for gun control in order to address mass shootings. Continue reading.

Trump Administration Promise to Focus on Extremism Remains Unfulfilled

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A year after the Department of Homeland Security promised to focus more on violent extremism, the plan to carry out that shift remains hidden while the atmosphere worsens.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security started an effort a year ago this month to address domestic terrorism, white nationalist threats and other acts of homegrown violence, a major shift for an agency created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to protect the country from foreign terrorism.

Today the plan to carry out that new mission remains stalled in a bureaucratic morass as clashes between protesters and counterprotesters have escalated to precisely the violent acts that the plan was supposed to address.

Instead, a new crop of Department of Homeland Security leaders, led by the confrontational acting secretary, Chad F. Wolf, appear to be doing the opposite of what had been promised. Far from cooperating with local governments and citizens to combat domestic unrest, particularly from the far right, they have joined President Trump in lashing out at American mayors and governors while deploying federal tactical teams to cities — often expressly against the wishes of the local governments with which they had pledged to cooperate. Continue reading.

DOJ inspector general finds weaknesses in how the FBI identifies homegrown terrorists

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s inspector general found “lapses” in the FBI’s assessment of potential domestic terrorist threats, and the bureau “has not taken sufficient action” to fix these weaknesses, according to a report released Wednesday.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, homegrown violent extremists have carried out more than 20 attacks in the United States, many of whom were suspects the FBI had previously investigated for possible terrorist links, according to the 47-page report. After these attacks, the FBI reviewed practices in assessing terrorist threats and found instances in which investigators did not sufficiently follow up or closed investigations into people who later carried out deadly attacks.

Even after reviewing its practices, “nearly 40 percent of counterterrorism assessments went unaddressed for 18 months after deficiencies were known to the FBI,” the report said.  Continue reading.

Democrats eye action on threat of white nationalism

The Hill logoDemocrats on Capitol Hill are pressing hard to adopt tougher gun laws following a pair of mass shootings this month that horrified the country and rekindled the on-again, off-again push to install higher barriers to owning firearms.

But as Congress prepares to return to Washington next month from the long summer recess, Democrats also want to go a step further to tackle another scourge they consider to be related: the threat of violent white nationalism that, according to federal law enforcers, is on the rise.

The lawmakers’ ultimate goal is to strengthen the nation’s hate crime laws and weed out race-based incidents of domestic terrorism. As a first step, they’re pushing legislation designed to log the frequency of such cases around the country — data they say has gone neglected as the Trump administration has focused more squarely on foreign-based threats to homeland security.

View the complete August 28 article by Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

Mass shootings test power of an NRA in turmoil

The Hill logoMass shootings in Texas and Ohio that left 31 people dead over the weekend are raising new calls for background checks on gun sales, testing the power of a National Rifle Association plagued by months of internal turmoil.

Gun reformers on Capitol Hill, long frustrated by the gun lobby’s power to block tougher laws, believe they have a new opportunity given the NRA’s perceived weakened state.

The NRA is “not as powerful” as it was, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.), who co-authored a bipartisan background checks bill with Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), said in a phone interview with The Hill on Monday.

View the complete August 5 article by Scott Wong and Mike Lillis on The Hill website here.

FBI’s Wray says most domestic terrorism arrests this year involve white supremacy

The Hill logoFBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that the agency has made about 100 domestic terrorism-related arrests since October, and the majority were tied to white supremacy.

”I will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we’ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence, but it does include other things as well,” Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, referring to cases in fiscal 2019, which began Oct. 1.

The FBI is “aggressively” investigating domestic terrorism and hate crimes, Wray said, noting that the bureau is focused on investigating the violence, not the ideology motivating the attacks.

View the complete July 23 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Confronting the Domestic Right-Wing Terrorist Threat

Within the United States, violent extremism driven by right-wing, racially motivated ideologies is growing at an alarming pace, but neither public understanding nor government action has kept pace to combat it. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, correctly observed:

It’s time for our nation’s leaders to appropriately recognize the severity of the threat and to devote the necessary resources to address the scourge of right-wing extremism.1

Any effort to take up Greenblatt’s challenge requires a serious strategy. The Trump administration must acknowledge the threat and reverse course from a policy of ignoring all but Islamic extremism.2 It needs to understand how overheated rhetoric—including the president’s own words—can lead to violence.3 Fortunately, these threats have been defeated before; a wise administration would seek to learn the lessons from previous efforts—in the United States and abroad—to combat far-right extremist violence. Until it does so, the danger will only increase.

View the complete March 7 article by Simon Clark on the Center for American Progress website here.

You Are More Than 7 Times As Likely To Be Killed By A Right-Wing Extremist Than By Muslim Terrorists

Klu Kluc Klan Natl ArchiveThe following article by Ian Millhiser appeared on the ThinkProgress.org November 30, 2015:

Friday afternoon, one week after elected officials all over the country tried toblock Syrian refugees from entering their states in an apparent effort to fight terrorism, a white man in Colorado committed what appears to be an act of terrorism in a Planned Parenthood clinic.

Though the details of Robert Lewis Dear’s motives for killing three people in the clinic and injuring nine others are still being revealed, Dear reportedly told law enforcement “no more baby parts,” an apparent reference to heavily edited videos produced by the Center for Medical Progress, which numerous politicians have cited to falsely claim that Planned Parenthood sells “aborted baby parts.” Dear’s actions, in other words, appear to be an act of politically motivated terrorism directed against an institution widely reviled by conservatives. Continue reading “You Are More Than 7 Times As Likely To Be Killed By A Right-Wing Extremist Than By Muslim Terrorists”