Domestic terrorism uniformly has been declared a top national security threat by the federal government.
It’s about time.
For years, experts have voiced concern about the intent and growing ability of extremists, White supremacists and militia groups to wage violence across the country, yet their warnings failed to gain traction.
Federal officials continued to focus primarily on international terrorism, which resulted in less scrutiny of White nationalism, even as far-right violence increased.
The domestic problem was downplayed, sometimes seemingly for political reasons.
President Donald Trump regularly portrayed antifa — a loose network of anti-fascist activists — as major domestic terrorists. Meanwhile, his Homeland Security Department issued a report last fall that concluded violent White supremacy was the “most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.”
The report did not mention antifa, though it did discuss anarchists exploiting peaceful protests to commit violence, often against police officers and buildings.
The federal reluctance to target White supremacy was exacerbated under the Trump administration, but it didn’t start there.
In 2019, Kristina Davis of The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League showed 313 people were killed by far-right extremists from 2009 and 2018. Of those, 76 percent were affiliated with White supremacy.
“The data is overwhelming,” Erroll Southers, a former San Diego FBI agent and counterterrorism official, told Davis. “The last 10 years suggest our policies and our focus and our resources are all pointed in the wrong direction.”
Calling out the reality of extremist and White supremacist threats sometimes triggered repercussions.
Daryl Johnson, a longtime counterterrorism analyst, saw his career derailed at Homeland Security after he wrote an internal report in 2009 about the rise in far-right extremism and how it could lead to violence. The report was leaked and was swiftly criticized — along with Johnson and the department— by Republican lawmakers and conservative commentators, according to NBC.
Some veterans groups also criticized the paper, in part because it said veterans returning from combat were ripe for recruiting by extremists. DHS, which was under the Obama administration at the time, largely backed away from the report. Johnson’s unit was disbanded and he left the department shortly thereafter.
The report was prescient.
The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters attempting to deny Joe Biden his legitimate election as president shocked the nation. The new administration made clear — from Attorney General-nominee Merrick Garland last month to FBI Director Christopher Wray this week — that domestic terrorism is the top security concern.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a 60-day stand-down to confront extremism in the military after reports that current and former service members participated in the riot at the Capitol.
The Department of Homeland Security announced $77 million in grants to state and local jurisdictions specifically to protect against violent domestic extremism. That money is part of a broader $1.8 billion package targeted for those governments to combat terrorism and deal with various disasters.
What the Biden administration’s direction on domestic terrorism will mean for the San Diego region is unclear, but it almost certainly will have impact. For one thing, San Diego-area law enforcement agencies have received substantial anti-terrorism funding over the years, in part because of the huge military installations located within the county and the region’s position on an international border.
The county has long had a history of extremism, from the Ku Klux Klan activities led by late KKK leader Tom Metzger of Fallbrook dating back to the 1970s to people who participated in the incursion at the U.S. Capitol in January.
One of them, Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt of Ocean Beach, was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she tried to enter the Speaker’s Lobby though a broken window.
The failed response to the attack by Capitol Police, D.C. police, federal law enforcement agencies and the military has led to criticism over the handling of intelligence and lack of preparation. The weak defense of the nation’s Capitol seemed to underscore the notion that the government has not taken domestic terrorism and violent White supremacy very seriously.
In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in late February, Attorney General nominee Garland said investigating the assault would be his first priority and he would “do everything in the power of the Justice Department” to stop domestic terrorism.
He was asked if he considered assaults on federal courthouses and other federal properties — such as what happened during protests in Portland, Ore., following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police — to be domestic terrorism.
According to Time magazine, Garland made a distinction between the Jan. 6 attack and other incidents, saying he would define domestic terrorism as “the use of violence or threats of violence in an attempt to disrupt democratic processes.” He added that if an attack on a courthouse was meant to prevent judges from deciding cases it would fall under domestic terrorism.
Like others, Garland warned that Jan. 6 likely wasn’t a “one-off” incident. Authorities from San Diego to Washington have signaled to the public they are increasingly vigilant.
A week after the Capitol assault, Suzanne Turner, FBI special agent in charge in San Diego, issued a statement saying the local Joint Terrorism Task Force was focused on “identifying, investigating, and disrupting individuals who were involved in the siege of the U.S. Capitol and/or those who may continue to incite violence and engage in criminal activity here locally and throughout the United States.”
Three weeks after the attack, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rare domestic terrorism alert based on information that “some ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.”
This week, the House of Representatives canceled its Thursday session following intelligence reports of another possible attack on the Capitol. That day, March 4, was when followers of the QAnon conspiracy cult believed Donald Trump would be reinstalled as president.
The attack didn’t happen and Trump remains a private citizen, but Congress was again disrupted.
"front" - Google News
March 05, 2021 at 08:00PM
https://ift.tt/388Jfwz
Column: Federal government finally puts domestic terrorism front and center - The San Diego Union-Tribune
"front" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3aZh1mr
https://ift.tt/3b2xvu5
No comments:
Post a Comment