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The Biden Administration issued a warning that White supremacy and “militia violent extremists” are the most “persistent and lethal threats” tp the American people, according to Fox News.
“This National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism lays out a comprehensive approach to addressing the threat while safeguarding bedrock American civil rights and civil liberties—values that make us who we are as a nation,” Biden stated.
“We cannot ignore this threat or wish it away.”
“Across violent ideologies, individuals and small groups—both formal and informal—have been galvanized by recent political and societal events in the United States to carry out violent attacks,” the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism said.
“Their insistence on violence can, at times, be explicit. It also can, at times, be less explicit, lurking in ideologies rooted in a perception of the superiority of the white race that call for violence in furtherance of perverse and abhorrent notions of racial ‘purity’ or ‘cleansing,’” the NSC stated.
“Another key component of the threat comes from anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists,” the NSC said.
The “significant component of today’s threat includes self-proclaimed ‘militias’ and militia violent extremists who take steps to violently resist government authority or facilitate the overthrow of the U.S. Government based on perceived overreach; anarchist violent extremists, who violently oppose all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and governing institutions, which they perceive as harmful to society; sovereign citizen violent extremists, who believe they are immune from government authority and laws; or any individual or group who engages in violence—or incites imminent violence—in opposition to legislative, regulatory, or other actions taken by the government.”
“We are taking on this complex and evolving domestic terrorism threat landscape with an approach that honors and protects both America’s security and America’s values, especially our cherished civil rights and civil liberties,” the NSC stated.
“We must be clear-eyed about this challenge: the unlawful violence that constitutes domestic terrorism is the result of a complex, multi-layered set of society dynamics,” the NSC said.
“We cannot—and will not—ignore those dynamics, such as racism and bigotry that perpetuate the domestic terrorism threat.”
“This is the domestic terrorism threat America faces today—one with the distinctive imprint of today’s digital age as well as longstanding roots in domestic terrorism challenges throughout our country’s history.”
“Tackling that threat comprehensively and persistently demands appreciating both its historical lineage and its distinctively modern form.”
“We will be steered by it as we forge a community across the Federal Government and beyond to counter today’s domestic terrorism threat and thus to make everyone in America safer and the country and our democracy stronger and more secure.”
The NSC said they would “continue to evaluate implementation” of the strategy to “ensure our response evolves as the threat evolves.”
“Together, we will reaffirm our country’s core commitment to the peaceful expression and exchange of ideas, to equal justice under the rule of law, and to equality for all.”
Federal law defines domestic terrorism as “activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily within the jurisdiction of the United States.”
From Fox News:
The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled its national strategy for countering domestic terrorism, with officials telling Fox News it’s designed to cut across the political spectrum, while warning that White supremacy and “militia violent extremists” currently present the “most persistent and lethal threats.”
The White House National Security Council released its strategy after the intelligence community, back in March, released its comprehensive threat assessment, which found that domestic violent extremism posed a “heightened threat” in 2021, and after President Biden, in January, tasked his administration with the review.
The president said the efforts “should unite all Americans” and work together to “root out the hatreds that can too often drive violence.”
The NSC acknowledged that domestic terrorism was not new, calling the current threat environment “both persistent and evolving,” and calls for an “overarching approach” to address domestic terrorism in its current state, as well as the evolving forms in the years ahead.
The NSC said today’s domestic terrorists “espouse a range of violent ideological motivations,” including “racial or ethnic bigotry and hatred, as well as anti-government or anti-authority sentiment.” The NSC warned that the terrorists “take on a variety of forms,” from lone actors and small groups, to networks “exhorting and targeting violence toward specific communities,” to violent, self-proclaimed “militias.”
Still, it found that among the “wide range” of ideologies, “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (principally those who promote the superiority of the white race) and militia violent extremists are assessed as presenting the most persistent and lethal threats.”
The assessment of the threat claimed terrorists had “different motivations,” but said many focus their violence “towards the same segment or segments of the American community,” including “persons of colors, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, other religious minorities, women and girls, LGBTQI+ individuals, or others.”
The NSC also noted that other domestic terrorists may be motivated to violence by “single-issue” ideologies like abortion, animal rights, environmental or involuntary celibacy or a combination of ideological influences.
But Biden administration officials maintained that it’s “critical” they “condemn and confront” domestic terrorism, “regardless of the particular ideology that motivates individuals to violence.”
The strategy is broken down into four pillars: understanding and sharing domestic terrorism-related information; preventing domestic terrorism recruitment and mobilization to violence; disrupting and deterring domestic terrorism activity; and confronting long-term contributors to domestic terrorism.
Biden administration officials told Fox News the “complex and shifting” domestic terrorism threat landscape has created “significant challenges for law enforcement,” specifically on internet-based communications platforms like social media, “file-upload sites,” and end-to-end encrypted platforms, which officials say combined can “amplify threats to public safety.”
The administration’s strategy is set to improve information sharing throughout law enforcement at the federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels, and, at times, with private sector partners.
