Domestic terrorists, and in particular militias and white nationalists, pose a heightened terror threat, the intelligence community said Wednesday in a new report ordered after the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Stories of fraud in the recent general election, the encouraging impact of the violent breach on the Capitol, the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence – will almost certainly [domestic violent extremists] to try to commit violence this year, ”the report said.
The report, prepared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice, comes after President Biden
Joe BidenBiden and Congress Must Take Bold Steps to Prevent Violent Extremism The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Biden Faces GOP Immigration and Filibuster Offensive Democrats Play Border Crisis Defense MORE ordered a thorough review of domestic terrorist threats a few days after taking office.
The report highlights that lone wolf actors and small groups of extremists are the most likely to carry out attacks, and warns that they “often radicalize independently by consuming and mobilizing violent extremist material online without evidence from a violent extremist organization, preventing detection and disruption becomes difficult. “
The report comes as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas
Alejandro Mayorkas The Hill’s Morning Report – presented by Facebook – Biden faces GOP’s immigration and filibuster offensive Democrats play defense in border crisis Biden tells migrants ‘not to come over’ amid wave at border MORE issued a similar warning to lawmakers on Wednesday about the risks posed by small groups of extremists.
“At present, domestic violent extremism, the lone wolf, the loose connection of individuals who follow ideologies of hatred and other ideologies of extremism who are willing and able to take those ideologies and expel them in unlawful, illegal, violent ways. feed. currently our biggest threat in the homeland, ”he said.
Tuesday’s shootings in Atlanta were all too new a reminder of the dangers of lone wolf attacks.
The shootings in three massage parlors killed eight people, including six Asian women, although police said on Wednesday it was too early to determine the shooter’s motive.
“Lonely offenders will continue to pose significant detection and disruption challenges because of their ability to independently radicalize to violence, their ability to mobilize discreetly and access to firearms,” the report said.
Wednesday’s review warned that racially motivated extremists and militia groups pose the most deadly threat, with the former most likely holding mass victims targeting civilians, while militias targeting government and law enforcement targets.
The report also specifically focused on the threat from white nationalist groups, saying they have “the most persistent and worrying transnational connections.”
The assessment is largely consistent with pressure from Democratic lawmakers, who have argued that the intelligence community should focus its efforts on white nationalists and right-wing extremists.
In a letter to the FBI last month, Democrats from the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the agency to further split the categories for different types of extremists, arguing that broad categories such as racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists “ threaten the threat of white supremacists and extremists. far-right violence. “
That sentiment was echoed by the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff
Adam Bennett Schiff House panel takes over withdrawal of war permit in 2002 in ‘coming weeks’. House Democrats want to silence opposing views, not “fake news.” White House defends failure to sanction Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi MORE (D-Calif.) On Wednesday.
“Today’s report underscores how we face the greatest threat from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, especially white supremacists, and violent militia extremists,” he said in a statement.
“This violence is not limited to lone wolves carrying out mass shootings or attacks, but also more sophisticated cells and conspiracies. Nonetheless, lonely actors pose some of the most difficult challenges to track down, as they can keep their plans to themselves or find like-minded people in private chat rooms, ”he said.
The review pointed to the same challenges, identifying social media as a recruiting tool, while encrypted messaging applications were blamed for making it harder to monitor how groups recruit and plan.
In a recent appearance before lawmakers, FBI Director Christoper Wray said that teasing serious threats online while trying to track the communications of serious actors poses some of the agency’s biggest challenges.
“Trying to figure out who’s just saying, you know, ‘What we should be doing is X’ or ‘Everyone should be doing X’ versus the person who does that and actually gets a grip and then gets followers. assumes they “Not communicating through encrypted channels about all those things is one of the hardest things to do in today’s world,” he said.