ADVERTISEMENT

Garland Says Domestic Terror Focus Is Violence, Not Ideology

U.S. Launches Broad Effort to Combat Domestic Terrorism

The federal government’s efforts to combat domestic terrorism are focused on stopping violence, not policing ideology, Attorney General Merrick Garland said as the Biden administration unveiled its strategy to prevent events such as the Jan. 6 Capitol siege from happening again.

Garland announced more details about the administration’s approach on Tuesday, five months after the deadly assault on the Capitol by a mob of right-wing supporters of then-President Donald Trump. U.S. officials have said the most dangerous domestic threat for the foreseeable future comes from potential attacks by White supremacists.

“We cannot promise that we will be able to disrupt every plot, diffuse every bomb or arrest every co-conspirator before they manage to wreak unspeakable horror,” Garland said in a speech at the Justice Department in Washington. “But we can promise that we will do everything in our power to prevent such tragedies.”

In a nod to how people of all political beliefs have been victims of domestic terror attacks, Garland cited the Capitol attack, deadly violence at a 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the shooting at Republican members of Congress during a baseball practice the same year.

“This is a project that should unite all Americans,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Tuesday. “Together we must affirm that domestic terrorism has no place in our society. We must work to root out the hatreds that can too often drive violence.”

In the new National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, the administration details ways it intends to improve analysis and information sharing, prevent recruitment and mobilization, disrupt and deter activity, and address root causes of racial and religious hatred and institutional racism. Some efforts are already under way, such as the federal government’s efforts to step up the screening of employees who may pose insider threats.

Q-Anon Threats

The strategy was unveiled as the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory may turn to violence because actions they’ve been promised haven’t been fulfilled. Followers have repeatedly been told that Trump will be re-installed as president and his political opponents -- especially Democrats -- will be arrested or even executed.

Some adherents of QAnon “likely will begin to believe they can no longer ‘trust the plan’ referenced in QAnon posts and that they have an obligation to change from serving as digital soldiers towards engaging in real world violence,” according to an information product issued June 4 by the FBI and Homeland Security Department. The document was obtained and published earlier by the New York Times.

Garland acknowledged the difficulty in countering extremism in the U.S., as law enforcement and intelligence agencies must be careful about infringing on constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.

“Our focus as members of the Department of Justice and as a federal government is to prevent, disrupt and deter unlawful acts of violence, whatever their motive,” Garland said. “There is no place for violence as a means of resolving political differences in our democracy.”

ACLU Criticism

However, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union said the strategy falls short because it fails to rein in “abusive counterterrorism tools that result in unfair and unjustified surveillance and targeting of Black and Brown people, particularly Muslims.”

“We’re deeply disappointed that the administration failed to impose safeguards against biased profiling, overbroad law enforcement information sharing, and other measures that harm free expression and equal protection, including of the very communities that white supremacists target,” Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s national security project, said in a statement.

Garland also said law enforcement and intelligence agencies won’t take their eye off the ball when it comes to stopping attacks by foreign terrorists or U.S. individuals inspired by them.

The strategy stops short of calling for new laws. Instead, the Justice Department will consider whether the government needs additional legal authority and the administration will ultimately determine, in consultation with Congress, whether any legislative action is necessary.

Additionally, the State and Treasury Departments are assessing whether foreign entities linked to domestic terrorism can be designated as terrorists, which would prohibit U.S. citizens from supporting them or receiving training from them.

Treasury and law enforcement agencies are exploring ways to enhance the identification of “financial activity associated with domestic terrorists and their foreign counterparts, as well as enhancing engagement with financial institutions on domestic terrorist financing, including through existing provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act,” according to the strategy.

The federal government also intends to better engage with technology companies. Each company sees only the activity on its own platforms, while the government can synthesize that information with facts on the ground to get a fuller picture of potential threats, a senior administration official told reporters on a call to preview the document’s release.

The document pledges to improve intelligence collection and sharing while also pledging to uphold civil rights and liberties. However, using intelligence powers that were created to stop foreign terrorists for domestic purposes has long been a sensitive topic in both conservative and liberal circles.

House Republicans criticized U.S. intelligence agencies during a hearing in April for overreaching by investigating domestic terrorism.

‘Volatile’ Threats

Biden took office two weeks after Capitol attack and quickly directed his administration to assess the threat of domestic violent extremism. U.S. agencies issued an assessment in March finding that racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists pose the greatest threat, which white supremacists being the most lethal concern.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin last month warning the U.S. is “facing threats that have evolved significantly and become increasingly complex and volatile in 2021,” including “those posed by domestic terrorists, individuals and groups engaged in grievance-based violence, and those inspired or influenced by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.