HOMELAND SECURITY NEEDS TO FOCUS MORE INSIDE THE U.S.A.

 

… The U.S. Capitol is seen through razor wire on a security fence that is guarded by a National Guardsman after last month’s insurrection.

 

Experts warned that the attack on the Capitol was viewed as a “victory” for the extremists.

 

Up to now, the Department of Homeland Security has been responsible for securing the country’s borders, ports, transportation and cyber systems.  They generally left the monitoring of extremist groups and terrorism investigations to the FBI.  This agency was founded after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City.  However, as of 2019, this agency began shifting to face the threat of domestic terrorism

One of the first reasons for this change occurred on a Saturday morning in August, 2019.  That was when a 21-year-old White man with ear protectors, safety glasses and an AK-47-style rifle, he walked into a crowded Walmart in El Paso, Texas.   His pockets were bulging with ammunition and he had driven hundreds of miles across Texas, because he wanted to kill as many Latinos as possible.

Kevin McAleenan, the acting DHS secretary, was at a Coast Guard picnic in Virginia that day, and soon the urgent messages began arriving. A sinking feeling of horror set in as the magnitude of the attack became clear. “It was devastating,” he said.

Twenty-three people were killed in the worst attack on Hispanic Americans in modern U.S. history.

About 5,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection employees live in El Paso, and six lost family members that day. “To have an individual attack us, at one of the home bases of our agency and specifically going after Hispanic Americans who make up a majority­ of our employees in that area, was very personal for us, and it galvanized an effort that was already underway,” McAleenan said.

For years leading up to El Paso, the Department of Homeland Security, created to prevent another 9/11, had been under growing pressure to do more to address domestic extremism. Within seven weeks of the El Paso massacre, McAleenan released a plan for “countering terrorism and targeted violence” that amounted to a road map for the department’s pivot from foreign threats to homegrown ones. It was the first time DHS had identified the extent of the danger posed by domestic violent extremists and white supremacists.

The plan got little attention or support from the White House, and even though DHS began speaking more directly about domestic threats, the effort made little difference on Jan. 6, when the department was one of several federal agencies caught flat-footed.  Since that day’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, calls have intensified for DHS to emphatically turn its attention inward and do more to protect Americans from other Americans.

The FBI Probe has so far found evidence that details coordination of the January 6th assault.

The attack has left many lawmakers, and especially Democrats, insisting that domestic terrorism has eclipsed the threat from foreign actors such as the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. But DHS and its agencies have nearly eight times as many employees as the FBI.  In addition, calls for the department to play a more muscular role in combating domestic extremism have policymakers looking at new ways to enlist its resources.

Many have argued that President Donald Trump's efforts amounted to an attempted coup on Jan. 6.  The lawmakers proposals have revived some of the civil liberties concerns that arose after the creation of the department as a large, internal security bureaucracy with a broad mandate.  And the possibility of the department scrutinizing Americans has added to the unease because providing homeland security is less controversial when the threats are foreign.

DHS used its National Terrorism Advisory System to warn the public about attacks by domestic groups for the first time last month, citing “a heightened threat environment across the United States” in a bulletin issued a week after President Biden’s inauguration.  “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,” the warning stated.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has long insisted DHS should protect Americans from the gravest dangers they face, and he said that domestic extremists and white supremacists present the most urgent, lethal threat.

“A lot of them mask themselves under some guise of being patriots or some form of citizen, but the question is, what do they advocate? It’s violence. It’s overthrowing legitimately elected officials,” Thompson said in an interview.  “So in my mind, those types of individuals who want to exercise violence to bring change, they are domestic terrorists, and we have the obligation to identify who they are and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

During a hearing Thompson held earlier this month, lawmakers of both parties spoke favorably of new legislation to specifically address domestic terrorism, as experts warned the attack on the Capitol was viewed as a “victory” for extremists and a “watershed moment for the white-supremacist movement.”

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the committee’s former chairman, joined lawmakers calling for specific federal sanctions for domestic terrorism.  This is potentially applying the same penalties as those that exist for terrorism that originates overseas.  Such legislation could include penalties for providing material support to domestic groups and laws holding technology companies responsible for violent and extremist content on their platforms, including social media.

“I think it sends a strong message about where Congress is that we’re going to treat domestic terrorism on an equal plane as international terrorism,” McCaul said.

Contrary to some television portrayals, DHS does not have a standing contingent of armed homeland security agents with a specific mandate to stop domestic terrorism.  But it has agencies and programs that could expand to devote more attention and resources to risks posed by homegrown extremists.

DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis collects information from the FBI, private contractors and state and local law enforcement agencies to organize and disseminate threat reports. Its employees and contractors generally lack the training and experience of FBI investigators, and they rely on open-source material.

But the office failed to generate a specific warning about the possibility of right-wing groups storming the Capitol in an attempt to keep President Donald Trump in power.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a branch of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  It has about 6,000 agents nationwide who investigate drug smuggling, human trafficking and illicit goods or currency.  HSI has not focused on countering domestic extremism, but it is an armed component of DHS that, in theory, could have a more hands-on role stopping homegrown terrorists and white supremacists.

DHS’s most tangible institutional response is the Office for Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention, founded in 2019 to address “a growing threat from domestic actors, such as racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, including white supremacist violent extremists, anti-government and anti-authority violent extremists, and others.”

Its work is primarily preventive, not investigative, providing grants to state and local law enforcement programs and issuing threat briefings and assessments. The office remains relatively small, with a staff of about 30, but it is expected to grow in the coming years with more congressional funding.

“In the post-9/11 world, the threat was foreign terrorism,” Tom Ridge, the first DHS secretary, said in an interview. “The CIA and the military were the tip of the spear, and we filled the defensive gap. But now there’s another adjective in front of terrorism: domestic terrorism.”

“The well-known failure of law enforcement and security agencies to properly share information ahead of the 9/11 attack was a justification for the creation of DHS,” Ridge noted. “So an immediate challenge for DHS will be coordination among multiple federal agencies that collect and share information on domestic groups,” he said.

“Much of it arrives through state and local law enforcement agencies, and DHS’s biggest asset,” Ridge said, “is its relationships with state and local authorities.”

Yet Ridge cautioned against DHS turning its attention away from foreign threats and other priorities. “What people don’t understand…and people need to understand…is that DHS has so many other tasks embedded in its mission,” he said. “It’s a multitask organization, and DHS has to be careful moving in that direction because I still don’t think it’s their primary job.”

In a sobering moment during the House hearing this month where lawmakers discussed new domestic terrorism legislation, former DHS adviser Elizabeth Neumann warned committee members the threat would probably persist for “10 to 20 years.”

Neumann, who was DHS counterterrorism adviser under President Trump, helped oversee the creation of a new contingent of DHS “regional coordinators” who work with state and local officials to prevent radicalization and recruitment by hate groups.

The approach places a greater emphasis on the social and psychological factors that lead to extremist violence. DHS has a dozen regional coordinators across the country, but Neumann said the goal is to expand their presence to every U.S. state.

“What we have been seeing the last five to six years is individuals with unmet needs who quickly radicalize according to whatever ideology they stumble upon,” Neumann said in an interview.

“We’re dealing with a phenomenon in this country of vulnerable, disaffected individuals who are being preyed upon or seeking it out themselves. And when it comes to prevention, what we’ve learned is that law enforcement agencies aren’t necessarily the best to do interventions,” she said.  “If someone has planned an attack, that is law enforcement territory. That person is too far gone. But when a person is on that journey to radicalization, their family members and loved ones notice changes in their behavior.”

Neumann predicted it will take five to 10 years to build out a more robust effort at DHS to prevent radicalization and extremism. What’s challenging about the current moment, Neumann added, is the speed with which radicalization occurs, as individuals can quickly go from embracing an ideology to planning an attack.

“We have so many people talking online and using war metaphors,” she said. “Are they using those terms to actually mean war? It’s very hard to discern when you have so many people participating in angry rhetoric.”

Four years under Trump has sincerely increased the radicalization of the extremist groups in this country.  It as if we were back in the heydays of the Ku Klux Klan.

Copyright G. Ater 2021