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A new intelligence report from the
Department of Homeland Security warns of the imminent danger posed by domestic
anti-government terrorist groups. In its report on the study, CNN suggests that
the real terrorist threat in America is not posed by Islamic terrorists, but
anti-government right-wingers.
CNN reports:
They're carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority.A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism.
The DHS report found that some in
federal and local law enforcement view the threat posed by right-wing domestic
terrorists as “equal to” or “in some cases greater than” foreign-born Islamic
terrorists, such as ISIS.
Offering a graphic (above) showing the
“24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks” since 2010, CNN describes this
“greater” threat to American security as “extremists who believe that they can
ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily
instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court
order.”
The attacks, the report says, will
likely be directed at law enforcement and occur “during routine law enforcement
encounters”:
Among the findings from the Homeland Security intelligence assessment: "(Sovereign citizen) violence during 2015 will occur most frequently during routine law enforcement encounters at a suspect's home, during enforcement stops and at government offices."The report adds that "law enforcement officers will remain the primary target of (sovereign citizen) violence over the next year due to their role in physically enforcing laws and regulations."
Despite specifying that law enforcement
will be the target of these groups, as the graphic shows, the anti-police
activity in Ferguson, Seattle, and other areas are not included under the DHS
study.
For comment on the issue, CNN turned to
the ultra-left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (which until
recently listed Ben Carson as an “extremist”),
which argued that too often Islamic terrorists are distractions from the real
domestic threat:
Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that by some estimates, there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism. Perhaps 100,000 people form a core of the movement, he said.The federal government's focus on the domestic groups waxes and wanes, Potok said, in part because the threat from foreign groups like al Qaeda and its affiliates.
Echoing the Obama administration’s
recent talking points on combating ISIS via “job opportunities,” Potok goes on
to argue that much of the problem with these domestic terrorists is poor
economic conditions, saying that right-wing extremist prey on those facing
extreme debt, foreclosures and legal problems.
But not to worry, the Obama
administration, CNN explains, is fully prepared to use its anti-terrorist
resources to combat domestic forms of “violent ideologies”:
An official at the Justice Department, which is leading the administration's counter-radicalization effort, says many of the tactics aimed at thwarting radical Islamic recruitment of young people can also be used to fight anti-government extremist groups.
