PERSPECTIVE: Threats to the HomelandHow Serious Are Threats to the U.S. Homeland?

Published 18 September 2020

The 17 September hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland,” as its title suggests, does not make for happy watching. Daniel Byman and Seamus Hughes write that, indeed, statements by FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller duly assess an array of dangers related to national security, including election interference, a more aggressive Russia and China, and emergent technologies. Most of their remarks, however, focused on terrorist groups and networks and the threats they pose. “The biggest danger the directors warned about is from lone actors who self-radicalize and act on their own.” Byman and Hughes write. “Wray warned that the most recent uptick is from anti-government violent extremists, some of whom have white supremacist views but many of whom, like the Three Percenters and boogaloos, see themselves as patriots fighting government ‘tyranny’.”

The 17 September hearing on “Worldwide Threats to the Homeland,” as its title suggests, does not make for happy watching. Daniel Byman and Seamus Hughes write in Lawfare that, indeed, statements by FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller duly assess an array of dangers related to national security, including election interference, a more aggressive Russia and China, and emergent technologies. Most of their remarks, however, focused on terrorist groups and networks and the threats they pose.

Byman and Hughes write:

The biggest danger the directors warned about is from lone actors who self-radicalize and act on their own. In early June, a New York man stabbed and shot at two New York Police Department officers in the name of the Islamic State. In 2019, a white supremacist acting on his own began shooting in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, ultimately killing 23 people. He was motivated by stopping what he had previously referred to as a Hispanic invasion of America. We’ve seen more white supremacist attacks since, but Wray warned that the most recent uptick is from anti-government violent extremists, some of whom have white supremacist views but many of whom, like the Three Percenters and boogaloos, see themselves as patriots fighting government “tyranny.” Members of these groups have been showing up at various protests in preparation for what they believe is an imminent civil war. Coronavirus and associated restrictions (and related conspiracy theories) are fodder for such groups. Even here, there is a silver lining, if not exactly good news. Journalists and extremism scholars often accuse law enforcement and the U.S. government of ignoring threats emanating from the far right, but the two directors’ testimonies indicated a focus within the federal government, at least at the practitioner level, on the danger and provided encouraging evidence that the relevant agencies are marshaling resources to combat the threat.

As U.S. coronavirus deaths near 200,000, it’s important to remember that the danger of terrorism goes well beyond its typically small body count. White supremacists and anti-government extremists pose a danger beyond the innocent people they may kill, as horrific as those deaths are. This violence is particularly disturbing because these groups often operate according to philosophies that are merely more violent echoes of domestic shouting matches about the role of government and political disputes in general. And attacks by domestic actors can widen preexisting divisions. Attacks like 9/11 by foreign-based groups are seen as attacks on all Americans, while purely domestic attacks aligned with one part of the political spectrum are often portrayed as “them” being attacked, not “us.” “Them” can be Black or Hispanic people, the LGBTQ community, or adherents to a different political persuasion. After some domestic terror attacks, some Americans may rightly feel that they themselves are not threatened. Or these attacks can further entrench political resentment: Their “side” is mainly a victim of violence, but the other “side” is rife with it. And when politics exacerbates divisions, it worsens the problem of terrorism being seen as affecting only “them,” whoever that is.