A More Violent Union | Extremism in the Military | Refocusing DHS, and more

Lloyd Austin, Biden’s Nominee to Lead Pentagon, Vows to Take on Extremism in the Military (Missy Ryan and Paul Sonne, Washington Post)
Retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III vowed Tuesday to eradicate extremism in the ranks if confirmed as the next defense secretary, as the Pentagon struggles to address a growing internal threat in the wake of this month’s riot at the U.S. Capitol. “We can never take our hands off the wheel on this,” Austin, who would become the country’s first African American Pentagon chief, told lawmakers considering his nomination by President-elect Joe Biden. “This has no place in the military of the United States of America.” Austin, who before his 2016 retirement served as head of U.S. Central Command and previously commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, made reference to a consequential episode earlier in his career when, as a young officer in the 82nd Airborne Division, a network of skinhead soldiers was uncovered following the murder of an African American couple near the division’s base. Nearly two dozen soldiers were later found to have links to neo-Nazi or extremist groups. A distressing realization, Austin said, was that military leaders hadn’t picked up on signs about the threat. “We just didn’t know what to look for,” he said. Austin’s reference to the 25-year-old incident signifies the urgency of the military’s challenge today in identifying and addressing anti-government and racist currents, among the numerous issues he will face if he becomes Biden’s Pentagon chief.

Alleged Militia Leader Arrested, Officials Say, as FBI Eyes Extremist Group Suspects after Capitol Riot (Stephanie Pagones, Fox News)
An alleged militia leader was arrested Tuesday for being involved in the “planning and coordinating” of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, as the FBI’s hones its efforts on extremist groups suspected of being linked to the attack, court papers show. Thomas Edward Caldwell is one of the multiple alleged militia members to be connected, so far, with the Capitol Hill insurrection. Federal investigators described the 65-year-old Virginia man as having a “leadership role” within a paramilitary group known as the Oath Keepers, according to an affidavit for Caldwell’s arrest. Oath Keepers ‒identified in court papers as a “loosely organized collection of militia who believe that the federal government has been coopted (s.i.c.) by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights” ‒were seen in photographs on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. Investigators scoured Caldwell’s Facebook page and found that Caldwell “was involved in planning and coordinating the January 6 breach,” the affidavit states. Caldwell allegedly made arrangements for other Oath Keepers to stay in a Virginia hotel, reportedly writing on Facebook: “This is a good location and would allow us to hunt at night if we wanted to.

Far Right Groups Get Bitcoin Windfall Weeks Before Capitol Riot (Olga Kharif and Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg)
Far-right groups and personalities received a windfall last month and evidence “strongly suggests” it came from a now-deceased computer programmer based in France, according to the researcher Chainalysis Inc. On Dec. 8, the donor sent 28.15 Bitcoins, worth about $522,000 at the time of transfer, to 22 separate addresses in a single transaction, according to Chainalysis, whose clients include law-enforcement agencies. Web personality Nick Fuentes, who the Anti-Defamation League describes as a white supremacist, received the largest portion — about $250,000 — — and other recipients included the anti-immigration organization VDare and “alt-right streamer” Ethan Ralph, the researchers said. The French programmer appears to be Laurent Bachelier, according to online records. Ralph, who hosts a political podcast in which he denounced the Capitol attack, confirmed that he received about “half a Bitcoin” on Dec. 8, but still doesn’t know exactly who sent it to him. He said he’d never received donations from that wallet before and immediately sold his share of the contribution. “I definitely don’t support domestic terrorism,” Ralph said in an interview. He rejected the “alt right” label, saying instead that he’s a right-wing conservative.

Violent German Far-Right Groups’ Recruitment Aided by Lockdown Frustrations (Jamie Dettmer, VOA)
Violent far-right groups are using rising frustration with pandemic lockdowns in their recruitment efforts, German officials fear. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency is closely monitoring protesters of coronavirus restrictions, worried that the influence of militants, including Nazi admirers, ultranationalists and Holocaust deniers, is growing.   While Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has seen a precipitous slump in its poll ratings since the pandemic struck — the party was polling at just 9% of support last month — officials say violent right-wing extremists, united in their opposition to what they say are illegitimate curbs on freedom, are gaining a boost from the coronavirus and strengthening their mobilization around anti-government conspiratorial narratives.  “Actors within this movement largely see the COVID-19 pandemic as a chance to spread their ideology more widely and to reach a broader recruitment base,” warned the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a nonprofit nongovernmental organization headquartered in New York, in a lengthy report assessing threats posed by transnational violent right-wing extremism in Europe and the United States.

Hate Speech. Violent Threats. Conspiracy Theories. Is Tech Doing Enough after Capitol Attack? Depends on Who You Ask (Jessica Guynn, USA Today)
Have the nation’s leading tech companies been doing a good job handling violent threats, hate speech and conspiracy theories after the attack on the U.S. Capitol? Depends on who you ask.  Nearly two weeks later, the role of Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube in dousing flames on their platforms is still being hotly debated. More than a third – 37% – of Americans say they approve of how the companies are cracking down on potentially harmful or dangerous content, with 28% saying they have gone too far and 23% saying they haven’t gone far enough, according to a new survey from The Harris Poll shared exclusively with USA TODAY. “Most Americans saw the actions taken by Big Tech in recent weeks as necessary, but they’re still deeply skeptical of the power and influence these companies have,” John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll, said in an emailed statement.  Opinions largely split along party lines, with 51% of Democrats saying tech companies were doing a good job, compared with 25% of Republicans. Generations also diverged in the survey of 1,960 U.S. adults between Jan. 15 and Jan. 17.

“If They Won’t Hear Us, They Will Fear Us”: How the Capitol Assault Was Planned n Facebook (David Mack, Ryan Mac, and Ken Bensinger, BuzzFeed News)
Right-wing extremists used Facebook to make calls to overthrow the government and storm the US Capitol in the period leading up to a violent insurrection on Jan. 6, a tech watchdog group has found, contradicting attempts by the social media company to downplay the role of its platform in the affair. A new report from Tech Transparency Project (TTP) shared with BuzzFeed News uncovered a slew of specific threats made in pro–President Donald Trump and militant groups on Facebook both before and after President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory in November. In those groups, organizers and members alike perpetuated the lie that the election results were fraudulent and made open calls to “Occupy Congress” on Jan. 6. “If they won’t hear us, they will fear us,” read one image shared on Dec. 31 to a 23,500 member private group called “The Patriot Party,” which has since been deleted. “The Great Betrayal is over.” While Facebook said it had banned pages and groups from right-wing militants and QAnon conspiracists over the summer, TTP’s report shows that extremist groups continued to flourish on Facebook. BuzzFeed News previously found that groups for “Stop the Steal,” the go-to slogan for Trump supporters casting doubt on Biden’s victory, persisted on the social network in the days after the violence at the US Capitol.

Capitol Riot Exposed Flaws of Trump’s DHS, Focused on Immigration and Not Extremists, Ex-Officials Say (Julia Ainsley, NBC News)
Trump’s DHS staffers “tend to be younger, with not as much experience,” says an ex-Trump DHS official. “So many protocols were not followed” on Jan. 6.

A More Violent Union (Zack Beauchamp, Vox)
Trump is leaving. The threat of right-wing violence he helped cultivate remains.