Our picks“The Most Significant Terrorism-Related Threat” | San Diego Seawall Debate | Robots, Drones, Satellites & Wildfires, and more
· “The Most Significant Terrorism-Related Threat”: DHS Secretary Says Domestic Extremists Now More a Danger to U.S. Than Foreign Terrorist Groups
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“The Most Significant Terrorism-Related Threat”: DHS Secretary Says Domestic Extremists Now More a Danger to U.S. Than Foreign Terrorist Groups (Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News)
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas says that domestic violent extremism now constitutes the greatest terrorism threat to the United States, exceeding that from al-Qaida, the Islamic State or other radical jihadi groups. “I consider it and I think we consider it collectively the most significant terrorism-related threat impacting the homeland,” Mayorkas said in an interview with Yahoo News. Mayorkas made those comments as he unveiled the U.S. government’s first national strategy for combating the domestic terror threat — a problem the Trump administration was accused of downplaying but that has taken on new urgency in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The document pledges greater information sharing among federal and state agencies and steps up monitoring of social media in order to thwart “online terrorist recruitment” and identify so-called insider threats, including extremists serving in the U.S. military as well as in state and local law enforcement agencies. “I will tell you that we see incendiary language that gives us cause for concern,” Mayorkas said when asked whether he is receiving intelligence reports indicating that domestic extremist groups are planning further attacks.
Pentagon’s Anti-Extremism Moves Now Part of a Larger National Strategy (Meghann Myers, Military Times)
The White House on Tuesday announced a national effort for countering domestic extremism, which includes moves the Defense Department put into action earlier this year. Among them are initiatives to better screen potential recruits, monitor extremist activity while in uniform and better educate new veterans about the possibility of being targeted for recruitment into an extremist group. The White House strategy would like to see those measures extended to law enforcement, according to a Tuesday release. “While domestic law enforcement agencies take the lead, the Department of Defense will do our part to support this important strategy,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “That includes maintaining the Department’s robust relationship with federal law enforcement as well as refining our policies to better address this issue within the Department.” (Cont.)
