Our picksConfronting Domestic Extremism | Russia’s “Doomsday Plane” | Synthetic Opioid-Detecting Tech, and more
· After Years of Denial under President Trump, Experts Expect Joe Biden to Confront Domestic Extremism
· Former Cybersecurity Chief Sues Trump Campaign and Others, Charging Defamation
· YouTube Radicalized the Christchurch Shooter, New Zealand Report Concludes
· Jihadism in Spain: A Silent but Real Threat
· Rep. Swalwell Says Trump Criticism Behind Spy Story
· Russia Opens Criminal Case Into ‘Doomsday’ Plane Theft
· Democrats Seek Intel on QAnon from DHS, FBI as Backers Join Congress
· Bill to Boost CBP’s Synthetic Opioid-Detecting Tech Awaits President’s Signature
After Years of Denial under President Trump, Experts Expect Joe Biden to Confront Domestic Extremism (Will Carless, USA Today)
For four years, President Donald Trump downplayed homegrown extremism, refused to engage in security briefings and peddled in falsehoods about threats from leftists. Now former federal security officials are urging President-elect Joe Biden to more seriously acknowledge the growing danger of domestic terrorism, and they welcome signs that he plans to do so.
“Just the fact that Biden’s going to run a normal process, that alone will make us safer because you’ll actually have people paying attention and addressing these issues,” said Elizabeth Neumann, a former senior Homeland Security official.
“The indications are that he’s going to treat the challenges we have with domestic terrorism seriously.”
Neumann was one of a half-dozen former U.S. Department of Homeland Security sources interviewed, along with members of other federal law enforcement agencies and experts in domestic terrorism.
Their consensus was that the past four years have been chaotic at the upper echelon of national security. Trump has consistently downplayed a spike in homegrown extremism – most of it from the far right – that his own words have helped grow, they said.
Former Cybersecurity Chief Sues Trump Campaign and Others, Charging Defamation (Brian Naylor, NPR)
Christopher Krebs, who was fired by President Trump last month after asserting the recent presidential election was “the most secure in American history,” filed suit Tuesday against the Trump campaign, attorney Joseph diGenova and the cable channel Newsmax.
Krebs charges he was defamed by diGenova, who said on Newsmax that Krebs “should be drawn and quartered” or “shot at dawn” following Krebs’ statement. Krebs says such punishments are the “fate of a convicted traitor” and are the basis for his defamation accusation.
The lawsuit, filed in Montgomery County, Md., circuit court, seeks an injunction ordering Newsmax to remove the diGenova interview from its website, as well as monetary damages.