Countering Domestic Terrorism | Hydropower Decline | TikTok’s Extremists Rabbit Holes, and more

Pentagon Now Continuously Scanning All Staff with Security Clearances for Terrorist and Criminal Threats  (Joe Walsh, Forbes)
The Department of Defense says all staff with security clearances are now part of a program that continuously looks for signs of any criminal and terrorist threats they could pose, amid a years-long effort to more closely monitor federal employees for suspicious activity. DOD has enrolled all service members, civilians and contractors with security clearances in a system called “continuous vetting,” which automatically scans and filters criminal and terrorist databases in search of red flags for employees, the Pentagon said in an article on its website Tuesday. This program means DOD officials could find out about arrest warrants and terrorism concerns leveled against staff within days, instead of waiting until an employee’s next background check renewal, which may take several years. Some 3.6 million people with clearances are now included in the continuous vetting system, the Pentagon said Tuesday afternoon. Over the next two years, the government plans to add employees from more federal agencies to the continuous vetting program. It will also start scanning for more categories of information, adding financial and travel records to the criminal and terrorist information currently included in the system.

Facebook Whistleblower: Without Action, ‘Extremist Behaviors We See Today Are Only the Beginning’  (Daniel Howley, Yahoo Finance)
Facebook (FB) whistleblower Frances Haugen testified in the Senate Tuesday about a trove of documents she says point to Facebook’s “destructive impact” on society that has led to, among other things, ethnic violence in Myanmar and Ethiopia. “My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning,” Haugen told the Senate consumer protection subcommittee. “What we saw in Myanmar and are seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying, no one wants to read the end of it.” Facebook has been blamed for helping to spread misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech that has led to sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar and Ethiopia. Haugen’s testimony follows her appearance on “60 Minutes” on Sunday during which she discussed the information from her data leaks, and said that Facebook “has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money.” The Wall Street Journal initially published Haugen’s revelations in a series of articles discussing everything from the impact Facebook’s Instagram has on teens and young women to how Facebook is used by human traffickers in foreign markets.

Australian Far-Right Terrorism Investigations Have Increased By 750 Per Cent in 18 Months  (Henry Zwartz, SBS News)
The threat of nationalist and racist violent extremism is escalating rapidly, according to Australia’s domestic security and investigative services. In the past 18 months, the Australian Federal Police’s Joint Counter Terrorism Team’s (JCTT) caseload covering the area has risen by 750 per cent. And in an interview with SBS News, AFP Assistant Commissioner Scott Lee from the Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command said he only expected the threat to continue to climb. “There was certainly an increase in the JCTT’s nationalist and racist violent extremism caseload from 2019 and into early 2020 … We expect it to increase further than what we are seeing at the moment, but how much further it will increase is difficult to ascertain at the moment.” The rise means it now accounts for 15 per cent of the unit’s total investigative effort.  “Islamist or religiously motivated violent extremism remains the predominant threat at about 85 per cent of our workload,” Mr Lee said. The interview comes as an SBS News investigation uncovered an underground network of Australian men who share far-right views that has never been reported on before in the media, with one member revealing the group’s efforts to acquire firearms.

Germany Suspends Soldiers in Military Guard over Far-Right Allegations  (Deutsche Welle)
Germany is investigating a far-right extremist organization within the military’s honor guard battalion, the Defense Ministry said on Friday. The group reportedly refers to itself as the “wolf pack” (Wolfsrudel) and is also being scrutinized for its initiation rituals and sexual abuse. Adolf Hitler’s secret bunker near Berlin, where he spent the latter days of the war and killed himself, was known as the wolf’s lair (Wolfschanze). The 2nd Company within the prestigious battalion, best known for welcoming foreign heads of state and for high-profile military processions or honors, has been “withdrawn” from active service while the reports are investigated, Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz told reporters in Berlin. The officers implicated have been relieved of their duties. The incidents came to light as a result of accounts by fellow battalion members, it was first reported online by Der Spiegel, shortly before the ministry commented and briefed the parliament on Friday. Collatz also acknowledged that these allegations were by no means the first of their kind within the German military ranks in recent years.  “It concerns — once again, you have to say — rather perverse drinking and hazing rituals. It concerns sexual violence and molestation. It concerns far-right incidents,” Collatz said.

Extremists Await Sentencing for Planning Domestic Terrorism  (Ariella Marsden, Jerusalem Post)
Federal prosecutors in Maryland have recommended that white supremacists Brian Mark Lemley Jr. and Patrik Jordan Mathews be sentenced to 25 years in prison each for their plans to carry out domestic terrorism at a gun rights rally in Virginia and pleading guilty to firearms and immigration-related charges. Both members of the “Base”, Lemley and Mathews discussed plans to kill people including police officers and Blacks and break a murderer out of prison as well as plans of domestic terrorism. The Base is a group of racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) that recruits members through an online presence. Among their various postings on social media are calls for terror attacks and violent revolution against the state as well as encouraging people to seek out those who have committed “anti-White hate crimes” and “balance the scales.” For Lemley, however, the Base is not the first RMVE group that he has been affiliated with.  One of the pieces of evidence presented against him was an email he sent to the Northwest Front, a neo-Nazi “republic”, in 2017. In it, Lemley was notifying the Front that his great grandmother was Jewish and requesting to dispute the “jewyness” in his bloodline. The Northwest Front eventually responded to him, after which he became a member, tweeting in support of the Front and its values.”

TikTok’s Algorithm Leads Users from Transphobic to Far-Right Rabbit Holes (LA Blade)
…The publisher of the books, the American Futurist, describes itself as seeking “to spread the message and ideas of James Mason” through “the promotion of books, articles and all other forms of media.” Mason, a neo-Nazi writer whose work is cited in The Movementarian Menace, is also a major influence behind Atomwaffen Division, a violent white nationalist terrorist group. As noted by the Counter Extremism Project, the American Futurist is associated with Atomwaffen Division (also known as the National Socialist Order) and multiple ex-members of the group have contributed content to American Futurist. One such contributor is the author of The Movementarian Menace, Vincent Snyder, whose real name, the American Futurist notes, is John Cameron Denton. Denton, himself the former leader of Atomwaffen Division, was sentenced to 41 months in prison in May for taking part in a conspiracy that involved hate crimes targeting a historic African American.