Summer of Rolling Blackouts | Terrorist Manifestoes | Swiss Spying, and more

There Aren’t Answers in Terrorist Manifestoes. There’s Only Self-Mythologizing.  (Jane Coaston, New York Times)
What I’ve come to understand over the years is that manifestoes like that of the white nationalist gunman in Buffalo are not really worth reading. They are written to be shared, but they are not confessional, and they shouldn’t be read literally. They are manipulative.
They are the story terrorists want to tell about themselves, not the truth. The Buffalo shooter’s manifesto doesn’t mention his history of animal abuse, for example. As with any writer of his own story, he was making choices about how he wanted to be seen.
Manifestoes by people like this have two audiences: normal people, or what extremely online people might call normies, and true believers. Normies are, well, normal people who aren’t baked in the language of online racists, who won’t pick up on the layers of intentional irony — long asides on cryptocurrency and the environment, for example — that terrorists like the Buffalo gunman or the shooters in Christchurch, New Zealand, or Poway, Calif., use to unify their messages. (It appears that the Buffalo shooter even copied portions of the manifesto of the Christchurch shooter directly.)

The Terrorist Threat Posed By Lone Actors Is ‘Difficult to Detect,’ Says Federal Report  (Catharine Tunney, CBC)
Violent extremists in Canada have the “intent and capability” to commit acts of terrorism, but detecting attacks by lone actors or small groups before they happen is “difficult,” says an internal threat assessment conducted for the federal government last year. The warning is found in a threat analysis prepared by the federal government’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC) in the lead-up to last year’s muted Canada Day celebrations. At the time, the team — which works with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to advise the federal government on terrorist threats — was worried that ideologically or religiously motivated extremists could seize the occasion of the national holiday to make a violent statement. While no known attacks happened last July 1, the analysis shines a light on the things the secretive agency looks for in advance of special events and the challenges it faces detecting would-be attackers. “An attack on a Canada Day 2021 celebration or legitimate public protest is most likely to be conducted by an inspired lone actor or small group using unsophisticated methods such as firearms, bladed weapons, vehicles or homemade explosives,” ITAC concluded in its report, obtained by CBC News through an access to information request.

Swiss Plan to Let Spy Agency Snoop on Security Risk Financial Flows (Reuters)
The Swiss government proposed on Thursday letting its spy agency penetrate the country’s famous banking secrecy to snoop on financial transactions that it suspects are funding terrorism, espionage or violent extremism. Unveiling a draft amendment of the intelligence law for public comment, the cabinet pointed out that the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) at present has no power to ask banks and other financial intermediaries for information on people or groups seen as security risks. Switzerland has some of the strictest domestic banking confidentiality laws in the world. “In the event of serious threats to Switzerland’s security, the FIS will in future be able to clarify financial flows by requesting information on transactions from financial intermediaries,” a government statement said. This could cover businesses, non-profit organizations or religious institutions suspected of helping to finance terrorist, intelligence or violent extremist activities. The Federal Administrative Court and the defense minister would have to authorize such requests after consultations with the justice and foreign ministers.

Just Before Buffalo Shooting, 15 Users Signed into Suspect’s Chatroom, Says Person Familiar with Review  (Jon Swaine and Reed Albergotti, Washington Post)
An online chatroom invitation sent shortly before the Buffalo supermarket shooting by alleged gunman Payton Gendron was accepted by 15 users, according to a person with knowledge of the messaging platform Discord’s investigation into the matter. When the 15 accepted the invite to that server, they were able to scroll back through months of Gendron’s voluminous writings and racist screeds. A copy of an invitation from Gendron reviewed by The Washington Post said Discord users who clicked through to the room also could view an online video stream, where footage of the Buffalo attack on Saturday was broadcast, raising the possibility more people saw the shootings as they happened than was previously known. Investigators at the messaging platform are sifting through data relating to Gendron’s account to decipher the accused shooter’s network, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss matters also being examined by law enforcement. Discord has said it disabled Gendron’s chatroom after the shooting, which killed 10 people and injured three at a Tops supermarket, but has declined to say how it learned of the chat room’s connection to the attack.

Climate-Fueled Heat Waves Will Hamper Western Hydropower  (Benjamin Storrow, Scientific American)
Earlier snowmelt can leave less water available to generate power during the height of summer.