• Capitol Siege Raises Questions over Extent of White Supremacist Infiltration of U.S. Police

    The apparent participation of off-duty officers in the rally that morphed into a siege on the U.S. Capitol building Jan. 6 has revived fears about white supremacists within police departments. Reports of officers involved in an attack in which the symbols and language of white supremacy were clearly on display are concerning. But so too, I believe, is a policing culture that may have contributed to the downplaying of the risk of attack before it began and the apparent sympathetic response to attackers displayed by some police officers – they too hint at a wider problem.

  • Necessary and Insufficient: The Problems Impeachment Does Not Solve

    Congress could not ignore President Donald Trump’s relentless, persistent campaign of Big Lies about the 3 November election—a pattern of behavior that culminated in the president’s move last week to assemble a mob in Washington and loose it on the Capitol. Benjamin Wittes writes that impeachment was, therefore, necessary – but “Impeachment is an awkward remedy in a more practical sense” since “It does nothing to disable Trump in the last seven days of his presidency.” “Congress can remove a president using impeachment but, in the meantime, has to leave the mad king in possession of all of his powers.”

  • Face Surveillance and the Capitol Attack

    After last week’s violent attack on the Capitol, law enforcement is working overtime to identify the perpetrators. This is critical to accountability for the attempted insurrection. Law enforcement has many, many tools at their disposal to do this, especially given the very public nature of most of the organizing. But the Electronic Frontier Foundations (EFF) says it objects to one method reportedly being used to determine who was involved: law enforcement using facial recognition technologies to compare photos of unidentified individuals from the Capitol attack to databases of photos of known individuals. “There are just too many risks and problems in this approach, both technically and legally, to justify its use,” the EFF says.

  • U.S. Prosecutors Expect to Charge Hundreds of Capitol Rioters

    U.S. prosecutors say they have identified more than 170 people for potential criminal charges in connection with the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol and that they expect that number to run into the hundreds in the coming weeks as a massive nationwide hunt for the pro-Trump rioters continues.  

  • An Avalanche of Violence: Revealing Predictable Patterns in Armed Conflicts

    New research finds that human conflict exhibits remarkable regularity despite substantial geographic and cultural differences.

  • FBI Issues Alert about Extremists’ Plan to Disrupt Biden’s Inauguration

    The FBI is warning state and local and law enforcement around the country of plans for violent action by right-wing extremists in the day leading up to the inauguration of Joe Biden on 20 January. According to the FBI, various right-wing extremist groups are planning a series of protests in the capitals of all fifty states between 16 and 20 January, and in Washington, D.C. between the 17 and 20 of January.

  • U.S. Capitol Mob Highlights 5 Reasons Not to Underestimate Far-Right Extremists

    In the wake of the mob incursion that took over the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, it’s clear that many people are concerned about violence from far-right extremists. But they may not understand the real threat. While researching my forthcoming book, It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the U.S., I discovered that there are five key mistakes people make when thinking about far-right extremists. These mistakes obscure the extremists’ true danger.

  • Extremists React to Pro-Trump Siege on Capitol

    On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. In chatrooms and other extremist forums, many people cheered the actions of those at the Capitol, praising the trespassers as patriots who were willing to “stand up” to politicians and the government. many users shared their belief that war is coming, and some encouraged people to be prepared for further action.

  • Capitol Hill Riots Prompt Germany to Revisit Online Hate Speech Law

    Numerous social networks were quick to impose bans President Donald Trump, preventing him from continuing to disseminate lies on their platforms, and, more importantly, blocking him from using his social media accounts to incite violence. For many critics, these restrictions came four years too late. The assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters has led to fresh calls in Germany for more restrictions on extremist speech in Germany, too.

  • QAnon and the Storming of the U.S. Capitol: The Offline Effect of Online Conspiracy Theories

    What is the cost of propaganda, misinformation and conspiracy theories? Democracy and public safety, to name just two things. The United States has received a stark lesson on how online propaganda and misinformation have an offline impact.

  • Cybersecurity and the Occupation of the Capitol

    On 6 January, a large number of pro-Trump rioters occupied portions of the U.S. Capitol building to protest and disrupt the counting and certification of electoral votes from the November 2020 election. Herb Lin writes that the significance of this event for American democracy, the rule of law, and the depths of extremism in the U.S. populace will be addressed by others, “but I am compelled to point out this siege has created potentially serious cyber risks for Congress and other affected offices.”

  • Germany Reviews Parliament Security after U.S. Capitol Riot

    The president of Germany’s lower legislative house, Wolfgang Schäuble, on Thursday said officials would examine improvements that could be made to parliamentary security in Germany after the storming of the U.S. Capitol building. Schäuble’s office said he would examine “what conclusions should be drawn from this for the protection of the Bundestag,” as the lower house is called, in light of the scenes from Washington.

  • 10 People to Stand Trial over 2016 Brussels Bombings

    Ten suspects will face court in the second half of next year over the 2016 Brussels terror attacks which left 32 people dead. One of the defendants was allegedly also involved in the 2015 Paris attacks.

  • Austria Calls for European Register of Muslim Imams

    Since the start of 2021, Austria has required the registration of all imams in the country. Now Austria is calling for the European Union to adopt the registration of imams, the worship leaders of Mosques in Muslim communities.

  • The Nashville Bombing and Threats to Critical Infrastructure: We Saw This Coming

    If fear of 5G technology proves to be the motive for the Christmas-Day bombing in Nashville, Tennessee, no one should be surprised. Audrey Kurth Cronin writes that if [Nashville bomber] Anthony Warner was indeed protesting 5G networks, it shines a light on the long-standing need for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement to meld global and local efforts to get ahead of cyber-driven threats to critical infrastructure. “Authorities need to strengthen their ability to meet anti-technology attacks on our vulnerable critical infrastructure, especially by looking close to home.”