• Michigan Plotters Also Targeted Virginia Governor: FBI

    Two of the six men accused of conspiring to kidnap Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer participated in a discussions earlier this year with other members of far-right militia groups about abducting Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, an FBI agent testified Tuesday.

  • Plot to Kidnap Michigan’s Governor Grew from the Militia Movement’s Toxic Mix of Constitutional Falsehoods and Half-Truths

    The U.S. militia movement has long been steeped in a peculiar – and unquestionably mistaken – interpretation of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and civil liberties. This is true of an armed militia group that calls itself the Wolverine Watchmen, who were involved in the recently revealed plot to overthrow Michigan’s government and kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. As I wrote in Fracturing the Founding: How the Alt-Right Corrupts the Constitution, published in 2019, the crux of the militia movement’s devotion to what I have called the “alt-right constitution” is a toxic mix of constitutional falsehoods and half-truths.

  • The Alleged Plot in Michigan Isn’t an Anomaly. The Domestic Terrorism Threat Is Rising.

    Last week’s announcement by federal authorities that six men had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) (seven other individuals were arrested on related state charges) is a chilling example of the evolving domestic terrorist threat facing America. Kevin K. McAleenan, the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Thomas K. Plofchan III, the former counterterrorism adviser to the secretary, write that the arrests in Michigan represent “one of the most significant incidents highlighting law enforcement concerns that domestic extremists.” They add that “the predominant terrorist threat at home today is increasingly domestic in nature,” and that “Within the domestic terrorist threat landscape, racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists, and specifically white-supremacist extremists, represent the ‘most persistent and lethal threat,’ according to the recent DHS threat assessment.”

  • Emboldened Far-Right Groups Challenge Cities, States

    Last month, when wildfires threatened rural Oregon communities, another unwelcome phenomenon accompanied them: armed vigilantes blocking entry to outsiders, based on false rumors that protesters had not only started the fires, but also were there to loot the evacuated homes. White supremacists represent the top and most lethal domestic terror threat to Americans, the Department of Homeland Security said Oct. 6, when it released its first-ever Homeland Threat Assessment. “I am particularly concerned about white supremacist violent extremists who have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in recent years,” wrote Chad Wolf, the acting homeland security secretary, in the introduction to the assessment.

  • Lessons from Embedding with the Michigan Militia – 5 Questions Answered about the Group Allegedly Plotting to Kidnap a Governor

    Details are still emerging about the men arrested on federal and state charges related to an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Federal prosecutions can take months and even years, so it will be quite some time before a full analysis of this situation becomes possible. But as a scholar who has spent the last 12 years studying the U.S. domestic militia movement, including three years of fieldwork embedded with militias in Michigan, I believe several themes will remain important, wherever the details lead.

  • Protecting Device Software from Zero-Day Attacks with TrustMS

    An essential step to protecting mobile and embedded devices from cyberattacks is ensuring that software is not vulnerable to malicious attacks. More than 12,000 new common vulnerabilities were identified in 2019 alone. Verifying that devices are secure is a daunting challenge, as thousands of apps and driver updates are released each year and many will contain vulnerabilities that have not yet been discovered. Thanks to the newly-developed Trusted Mobile System (TrustMS), it is now possible to secure app software by preventing attackers from taking advantage of these vulnerabilities.

  • U.S.-Inspired Far-Right Extremism an “Insidious” Threat to Australia: Study

    Researchers from Macquarie and Victoria Universities have published the first study mapping the online activity of right-wing extremists in New South Wales, Australia. Their study has revealed a network of highly active, social, and complex communities that is difficult to monitor for potential offline violence and is highly successful in radicalizing at-risk individuals and introducing hateful and extreme rhetoric into Australian political discussions. The report highlighted the strong influence of American populist politics on right-wing extremism in Australia.

  • Greece: Leaders of Neo-Nazi Group Golden Dawn Convicted of Murder

    After a five-year-long trial, the Greek court on Wednesday found members of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn guilty of murder and assault. The neo-Nazi group’s leader was convicted of running a criminal organization. The 68 members of Golden Dawn, including 18 former lawmakers, faced many charges, including the murder of Greek rapper Pavlos Fyssas, assaulting migrant fishermen, attacks on left-wing activists, and constituting a criminal organization.

  • Michigan Kidnapping Plot, Like So Many Other Extremist Crimes, Foreshadowed on Social Media

    More and more, far-right extremist violence is preceded by online declarations on social media. Craig Timberg and Isaac Stanley-Becker write that “such online declarations, brimming with anger and potentially violent intent, have become staples of extremism-fueled crime news in recent years,” and that “Before [such crimes] become real, [discussions of them] percolate online, courtesy of a social media ecosystem that is ubiquitous, barely moderated and well suited to helping aggrieved people find each other.” The plot by extremist Michigan militias to abduct Governor Gretchen Whitmer was no exception.

  • Members of a Far-Right Militia Arrested in Michigan for Plotting to Abduct Gov. Whitmer

    Six members of the Wolverine Watchmen, an armed, far-right Michigan militia, and seven other men associated with another militia group, were arrested Thursday for plotting to abduct Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer a week before the 3 November election. The plotters planned to try Whitmer for “treason.” The FBI began monitoring the plotters in March.

  • Domestic Terrorism and the U.S. Elections

    The country is deeply divided. The political system is polarized. Bizarre conspiracy theories have entered mainstream political discourse. There seem to be messaging efforts designed to delegitimize next month’s elections. The president refuses to say that he will abide by the results. One official talked on social media about buying ammunition and preparing for violence. Some pundits are warning of civil war. The nation’s anxiety is palpable and understandable. Older Americans have a slight advantage in avoiding alarm. They personally recall the turbulent late ’60s and early ’70s with the country at war abroad and at war with itself at home. American institutions held then, but can they do so again now? What are the prospects for domestic terrorism in the context of U.S. elections?

  • Beyond 9/11: U.S. Security Needs in the 21st Century

    The year 2020 has featured an array of safety and security concerns for ordinary Americans, including disease and natural disasters. How can the U.S. government best protect its citizens? That is the focus of a new scholarly book with practical aims, Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century, The volume features chapters written by 19 security experts, and closely examines the role of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

  • Is the United States Heading for a Rural Insurgency?

    The intrusions of white supremacist militias into cities to intimidate, and at times attack, protestors from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement highlights the possibility of rural insurgency, Vasabjit Banerjee writes. Does the United States face a rural insurgency? Mao Zedong allegedly remarked that rebels should inhabit their environment as fish in the sea, which was the case in mid-20th Century China with its rural hinterland where the vast majority of the population resided.Banerjee notes that the political geography of the United States — withless than 2 percent of the American population living in 100 percent rural countries – means that the “sea” for rural rebels is small. But the grievances, resources, and opportunities which typically undergird rural insurgencies are present. “Consequently, militia groups deserve more scrutiny from security forces and a unified political consensus to deter and suppress them in order to maintain peace and stability.”

  • Rebuttal: Ukraine Is Emerging as Critical Node for White-Supremacy Extremists

    Foreigners are still networking, training and fighting on both sides of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, cultivating skills and connections that strengthen the transnational white-supremacy extremist networks of today—which, though far from monolithic, are more violent, more organized and more capable than even five years ago.

  • 50,000 Benghazis, 109 Katrinas: U.S. COVID-19 Death in Perspective

    The United States now counts over 200,000 dead in direct connection with the novel coronavirus. Elizabeth Hunt Brockway writes that to grasp the enormity of this figure, we need to see how this massive number stacks up to Pearl Harbor, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other iconic events of mass death, suffering, and pain seared into the American collective conscience.