Growing extremist threats put more pressure on Biden

[Klaralven]

With far-right domestic terror threats on the rise, experts are urging President Biden to go beyond his initial executive actions and ensure national security forces are better equipped to address homegrown threats.

Biden is coming under pressure to shift resources and boost intelligence sharing following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when law enforcement agencies were caught flat footed by thousands of violent protesters who stormed the building in support of former President Trump.

And the Department of Homeland Security last week warned that the U.S. may face heightened threats from “ideologically-motivated violent extremists.”

“All of this existed before Trump and it will certainly exist post-Trump. I think his role was really to accelerate and spur the ideology and the reaching of new folks,” said Margaret Huang, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups and extremism.

The Biden administration faces the dual threats not just of the rise in white nationalist and extremist groups, she said, but also the increasingly dangerous impacts of disinformation.

“The people who turned out for the rally on Jan 6. were really a range. They were not all extremists. There were people there because they were strong Trump supporters and voted for him and believed the rhetoric about stealing the election was true.”

The White House has called for a sweeping review of domestic terror threats, with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence tasked with developing a “comprehensive threat assessment” in coordination with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The National Security Council has also been directed to undertake a review about how the government can better share information.

“The key point here is that we want fact-based analysis on which we can base policies,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “So this is really the first step in the process, and we’ll rely on the appropriate law enforcement and intelligence officials to provide that analysis.”

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/536587-growing-extremist-threats-put-more-pressure-on-biden

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

1. All law enforcement and intelligence agencies need effective watchdogs within

the agencies themselves, who will weed out fascist sympathizers, and prevent them from further infiltrating the agencies.

Same goes for the military.

All Trump worshipers are dangerous to democracy. Their loyalty is only to their beloved Trump, and they have no loyalty to the Constitution, the United States, democracy, or the right of all citizens of the US to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Trump worshipers believe that only heterosexual white christo-fascist Trump supporters have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The large number of them who have expressed a desire to summarily execute those they view as their enemies, including elected leaders is telling, and alarming.

They are, essentially, Nazis, and our government needs to take rapid and effective steps to keep them under control, or our democracy will not stand.