Experts warn of increased risk of US terror attacks by rightwing 'lone wolf' actors

[milestogo]

The US is at an increased risk of domestic terror attacks by rightwing “lone wolf” actors, experts have warned, as inflammatory Republican rhetoric around a variety of issues seems likely to continue ahead of the 2024 election. The number of attacks by adherents to rightwing ideology has soared since 2016, as Republican lies about election interference, and escalating rhetoric from the right about minority groups, have served to “provide mechanisms” for individuals to become radicalized, an analyst said.

As the threat of domestic rightwing terrorism rises, researchers say individuals, rather than organized groups, are now far more likely to commit what analysts call “crimes inspired by extremist ideology”. There have been a series of such attacks in recent years. In May 2022 a white supremacist killed 10 Black people at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York. The attacker said he had chosen the location because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this year. A self-described white nationalist killed 23 people and injured 22 in a shooting in El Paso, on the border of Mexico and the US, in 2019, in an anti-immigration attack targeting Hispanic people.

In recent years a white supremacist killed nine people at a Black church in Charleston, while just this week a man was arrested after he crashed a rented truck into bollards near the White House. The man subsequently praised Adolf Hitler to investigators and said he intended to “kill the president”, according to charging documents.

Michael Jensen, senior researcher at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (Start) at the University of Maryland, said 70% of individuals committing terrorist acts in the US are individuals, or part of “isolated cliques” – small groups of three to four people. “That said, these individuals might be lone actors, but they’re not lonely actors,” Jensen said. “They are embedded in these online ecosystems where they are exchanging ideas with each other all day every day.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/28/lone-wolf-far-right-terror-attack-warning

[bucolic_frolic]

1. These people are not well-wrapped, a psychological antidote is needed

Monitoring them is proving insufficient to alter their behavior and course of action.

[PSPS]

2. "attacks ... (have) soared since 2016" - Gee, I wonder what happened around then.

[stopdiggin]

3. and doesn't even touch on

the number of 'potential' attacks and incidents that have been thwarted - and receive almost 'routine' basic coverage in the news. How many stories have you read of the guy with a vehicle full of guns and ammo - heading to .. ? And unless they actually make their destination, and succeed in their nihilistic mission (i.e. slaughter sufficient numbers) - nobody's paying any real attention.

[CommonHumanity]

4. Ya think? NT

[taxi]

5. What is written between the lines about 70% of these terrorist acts being by individuals

The 70% figure reflects an individual in a group of three or four people – to look at it from a different perspective, Terry Nichols was 1 of 3 convicted of carrying out the terrorist attack in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The three conspirators profiled below are the only ones charged in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing. Other persons, however, such as members of the white supremacist Aryan Republican Army in Elohim City, Oklahoma, have been linked to McVeigh's activities. A 2001 FBI report indicated that McVeigh had connections with the Aryan Republican Army and participated with their members in bank robberies. Several witnesses also have identified ARA member Michael Brescia as "John Doe No. 2," who was said to be with McVeigh in Kansas just days before the Murrah Building was bombed. Other ARA members, according to several published reports, also assisted McVeigh in Kansas in April 1995. McVeigh, however, denied that the Elohim City gang had anything to do with the bombing--but the results of a polygraph test taken by McVeigh suggests that he might have been lying about this to protect others. Profiles of the three Oklahoma City bombing conspirators: Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mcveigh/conspirators.html

Seventy percent suddenly sounds like a very manipulated, cushioned number. When a bowling ball takes out one pin of four it is not 70%. Susan Corke, Intelligence Director at the Southern Poverty Law Center asserts the far right is “increasingly mobilized since the beginning of the Trump era”, and “While a shooter or someone who takes violent action may act on their own, I would say that they are not solo actors”.

The article reveals that law enforcement is not combatting rightwing terrorism despite having access to information from intelligence agencies and the FBI, that no one keeps track of the numbers, and that the kind of rhetoric that led to January 6th could continue to cause problems.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

8. And yet, one of the FBI field offices was attacked.

We NEED law enforcement to start gearing up for what we all feel is coming.

[taxi]

9. There probably is little doubt that law enforcement has the training

and abilities to be effective, yet the previous administration was unwilling to protect the system it was trying to overthrow. In many states and on local levels that unwillingness still exists.

[Bayard]

6. Funny thing.....

None of these wacko's are Democrats. Again, a big billboard opportunity.

[BWdem4life]

7. I look forward to the day that Republicans are so rare...

Well, you know the rest.