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A new national terrorism alert is warning that violent extremists may take advantage of the easing of pandemic restrictions to conduct attacks

WASHINGTON (AP) — A national terrorism alert issued Friday warns that violent extremists may take advantage of the easing of pandemic restrictions to conduct attacks.

The alert does not cite any specific threats. But it warns of potential danger from an increasingly complex and volatile mix that includes domestic terrorists inspired by various grievances, racial or ethnic hatred and influences from abroad.

Those threats were exacerbated by COVID-19, which spawned conspiracy theories and deepened anger at the government in some quarters over the shutdown of the economy. As virus conditions improve, the alert says new dangers loom.

“Violent extremists may seek to exploit the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions across the United States to conduct attacks against a broader range of targets after previous public capacity limits reduced opportunities for lethal attacks,” the bulletin said.

Without naming any specific potential targets, it notes that, historically, extremists motivated by racial and ethnic hatred have targeted religious institutions and businesses or gatherings.

The National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security is an extension of one issued earlier this year in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. That alert was expiring Saturday.

It reflects a sense of anxiety over domestic extremists, particularly those motivated by racial and ethnic hatred, that has been building for months, even under the previous administration, with repeated warnings from DHS and the Justice Department.

Concern over the domestic extremists has to a certain degree eclipsed the focus on foreign terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State, though the alert warns that both groups still try to inspire homegrown attacks.

Added to the mix are adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran, which the alert says are amplifying conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19 and calls for violence against people of Asian descent.

“Today’s terrorism-related threat landscape is more complex, more dynamic, and more diversified than it was several years ago," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in releasing the new bulletin.

Both Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland testified to a Senate committee this week that racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists pose the greatest domestic threat to the country at the moment.

The new alert expires Aug. 13. The national terrorism bulletin issued in January warned of the lingering potential for violence from people motivated by antigovernment sentiment after President Joe Biden’s election, suggesting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol may have emboldened extremists and set the stage for additional attacks.

That sentiment is still present, with the latest alert noting online calls for violence against politicians, law enforcement, and government buildings. “Many of the threats outlined in today’s bulletin persist from the long shadow cast by the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who serves as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

DHS and the FBI are providing guidance and other assistance to state and local law enforcement organizations to deal with the threat.

DHS has also established a new domestic terrorism branch within its Office of Intelligence and Analysis and has directed state and local governments to use 7.5% of annual grant money issued by the agency to deal with the threat.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/nation-w...XGKQSCKXD5YK3M/

"The alert does not cite any specific threats"


Alert, someone may be murdered on a Main street tonight.

""But it warns of potential danger from an increasingly complex and volatile mix that includes domestic terrorists inspired by various grievances, racial or ethnic hatred and influences from abroad""

Pretty sure you know that's not at all what they are talking about... Typical,, Make light of a bad situation.

That pretty much sums up the situation for what, the last 30 years?

No, Not really. In the past we didn't have the threat level from Domestic terrorists that we have today.. Most brought on by Trump and his minions.

We just disagree.

Oh and so much more...

As for my part, it is simply a disagreement. For your part, I couldn't say what you mean by your comment.

I mean if the FBI and American intelligence is to be believed - under Trump and Biden - then this is factually true. But #factsdontmatter

Yes, this is merely an extension of what Trump's own, appointed FBI director warned us if. He must have been lying to Peen too.

FBI director raises alarm about white supremacy, Russian interference; Trump’s DHS chief skips hearing

Sep 17, 2020 at 3:18 PM

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned lawmakers on Thursday that Russian election interference and violent white supremacist groups rank among the top threats to U.S. national security — a message sharply at odds with President Trump’s views.

Wray made the stark assessment during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing that was supposed to also feature testimony from Chad Wolf, Trump’s acting homeland security secretary.

But Wolf — who’s under scrutiny over allegations that he tinkered with U.S. intelligence reports to downplay the national security threats posed by Russia and white supremacy — didn’t show up despite a subpoena, drawing outrage from the committee’s Democrats.

“Mr. Wolf should be here to testify, as secretaries of Homeland Security have done before. Instead, we have an empty chair — an appropriate metaphor for the Trump administration’s dereliction on so many of these critical homeland security issues,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee’s chairman.

As the anger over Wolf’s empty chair subsided, the attention turned to Wray.

The FBI director, who has a history of contradicting Trump, was asked about the ways in which Russia is interfering in this year’s presidential election.

Echoing the U.S. intelligence community’s consensus, Wray said Russia is seeking to “denigrate” Joe Biden in order to help Trump win reelection, an effort similar to Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election.

Wray said that so far Russia appears mostly focused on spreading misinformation, unlike four years ago, when it also stole Democratic emails and tried to hack into U.S. voting systems.

“We certainly have seen very active efforts by the Russians to influence our elections in 2020,” Wray said.

Trump has refused to unambiguously accept the U.S. intelligence community’s findings on Russia’s election attacks.

In recent weeks, the president has sought to play up the intel community’s conclusion that Iran and China are also interfering in this year’s election, while largely overlooking Russia’s role.

Moving away from Russia, Wray told lawmakers that “racially-motivated violent extremism” remains the top domestic threat in the U.S.

“Within that racially-motivated violent extremism bucket, people ascribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that,” Wray said.

That assessment also runs counter to views held by Trump and many of his senior officials.

Trump and Attorney General William Barr have embarked on a dubious effort to blame violence in American cities exclusively on “Antifa,” a loosely-organized movement of left-wing activists.

Last week, Barr even reportedly told federal prosecutors on a phone call that he wants them to consider charging left-wing protesters with “sedition” — an arcane, rarely prosecuted crime that dates back to the 1700s.

All the while, Trump and Barr have all but ignored an explosion of far-right violence across the country.

Trump, for instance, has refused to condemn a 17-year-old supporter of his accused of shooting two protesters to death in Kenosha, Wis.

On Antifa, Wray said there are “quite a number of properly-predicated, domestic terrorism investigations” targeting “violent anarchists” who ascribe to the Antifa ideology.

However, undercutting Trump and Barr, Wray said that’s “just one part” of a domestic extremist threat picture that’s far more dominated by right-wing violence.

“We look at Antifa as more of an ideology or a movement than an organization,” Wray said.

Wolf, who loomed large over the hearing despite his absence, has helped Barr and Trump push the idea that Antifa is the worst extremist threat facing the nation.

According to a whistleblower in Wolf’s agency, the acting secretary’s top deputies pressured officers to make intelligence assessments depict the threat of white supremacy as “less severe” and play up “the prominence of violent ‘left-wing’ groups.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic...hwha-story.html

i gotta be real here: this isn't really news or should be shocking to anyone.

i think unfortunately we get to a point where we gotta sensationalize certain aspects of society, but in reality, they've always been a threat around this time of year, because domestic terrorism is no different than any other terrorism.

i thought i learned a lot about terrorism during the deployments, but i actually learned more when i was driving generals in europe. terrorism tends be a seasonal thing, like when the weather warms up.

and the biggest aspect of the threat is one thing we as Americans don't really understand too well; the softest target isn't schools. its tourist destinations.

Hopefully if Devil is lurking the boards, he can expand more on the technicals, but ask anybody in law enforcement or anyone who's done any sort of room clearing operations. buildings can quickly turn into a maze when the bullets start flying. so while children are most certainly the aim of the shooter, with the right reaction time and procedure, a school can lock down fairly quickly and protect most of the kids. especially now with the increase vigilance against school shooting, its harder to get one of those off.

also, we tend to focus on the events when they happen and focus on that, but what really needs to be done is to ALSO report how many times law enforcement has busted these losers before they even get the chance to commit a terrorist act.

there's actually a lot of undercover ops with law enforcement infiltrating right wing organizations. its fairly common, and part of me wonders if those cases get swept under the rug simply because that is part of the GOP base, especially under Trump. but law enforcement has always been digging in right wing organizations crap because as i said before, they have a very long history with political violence in this country, and an even longer history of violence against law enforcement.

the easiest way for terrorist to inflict pain is concerts, bars, and local events. thats why your typical "lone wolf" style attack is out in the open. whether we want to call them terrorist or - lol "poor kid who just snapped"- bars and nightclubs are the worst because EVERYBODY guard is down.

look globally. where do most of the attacks happen? off the coast of some african or middle eastern country where the rich like to play, concerts, malls, local events like in france, etc. hardly any schools.

most terrorist don't like aiming for schools, which is why you get the "kid just snapped" a lot with school shootings.

then you have to factor in the weather. i don't know why, but it seems like violence amongst human beings ALWAYS rises when the weather's warmed up. part of that is ofcourse the "soft target" aspect, but another seems more internal.

most people on this board tend to pay attention, but i wanted to explain this really isn't something new. putting out reports like this is more playing to the base than anything. obviously both parties do it, but you gotta call it out when it happens, regardless of when or who it happened under.

I agree, that is why I said what is new that hasn't been the case for the last 30 years? I could have easily said the last 50 years.

Why do you think fire departments were ordered to open fire hydrants on street corners back in the day? It wasn't so much a goodwill gesture as it was to cool people off which led to less disruption in that area.

Cooling off and watching kids frolic in the spray calms people.

we disagree on so many topics and on so many levels. That's what it means

The domestic terrorism part isn't that old, but it's not a 'new' threat that's going to ramp up with easing of COVID restrictions.

Good.

As per usual you have dodged the topic totally. Cooling people off with fire hydrants in hot weather has zero to do with domestic terrorism posed by right wing extremists.

Unless you saw s gathering of the Proud Boys getting soaked by a fire hydrant last summer.

No pal, clearly you don't get it.

Oh I get it. You are somehow comparing turning water hydrants on for children to tun through in the summer to crime. And more specific this is about extremist domestic terrorism which is a topic you've avoided like the plague.

You know I see this reasoning used a lot. And I guess if you are saying that because the crowds will be larger which makes for a more attractive target to extremists I would agree. Otherwise I would not.

Allow me to clarify....

I don't understand why the danger was tied to easing CVD restrictions. I get that restrictions are easing, and I get how domestic terrorists are a threat, I just don't see how the 2 are related in a significant manner.

No Pit. I was talking about turning on fire hydrants back in the day as a way for people to beat the heat. A point that Swish brought up, how crime seems to rise as the temp. rises and that that is nothing new.

If you took the time to read the thread rather than just pick out my posts, you would have understood that and wouldn't be sitting here looking foolish.

Turning on water hydrants to help cool off children in extreme heat isn't even close to anything Swish was talking about. And those little kids have nothing to do with the rise in crime or violent extremists. Maybe you're the one who needs to read what you responded to again.

SAAAWing and Miss.

There is a difference between worrying about summer crime rates and the warnings about what the on-line monitoring of right wing groups has determined will be serious trouble. There will be street protests and there will be right wing reactions to those protests.

I recently read that somewhere legislation was passed to allow motorists to drive into protesters. This legislation alone will create the type of situation that will spark the type of chaos that right wing groups have been looking for.

Do you think turning on fire hydrants to help keep them cool in the heat will help?

Unfortunately the image that comes to mind is of fire hoses rather than fire hydrants. Civil rights demonstrations have a long history of triggering right wing zealots.