With acts of domestic terrorism occurring with increasing regularity in the United States, the Biden administration signaled an effort to counter such attacks with the release of the country’s first National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.
The federal government has provided the foundations for a nationwide response, addressing how to share related information, prevent domestic terrorism recruitment and mobilization to violence, strike down domestic terrorism before it occurs, and confront long-term contributors to the threat.
“Our approach will protect both the nation and the civil liberties of its citizens,” the White House said in a statement. It went on to state that in pursuit of a strategy, members of the process treated the protection of civil rights and liberties along the way to be a national security imperative.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies recently deemed the domestic terrorism threat to be rooted largely in racially or ethnically motivated, violent extremists advocating for white supremacy, or in anti-government extremists such as those often embodied in various militia groups.
“The release today of the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism is a milestone in our country’s efforts to address a serious and growing security threat,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III said. “While domestic law enforcement agencies take the lead, the Department of Defense will do our part to support this important strategy. That includes maintaining the Department’s robust relationship with federal law enforcement as well as refining our policies to better address this issue within the Department.”
To counter malign activities, the new strategy based its whole of government approach action on four concepts:
- Understanding through enhanced domestic terrorism analysis and improved sharing of this information at all levels of law enforcement. The federal government has also reached out to foreign partners to learn about any international connections for domestic threats, with the dangled potential of deeming foreign entities linked to domestic terrorism as Foreign Terrorist Organizations or similar. Financial activity tracking, analysis of open-source information for threat identification, and more are also being investigated.
- Preventing recruitment and violent mobilization by tapping community partners to help prevent individuals from going down dangerous paths. Prevention services and tools will be enhanced, and more than $77 million will be made available to state, local, tribal and territorial partners to prevent, protect against and respond to domestic extremism, even as the federal government moves to enhance public awareness of the threat. It is also joining an international effort to eliminate terrorist content online.
- Disrupting and deterring domestic terrorism through increased support to law enforcement agencies. More than $100 million in additional funding is being sought for the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security next year, with the understanding that the DOJ will seek to balance safety and protection of civil liberties for any new legislative authorities. However, increased and improved employee screening will seek to weed domestic terrorists out of the military or law enforcement.
- Confronting long-term contributors to terrorism by reducing and protecting Americans from racial, ethnic, and religious hatred, as well as the flow of arms. Anti-bias efforts will be increased among law enforcement operations, paired with anti-polarization efforts against disinformation, misinformation, and dangerous conspiracy theories taking increased root online.
“Though we have long lived with the scourge of domestic terrorism, the January 6th attack on the Capitol showed the clear need for a strategy to combat a new strain of this threat,” said U.S. Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), respective chairs of the Committee on Homeland Security and Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism. “The Homeland Security Committee has long focused on the threats posed by domestic terrorists, and it is promising that we now have an executive branch that is making countering these threats a national priority. We look forward to examining this strategy in depth and hearing more details from the Department of Homeland Security, the Intelligence Community, and the other agencies tasked with this important work and the bold plans they have to implement the strategic vision that President Biden has set forth.”