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:
“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.”
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