In 2021, when the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Biden administration attempted to develop a new domestic terrorism plan, the human rights group (usually a human rights group engraved in the right-wing militia group that was designed to confront), it was the first to express a dismantling. “We wrote to Congress to express our deep concern about the proposed expansion of legal authority related to terrorism,” 157 different signatories wrote in a letter to Congress. “We must face the challenge of addressing the violence of white nationalists and far-right militias without further harm to communities that have been disproportionately affected by the criminal legal system.” Meanwhile, a group of CIA and national security officials eagerly urged the government to establish a new legal authority to treat Americans like terrorists.
Now, as Trump’s second term begins, the new right-wing administration appears to be leveraging the legal and operational infrastructure established in the Biden era after left-wing protesters. Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published a new article on the Trump administration’s flowering counter-terrorism strategy, which, according to government insiders, is designed to target Americans who express dissatisfaction with the president or his wealthy allies.
“The so-called Tesla terrorism and potential anti-Trump violence are driving new expressions of the threat,” a senior intelligence official told Clebenstein.
Indeed, in recent weeks, the Justice Department has shifted federal law enforcement to more traditional enemies and those who sabotage Tesla dealerships. Attorney General Pam Bondi said several people arrested and charged with bombs could be charged with “family terrorism” charges. Meanwhile, Israeli critics have become the target of government roaming.
As mentioned earlier, most of this precedent was set by the previous government. Under Biden, the administration has formulated its first national strategy to target “family terrorism.” The strategy was designed through the opinions of the U.S. National Security Agency, which develops a wide variety of new plans to address its extremism in the country, including new task forces and liaisons with state and local law enforcement.
But, as Klippenstein pointed out, the full scale of the program is not public. He pointed to the recently published report from the Office of Government Accountability (GAO) on the U.S. counter-terrorism strategy, which noted: “Officials from the DHS, the Justice Department and the state told us that the confidential implementation plan included some other guidance for classification activities”, “DHS and DOJ officials told us that they categorized the 2021 strategy.” In other words: a secret plan to get involved in Americans and treat them like terrorists.
The secret program is now led by the Trump administration, which has a very different idea of who and what poses danger to the country. The administration is busy revising the strategy to better meet Trump's needs. Clippenstein wrote:
…The rewrite of the national strategy document is shaping the same as Trump’s perception of the country, Gao and others say cancelled previous approaches and changed the focus of counter-terrorism operations over the next four years. This includes focusing more on Trump’s political opponents and challenges that occur as terrorism in daily protests.
Worse, Sebastian Gorka, the head of U.S. counterterrorism strategy, has been described as loving Israeli gun nuts, liking “secret operations” and “special operators.” Gorka's mission is to oversee all U.S. counterterrorism operations, both internationally and domestically.
Klippenstein cites citations from the federal counter-terrorism manual published in 2021, which lists various so-called “mobilization indicators.” These indicators are considered “characteristics that can enable people to perform extremist violence”, he wrote. Under the government’s domestic counter-terrorism obligations, Americans who show such indicators may find themselves the subject of suspicious terrorist investigations, even if they never committed a crime. Clippenstein wrote:
Is there a heated debate that expresses sympathy for Luigi Mangione or Hamas? Or have you purchased military tactical equipment? Or withdraw from family? If so, you meet the government standards listed in the 2021 Mobilization Indicators brochure, which is designed to help local and state police detect terrorists. These standards may shock you because, as the booklet itself acknowledges, “many of the mobilization indicators contained in this booklet may also be related to activities protected by the constitution.”
In short, if you were once a super critic of the current government or its allies, you might end up being the target of the government’s national security nation.
Many people (including intelligence) are here. In 2021, when the Biden administration starts pushing for a new family terrorism program, I think it's a very, very bad idea. At that time, I wrote:
Despite all the crying and teeth pain that Democrats have done to Trump’s dictatorial style, it is ironic that they will launch this new moment of partisan uplift by pushing to push this overwhelming new force for national security agencies. Such suggestions seem to be done little, except further disfigure the dismembered corpus of Americans who used to be with this pride, but they are now increasingly drowsy and ridiculously sneering about the obsolete, unrealistic and insecure.
Now, about four years later, we are here, this program offers too much power to easily fight it against peaceful political protesters. It's not a happy time, although maybe Americans might learn something from it.
