Extremists Emboldened by Capitol Attack Pose
Rising Threat, Homeland Security Says
The warning was a notable departure for a Department
of Homeland Security accused of being reluctant during the Trump administration
to publish intelligence reports or public warnings about the dangers posed by
extremists and white supremacist groups.
Zolan
Kanno-YoungsDavid E. Sanger
By Zolan
Kanno-Youngs and David E. Sanger
Jan. 27,
2021
WASHINGTON
— Warning that the deadly rampage of the Capitol this month may not be an
isolated episode, the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday said
publicly for the first time that the United States faced a growing threat from
“violent domestic extremists” emboldened by the attack.
The
department’s terrorism alert did not name specific groups that might be behind
any future attacks, but it made clear that their motivation would include anger
over “the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled
by false narratives,” a clear reference to the accusations made by President
Donald J. Trump and echoed by right-wing groups that the 2020 election was
stolen.
“D.H.S. is
concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021,” the
department said.
The
Department of Homeland Security does not have information indicating a
“specific, credible plot,” according to a statement from the agency. The alert
issued was categorized as one warning of developing trends in terrorism, rather
than a notice of an imminent attack.
But an
intelligence official involved in drafting Wednesday’s bulletin said the decision
to issue the report was driven by the department’s conclusion that Mr. Biden’s
peaceful inauguration last week could create a false sense of security because
“the intent to engage in violence has not gone away” among extremists angered
by the outcome of the presidential election.
The warning
contained in a “National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin” was a notable
departure for a Department of Homeland Security accused of being reluctant
during the Trump administration to publish intelligence reports or public
warnings about the dangers posed by domestic extremists and white supremacist
groups for fear of angering Mr. Trump, according to current and former homeland
security officials.
Starting
with the deadly extremist protest in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, when Mr.
Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides,” he played down any
danger posed by extremist groups. And when racial justice protests erupted
nationwide last year, his consistent message was that it was the so-called
radical left that was to blame for the violence and destruction that had
punctuated the demonstrations.
Even after
the Department of Homeland Security in September 2019 singled out white
supremacists as a leading domestic terrorism threat, analysts and intelligence
officials said their warnings were watered down, delayed or both. Former
officials in the Trump administration have even said that White House officials
sought to suppress the phrase “domestic terrorism.”
As recently
as last September, a former top intelligence official with the department,
Brian Murphy, filed a whistle-blower complaint accusing department leaders,
including the acting secretary, Chad F. Wolf, and his deputy, Kenneth T.
Cuccinelli II, of ordering him to modify intelligence assessments to make the
threat of white supremacy “appear less severe” and include information on
left-wing groups to align with Mr. Trump’s messaging.
Mr. Wolf
and Mr. Cuccinelli denied the accusations, and after a congressional backlash,
released an annual threat assessment in October that acknowledged that violent
white supremacy was the “most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.”
The
intelligence official involved with the bulletin, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss its findings, added that the public warning should have
been issued as early as November, when Mr. Trump was making an escalating
series of false accusations about the election, and that far-right groups
continued to be galvanized by such false statements.
But at the
time, Mr. Trump was also seeking to dismiss department officials whom he
regarded as disloyal, including Christopher Krebs, the chief of its
cybersecurity agency, after a committee overseeing the election declared it had
been “the most secure in American history.” The agency failed to issue a
warning to state and local agencies warning of specific violence aimed at the
Capitol before the attack on Jan. 6.
The report
listed a broad range of grievances across the political spectrum, including
“anger over Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of
force.” And left-wing groups have not been silent: After the inauguration of
Mr. Biden, some demonstrators in Portland, Ore., shattered windows and targeted
a federal building with graffiti.
But the
bulletin’s specific references to the Jan. 6 attack and a mass shooting in El
Paso that targeted Hispanics made clear that the most lethal current threat is
from the racist extremist groups.
Until now,
the closest federal law enforcement had come to that conclusion since the
attack at the Capitol was in a joint bulletin issued this month by law
enforcement agencies, warning that extremists aiming to start a race war “may
exploit the aftermath of the Capitol breach by conducting attacks to
destabilize and force a climactic conflict in the United States,” according to
a copy of the bulletin obtained by The New York Times.
But that
warning came in a private channel to law enforcement agencies. Terrorism
warnings issued to the public like the bulletin on Wednesday are rare: The most
recent came a year ago during a period of tension with Iran after the American
military’s killing of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani.
The
bulletins issued by the Department of Homeland Security, which was created
after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, have typically identified foreign terrorist
threats. Federal authorities have for years lagged on warnings about the threat
of terrorism from within United States borders, perpetrated by American
citizens.
“There’s
value in soliciting the public’s assistance in identifying and alerting
authorities about suspicious activity,” said Brian Harrell, a former assistant
secretary for homeland security in the Trump administration. “The watchful
public will always be the best ‘eyes and ears’ for law enforcement.”
Asked
during a briefing about the motivation for the new terrorism bulletin, Michael
Chertoff, a former secretary of homeland security under President George W.
Bush, said, “In my view, it is domestic terrorism mounted by right-wing
extremists and neo-Nazi groups.” He added, “We have to be candid and face what
the real risk is.”
Such candor
has long been an exception.
When a
warning in a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report, early in the Obama
administration, that military veterans returning from combat could be
vulnerable to recruitment by terrorist groups or extremists prompted a backlash
from conservatives, the homeland security secretary at the time, Janet
Napolitano, was forced to apologize.
The report
was retracted and an edited version was eventually reissued.
“It was an
early lesson in how fraught dealing with these issues can be, but it turns out
the report itself and the substance of the report was quite prescient,” Ms.
Napolitano said in an interview. “What we saw two weeks ago is what I think we
were seeing in 2009, but it has only grown and it seems to have exploded in the
last four years.”
This week,
Mr. Biden ordered a comprehensive assessment of the threat of domestic violent
extremism. During his confirmation hearing, the president’s pick for homeland
security secretary, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, said he would empower the
department’s intelligence branch, which has long struggled to distinguish its
assessments from the F.B.I.
The
department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis is responsible for gathering
information on emerging threats and sharing it with state authorities to
bolster coordination among federal and local law enforcement.
“The truth
is what has to come out of D.H.S,” Mr. Chertoff said. “Not playing patty cake
with political agendas.”
Mike Baker
contributed reporting from Seattle, and Katie Benner from Washington.
Zolan
Kanno-Youngs is the homeland security correspondent, based in Washington. He
covers the Department of Homeland Security, immigration, border issues,
transnational crime and the federal government's response to national
emergencies and security threats. @KannoYoungs
David E.
Sanger is a national security correspondent. In a 36-year reporting career for
The Times, he has been on three teams that have won Pulitzer Prizes, most
recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest book is “The Perfect
Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age.” @SangerNYT • Facebook
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