Thread: DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat

DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat

By Evan Perez and Wes Bruer, CNN
Updated 10:59 AM ET, Fri February 20, 2015

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Story highlights

• Intelligence assessment focuses on domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists
• Some law enforcement groups view domestic terror threat as equal to threat from Islamic terror groups

Washington (CNN)They're carrying out sporadic terror attacks on police, have threatened attacks on government buildings and reject government authority.

A new intelligence assessment, circulated by the Department of Homeland Security this month and reviewed by CNN, focuses on the domestic terror threat from right-wing sovereign citizen extremists and comes as the Obama administration holds a White House conference to focus efforts to fight violent extremism.



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Some federal and local law enforcement groups view the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups as equal to -- and in some cases greater than -- the threat from foreign Islamic terror groups, such as ISIS, that garner more public attention.​

The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010.

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The government says these are extremists who believe that they can ignore laws and that their individual rights are under attack in routine daily instances such as a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order.

They've lashed out against authority in incidents such as one in 2012, in which a father and son were accused of engaging in a shootout with police in Louisiana, in a confrontation that began with an officer pulling them over for a traffic violation. Two officers were killed and several others wounded in the confrontation. The men were sovereign citizen extremists who claimed police had no authority over them.

Among the findings from the Homeland Security intelligence assessment: "(Sovereign citizen) violence during 2015 will occur most frequently during routine law enforcement encounters at a suspect's home, during enforcement stops and at government offices."



DHS has documented examples of violence by sovereign citizen extremists since 2010. They range from incidents that occurred in the home and at traffic stops to attacks on government buildings.

The report adds that "law enforcement officers will remain the primary target of (sovereign citizen) violence over the next year due to their role in physically enforcing laws and regulations."

The White House has fended off criticism in recent days for its reluctance to say the words "Islamist extremism," even as the conference this week almost entirely focused on helping imams and community groups to counteract the lure of groups like ISIS.

Absent from the White House conference is any focus on the domestic terror threat posed by sovereign citizens, militias and other anti-government terrorists that have carried out multiple attacks in recent years.

An administration official says the White House is focused on the threat from all terrorists, including from sovereign citizen and other domestic groups.



The ISIS terror threat 47 photos

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"I don't think it's fair to say the (White House) conference didn't address this at all," the official said, adding that President Barack Obama addressed the need to combat "violent ideologies" of all types.

An official at the Justice Department, which is leading the administration's counter-radicalization effort, says many of the tactics aimed at thwarting radical Islamic recruitment of young people can also be used to fight anti-government extremist groups.

While groups like ISIS and al Qaeda garner the most attention, for many local cops, the danger is closer to home.

A survey last year of state and local law enforcement officers listed sovereign citizen terrorists, ahead of foreign Islamists, and domestic militia groups as the top domestic terror threat.

The survey was part of a study produced by the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.

In 2013, a man who held anti-government views carried out a shooting attack on three Transportation Security Administration employees at Los Angeles International Airport, killing one TSA officer. Last year, a couple killed two police officers and a bystander at a Las Vegas Walmart store.


Officers inspect a car outside Los Angeles International Airport in 2013 after three TSA employees were shot.
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Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that by some estimates, there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism. Perhaps 100,000 people form a core of the movement, he said.

The federal government's focus on the domestic groups waxes and wanes, Potok said, in part because the threat from foreign groups like al Qaeda and its affiliates.

Potok says sovereign citizen groups have attracted support because of poor economic conditions. Some groups travel the country pitching their ideology as a way to help homeowners escape foreclosure or get out of debt, by simply ignoring the courts and bankruptcy law.

The Homeland Security report's focus on right-wing terrorists is a subject that garnered political controversy for the Obama administration in the past. In 2009, a Homeland Security report on possible recruitment of military veterans by right-wing militia groups prompted an outcry from veterans groups.

The report was produced by staff members during the Bush administration but wasn't published until then Homeland Security Janet Napolitano had taken office. Napolitano criticized her own agency for the report.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/19/politi...ity/index.html

LOL! Well, since DHS has no other accomplishments to save its ass, I suppose focusing on Americans with a broader view of freedom that most of US hold makes for good news, but it's quite clear that DHS is not the right agency to be investigating Americans, that needs to all be handled by the FBI and state and local law enforcement.

2/10/2015

http://www.alipac.us/f19/florida-dep...lorida-317489/

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Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that by some estimates, there are as many as 300,000 people involved in some way with sovereign citizen extremism. Perhaps 100,000 people form a core of the movement, he said.
Potok says sovereign citizen groups have attracted support because of poor economic conditions. Some groups travel the country pitching their ideology as a way to help homeowners escape foreclosure or get out of debt, by simply ignoring the courts and bankruptcy law.

The SPLC would not be my first choice for getting rational information on any subject, but Potok has a point here. The situation is similar to how terrorists at least used to recruit people in the Middle East. There are many more young men than jobs there. I don't know the recruiting situation now, but recruiters used to approach young men at mosques and tell them that they needed help with praying correctly. Then they'd connect the terrorist cause with a perverted version of Western actions.
*************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

ALSO At ALIPAC:

• 
  
  • Sovereign citizens spin history, reject government
    
    
  • 2 Cops Killed by 'Sovereigns" Who Shun U.S. Laws
    
  • 
    
  • Vegas police stop 'Sovereign Citizen' plot
    
    
  • 3 men from the Sovereign Citizen Movement sentenced
    
    
  • Georgia courthouse shooter had bombs, assault rifle, sheriff says
    
    
  • DHS intelligence report warns of domestic right-wing terror threat
    
    
  • Alleged Gunman Similar to Grammar Conspiracy Theorist
    
    
  • 'Sovereign citizen' movement now on FBI's radar
  • 
    
  • Sovereign citizen group, "Divine Province", leader convicted of fraudulent documents
    
    
  • Sovereign citizens inspire rise in real estate filings scam
  • 
    
  • President of Sovereign Citizen Nation Convicted of Federal Tax Crimes
    
    
  • 'Sovereign citizen' killed during full-frontal assault on Georgia courthouse
    
    
  • Sovereign Citizens: Radicals Exercising 'God-Given Rights' or Fueling Domestic Terror
    
    
  • FBI: More locals seek help with anti-government extremists
    
    
  • Leader of Sovereign Citizen Group Sentenced to Prison for Promoting Tax Fraud
    
    
  • 'Sovereign citizen' boycotts own trial, convicted of fraud
  
  

If the government passed the FairTax and stopped trying to infringe upon 2nd Amendment rights, there would be no need for a citizen to declare themselves "sovereign", they already would be. Some Americans take this stuff more seriously than the rest of us and then they blow. It's sad really that our government has so over-reached its authority into the lives of our citizens that some feel they need to answer back with violence. They're wrong of course by their means of response, but they are correct about why they're upset, none of which has anything to do with immigration, illegal immigration or DHS.

DHS and CNN are trying to divert attention to the very small sub group of crimes committed by Americans over political ideology to distract from the millions of illegal aliens and the Muslim terrorists among them that are killing thousands of Americans each year! Where is the report about illegal alien crimes that dwarf the small number of violent incidents on this map above???

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

DHS and CNN are trying to divert attention to the very small sub group of crimes committed by Americans over political ideology to distract from the millions of illegal aliens and the Muslim terrorists among them that are killing thousands of Americans each year! Where is the report about illegal alien crimes that dwarf the small number of violent incidents on this map above???

W

And if they think that's going to motivate Americans to fund DHS without the immigration riders, then they best think again.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Where is the report about illegal alien crimes that dwarf the small number of violent incidents on this map above???

W

Publishing that report would alert Americans to the fact that their lives - and the well being of their children - are in danger, as well as their jobs and their quality of life.

'Bama is all about thumbing his nose at the American people, so no government report until he is termed out.
***********************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade