White supremacists will remain the most “persistent and lethal threat” in the United States by 2021, according to DHS.
The most recent draught report expects “a high degree of threats at least” at the beginning of next year, with some violent U.S. extremists capitalizing on growing social and political tensions in 2020.
Although international terrorist organizations, the report states, “they will presumably remain limited in their ability to direct such attacks in the next year.”
The threat assessment, also warning of Russia’s ongoing misinformation activities, is particularly noteworthy because President Donald Trump has always employed racial methods in his bid for reelection, often diminishing the danger posed by White supremacists in the course of his mandate. The administration of Trump depicted Antifa and anarchists as a top threat to the USA, with the President this summer announcing that the US would label Antifa as a terrorist group.
The recently published draught reports published by Chief Benjamin Wittes’s Lawfare Editor and first reported by Politico describe a number of challenges including cyber, international interference, and unequal migration.
All three draughts reveal that the deadliest danger is white nationalist extremists. In three versions of the DHS Draft papers, however, the stance and language regarding white supremacy vary significantly.
The earliest version of the “State of the Homeland Threat Assessment 2020” reads: “We believe that the largest terrorist danger to the Homeland will be politically driven lone criminals and small groups by 2021 with white supremacist extremists posing a deadly hazard.”
In the second two draughts, “White nationalist extremists” are replaced by the “Domestic Violent Extremists who pose the most serious and lethal danger” segment on terrorist threats to their homeland.
The studies include all of this: “We conclude that white supremacist extremists (WSEs) would remain the most serious and lethal danger in the country by 2021 among the [Domestic Violent Extremists].”
The papers were written by Wittes because he wanted the “benchmark for what the career people at DHS actually measured the threats against” the final product released by the department.
He told CNN that “the most surprising thing in the political climate is that white nationalist violence is the problem that most worries them.
“When the language is there, I do not want to condemn them, but in the first draught it is very different from the next few, and I think that the essence of the movie is extraordinary, showing the political pressure they are under,” he added.
CNN contacted DHS for comment. For comment. The final threat report for 2020 was not reported publicly.
The 2020 draught report also states that Russia’s State-Affiliated Akteurs will continue to concentrate on “intrusive cyber warfare” among the US industry and all levels of government. China and Russia are the nation-state’s most capable cyber adversaries, and Iran and North Korea challenge the US.
One of the major “takes-outs” of the study is that “Russia is likely to be the biggest hidden international participant in domestic disinformation and misinformation.”
The primary objective of Moscow is to disrupt the US democratic mechanism and to weaken the US. Some misinformation linked to the Kremlin can also inspire acts of violence in the United States, says the draught study.
During his presidency, Trump has often downplayed the risk of white nationalist violence, especially when he said that in 2017 some of the “good people” were among the racists who instigated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He has also dubbed Black Lives Matter a “symbol of bigotry,” and has frequently published Twitter pages that highlight the brutality against white Americans in the suburbs.
Yet his administration officials have warned against white nationalist ideology.
The CNN revealed last year that the officials of the White House resisted attempts for more than a year by their DHS colleagues to raise the focus in the National Counterterter-terrorism Plan to tackle domestic terror threats, such as those of white supremacists.
White supremacist ideology is one of the most “potent ideologies” in the USA when he laid down the counter-terrorism strategy of the department, outlined the ongoing threats of international terrorism and centred on domestic terrorism, especially white supremacist, Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said last year.
“The ongoing threat of race-based violent extremism, particularly white supremo-racist extremism, is an abhorrent affront to the country, the struggle and unity of its diverse population in our modern age,” he said almost a year ago in his speech to the Brookings Institution.
The threat assessment was inspired by a DHS Counter-Terrorism Plan for 2019, which mandated annual reports to educate the public and government.
