"Witch’s brew that really hasn’t happened in America’s
history" threatens US election
By Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke and Mark Hosenball
Washington - US
security officials are warning that violent domestic extremists pose a threat
to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a
"witch's brew" of rising political tensions, civil unrest and foreign
disinformation campaigns.
FBI and US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos say threats by domestic
extremists to election-related targets will likely increase in the run-up to
the November 3 election.
Those warnings so
far have largely remained internal. But New Jersey's homeland security office
took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the threat in a little-noticed
report on its website last week.
"You have this witch’s brew that really hasn’t happened in
America’s history. And if it has, it’s been decades if not centuries,"
said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and
Preparedness, which published the threat assessment.
Nationwide
protests in recent months over racial justice and police brutality have been largely
peaceful, but some have led to violent confrontations, including between
extremist factions from left and right.
The United States
is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, high unemployment and a contentious
presidential election in a polarized political climate.
President Donald
Trump last week declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses
the election to Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump has sought to cast doubt on
the legitimacy of the election because of his concerns about mail-in voting,
which Democrats have encouraged during the coronavirus pandemic.
Documented cases
of mail-ballot fraud are extremely rare and election experts say it would be
nearly impossible for foreign actors to disrupt an election by mailing out fake
ballots.
A recent internal
FBI bulletin warned that domestic extremists with varying ideologies would
likely pose an increasing threat to government and election-related targets in
the run-up to the election, according to a person familiar with it. The bulletin
was first reported by Yahoo News.
An FBI
spokeswoman said the agency "routinely shares information with our law
enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they
serve," but declined to comment on the specific document.
A DHS memo dated
to August 17 said ideologically driven extremists and other actors "could
quickly mobilize" to engage in violence related to the election. The
document, also first reported by Yahoo News, was confirmed to Reuters by a
person familiar with it.
The memo said
that lone offender white supremacists and other lone offenders with
"personalized ideologies" pose the greatest threat of deadly
violence.
A DHS
spokesperson directed Reuters to early September remarks by acting Secretary
Chad Wolf, in which he said that the department "has taken unprecedented
actions to address all forms of violent extremism, to specifically include
threats posed by lone offenders and small cells of individuals."
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Trump and his top
officials have not so far publicly highlighted any threat by violent extremist
groups to the election.
Trump officials
have pointed the finger at left-wing anarchists and anti-fascists during
protests against police brutality and racism over the summer, but federal court
records provide little evidence showing those arrested for violent acts had
affiliations to far-left groups.
Last week, the
top two DHS officials acknowledged in congressional hearings, however, that
white supremacists have posed the most lethal domestic threat to the United
States in recent years.
FBI Director
Christopher Wray said during congressional hearings earlier that his month that
his agency was conducting investigations into violent domestic extremists,
include white supremacists and anti-fascist groups. He said the largest “chunk”
of investigations were into white supremacist groups.
White
supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-government, and related ideologies were tied to
77 percent of 454 alleged domestic extremist murders in the past decade,
according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York City-based
anti-hate advocacy organization, and presented at one of the congressional
hearings last week.
National Security
Council spokesman John Ullyot told Reuters that Trump's highest priority is
"protecting the U.S. from all threats, both foreign and domestic"
when asked if the president had addressed the election threat publicly.
Maples, the New
Jersey homeland director, said his agency did not issue a pre-election threat
assessment in 2016, but that it was necessary this time around.
"We want our
allies and folks across the state to recognize that we need to be thinking
about this," he said.
The New Jersey
report outlines three possible scenarios for the November election: a quick
election outcome, a protracted process where determining a winner takes months
and a legal battle that eventually goes to the Supreme Court.
Each of the
scenarios could lead to extremist violence, with the possibility of deadly
confrontations between protesters and targeted violence toward police officers,
the assessment concludes.
The agency's
report says the extremists will likely be "anarchist, anti-government, and
racially motivated," but does not say which groups pose the greater
threat.
The domestic
extremist threat has always been present, but is getting more attention this
year, according to Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center
Association, which represents state-run "fusion centers" staffed by
federal, state and local public safety personnel who monitor threats and
facilitate information sharing.
"We have
always had threats during the national election cycles from violent extremists,
including terrorist organizations," he said. "With current events, it
is more in the spotlight than ever."
The
Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan
think tank, said in a June report that the outcome of the election could incite
violence by the far-right or far-left.
"If
President Trump loses the election, some extremists may use violence because
they believe - however incorrectly - that there was fraud or that the election
of Democratic candidate Joe Biden will undermine their extremist
objectives," the report reads. "Alternatively, some on the far-left
could resort to terrorism if President Trump is re-elected."
https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/intelligence-reports-warn-of-extremist-threat-around-us-election-fab07bc2-3787-5ecf-84f6-5177d71196ac
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