Last month, Russ Travers, the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center, told Yahoo News he would not be surprised if right-wing domestic terrorist groups stage attacks in the United States around this November’s presidential election.
Now POLITICO reports that a draft Department of Homeland Security reports that “white supremacists” pose the biggest terrorist threat to Americans. While the language of the report strives to avoid ideological labels, the reports contain no reference to the antifa movement, which the Trump administration has blamed for disorders nationwide.
The draft report points out that most domestic terror attacks in 2019 emanated from the far-right.
“Among DVE [domestic violent extremist] actors, WSEs [white supremacist extremists] conducted half of all lethal attacks (8 of 16), resulting in the majority of deaths (39 of 48).”
John Cohen, who oversaw DHS’s counterterrorism portfolio from 2011 to 2014, said the drafts’ conclusion isn’t surprising.
“This draft document seems to be consistent with earlier intelligence reports from DHS, the FBI, and other law enforcement sources: that the most significant terror-related threat facing the US today comes from violent extremists who are motivated by white supremacy and other far-right ideological causes,” he said.
The Trump administration has yet to approve public release of the report.
Source: DHS draft document: White supremacists are greatest terror threat – POLITICO
