Garland Takes on Domestic Violent Extremism - Horowitz

Garland Takes on Domestic Violent Extremism - Horowitz

Attorney General Merrick Garland knows first-hand exactly what is at stake in the assessment of our intelligence agencies that domestic violent extremists “pose an elevated threat to the Homeland in 2021.”  

As a top justice department official more than 25 years ago, Garland led the successful and comprehensive investigation into the worst case of homegrown terrorism in American history, the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh, an anti-government, militia-affiliated extremist, that resulted in the deaths of 168 people, including 19 children.  Over the years, Garland has kept in touch with the families impacted by this unspeakable tragedy.
 
 “Although many years have passed, the terror perpetrated by people like Timothy McVeigh is still with us,” Garland recently told the people gathered at the ceremony, marking the 26th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. “The Department of Justice is pouring its resources into stopping domestic violent extremists before they can attack, prosecuting those who do, and battling the spread of the kind of hate that leads to tragedies like the one we mark here today.”

Last week, Garland unveiled a “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”  The attorney general outlined the strategy's 4 main pillars: “First are efforts to understand and share information regarding the full range of domestic terrorism threats. Second are efforts to prevent domestic terrorists from successfully recruiting, inciting, and mobilizing Americans to violence. Third are efforts to deter and disrupt domestic terrorist activity before it yields violence. And finally, the long-term issues that contribute to domestic terrorism in our country must be addressed to ensure that this threat diminishes over generations to come.”

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The new strategy marks an overdue shift in emphasis to focus more counterterrorism and law enforcement resources on domestic violent extremism, which the March assessment of our intelligence agencies called “the most persistent and lethal” threat to the United States.  Ninety-four percent of terrorist attacks and plots in 2020 were conducted by people with a "domestic-focused grievance," while only 5% were "inspired by a Saalfi-jihadist ideology," according to research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

As the FBI has consistently documented and Garland continued to emphasize, by far the largest and most deadly component of domestic violent extremism comes from “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the white race.”   According to a CSIS analysis, 66% of terrorist attacks and plots in 2020 came from those aligned with white supremacist and pro-militia ideologies.

President Trump poured more fuel on what was already a growing, dangerous and combustible mix with his repeated false charges that the election was stolen from him as part of his reckless and dangerous, if failed effort, to cling to power at any cost. Despite the fact this led to a violent insurrection designed to block Congress from a routine ratification of the election results, the former president is continuing this effort, further heightening the risk of more violence.

Nearly 500 people have already been arrested because of their actions on January 6 as the Merrick Garland-led Justice Department does what is necessary and required.  Referencing Oklahoma City, the Attorney General said, “We have now – as we have then – an enormous task ahead: to move forward as a country; to punish the perpetrators; to do everything possible to prevent similar attacks; and to do so in a manner that affirms the values on which our justice system is founded and upon which our democracy depends.”

There is arguably no one better prepared or better suited to the difficult task ahead than Merrick Garland.

Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.