Fueled by anti-government sentiment following President Joe Biden's win and inauguration, a national terrorism bulletin about a possible domestic terrorist threat was released by the Department of Homeland Security, Wednesday.
The DHS stated that the previous riot in Capitol Hill earlier this month may have set the stage for additional breaches, thus the federal alert system was a warning of the possible violence and uprising from people.
Domestic Terrorist Threat Warning
According to The Baltimore Sun, the DHS did not cite any specific threat, however, they have pointed out that there is a need for heightened environment threat around the United States as they believe that it will persist for weeks after the January 20 Inauguration of President Joe Biden.
Said warnings are usually relayed by the federal government to local law enforcement through bulletins. The bulletins are about the possibility of sudden violent actions in connection to particular dates or events, for example, the Biden's proclamation or the 4th of July.
However, the latest bulletin issued by the National Terrorism Advisory System branch of the Department is notable for it effectively places the administration of Biden into the politically charged debate regarding how to characterize such acts that are motivated by political ideology and suggest that it sees violence targeted at overturning the election as similar to terrorism.
Based on the wording of the document, it suggests that the officials of the DHS see a connective thread between recent violence over the last year which is motivated by anti-government grievances, such as coronavirus restrictions, police using force, and the results of the 2020 elections.
In addition, it also singles out racially motivated acts of violence such as the 2019 rampage in Texas which targets the Hispanic community n the state, and also the threat brought by the extremist motivated foreign terrorist groups, The Associated Press reported.
It was also mentioned in the bulletin that the information suggests that extremists could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence because of violence motivated by an ideology with objections to the exercise of the presidential transitions and the government's authority as well as other perceived grievances that were fueled by false narratives.
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Moreover, the bulletin did not mention any political or ideological affiliation, as it noted the potential for violence will come from a broad range of actors who are ideologically-motivated.
The alert regarding the possible domestic terrorist threat comes at a sensitive time following the riot by Pro-Trump supporters at Capitol Hill who was seeking for presidential election overturn.
The Department of Homeland Security also pointed out that the violent riots in recent days, which is in reference to the events in Portland, Oregon, can be linked to anarchist groups.
According to Reuters,the alert about the domestic terrorist threat was issued by Secretary David Pekoske, who is the acting DHS Secretary.
The nominee of President Joe Biden for the Cabinet post, Alejandro Mayorkas, has not been confirmed by the Senate.
In addition, two former DHS secretaries, Janet Napolitano and Michael Chertoff called on the Senate to confirm the presidential nominee so he can start immediately working with the FBI and other agencies and deal with the threat posed by extremists in the country.
In a conference call with reporters, Chertoff who previously served under the administration of George W. Bush emphasized that the attacks by far-right, domestic extremists are not new, however, the deaths that were linked to them in past years in the country have exceeded compared to those tagged with jihadists such as al-Qaeda.
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