Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassifies Biden counterterrorism strategy
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has recently declassified a plan that was developed during the Biden administration in 2021 to counter domestic terrorism. This plan, which was created in response to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, outlined a comprehensive government-wide effort to track how foreign actors use disinformation to radicalize Americans. It also called for greater collaboration with tech companies and private industry to address domestic threats.
One of the key components of the plan was a legislative push to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Additionally, the strategy aimed to curb in-prison radicalization and study extremism within the military. It included proposals to develop awareness training for active service military members, Department of Defense employees, and contractors on the threat posed by domestic terrorism.
The plan had a four-part goal, which included understanding and sharing domestic terrorism-related information, preventing recruitment and mobilization to violence, disrupting and deterring domestic terrorism activity, and confronting long-term contributors to domestic terrorism. The Biden administration plan emphasized the importance of promoting civics education and literacy to combat disinformation.
Furthermore, the plan called for advancing inclusion in the Covid-19 response and addressing hate crime reporting barriers faced by disadvantaged communities. It aimed to promote law enforcement training and resources to prevent and address bias-motivated crimes, improve federal hate crimes data and analysis, and mitigate xenophobia and bias.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration launched the first-ever National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism in 2021, recognizing domestic terrorism as a major national security threat following the Capitol riot. Gabbard declassified the strategy in response to a request from conservative groups like America First Legal, who expressed concerns about the potential weaponization of power to censor speech on the Internet.
The Biden administration’s counterterrorism strategy faced criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union for expanding the government’s authority to surveil and monitor American communities, permitting profiling based on race, religion, or national origin, and using abusive tools like the watchlisting system against individuals for constitutionally protected speech and association.
Overall, the declassified plan underscores the importance of a comprehensive and collaborative approach to countering domestic terrorism, with a focus on information-sharing, prevention, disruption, and long-term solutions to address the root causes of extremism.
