Ah, the grand gang of brains up on Capitol Hill just had a heart-to-heart about their yearly roundup of things that go “bump” in the global night. This latest script kicks things off with a chapter on scary dudes like drug cartels and world-roaming gangs. Then there’s the usual nod to the pesky folks stirring trouble under the banner of jihad – I mean, you can’t skip the Islamic State and Al Qaeda or the like, right? After wading through cybercrooks spreading misery with ransomware, we finally chat about the big guns—countries like China and Iran showing off their moves on the geopolitical dancefloor.
But hey, isn’t there something missing here? Like a quiet room where nobody talks about the far-right wackos, the kind with white hoods or who cheer for weird racial knock-offs. Nope? Seriously? I remember this one guy, Anders Breivik – the fella who turned a Norwegian island into his own personal shooting range back in 2011. And what about Brenton Tarrant? His horrid two-for-one mosque show-down in Christchurch didn’t exactly make New Zealand postcards. But yeah, such attacks didn’t make the report’s spotlight. Let’s shrug it off ‘cause, you know, this isn’t surprising.
It’s almost like it’s groundhog day with the United States playing “see no evil” with far-right troublemakers—it first peeked back in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, then kind of hung around an El Paso Walmart in 2019, finally wrapping things up in a Buffalo supermarket in 2022. Add in some online swamps of propaganda, and voilà, you got yourself repeat offenders who still somehow don’t make the cut for this year’s threat list.
And why do Trump’s pals, like Elon Musk of Tesla (talk about prodigal backers), lend their ears to such moves? It’s anyone’s guess. They sure have an affinity for defining harassment against car dealerships as something akin to terrorism. Meanwhile, Trump all but sent out an evite to the Far-Right Thanksgiving, subtly snubbing the far-left folks as though they all have an antifa tattoo hidden under their hoodies.
So, the current plot has us labeling baddies like Mexican drug cartels and those rascally Venezuelan gangs – hooray for ameture political capers. You’d think it was all out of an Episode of Narcos. It’s not that these guys are doing charity work out there, but it’s a stretch-screaming political threat when they’re just after a buck. Oh, but then we have the saga of the Deportation Diaries – starring Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act or some draconian measure like that.
Trump strolling in, waving his wand, and abracadabra, poof! Millions meant for checking in on the local hatemongers and dangerous plotters were sent out on the next train. Wasn’t really magic, more like a political disappearing act. All while what’s left of the counterterrorism budget sneaks off to have tea with saber-rattling over Russia and China.
Jason Blazakis, an old hand at the Counterterrorism circus, and Colin Clarke, who likes to think for New York’s Soufan Group — they probably wish the script would sit out a round and rethink its lines, let intelligence just stay intelligent for once. Without politicians’ sticky fingers turning it into their vision board of fear and strategy.
And there you have it, an action-packed drama of brains-but-no-common-sense versus the mythological beast of political bias. More to come in our next thrilling installment of “As the Capitol Turns.”
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Now, for the second go with that polished touch:
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Recently, intelligence officers took the stage at Capitol Hill to discuss the United States’ latest annual threat assessment, which took an unexpected turn by spotlighting criminal organizations including drug cartels and global gangs. Following this unusual introduction, the report detailed the continued challenge from jihadist groups such as the Islamic State and Al Qaeda. Eventually, it addressed traditional state-level threats from nations like China and Iran, but not before an analysis of cybercriminals utilizing ransomware capped off the segment on nonstate actors.
Conspicuously absent, however, was any mention of global far-right extremism, inclusive of neo-Nazis and white supremacists, despite this ideology’s lethal history. This exclusion isn’t all that surprising given the Trump administration’s stance on certain forms of political violence, but ignoring such threats doesn’t diminish them. The U.S. has already encountered the consequences of far-right terrorism at multiple sites, including Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Buffalo, where perpetrators subscribed to extreme ideologies advanced by infamous figures like Anders Breivik and Brenton Tarrant.
Under Trump, it’s little wonder the assessment highlighted gangs and cartels over far-right threats, aligning with his deportation-centric agenda. This omission, however, disregards a fundamental threat to American values and democratic integrity.
The prior year’s assessment made clear the ongoing danger from transnational racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, particularly white supremacists, warning of violent threats to U.S. interests. The threat hasn’t magically vanished this year, yet intelligence reports suggest otherwise.
While intelligence assessments ought to be unbiased, the Trump administration’s influence appears evident, shaping analysis consistent with its policy focus. This influence extends even further, at Musk’s behest, to include labeling vandalism against Tesla dealerships as terrorism.
Throughout his term, Trump downplayed the threat from far-right elements, proposing instead to designate far-left groups like Antifa as terrorist organizations, though this contradicts the evidence at hand.
The new threat report notably reclassified Mexican cartels and certain Central/South American gangs as terrorist entities. These organizations, dangerous though they are, operate with profit in mind rather than politics and thus previously garnered criminal, not terrorist, categorization. This reclassification allowed the administration to leverage the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans, some without any gang affiliations or with existing legal protections, effectively ignoring court mandates.
As Trump exerts his will, redirecting counterterrorism resources towards global strategic competition, notably with China and Russia, the country finds itself defunding key initiatives aimed at understanding and preventing domestic terrorism. The ramifications of this shift are profound, eroding the fundamental autonomy expected of the U.S. intelligence community and compromising national security.
Former Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office director Jason M. Blazakis and Colin P. Clarke of the Soufan Group emphasize the gravity of these developments, underscoring the critical need to shield intelligence assessments from political meddling to protect democratic governance against real threats.
