The Rise of Domestic Terrorism in America: White Supremacist Attacks Predominate

As opposed to foreign terrorism, domestic terrorism has been on rise since the Oklahoma bombing in 1995—with far-right terrorism “significantly” outpacing terrorism from other types of perpetrators. Needless to say, white supremacists preponderate, carrying out 57% of plots and attacks through 1994—2020, respectively 67% of attacks in 61 incidents between January-August 2020.

Sebahate J. Shala

Insurrection. Sedition. Domestic terror. In an unprecedented occasion, members of the U.S. Congress, media and experts unanimously used the phrase “domestic terror” to describe the January 6 riots—when an angry mob, instigated by President Trump, breached the Capitol in attempt to overrule the result of the 2020 election. In a live appearance, the Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser called the action a “textbook terrorism” while reading the definition about the crime in the U.S. Code: “[…] the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”    

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has so far charged 205 individuals relating to the Capitol siege and returned 35 indictments on federal crimes ranging from trespassing to murder to obstruction of justice to carrying or having accessible, in the grounds of the Capitol, of a firearm and ammunition. The authorities, too, are considering filing serious charges of sedition and conspiracy against some individuals—a federal crime involving an effort to conspire to overthrow the U.S. government—punishable up to 20 years in prison. No charges on the crime of domestic terrorism, though! 

That is, the U.S. Code falls short in determining the crime of terrorism, providing, as McCord explains, an exact definition for both “international” and “domestic terrorism”—the first occurring primarily outside of the U.S. territorial jurisdiction, or transcends national boundaries, and the second one primarily within the U.S. territorial jurisdiction. But these acts do not create “terrorism offenses,” as listed in Chapter 113b, Title 18, under “Terrorism,” which include crimes that prohibit: using weapons of mass destruction or directed at U.S. government officials or property; acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries; engaging in financial transactions with countries that support international terrorism; providing material support to terrorists; or to a designated foreign terrorist organization; etc. Besides, there is no federal crime of terrorism that applies to acts—otherwise qualified as “domestic terrorism”—when perpetrated with firearms or vehicles (the most common means of terrorist attacks used within and outside of the U.S.) but not connected to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO).

The U.S. terrorism statutes deal primarily—and exclusively—with international terrorism and terrorism in the homeland committed in furtherance of the goals of a FTO, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, standing silent toward attacks or mass shootings carried out in furtherance of political or social ideologies not connected to an FTO. That is why the killing in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, committed by James Fields, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi white supremacist, including mass shootings in Pittsburg, Poway, or El Paso, executed in furtherance of white supremacist and anti-immigration ideologies—were not qualified as terrorism crimes, though they, according to McCord, met the federal definition of domestic terrorism. 

The “domestic terrorism” meaning, as explained in the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2020, refers to Section 2331, Title 18, of the U.S. Code, and doesn’t include acts carried out by individuals associated with, or inspired by a foreign person or an FTO; an individual or organization designated as such under the Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note); or a state sponsor of terrorism (Export Administration Act, 1979, 50 U.S.C. 4605). Hence, the Capitol attack doesn’t constitute a terrorism act as long as it’s not associated with, or inspired by a foreign terrorist or an FTO. So far, no suspicious for such a connection is reported.

Noting that, unlike “international terrorism” organizations, accounting for 61 in total, the DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) do not officially designate domestic terrorist organizations, although, they have openly delineated domestic terrorist threats conducted by individuals on behalf of ideologies, like anarchism, white supremacy, anti-government, black separatism, and so forth. Instead, the FBI and the DHS, as Bjelopera, a specialist in organized crime and terrorism, observes, use the “homegrown violent extremist” (HVE) to separate domestic terrorists from foreign terrorists. An HVE is defined as: “A person of any citizenship who has lived and/or operated primarily in the U.S. or its territories who advocates, is engaged in, or is preparing to engage in ideologically-motivated terrorist activities (including providing support to terrorism) in furtherance of political or social objectives promoted by a foreign terrorist organization, but is acting independently of direction by a foreign terrorist organization.” The lack of official lists or processes to designate groups or individuals as domestic terrorists, according to this author, renders it difficult to assess domestic terrorism trends and evaluate federal efforts to counter such threats; therefore, all legal actions against an identified extremist group exercising violence are constitutionally protected and not reported on by DHS.

Far-Right Terrorism: The Greatest Domestic Security Threat  

Domestic terrorism, comparing to the declining trends of foreign terrorism, has been on rise since the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, known as the first homegrown terrorism attack and the deadliest after 9/11, killing 168 people and injuring several hundred. As a DHS report released on October 2020 warned: “Domestic violent extremism is a threat to Homeland.” The formerly Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Chad F. Wolf, expressed his concerns on the racially-and-ethnically-motivated-violent-extremists, specifically white supremacist extremists, who, as he suggested, will remain the “most persistent and lethal threat” in the homeland. A similar warning issued the FBI, too, arguing that “the top threat we face from domestic violent extremists” comes from racially and ethnically-motivated violent extremists, including white supremacists.  

The existing data indicates that the far-right attacks, those executed by white supremacists in particular, are predominant. In the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2020, the Congress maintains that “white supremacists and other far-right-wing extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States,” posing the “greatest domestic-security threats” as a Trump Administration Department of Justice official wrote at the New York Times on February 2019. Further, an unclassified 2017-FBI and DHS intelligence bulletin indicates that “white supremacist extremism (WSE)” were responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016, with a number of killings ranging from 1 to 49 in a given year since September 2001, accounting for 62 (73%) of 85 violent extremist incidents against 23 (27%) incidents committed by radical Islamist violent extremists. Moreover, in its annual hate crime incident report in 2018, the FBI found that hate crimes increased by approximately 17% in 2017, raising for the third consecutive year, by almost 5% in 2016, and by 6% in 2015.

Mass shootings in Charleston, SC (2015), Colorado Springs, Col. (2015), Portland, Or. (2017), Charlottesville, Va. (2017), and in Pittsburgh, Pa (2018)—among other attacks—were all perpetrated by far-right-wing extremists. The WSE, according to DHS, have been exceptionally lethal in their abhorrent, targeted attacks in the recent years, exploiting lawful protests to cause violence, death and destruction in America, including during 100 days of violence across cities in 2020.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) supports these data, as well. In a brief issued in June 2020, Jones, Doxsee, and Harrington argue that the far-right terrorism has “significantly outpaced terrorism from other types of perpetrators”—far-left networks and individuals inspired by ISIS and Al Qaeda, accounting for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the U.S. since 1995. The plots and attacks committed by the right-wing, as these authors observe, have grown significantly during the past six years, making up two thirds of the attacks and plots in America in 2019 and over 90% between January 1 and May 8, 2020.

Based on the CSIS accounts, from 893 terrorist attacks and plots carried out through 1994—2020, the majority of them (57%) were perpetrated by right-wing terrorists as opposed to 25% by left-wing terrorists, 15% by religious terrorists, and 4% by others. The right-wing attacks predominated throughout 1994-1999, accounting for more than half of all incidents in 2008 as well as every year since 2011, with the exception of 2013. In 2016, 2017 and 2019—the number of right-wing terrorist events matched or exceeded the number in 1995, including a recent high of 53 right-wing terrorist incidents in 2017. The right-wing activity increased in 2019 to 44 incidents.

In another CSIS brief, the War Comes Home: The Evolution of Domestic Terrorism in the United States, Jones et al. reported for a growing threat from domestic terrorism coming from politically-racially-ethnically-economically-healthy motivated extremists. Based on their dataset, white supremacists and other like-minded extremists perpetrated 67% of terrorist plots and attacks in 61 incidents between January 1 and August 31, 2020, using vehicles, explosives, and firearms, whilst targeting demonstrators and other individuals on racial, ethnic, religious, or political basis, including as well as police, military and government personnel and facilities. 

In October 2020, the FBI arrested Adam Fox, Barry Croft, Ty Garbin and several others for conspiring to kidnap and possibly execute the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, as well as for discussing to kidnap Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, in part because of his lockdown orders to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Likewise, in an unclassified document, the Texas Department of Public Safety concluded that “mass attacks pose a persistent and varied threat to the State of Texas,” cautioning that racially motivated attacks are currently the most violently active type of domestic terrorism within the U.S. and Texas, committing 10 mass attacks in Texas through 2009-2019 (2020). In another report, this Department alarms that the white racially motivated (WRM) is currently the most violently active domestic terrorism type, committing—since 2018—at least three major attacks in the U.S. (including one in Texas) and several thwarted incidents, followed by Involuntary Celibates (Incels). 

Organization and Operation: Online Through A Decentralized, Leaderless Resistance 

The CSIS categorizes the right-wing terrorist individuals into three broad groups: white supremacists, anti-government extremists, and Incels. They function under a decentralized model, or leaderless resistance, as Bjelopera describes it—with threats coming from individuals not groups—and mostly operating and organizing through social media, therefore adopting some foreign terrorist organizations’ tactics. According to Jones, Doxsee, and Harrington’s findings, many white supremacists adhere to the Great Replacement conspiracy, while the white supremacist neo-Nazi organizations to the Zionist Occupied Government. Engaged in vandalism, trespassing, and tax fraud, domestic terrorists’ operation involves two levels of activity: operational, underground, where the ideologically motivated cells or individuals engage in illegal activity without any participation in or direction from an organization; and the above-ground public face (political)—focused on propaganda and the dissemination of ideology publicly.

Same, the rioters connected to the Capitol storm used social media platforms to organize and share information and resources. Researchers of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) have identified members of a dozen extremist groups, belonging to far-right wing, including adherents of QAnon conspiracy theory, the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Nationalist Socialist Club(NSC-131)—a recently founded hate group known for disrupting Black Lives Matter protests, and No White Guilt, a white nationalist group blaming “anti-whiteism” for the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. The FBI arrested members of the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters in Ohio, Colorado, Indiana and Texas. Designated by the SPLC as hate groups, none of them however is treated as a domestic terrorist entity, consequently, no indictment of conspiring to mount an attack on the Capitol is raised against them. 

Far-right groups have a long history of existence. Perhaps, since the creation of the United States of America. Certainly, they have grown in number and activities in the last decade—and resurrected especially during President Trump election campaign and following his tenure in the White House. If it weren’t for Trump, I would never have heard about KKK (Ku Klux Klan), for example. Or QAnon, or Antifa (left-wing), which he brought into conversation over and over. 

As of profilisation, the far-right, according to Pitcavage, a historian with expertise on domestic terrorism and right-wing extremism, consists of two ideological strains: white supremacy and nativism—that solidified in the early-to mid-19th century—becoming staples of the far-right to this day. By late 1800, the far-right expanded with extreme hostility to socialism and communism and ideological anti-Semitism—four belief systems dominating for most of the 20th century, and complemented by another segment, anti-government extremism, after the end of the Cold War—with white supremacy and anti-communist extremism constituting its most important pillars. “Today, traditional white supremacists are still primarily represented by Ku Klux Klan groups, though these have been in decline, as well as other groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens and the neo-Confederate League of the South,” writes Pitcavage. Since 1866, KKK has undertaken three distinctive and sustained campaigns of terrorism, occurring between 1866 and 1871, between 1915 and 1928, and roughly 1954 to the mid-1960s. Following the Oklahoma City bombing, meanwhile, race-based hate groups experienced a dramatic and steady resurgence, including KKK, neo-Nazi, Racist Skinhead, and Neo-Confederate organizations, exploding from 241 in 1996 to over 750 by 2006.

QAnon conspiracy theory surfaced in October 2017 with a series of cryptic messages unleashed by a user calling themselves Q, dropping as of 2020 over 4,000 posts. Designated by the FBI as a “domestic terror threat for its conspiracy theories,” QAnon claims that an elite group of child-trafficking paedophiles have been ruling the world for a number of decades and President Trump has a secret plan to bring this group to justice. QAnon activities spiked in March 2020 when the group spread conspiracies regarding COVID-19, anti-vaccine, anti-5G, anti-semitic and anti-migrant tropes. Unfortunately, many Americans tend to believe their conspiracies, including politicians—among those—14 congressional candidates who run for the-2020 election. The Republican Rep., Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), for example, has been recently stripped from the House committees’ assignment due to her support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

The Oath Keepers is an anti-government, pro-gun militia composed largely of former law enforcement and military veterans. They believe that the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights. Three Percenters is an anti-government group with its name referring to the purported 3% of the American colonial population that rose up to fight the British Army in the Revolution.