Protecting the Homeland

Some have argued that since the jihadist attack in Paris on November 13^th, killing 130, and the December 2nd attack in San Bernardino, California, which killed 14, the United States has stepped up its domestic counter-terrorism efforts.  But with only five interdictions of ISIS supporters in the six weeks since the San Bernardino attack, the rate of interdiction has not picked up at all (an average of 4.5 per month for a total of 90 since March 2014 when ISIS first appeared in international headlines).  The bottom line is that the United States has not stepped up counter-terrorism efforts, and it continues to downplay the threat of ISIS to the homeland, emphasizing instead the threat from right-wing extremism.

Throughout the autumn, when it was already clear that ISIS was recruiting in the U.S. at a rate 300 percent greater than al Qaeda, and that the U.S. had ISIS investigations in every state, the administration implemented a number of initiatives that emphasized right-wing extremism and racial hatred over Islamist extremism. On September 28, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh  Johnson announced the creation of the DHS Office for Community Partnerships, whose goal would be “to build relationships and promote trust, and, in addition, find innovative ways to support communities that seek to discourage violent extremism and undercut terrorist narratives.” The office, both in its staffing and in its mission statement, is placing heavy emphasis on civil rights and civil liberties, suggesting it is more concerned with protecting Muslim communities than with rooting out Islamist extremism and potential terrorists.