News
Featured Image
 Alex Wong / Getty Images

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 22, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – The Biden administration has unveiled a four-pillar plan to supposedly counter “domestic terrorism” that calls for Americans to report friends, family members, and coworkers they perceive to be “radicalizing.”

In a press briefing delivered via teleconference last week, the Biden Administration announced its new “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” which designates “domestic violent extremism as a national priority.”

In addition to calling for Americans to report people who are “radicalizing,” the plan describes an international partnership between global governments and Big Tech companies to identify and eliminate online content they consider dangerous.

A senior official whose name the White House did not release told reporters the threat of domestic terrorism is “elevated” in the White House press conference June 14. The official promised that the Biden regime strategy will “address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs” and indicating that those considered to “pose a threat to public safety and air travel” will, under existing protocols, “be considered for appropriate watch-listing.”

The Biden Administration has declared domestic terrorism to be “the most urgent terrorism threat” in the U.S. today, referring to an unclassified report from the Office of National Intelligence published in March which declares that “perceived government overreach will almost certainly drive DVE [domestic violent extremist] radicalization and mobilization to violence.”

“Newer sociopolitical developments—such as narratives of fraud in the recent general election, the emboldening impact of the violent breach of the US Capitol, conditions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and conspiracy theories promoting violence—will almost certainly spur some DVEs to try to engage in violence this year,” the report claims.

READ: DOJ targets 18-year-old homeschooler, suggests it’s a crime to believe 2020 election stolen

In a question and answer session with reporters, the White House official was quick to insist that the strategy is politically neutral. “This is a strategy that is agnostic as to political ideology or off the spectrum,” the official said. “What matters is when individuals take their political or other grievances and turn that — unacceptably, unlawfully — into violent action.”

But Dan Gainor, Vice President of Business and Culture for the Media Research Center, a watchdog organization dedicated to exposing liberal media bias, isn’t convinced the strategy is as “agnostic” as it purports to be.

“Though they make the claim this is ‘ideologically neutral,’ it’s clearly not,” Gainor told LifeSiteNews. “There’s no reference to Antifa or Black Lives Matter despite the massive rioting, arson, looting, violence and murder in leftist riots last year. The Biden administration is making it clear who they are going after and it’s the right.”

The press conference last week explicated the immediate action necessary for confronting the “urgent” domestic terror threat, noting that “manifestations” of that immediacy have already been seen in “the pretty extraordinary pace and scope of work done by investigators and prosecutors in the wake of the January 6 events.”

According to the briefing, the first pillar of the new four-pillar strategy involves the DOJ and FBI’s implementation of a “new system to methodically track domestic terrorism cases worldwide.”

The second pillar makes clear the designation of “domestic violent extremism as a national priority area,” with more than $77 million in grant money going to programs to address the threat. This pillar advocates a “see something, say something” concept which “involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence.”

This initiative is similar to a program launched by U.K. police last year, which encouraged people to report loved ones who they feel are “developing extremist views” and “being filled with hate,” leaving the definition of those terms undefined.

The second pillar of Biden’s strategy also addresses online domestic terrorist recruitment and “other forms of malicious content,” and describes the U.S. government’s participation in the “Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online,” which according to its site is “a commitment by Governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.”

Gainor expressed alarm about the Christchurch Call, noting the inherent risks in centralizing power over online communications.

“No one who supports free speech is committed to the Christchurch Call,” Gainor said. “It’s a method to censor content on a global scale. It’s a dangerous overreach for free nations to restrict speech they don’t like.”

In addition to promising increased surveillance, encouraging civilians to report friends and family to government agencies, and cooperating in a global public and private effort to crack down on online communications, the third and fourth pillars of the strategy target police and military and identify what the administration considers to be contributing factors to domestic terrorism.

The third pillar is meant “to ensure that domestic terrorists are not employed within our military or law enforcement ranks,” while the fourth is designed to confront the “long-term contributors to domestic terrorism,” which are defined as “economic inequality, those who feel left behind by the 21st century economy, structural racism, and the proliferation of guns.”

Military units and police departments are already rife with politically correct sensitivity training. This month the San Diego Police Department announced it would require its officers to use the “preferred pronouns” of individuals who identify as “transgender” or “nonbinary,” and accommodate body searches and transportation to such individuals’ “gender identity.” Meanwhile the Pentagon recently went on the offensive against Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson for criticizing the military’s “woke” policies, including designing maternity flight suits for pregnant servicewomen.

“This whole initiative is terrifying,” Gainor said of the White House’s new domestic terrorism strategy. “There is no reason for the U.S. government to involve itself in restricting ‘other forms of malicious content’ or targeting individuals who dare disagree with them.”

“It seems like the Biden administration’s solution to opposition speech is to use government to censor or arrest their opponents.” Gainor concluded. “Just like you’d see in a third-world dictatorship.”