Thread by @selectedwisdom

Seems necessary to post this after #ElPaso “America Has A White Nationalist Terrorism Problem. What Should We Do?” Wrote this after ⁦@Morning_Joe⁩ segment in April, problem remains & we’ve done nothing fpri.org/article/2019/0…

Pattern of white supremacist inspired attacks is remarkably similar, but directionally diffferent. Jihadists were top-down driven (Directed, Networked, Inspired) But these domestic attacks are bottom-up (Inspired, now leading to Networked)

now have “ Cascading Terrorism” from domestic extremism, where successful attacks inspire others on verge of violence move forward. #Gilroy followed by #ElPaso. I’m worried today’s attack might touch off others msnbc.com/morning-joe/wa…

Last decade, we worried about jihadi ideological rhetoric leading to jihadists violence. Today, political rhetoric has led to uptick violence against non-whites. We’ve always had domestic extremists, but they’ve only mobilized recently. Why? I think we all know.

Today’s targets are places of worship: mosques, synagogues, temples, black churches & Hispanic enclaves. We could increase resources and improve legislation, like we did against AQ/ISIS but we don’t. Cause domestic extremists vote, and ISIS don’t.

dangerous to let the string of attacks continue, successful attacks attract more devotees, even if we mute mainstream coverage. Their digital safe havens online like 8Chan allow them to propagate successes and grow their networks

FBI done decent job going after domestic extremists but they are limited ability to preempt. To reduce frequency of attacks, must be able to open assessments based on designation of domestic terror threats, to reduce impact of attacks, must stop extremists getting assault weapons

Last decade, al Qaeda & ISIS drove violent ideology inspiring attacks, today’s domestic terrorists inspire each other w/manifestos. most successful attacks set direction for twisted white extremist ideology. See this excellent @intelwire analysis theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

U.S. is seeing a shooting attack per day. Imagine what U.S. reaction would be if the shooters in #Gilroy #ElPaso #Dayton were connected al Qaeda or ISIS? Yet we let this continue as if it’s a series of isolated, unconnected incidents.

One doesn’t have to imagine what US respond might be if were AQ/ISIS as it happened overseas in summer 2016 & America freaked out. Look at numbers of ISIS Ramadan wave 2016, we are seeing = # attacks, deaths in OUR OWN COUNTRY. fpri.org/2016/07/make-i…

By letting these inspired domestic terrorism attacks go as one-offs, we risk not just cascading terrorism as success inspires others, we risk an uptick in reprisal attacks, here’s an example post #ChristchurchMosqueAttack npr.org/2019/04/29/718…

When President continues his rhetoric against minorities & there’s uptick violence on minorities, when Sen Cruz wants Antifa terror designation while his state witnesses #ElPaso attack, ripe conditions reprisals, message USG will only protect some people video.foxnews.com/v/606301890100…

I’d we treated white supremacist terrorism same as AQ/ISIS, responded in same way as we did to AQ/ISIS, what might we be doing today to try to stop this cascading terrorism, the contagion of domestic attacks?

After #ElPaso, 1) we’d have law enforcement around country preemptively looking at their leads of most dangerous potential perpetrators & making contact to make sure we don’t have another attack today.

2) after #ElPaso we’d be briefing families- parents in at risk communities about the Internet/social media indicators of domestic extremism, in case one of their kids is going down a dark path, maybe parents could help (we did this with ISIS inspired terrorism)

After #ElPaso 3) we’d reach out to communities where perpetrators arise & partnering to detect/demobilize violent extremists. During AQ/ISIS we did this Muslim communities, if we took white nationalist terrorism seriously, we’d be talking to gun community today- “police your own”

After #ElPaso 4) we’d expect legislation regarding domestic terrorism designation white supremacy, emergency budget supplemental for investigations, a summit w/tech to identify solutions police small platforms, mandatory background checks & sensible solutions like gun insurance

After #ElPaso 5) we’d be creating countering violent extremism (CVE) contact teams & online interventions, providing additional resources to groups like @MoonshotCVE to preempt domestic extremists (we spent millions $ on this after 9/11 for international terrorism)

After #ElPaso 6) we’d try close the gap between social media signal & law enforcement response by creating public-private Social Media Intelligence Fusion Center (SMIFC) that protects privacy while rapidly detecting/responding leads (terrorism & disinfo) securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/advanced-persi…

Another exhibit-

https://twitter.com/wsteaks/status/1126293167073050626?s=21