Biden orders terrorism probe
PRESIDENT Joe Biden has directed law enforcement and intelligence officials in his Administration to study the threat of domestic violent extremism in the US, after a mob of insurgents loyal to Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol.
The involvement of the director of national intelligence, an office created after the 9/11 attacks to prevent international terrorism, suggests that American authorities are examining how to pivot to a more concerted focus on violence from extremists at home.
The threat assessment, to be coordinated by the national intelligence office, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, would be used as a foundation to develop policy, the White House said.
In addition, the National Security Council will do its own policy review to see how information about the problem can be better shared across the government. The Biden Administration will also work on a more coordinated approach, with a focus on addressing social media and radicalisation.
The riot at the Capitol raised questions about whether a federal government national security apparatus that for years has moved aggressively to combat threats from foreign terror groups and their followers in the US is adequately equipped to address the threat of domestic
extremism.
It’s an issue that has flared periodically over the years, with several attacks renewing debate over whether a law specific to domestic terrorism is needed.
FBI Director Chris Wray said recently that over the past year, the most lethal violence had come from anti-government activists, such as anarchists and militia types.
The woman who documented herself flying via private jet to Washington, DC and entering
the Capitol as part of a mob of Trump supporters is now soliciting donations for her legal defence.
Real estate agent Jenna Ryan, 50, of Frisco, Texas, has been charged with disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, and knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful entry.
‘‘I am being surrounded by hateful people who are calling me a racist and asking for me to go to prison for 10 or 20 years,’’
Ryan wrote on Twitter. She claimed that she had raised US$1000 (NZ$1390) through PayPal, but her account was closed on the grounds that it was soliciting funds for purposes other than legal defence.
When federal agents asked Houston police officer Tam Dinh Pham why he was in Washington during the pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol, he said he had travelled there on business and then attended the president’s rally on a whim, but did not go inside the Capitol.
That’s when an FBI agent showed Pham his own deleted images and videos from inside the building, according to court documents.
Faced with the photo evidence, Pham then allegedly admitted climbing over torndown fences to get inside, but insisted that his reasons were pure: he just wanted the rare opportunity to view ‘‘historical art’’, investigators said.
Pham, 48, was arrested this week. He is one of more than a dozen off-duty police officers under investigation for allegedly participating in the violent and chaotic insurrection.
A Colorado geophysicist accused of dragging a police officer down the Capitol steps to be beaten with an American flag during the riot was ordered held without bail by a New York court yesterday, after a prosecutor said the man tried to flee to Switzerland and commit suicide.
US Magistrate Judge Andrew Krause said he found the alleged actions of Jeffrey Sabol, 51, ‘‘beyond the pale’’.
The judge said he also saw video footage that showed Sabol going back up the stairs to possibly look for someone else to bring ‘‘down those stairs into the teeth of that mob’’.
After the attack, the prosecutor said, Sabol booked a flight from Boston to Zurich, from where he would not be able to be extradited to the US.