FBI has fewer tools, resources to fight homegrown terror threats
WASHINGTON» Following two mass shootings over the weekend, President Donald Trump called on federal authorities Monday to do a better job identifying violent extremists in the U.S. But that won’t be easy.
Federal investigators looking to prevent acts of domestic terrorism, like the massacre of 22 people at a crowded shopping center in El Paso on Saturday, have fewer tools and authorities at their disposal than they would if they were up against someone tied to an international organization such as the Islamic State or al-Qaeda.
That challenge has revived questions about whether the FBI, which transformed itself after the Sept. 11 attacks to combat international terrorism and acquired broad new surveillance powers, is adequately positioned to confront a white nationalist threat responsible for some of the deadliest acts of violence in the last few years.
“I can go online and say whatever I want, but that doesn’t mean it’s sufficient for the FBI to open an investigation,” said David Gomez, a former FBI counterterrorism supervisor. “You need to combine the free speech with an overt act, and that overt act has to be something criminal in nature.”
The laws, as they exist, “are not designed around the FBI being able to prevent these actions,” Gomez said. “The laws are designed to respond to crimes already committed and then investigate them.”
Confronting domestic terrorism is an urgent issue for law enforcement at a time when white supremacists and like-minded extremists are causing more murders, including a rampage at a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 last October, than Americans inspired by foreign groups. The FBI made about 90 domestic terrorism arrests in the first three quarters of the year and has hundreds of open cases.
Still, Trump said Monday, law enforcement “must do a better job of identifying and acting on early warning signs.”
“I am directing the Department of Justice to work in partnership with local, state and federal agencies, as well as social media companies, to develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike,” the president said.
That’s easier said than done, with part of the challenge arising from how federal law distinguishes between international terrorism and domestic terrorism. Other obstacles include whether technology companies can adequately flag troublesome behavior in advance, and whether law enforcement can successfully separate out those bent on violence from those who simply mouth off about it.
Biden pitches federal buyback weapons program.
After two mass shootings that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Monday that he’d push for a federal buyback program to encourage Americans to give up their military-style weapons and ammunition.
The former vice president said in an interview with CNN that the voluntary weapons buybacks would be in addition to his push for renewing a lapsed federal ban on new manufacturing and sales of such firearms — a prohibition he helped win in 1994 as a senator from Delaware, only to watch it expire a decade later.
He also accused President Donald Trump of “using the language of” white nationalists, including the shooting suspect accused of killing 22 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart over the weekend. Yet Biden stopped short of some of his rivals for the 2020 Democratic nomination by declining to call Trump himself a white supremacist.
El Paso shooting deaths climb to 22.
The Texas border city jolted by a weekend massacre at a Walmart absorbed still more grief Monday as the death toll climbed to 22 in El Paso, where the shooting rampage claimed more lives than the number of murders here just two years ago.
Authorities are scrutinizing a racist, anti-immigrant screed posted online shortly before police say Patrick Crusius, 21, opened fire Saturday.
Mexico’s foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, said Monday the Mexican government considers the mass shooting to be an act of terrorism against Mexican citizens on U.S. soil.
Did Ohio gunman target his sister?
Police worked Monday to pin down why a 24-year-old gunman killed nine people, including his sister, in a weekend shooting rampage in a popular nightlife area in Dayton, Ohio.
Connor Betts, who was wearing a mask and body armor when he opened fire in the bustling Oregon District early Sunday, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle. If all of the magazines he had with him were full, which hasn’t been confirmed, he would have had a maximum of 250 rounds, said Police Chief Richard Biehl.
Still unknown is whether Betts targeted any of the victims, including his 22-yearold sister, Megan, the youngest killed. — The Associated Press