Terrorism Expert: “Domestic extremists have a sympathetic base.”

Two of Mr. Jenkins’ latest articles are:

Why We Need a January 6 Commission to Investigate the Attack on the Capitol
January 20, 2021
https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/01/why-we-need-a-january-6-commission-to-investigate-the.html

-and-

The Battle of Capitol Hill
January 11, 2021
https://www.rand.org/blog/2021/01/the-battle-of-capitol-hill.html

His most recent social media commentary is:

“The mob assault on the U.S. Capitol was predictable. Fortunately, democracy held. But security failed spectacularly.

“In short, the failure of planning is incomprehensible. We’re lucky this wasn’t a massacre. The intruders could’ve taken elected officials hostage; it was only in October that the FBI thwarted a plot by right-wing extremists to kidnap the governor of Michigan.

“January 6th is now a day to be remembered on the calendar of violent resistance to the federal government. Emerging from the deadly debacle are diehards whose fantasies of a stolen election are still being fueled.

“These extremists could now be emboldened by their successful confrontation last week. A continuing deep sense of injury coupled with an unrealistic assessment of their own power is always a bad combination.

“Defiance is not easily put back in the box. The siege may cause some previously inflammatory politicians to sober up. But to the rioters, any weak denunciations by such politicians may only feed their sense of betrayal and harden their resolve.

“Extremist activity during the inauguration or the SOTU address is possible in the near term. But I worry more about terrorist plots by right-wing extremists over the horizon.”

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Domestic Violent Extremists Will Be Harder To Combat Than Homegrown Jihadists

Brian Michael Jenkins, Senior Adviser to the RAND President, Michael D. Rich.

By Brian Michael Jenkins
01/31/21 05:00 PM EST

Brian Michael Jenkins is a Senior Adviser to the President of the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation. He is a former Captain in the Green Berets, initiated RAND’s Terrorism Research program in 1972 and has been researching terrorism for RAND since. He is a Fulbright Fellow, University of San Carlos in Guatemala, has served in several administrations in various capacities related to security and terrorism, authored numerous books, articles, and reports published worldwide, and is a Vietnam Veteran.

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The Biden administration has said it will take steps to combat domestic violent extremism. While the move comes close on the heels of the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building, the nation has witnessed recent acts of violence stemming from both far left and far right extremists.

The announced actions – conducting a comprehensive threat assessment, coordinating intelligence sharing, disrupting networks, trying to prevent radicalization – might have a familiar ring. They’re similar to the post-9/11 response to thwart terrorist attacks launched from abroad, and later, homegrown jihadists, which have been largely successful. While these are solid steps, for a variety of reasons shutting down domestic extremists will prove far more difficult than combating homegrown jihadists.

Larger constituencies.
Jihadist ideology, with few exceptions, gained very little traction in America’s Muslim communities. In contrast, the beliefs driving today’s domestic extremists are deeply rooted in American history and society. Precisely for that reason, some law enforcement officials argue against coming down too hard on those involved in the 1/6 assault, perhaps fearing that doing so might provoke the kind of bloody confrontations witnessed in the early 1990s.

The jihadists never had a supportive constituency in the U.S. They responded as individuals to exhortations from groups abroad. Indeed, many of the tips that led to arrests reportedly came from within the Muslim community. There were no continuing terrorist campaigns. Plots and attacks were one-offs. But domestic extremists have a sympathetic base.

Domestic extremists are better organized.
Hindered by FBI infiltration, far right extremists long ago adopted a strategy of “leaderless resistance,” avoiding a hierarchical structure and instead relying on local autonomous cells to carry out attacks on behalf of the cause. What is new about today’s domestic extremists is

Violent Racist 2x Federal Convict Chester Doles & GA Banana Republican Kelly Loeffler Visit

Georgia’s appointed U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler is seen here with notorious racist bigot Chester Doles, a self-described 4th generation Ku Klux Klansman white Supremacist. Loeffler is THE single wealthiest Member of Congress with an estimated individual net worth of $500 million aside from her husband Jeffrey Sprecher, Founder, CEO, and President of InterContinental Exchange, a firm which literally owns the New York Stock Exchange, and other exchanges. Together they are worth an estimated $1 billion. Her spokesman claims to have not known about Doles’ presence at her rally, yet QAnon conspiracy theorist and Banana Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene in September had kicked Doles out of one of her rallies. This image was posted by Doles on VK, a Russian social media website.

You know the saying.

“Shit draws flies.”

It’ll be up to you to decide which is which.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote this, in part, about their cordial visit:

“The photo shows the Republican smiling from beneath an American flag ball cap next to Chester Doles, a longtime white supremacist who spent decades in the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazi National Alliance. He was sentenced to prison for the 1993 beating of a Black man in Maryland and again on weapons violations in Georgia. He also associated with the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead gang with whom he marched in 2017′s violent United the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.”

The “Hammerskin Nation” members, as they prefer to call themselves, are called one of “the best organized, most widely dispersed and most dangerous Skinhead group known” by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-bigotry Intelligence Report, which “provides comprehensive updates to law enforcement agencies, the media and the general public” on the radical right in the United States. His March 2003 arrest by Federal authorities was for violating Federal law barring convicted felons from possessing firearms.

The Washington Post wrote this in part, about Doles and Loeffler’s friendly tête-à-tête:

“Smiling and sporting a dark green cap with an American flag, Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) posed side by side with a former Ku Klux Klan leader at a Friday campaign event in Dawsonville, Ga.

“But after the viral photo with Chester Doles drew intense criticism amid a crucial Senate runoff campaign, the senator is distancing herself from any association with the longtime white supremacist. A campaign spokesman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday that Loeffler was unaware she was posing with a man who spent decades in the KKK and the neo-Nazi National Alliance.

““Kelly had no idea who that was, and if she had she would have kicked him out immediately because we condemn in the most vociferous terms everything that he stands for,” wrote Stephen Lawson, Loeffler’s campaign spokesman, to the Journal-Constitution in a statement Sunday.””[Sunday, 13 December 2020]

But here’s the contradictory part to Loeffler’s story: Even the freakazoid newly elected QAnon conspiracy theorist Banana Republican Congress critter Marjorie Taylor Greene threw him out of one of her rallies in Ringgold, Georgia, Saturday, September 19, 2020 – and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story about the ordeal the following Monday, and told the newspaper that same day that, “Yes, I asked him to be removed. He is not welcome at any events that I attend. Period.”

One should seriously ponder why it is that a low-level weirdo like Banana Republican QAnon conspiracy theorist like Marjorie Taylor Greene would have on-the-ball-staff, while the multimillionairess Loeffler whose net worth is $500 Million at minimum, would not. It just doesn’t make sense.

Another thing that makes no sense is why anyone with at least half an ounce of common sense would know that Loeffler does NOT normally dress like that – trucker cap, checkerboard shirt, boots, jeans, etc. – when she’s relaxing. And yet, she hasn’t figured out that simply wearing the clothes of a “commoner” do not make her one, any more than wearing a welder’s mask and gloves makes her a welder. Folks who are fooled by such low-level attempts at deception are to be pitied. Why, even that blue-and-white checkerboard shirt probably cost well over $500.

Any woman worth a minimum of $500 million like she is, wear garments made by the likes of haute couture houses of Fendi, Prada, Gucci, Chanel, Armani, Vitton,