On January 6, members of the far-right group occupied the Capitol in Washington, the capital of the United States, in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying that Biden had won the election. (Source: BBC)
【Editor’s Note】
September 11 is the 20th anniversary of the “September 11” incident. The “September 11” incident was the first attack on the United States after World War II that caused heavy casualties. The United States immediately launched two wars, the “Afghan War” and the “Iraq War”. However, the 20-year war on terrorism that has been soaked in blood and tears has hardly been won. In order to analyze the gains and losses of the United States‘ 20-year war on terrorism, Haiwai.com launched a series of comments on “Looking back at the 20th Anniversary of the ‘9.11’ Incident”. These are three comments.
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The United States is about to usher in the 20th anniversary of the “September 11” incident. As this date approaches, tensions in the United States are also increasing. On September 1, local time, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an announcement stating that foreign terrorist organizations may be seeking to use this anniversary to launch terrorist attacks against the United States and may use the United States to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Other incidents inspired violent extremists in the United States.
This is the third terrorism warning issued by the US security department this year. On August 13, DHS issued an announcement stating that the United States is in an “environment of increased threats,” including domestic terrorist threats, threats from foreign terrorists, and threats from “malicious external forces”; January 27 On Japan, DHS issued its first terrorism warning against local extremism in two years, stating that some extremists who are dissatisfied with the results of the US election and driven by ideology may continue to cause violence. It is worth noting that the three announcements released this year all mentioned local extremism and domestic terrorists.While the United States has prevented international terrorism from attacking its homeland through the “war on terrorism,” the domestic terrorist forces in the United States are becoming a serious security threat that the United States has to face.
The rise of terrorism in the United States is the result of the tearing apart of American society and the intensification of ethnic antagonism.The “9.11” incident and the subsequent “Global War on Terrorism” prelude successfully united American society, bridged the differences between the two parties, and contributed to a national consensus, cross-party cooperation, and policy continuity on the “major prerequisite for counter-terrorism.” However, with the delay of the war and the inability to achieve the ultimate goal, American society has experienced the impact of the financial crisis, the “Occupy Wall Street” movement, the “Tea Party” movement and other events in the past decade. Manipulating “identity politics”, American society has experienced unprecedented social tearing after World War II, and extreme right-wing extremists and extreme left-wing extremists at the poles of the political spectrum continue to make terrorist attacks in the United States. For example, most of the more than 850 violent attacks investigated by the FBI in 2019 involved anti-government extremism and white supremacy. Although the United States does not have a clear definition of homegrown terrorism, a report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States pointed out that white supremacist groups and anti-government civilian armed forces have posed “the most urgent terrorist threat” to the United States today. .
In addition, after the “September 11” incident, a series of anti-terrorism measures aimed at specific ethnic groups in the United States have intensified ethnic conflicts and antagonisms in the United States. For example, the domestic Muslim community in the United States suffered a lot of impact after the “September 11” incident. This group was indiscriminately classified as “an enemy of a country” by some American politicians, media, and public opinion, and thus became a domestic hate crime in the United States. , Discrimination and exclusion. Some anti-terrorism training materials and anti-extremism projects issued by the US government and security agencies also humiliated Muslim immigrants. “Islamophobia” and attacks on immigrants in turn stimulated some of them to extremes. As Bruce Hoffman, an expert on counter-terrorism and homeland security issues of the American Foreign Affairs Association, said, the United States is facing a counter-terrorism challenge different from the past: violence is not induced by identifiable terrorist organizations or personnel, but from ideology—individuals. Hostility to immigrants.
The rapid spread of extremist ideas and conspiracy theories through social media and the Internet has also contributed to the spread of terrorism in the United States.On the one hand, international terrorist organizations and extremist organizations, including the “Al-Qaida” organization and the “Islamic State”, have continuously used social media and the Internet to spread extreme ideas on a global scale in recent years. These “extremely” packaged extreme ideas have attracted Many Western youths are concerned. Bewitched by these extreme ideas, some Americans have created many “lone wolf-style” terrorist attacks. For example, the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 was carried out by two Chechen immigrants who had obtained American citizenship.
On the other hand, in the past few years, American far-right organizations have merged with groups that are keen to spread conspiracy theories, spreading extreme ideas and even inciting extreme violence through social media. In the past few years, extreme right-wing organizations represented by “proud boys”, “three percent”, and “keepers of oaths” have promoted white supremacy, radical nationalism, and support through Facebook, Twitter, and social media such as anonymous social networking sites Signal and Telegram. Gun freedom and conspiracy theories have attracted the support of conspiracy theorists represented by the “Anonymous Q” (QAnon). The US “Capitol Hill” reported on April 11 that since 2015, there have been 267 conspiracy or assault incidents in the United States, resulting in 91 deaths, most of which are from far-right elements. In 2020 alone, extreme right-wing extremists committed 73 domestic terrorist incidents, a record high. On January 6, 2021, the extreme-right groups created the “Capitol Hill riots” that shocked the world. Among them, the various conspiracy theories and false information that the extreme groups used the Internet to disseminate were “indispensable.”
What is surprising is that the United States has so far failed to form a systematic strategy to effectively deal with local terrorism. Even under the influence of political struggles and other factors, it has failed to reach agreement on how to define “local terrorism.”The United States has so far not enacted laws specifically targeting domestic terrorism. Although “domestic terrorism” is mentioned in the Patriot Act, it has not been classified as a crime. Therefore, US security agencies cannot establish an effective tracking and prevention mechanism for local “lone wolves” driven by religious, racial, and anti-government prejudices.
At the same time, under the banner of “freedom of speech”, it is difficult for US law enforcement agencies to take measures against hate speech and terrorist threats made by American citizens. In addition, although the police can arrest native terrorists, they cannot be criminalized under terrorism-related laws. They can only be prosecuted for hate crimes or firearms-related crimes. The FBI has been calling on Congress to criminalize homegrown terrorism. Without the support of relevant laws, it is difficult for federal law enforcement officials to share information about potential local terrorism threats with local judicial agencies before they commit crimes, and to track them effectively; local law enforcement officials also cannot access the FBI database of these militants. information. It can be said that these have seriously hindered the US judicial and security departments from combating the increasingly serious “local terrorism” and prevented law enforcement agencies from “investing resources into the most serious threats.”
A report issued by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in April showed that terrorist conspiracy and attacks in the United States have risen to the highest level in 25 years. The growing threat of indigenous terrorism has become a cancer that American society must face squarely. It is important to prevent external troubles, but if it is internal mutation or corruption, you need to start from the inside, diagnose the internal cause, and prescribe the right medicine. What is the use of a high wall when the internal worries are hard to come back? (Nie Shuyi)Return to Sohu to see more
Editor:
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