In the long 15-page document, details of the Biden administration’s findings and action plan counteracting allegations of an increase in domestic terrorism in its country.
On April 16th, National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard fulfilled his past promise to confidentialize information related to President Joe Biden’s domestic anti-terrorism strategy.
Gabbard has released documents in response to promotions from conservative groups like America First Legal. This is said to be censoring unfavourable speeches on the Internet by labeling such speeches, “misinformation,” “hatred,” and “domestic terrorism” about the Biden administration.
In the wake of the Capitol violation on January 6th, the Biden administration has since argued that domestic terrorism was the biggest terrorist threat the US has faced, with SIP representing a government-wide counter-terrorism strategy.
The declassified document shows:
4-pillar plan
The declassified document’s plan is based on four pillars: “understanding and sharing domestic terrorism-related information,” “preventing the adoption of domestic terrorism and mobilisation towards violence,” “disturbing and blocking domestic terrorist activities,” and “facing long-term contributors to domestic terrorism.”
The broader goals set by the plan include identifying and intervening “potentially dangerous individuals,” “to strengthen the norms of nonviolent political expression and rejection of racism and prejudice,” and “independently of Americans’ “democracy and governmental beliefs.”
The plan called for dedicated research and analysis of domestic terrorism, including potential links with international organizations and governments. For the same purpose, there was a call for an increase in information sharing within federal law enforcement related to domestic terrorism.
Furthermore, the pillar proposed that the government “explores” ways to identify domestic terrorism through financial activities, including greater involvement in financial institutions and scrutiny of citizens’ financial records.
It also calls for the government to “strengthen its understanding of (and its) foreign national and non-state intelligence services, particularly how disinformation is related to domestic terrorist threats.”
It is essentially a federal term for analyzing the impact of foreign actors online. The Biden administration and Democrats have repeatedly argued that Russian “trolls” are responsible for spreading disinformation and misinformation online.
Relatedly, SIP reveals its plans to “implement evidence-based digital literacy programming to combat online disinformation and DT recruitment and narratives.”
The plan also calls for “sharing of related technology and other private industry companies with online content from terrorists (domestic terrorism) related to terrorists with relevant technology and other private industry companies as well as possible and consistently related information (domestic terrorism).
Considering “Legal, Privacy, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Reviews,” they called for a guardrail on information sharing with technology companies.
Many conservatives have long been critical of alleged collusion between federal agencies and tech platforms, with many saying the Biden administration attempting to censor and drain conservative perspectives in violation of the First Amendment.
Social proposals
The final pillar of the plan, called “Stapping Long-Term Contributors to Domestic Terrorism,” is loaded with potentially controversial social proposals.
This section identifies “ghost guns” (weapons that are not registered without serial numbers, often created via 3D printers), calls for “ein in the proliferation of such weapons,” and “encourage the national adoption of extreme risk protection orders and promotes other executives and legislative measures banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.”
It was also called for “advance inclusion” to “advance inclusion” as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic to “mitigate xenophobia and bias.”
This is because, according to SIP, it addresses the hate crime reporting barriers facing disadvantaged communities by promoting training in law enforcement and resources to prevent and deal with bias-motivated crimes.
Furthermore, the plan encouraged “civil education education and learning that provides students with the skills to fully participate in civic life” and promoted “existing proven interventions to promote literacy education for both children and adult learners, as well as revival.”
