Trump team shuts down homeland security unit fighting terrorism in US

Despite a growing trend of domestic terror attacks from right-wing groups and individuals, the Trump administration disbanded a unit within the government tasked with monitoring and investigating those threats.

The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that a group of analysts within the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis was completely disbanded.

“It’s especially problematic given the growth in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism we are seeing in the U.S. and abroad,” a former intelligence official told the site.

The group was focused on homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorists, and would share their analysis with state and local law enforcement agencies to protect American citizens.

The changes were implemented by David Glawe, undersecretary for Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis, who was nominated for the position by Trump in May of 2017.

Law enforcement officials are raising the alarms about the Trump administration’s retreat.

“It doesn’t seem like engagement, outreach, and prevention are seen as a priority as we used to see in the past,” Sgt. Mike Abdeen of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the Daily Beast. He said that his office has seen the stream of information from Homeland Security dry up in recent months.

Meanwhile, right-wing domestic terrorism is taking lives.

Every extremist murder in America in 2018 was linked to right-wing terrorist groups. Those groups killed more people last year than they have in any year since 1995. Fifty people were killed, an increase of 35 percent from 2017.

Such violence has surged since Trump took office, as have hate crimes. When Trump described Nazis as “very fine people,” they took notice of his tacit approval.

Would-be serial mail-bomber Cesar Sayoc was an avowed Trump fan, who tried to take out his rage on Trump’s political enemies and the media that has held Trump accountable.

Meanwhile, Trump and his team have continued to minimize the threat, deactivating existing programs to fight violent extremism and talking down the problem of right-wing extremism.

Trump’s actions seem to indicate he sees more value in these destructive forces as political allies than as the threat to lives and security that they are.

Americans are in danger and instead of raising the alarms, Trump’s team is turning their backs while blood is shed.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.