The Threat Within: Homegrown Terrorism

Our eighth episode of this season’s “Common Ground with Jane Whitney” brings together experts in counterterrorism to discuss how violence from white supremacist and allied groups has become “the single most lethal domestic terrorism” threat, according to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. The panelists will describe the difficulties of tracking potential threats, the allure of radicalization, how foreign adversaries stoke the discord as part of their efforts to weaken the country, and most importantly, what can be done to contain the incipient danger.

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The self-anointed patriots who took over the Capitol on January 6 waved a sea of American flags but crowned themselves with icons of zealotry – Confederate flags, Nazi armbands and Ku Klux Klan imagery such as a noose hanging from make-shift gallows.

These symbols weave together the strands that form the multi-hued tapestry of domestic terrorism, what former CIA director John Brennan has called an “unholy alliance of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians.”

Once widely dismissed as a few disparate and unaffiliated “kooks,” law enforcement authorities say extremists in recent years have metastasized and coalesced into an omnipresent scourge, a fanatical and interconnected network of violence prone groups.

Although rooted in America’s founding and its original sin, the threat of domestic terrorism traditionally has been relegated to the back waters of the country’s security apparatus. But the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the country’s first black president, hailed at the time as the dawn of a “post racial America,” elevated the threat by provoking the proliferation of armed militias, hate crimes and conspiracy theories, which ultimately coalesced into the January 6 insurrection.

The August 22 episode of Common Ground brings together experts in counterterrorism to discuss how violence from white supremacist and allied groups has become “the single most lethal domestic terrorism” threat, according to the FBI and Department of Homeland Security. The panelists will describe the difficulties of tracking potential threats, the allure of radicalization, how foreign adversaries stoke the discord as part of their efforts to weaken the country, and most importantly, what can be done to contain the incipient danger.

The panel is headlined by former CIA Director John Brennan, who served in multiple intelligence and counterterrorism roles within the agency during his 30-year tenure. Called “one of the hardest-working, most patriotic public servants I’ve ever seen” by President Obama, Brennan supervised many security milestones, such as the raid that killed Osama bin Laden; spearheaded the effort to curb the growth of terror groups in North Africa and the Middle East; and helped design the U.S. drone warfare program.

Unlike the characteristically stoic CIA directors who preceded him, Brennan possesses a self-described “Irish temper” that frequently led him to create headlines by criticizing political leaders and their policies, such as the use of torture. In his recent book, Undaunted, he details these clashes and unabashedly disses President Trump for retaliating by cancelling his security clearance, a requisite for his lucrative side job as a commentator and consultant. “My principles are worth far more than clearances,” he wrote. “I will not relent.”

Although the CIA is prohibited by law from operating on US soil, Brennan has been particularly outspoken about domestic terrorism since the attack on the Capitol, sharing insights cultivated from decades studying foreign fanaticism. He calls the threat from domestic extremism “much more challenging” than that from foreign terrorists, and said that tracking down terrorists is similar to “a lot of hay stacks with a lot of needles.”

Our second panelist is Representative Elissa Slotkin, who spent almost two decades preventing attacks on the United States in various security roles and now chairs the U.S. House Intelligence & Counterterrorism subcommittee. After being recruited by the CIA following 9/11, Slotkin served three tours in Iraq as a Middle East analyst, which led to key advisory roles in the Defense Department under President Bush and President Obama and in the Pentagon as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.

As chairwoman of the counterterrorism subcommittee, Slotkin has begun refocusing security concerns on domestic terrorism and away from foreign threats. She said that the attack on January 6th “really ended the post- 9/11 era” during which “the threats came from abroad into the United States” and that the attack on the Capitol “inaugurated another era in which American polarization is the greatest threat to our national security.”

A Democrat, Slotkin must bridge the country’s bilious partisan divide to survive in her southern Michigan district, which had been controlled by Republicans since the turn of the century until she defeated a presumably safe incumbent in the 2018 Blue Wave. Although targeted in 2020 by the GOP and aligned Super Pacs, she was reelected to a second term, one of only seven Democrats to survive in districts carried by President Trump.

The third panelist is Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former assistant director for counterintelligence and currently NBC News’ National Security Contributor.

A spy’s worst nightmare with 25 years of experience as a special agent, he is the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI and has won acclaim for his reporting on the Special Counsel investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

While at the FBI, he led efforts to counter economic espionage in Silicon Valley and supervised major financial crimes and public corruption investigations in Florida and Ohio, where he was head of The Bureau’s Cleveland Division. But he became a go-to media talking head in the wake of the January 6 insurrection when he called the riot “a form of terrorism,” making him one the more forthright on air law enforcement personalities.

A former assistant chief of security at General Electric, Figliuzzi is the author of “The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence.” Published in January, it discusses the FBI’s methodology and its application to daily life. A study of policing, it was heralded as a “worthwhile exploration of the age-old question of who polices the police, how they do it, and to what end.”

Moderated by former NBC correspondent and national talk show host Jane Whitney, this interactive symposium, which begins at 3 p.m. on August 22nd and runs 90 minutes, will be live streamed, allowing anyone with an internet-connected device to participate and ask questions. Tickets can be reserved for $25 at www.conversationsonthegreen.com.

All proceeds from Conversations on the Green events benefit local organizations including the Susan B. Anthony Project, New Milford Hospital, Greenwoods Counseling & Referrals, and the American Nurses Foundation Coronavirus Response Fund, which provides immediate assistance to those risking their lives during this crisis.

Conversations on the Green brings together nationally-recognized voices together to support its mission of educating and invigorating the American public through discussion of the country’s most provocative issues and ideas. Based in Litchfield, CT, COGs are interactive, Town Hall style forums allowing both the speakers and the audience to share experiences, perspectives and insights in an effort to build an ongoing conversation that strengthens community bonds.