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Tag: white supremacist terror
A machete and bayonet found inside Donald Craighead's vehicle outside of the DNC.

White Supremacist Arrested With Bayonet And Machete Outside DNC Building

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

Capitol Police on Monday announced they arrested a 44-year-old Californian man outside the Democratic National Committee's headquarters in Washington, D.C., after he was found to be in possession of a machete and bayonet — both of which are illegal to possess in the District of Columbia.

Capitol Police pulled over Donald Craighead after noticing his vehicle did not have a license plate, but instead had a picture of an American flag where the license plate should be. It was then that they observed the bayonet and machete and subsequently arrested him for possession of prohibited weapons.

Craighead's car was decorated with white supremacist imagery — including a swastika — and he espoused white supremacist views as he responded to police officers.

This is the latest incident to occur near the Capitol following the January 6 insurrection, during which a mob of Donald Trump supporters violently broke into the building to stop the certification of President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory.

In August, a man was arrested across the street from the Capitol after he threatened to blow up the building unless Biden resigned, parroting lies from Trump and other Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen.

The latest arrest comes as the Capitol and surrounding area are on high alert, with supporters of the insurrectionists arrested on January 6 planning a rally on September 18.

CNN reported that law enforcement officials are bracing for violence at the so-called "Justice for J6" rally, which is organized by former Trump campaign aide Matt Braynard.

The DNC headquarters is steps away from House office buildings on the Capitol complex.

The building was targeted on the day of the January 6 insurrection, as was the Republican National Committee's headquarters, which is even closer to the House-side office buildings. Police found pipe bombs near both buildings.

Police have still not found the suspect behind the placement of those explosive devices. The FBI released footage last week of someone they think is the person who planted the explosive devices.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Senators Hit Administration Scheme To ‘Downplay’ White Supremacist Terror

Senators Hit Administration Scheme To ‘Downplay’ White Supremacist Terror

A group of seven Democratic senators are protesting changes made by the Trump administration that downplay the serious and growing threat posed by white supremacist terrorists — which also makes it harder to stop that threat.

In a Thursday letter addressed to Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray, the senators, all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, expressed their alarm at a major new change to the way the FBI and DOJ keep track of domestic terrorism.

“We are deeply concerned that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are not taking adequate measures to combat white supremacist violence,” reads the letter, signed by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Cory Booker (D-NY), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-CT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Kamala Harris (D-CA).

During a briefing with DOJ and FBI officials, the senators revealed, they learned that “the Trump Administration has shifted its approach to tracking domestic terrorism incidents to obfuscate the white supremacist threat.”

Previously, the agencies used 11 different categories for tracking domestic terrorism, including a separate category for white supremacist violence. But the new system has whittled those 11 categories down to just four — including “racially motivated violent extremism,” which lumps together white supremacists with “black identity extremists,” a freshly made-up term by the Trump team.

In 2017 the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives called the term “black identity extremists” a classification that “further distances communities of color from the law enforcement community.” They said the term “resurrects the historically negative legacy of African American civil rights leaders who were unconstitutionally targeted and attacked by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for seeking full U.S. citizenship under the law.”

This change is an especially big problem, the senators note, because “violent white supremacists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing our nation today.” And recent incidents, including the shooting at Chabad of Poway synagogue in California and the mass shooting at Linwood Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, have brought that fact into painful focus.

“Given the large number of white supremacist attacks, we are deeply concerned that this reclassification downplays the significance of the white supremacist threat,” the senators wrote.

Trump, however, inaccurately claims that white supremacist terrorists are “a small group of people” whom we don’t need to worry about.

He’s wrong.

The Trump administration has deemphasized government programs intended to fight violent racist extremists, and his team’s focus on domestic terrorism has reportedly “waned” within federal agencies since the end of the Obama administration.

Trump’s legacy is easily summed up in his decision to praise neo-Nazis as “very fine people,” while also praising pro-slavery generals that fought in rebellion against the American government during the Civil War.

Trump is using the highest office in the land to minimize serious crimes perpetrated by racists — but Democratic senators are alerting Americans to the injustice being committed in their names.

Published with permission of The American Independent. 

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen Sees White Supremacist Terror Threat

Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen Sees White Supremacist Terror Threat

The Department of Homeland Security is admitting that white supremacists are a real and growing problem, rejecting the claim Trump made after the Christchurch mass shooting.

In a speech at George Washington University on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was forced to acknowledge that hate-driven acts of violence are part of a growing problem within the United States.

The would-be terrorists “are using the same do-it-yourself, mass-murder tactics as we saw with the horrible assault last week in New Zealand against Muslim worshipers,” Nielsen said, even though Trump has refused to acknowledge the Islamic faith of those who were targeted in the mosque shootings.

Just Friday, when Trump was asked, following the New Zealand attacks, about the growing threat of white supremacists, he dismissed it as merely “a small group of people that have very, very serious problems.”

The comments from Trump echoed his administration’s policy thus far of de-emphasizing homegrown terrorism — they have even cut funding behind programs put in place to investigate such crimes.

But now even his handpicked Cabinet official Nielsen can’t hide from the evidence. She called attacks like the one in New Zealand “domestic terrorism,” a phrase Trump himself declined to use in his official statements.

Trump has a considerable history of anti-Islam statements and actions, most notably his attempts to impose a travel ban on Muslims coming to the United States.

In the wake of an attack by an individual who shares much of Trump’s anti-immigrant, pro-supremacist views, even his own team is acknowledging that Trump’s position is far afield from what is normal.

White supremacists are a threat, and no matter how much Trump covers for them, American lives are in danger.

Published with permission of The American Independent.