The warning comes days after Biden’s inauguration.
Using a federal system designed to alert all Americans to terrorist threats to the United States’ homeland, the Department of Homeland Security has issued a warning that anger “fueled by false narratives”, especially baseless allegations about the 2020 presidential election, can lead to some into the country to launch attacks in the coming weeks.
“The information suggests that some ideologically motivated violent extremists and objections to the exercise of government authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived complaints fueled by false narratives, may continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” according to a bulletin. released Wednesday through the DHS National Terrorist Advisory System – or NTAS.
The system was last used to issue a public alert a year ago, when DHS released a bulletin about potential retaliation by Iran for the assassination of US military commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq days earlier. A year earlier, DHS released a bulletin through the same system to highlight the threat from foreign terrorist groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda.
But over the past year, domestic terrorists “motivated by a range of issues, including anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the results of the 2020 elections and the use of force by the police have planned and occasionally carried out attacks on government facilities” and “for a long time – understanding racial and ethnic tension – including opposition to immigration – has led [domestic terrorist] attacks, “said the bulletin released on Wednesday.
“DHS is concerned that these same factors of violence will remain until the beginning of 2021 and some [domestic terrorists] can be encouraged by the January 6, 2021 violation of the US Capitol building in Washington, DC to target elected officials and government facilities, “the bulletin added.
Violent supporters of then President Donald Trump invaded the Capitol three weeks ago, many of them believing – based on unfounded claims by Trump himself – that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump through fraud.
Wednesday’s public alert echoes what the intelligence bulletins sent privately to police in recent weeks said, underscoring the continuing threat from individuals prone to violence who still believe President Joe Biden’s election was illegitimate.
The NTAS system “recognizes that all Americans share responsibility for the security of the country and should always be aware of the high risk of terrorist attacks in the United States and what they must do,” says DHS on its website.
The system was created in 2011, replacing the color-coded alerts that were implemented following the 9/11 attacks.