DHS also warned that it cannot understand the full scale of the threat. “We are missing a complete threat picture due to the ability of some DVEs to evade law enforcement using advanced encryption,” the agency wrote. And as extremists have become more technologically savvy, intelligence officials don’t really know if they are joining forces.
This is a trend that researchers and experts have especially noted since the Capitol riots almost four years ago. “We’ve seen people abandon conventional platforms, where they were actively involved in organizing January 6, and move to platforms that offer more perceived anonymity, less moderation and less reporting to authorities,” said Katherine Keneally, director of threat analysis. of the US and prevention at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “It is a gap in police intelligence, it is a gap for the entire field. “We don’t see everything we once saw.”
Regardless of whether extremists are uniting or the threat remains atomized, the assessment recognizes that online conversations about the civil war had already inspired plans for real-world violence.
In January, Justin Mohn, a 32-year-old man from Levittown, Pennsylvania, beheaded his father, a federal employee, and displayed the severed head in a 15-minute rant posted online. In the video, titled “Mohn’s Militia: Call to Arms for American Patriots,” Mohn urged viewers to rise up against the government and go after federal agents and judges.
Months later, in March, federal agents arrested Benjamin Brown, a 45-year-old man in Waterville, Maine, for threatening to kill President Biden and other officials. The man allegedly claimed he was stockpiling weapons and ammunition for a civil war and, according to an affidavit, said he wanted to hunt down immigrants and “burn Washington to the ground.” Brown was charged with making interstate threats.
Then in May, a stop for a minor traffic violation in Pekin, Illinois, led police to discover a locked duffel bag inside the vehicle containing a .45-caliber handgun and two pipe bombs belonging to Dalton Mattus, 34 years old. When investigators searched Mattus’ home, after a brief standoff, they allegedly found more pipe bombs. A local radio station reported that Mattus told police he hoped to use the bombs defensively against “undocumented immigrants and a corrupt government.” It turned out that Mattus also had a Extensive presence on social networks.; For years, he had promoted QAnon conspiracy theories and civil war fantasies, advocated violence against federal officials, Democrats and immigrants, and urged his followers to prepare for imminent conflict.