https://www.naturalnews.com/051828_domestic_terrorism_DHS_terror_alerts.html
(NaturalNews) In recent days, the Department of Homeland Security might revive a never-used terrorism warning system, leaving some skeptics wondering just who the Obama administration is really targeting.
As reported by
Defense One, DHS chief Jeh Johnson ordered a top-down review of the nation's terrorist alert system not because of overseas threats but because of what he said were rising concerns over the threat of attacks that originate from within the U.S. following a recent terrorist incident in Tennessee.
Defense One further noted:
The U.S. has never used the National Terrorism Alert System, a two-level system that replaced the oft-derided color-coded terrorism alerts installed after 9/11 to spread the word about potential attacks from abroad. But after a "homegrown violent extremist" killed five service members in Chattanooga, Tenn. — and amid the expectation of more terrorist-inspired attacks — the Department of Homeland Security wants to revise and jumpstart the system.The administration has been judicious, to say the least, with its use of the term "terrorism," even going so far as to classify the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, in which a known jihadi sympathizer who also happened to be a U.S. Army officer, as "workplace violence." Hence, the classification of "homegrown violent extremist" for the Tennessee shooting, which can give the impression the White House is attempting to politicize this decision and the resultant revival of the unused terrorist classification. More on that in a moment.
"I've asked our folks to consider whether we should revise that system to accommodate how the terrorism
threat has evolved," Johnson said recently during the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. "That review is underway now."
A new reality?
Immediately post-9/11, when the Department of Homeland Security was established via the Homeland Security Act of 2002, officials developed a much-maligned color coded alert system in a green-to-red progression. However, the NTAS has only two states of alert; the "elevated threat" means the government has identified a credible threat to the U.S., while an "imminent threat" is just that, a threat that is "credible, specific and impending" against the U.S.
Under the former system, the department took a great deal of criticism when the nation was held on "orange" for long periods of time for no apparent reason. Since then, the department has been criticized for
never issuing alerts. "U.S. intelligence and national and local law enforcement officials have opted to keep the public in the dark to avoid panic with a sudden alert,"
Defense One reported.
The review ordered by Johnson is the most recent in a series of security measures the department has put in place over the last year as a bulwark against the alleged rise in threats of domestically generated terrorism.
"There is a new reality," Johnson said at AUSA. "The global terrorist threat has evolved from terrorist-directed to terrorist-inspired attacks."
Part of the problem for this could be that President Obama's lax immigration enforcement policies have led to
a mad dash for the U.S. Southwest border by people from all over the world, including many from terrorism-sponsoring countries.
To that end, the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress want to allow thousands of Syrian refugees into the U.S. without being able to properly vet them, despite the fact that
ISIS has said its fighters would infiltrate them and travel to unsuspecting host nations.
"We want to do more; we believe we need to do more," Johnson said regarding the refugees. "I'm committed to doing that and to ensuring that those that are resettled are vetted property and receiving the appropriate security review."
Many worry about DHS's and the administration's concentration on homegrown violent extremists, and with good reason. In February, DHS released a report claiming that
so-called "right wing extremists" were becoming a major threat to internal security. Most saw this as little more than an attack on conservative critics of the president, however.
As columnist and author Michelle Malkin wrote at the time of the report's release:
My b.s. detector went off the chart, and yours will, too, if you read through the entire report — which asserts with no evidence that an unquantified "resurgence in rightwing extremist recruitment and radicalizations activity" is due to home foreclosures, job losses, and...the historical presidential election.Sources include:DefenseOne.comBreitbart.comWashingtonExaminer.comMichelleMalkin.comTheCommonSenseShow.com
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