Domestic terrorism story renews fears over Trump's coddling of white nationalists

DHS says it is improving threat detection; critics see a lack of willpower.

By Joe Davidson
Columnist
April 5 at 7:00 AM

Department of Homeland Security officials reacted with fury to a Daily Beast story Tuesday saying that the agency “has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism.”

The article renewed fears that the reported action was another Trump administration ploy to downplay violence by white nationalists. DHS hit back, in writing and by phone, insisting that the story was inaccurate.

The unit has not been disbanded, said David J. Glawe, DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, but restructured to be more efficient.

“I set up the current- and emerging-threat centers to focus online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, looking at the deep Web, the surface Web to identify those threats,” he said during an interview. “And this year alone, I’m up over 40 percent of identifying threats to persons or property from that capability,” which provides leads to law enforcement nationally. “That capability did not exist in the department.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/04/05/domestic-terrorism-story-renews-fears-over-trumps-coddling-white-nationalists/