FBI struggles to confront right-wing terrorism

FBI Director Christopher A. Wray assured Congress last month that his agents were aggressively combating domestic terror threats from a broad array of extremist groups.

"The FBI, working with our state and local law enforcement partners, " he said, "is all over this."

But the bureau is now scrambling to investigate domestic terrorism on two fronts -- a mass shooting in Gilroy, Calif., followed days later by a far more deadly attack in El Paso -- appearing to undercut Wray 's assertions and raise questions about whether the FBI is doing enough to identify and stop murderous plots by home- grown fanatics with no ties to foreign terrorist organizations.

Some former law enforcement officials and Democratic lawmakers contend federal agencies have been caught flat- footed by a surge in mass shootings by white supremacists and other extremists targeting minorities, immigrants and religious groups.

Indeed, the gunman who killed 22 people at a Walmart store in El Paso on Aug. 3 pushed the total number of victims slain in domestic right- wing terrorism since 2002 to 109. That 's more than the 104 people killed on U.S. soil by zealots linked to Al Qaeda or other foreign Islamist groups, the chief FBI focus since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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