Why Biden should consider the far right as grave a security threat as Isis

The alleged plot described by prosecutors is terrifying. According to the indictment filed last week in a federal court in the state of North Carolina, the four men – three of them with ties to the United States military – hoped to galvanise an armed white supremacist uprising against the government. They described themselves as a modern-day “SS”, in reference to Adolf Hitler’s most fanatic stormtroopers, committed to “knocking down The System”.  

“Eventually we will have to bring the rifles out and go to work,” one member wrote on an online message board. “We are laying the framework for a guerilla organization and a takeover of local government and industry. This will be a ground war very reminiscent of Iraq as we will essentially be facing an insurgent force made up of criminals and gang members.”

Prosecutors indicate that the plotters weren’t just popping off on the internet. They allegedly illegally moved guns between state lines and, in at least one incident, shadowed a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest and considered ways they could begin shooting members of the crowd.  

Meanwhile, in the state of Michigan, prosecutors have suggested that a gang of right-wing militants were scheming to take over the state capitol and begin executing politicians live on television.  

The rise of the violent far right throughout the western world is one of the most disturbing and dangerous developments of recent years, a trend encouraged by Donald Trump, who famously urged one group of armed far-right militants, the so-called Proud Boys, to “stand by” on election day.  

President-elect Joe Biden will have a lot on his agenda once he is sworn in at noon on 20 January. Priorities include revamping America’s Covid-19 responses and addressing the potential economic collapse caused by the pandemic, as well as restoring frayed relations with international allies and recommitting to global institutions trashed by Trump.  

But he will also have to contend with these right-wing militant malcontents, who are increasingly becoming a global menace. One way that the Biden administration can forcefully acknowledge the scale of the threat they pose and encourage law enforcement agencies to continue to crack down on the violent groups is to issue an executive order declaring the militant far right a danger to US national security as well as a global menace.

Security experts last year welcomed a decision by the Department of Homeland Security to issue a revised counterterrorism strategy that focuses as much on right-wing hate groups as foreign jihadis. In the US, far more attacks have been carried by violent right-wing extremists motivated by racism than by Islamist jihadi groups. As many scholars and security specialists have pointed out, both groups of extremists use the same methods to recruit and train operatives and to launch attacks.  

“There has been a great deal of manpower and resources dedicated to identifying, understanding, and seeking to deter the online spread of violent ideologies by jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State,” the Soufan Group, a security consultancy founded by former FBI agent Ali Soufan, said in a note to subscribers. “Far less attention has been paid to white supremacy extremist groups, who have long operated in a similar manner, and indeed deliberately emulate social media tactics employed by jihadists.”

Using an executive presidential order to marshal government resources against a militant threat has a precedent. George W Bush issued executive order 13224 on 23 September 2001, which gave the officials a tool to impede the funding of al-Qaeda and other groups “to bring a halt to the evil of terrorist activity”. 

Last year, Trump modified it. Biden could either issue a fresh order, or take a page from Trump and merely add right-wing and homegrown terrorist groups to the list of targets.

Like Isis and al-Qaeda, the effort to focus attention on violent far-right extremist groups should be global. Canada, the United Kingdom and several other countries have already called out international white supremacy groups.  

After issuing an executive order describing white supremacist and fascist groups as threats as dire as Isis or al-Qaeda, Washington could approach the United Nations Security Council about a resolution committing to fighting such groups as a worldwide menace. Russia would probably veto, but that would only serve to highlight the singular, nefarious role the Kremlin plays in promoting global white supremacist and far-right movements and propaganda.

Security experts have for years sounded the alarm about the dire security threat the right-wing groups and ideologies pose to western governments, including in Germany, where police earlier this year broke up an alleged terror network scheming to attack immigrants and minorities.

But painting a stark, stigmatic target on the back of the violent far right could also potentially help Biden pursue his other political aims. From praising the Proud Boys to describing racists marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, as “fine people” to embracing the supporters of the outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory that the FBI has described a potential terrorist threat, Trump has repeatedly played footsie with the violent far right. Such armed groups are now roaming the streets, brazenly defying the law and menacing elected officials in their efforts to show support for Trump.  

Biden has an opportunity to hang that albatross around the neck of the departing president’s movement as well as its associated media outlets and think tanks. With their ongoing antics and continued rejection of the 3 November presidential results, they have shown that they pose a threat to US democracy.  

Implicitly labelling the Trumpian wing of the political right as potential terrorist enablers and security threats could help draw away supporters, and pave the way for a more moderate and compromising political opposition to the Biden administration.