Lessons For Countering the Domestic Terrorism Threat 20 Years After 9/11

Lessons for Countering the Domestic Terrorism

Threat 20 Years After 9/11

Mary B. McCord*

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

I. INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

A. U.S. Law’s Disparate Treatment of “International” Terrorism

and “Domestic” Terrorism Can Contribute to a Misallocation

of Resources and Perpetuation of Biases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

B. The Opposition to Gap-Filling Measures Exposes the Depth of

Distrust Between Law Enforcement and the Communities They

Serve ........................................... 165

C. Policymakers Must Appreciate and Account for This Trust

Def‌icit as They Consider New Approaches to Domestic

Extremist Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

II. ADDRESSING ROOT CAUSES OF EXTREMISM WITHOUT TARGETING AND

ALIENATING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

A. Efforts To Counter Extremism Must Not Provide Fodder for

Extremists to Recruit and Radicalize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

B. A Whole-of-Society Approach is Required to Counter the

Inf‌luence of, Vulnerability to, and Impact From White

Supremacist Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

INTRODUCTION

In April 1995, a white supremacist committed what was at that time the most

deadly terrorist attack in U.S. history, bombing a federal building in Oklahoma

City and killing 168 people, including 19 children. Although originally portrayed

as motivated primarily by anti-government extremism rather than white suprema-

cist ideology, the attack brought needed law enforcement attention to the threat

of far-right terrorism.

1

But just six years later, this devastating act of domestic ter-

rorism was dwarfed by the loss of life from the Islamist extremist terrorist attacks

on September 11, 2001. Our nation’s law enforcement and intelligence apparatus

understandably turned its focus toward international terrorism and, specif‌ically,

Islamist extremist terrorism. President George W. Bush announced a global war

on terror and called on foreign leaders to help the United States defeat al Qaeda.

* Mary B. McCord is the Executive Director of Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional

Advocacy and Protection and a Visiting Professor of Law. She was the acting assistant attorney general

for national security at the Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017 and the principal deputy assistant

attorney general for national security from 2014 to 2017. She was previously an Assistant U.S. Attorney

for the District of Columbia for nearly 20 years. © 2021, Mary B. McCord.

1. FED. BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, TERRORISM 2002-2005, https://perma.cc/CHK4-EHT2.

161