Report: DHS Group Called Being ‘Religious’ An ‘Indicator’ Of Domestic Terrorism

According to documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Joe Biden considered plans to infiltrate local communities in order to conduct surveillance on Americans.

The documents suggest that being “religious” or having a military background was viewed as an indicator of extremism and terrorism.

The newly established “Homeland Intelligence Experts Group” in 2023 sought methods to increase surveillance on American citizens, including strategies to enter local communities in a non-confrontational manner and encourage individuals to report on their neighbors.

According to segments of the documents released by AFL, the committee, which included John Brennan and James Clapper, known for their involvement in the Russia-collusion controversy and false claims about Hunter Biden’s laptop being Russian disinformation, also indicated that religious Americans, military members, and Trump supporters could potentially pose security risks.

“If you ask researchers to dive into indicators of extremists and terrorism, they might indicate being in the military or religious,” one segment states. “This being identified as an indicator suggests we should be more worried about these. We need the space to talk about it honestly.”

According to the released excerpts, the group appeared to acknowledge a “political advantage” to having the “political backdrop” be tied to Trump.

“There is a political backdrop to all of this. It seems that most of the Domestic Terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president,” the segment states. “It is not like you want a political advantage, but people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years.”

After the Biden administration disbanded the “Experts Group” in May following an AFL lawsuit, my colleague Jordan Boyd highlighted that other federal agencies under Biden have intensified their pursuits to criminalize “opposition to the regime.”

The FBI has targeted Trump supporters under the auspices of fighting domestic terrorism, as a report from Newsweek explained in October, citing “a dozen current or former government officials who specialize in terrorism.”

Not only did the FBI expand its “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists” (AGAAVE) classification to include the “furtherance of political and/or social agendas,” but it also created a new terrorism category, “AGAAVE-Other,” in October of 2022.

“[Y]es, in practical terms, it refers to MAGA, though the carefully constructed language is wholly nonpartisan,” an FBI officer told Newsweek.

This is a top-down ideology, exemplified by Biden himself espousing the baseless yet inflammatory claim that “MAGA Republicans are a threat to the very soul of this country.”

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1565492666120523778?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1565492666120523778%7Ctwgr%5Ee467ed92259d27611e0986e4556ac6695220dfee%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthefederalist.com%2F2024%2F06%2F21%2Freport-dhs-group-called-being-religious-an-indicator-of-domestic-terrorism%2F

However, the true danger lies in the Democrats’ open manipulation of law enforcement organizations to pursue individuals with differing political views.

For instance, the FBI utilized a report from the left-leaning Southern Poverty Law Center to single out Catholics who opposed abortion and adhered to traditional sexual beliefs.

These individuals were unjustly classified as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists,” according to The Daily Signal’s findings.

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