In Major Shift, Trump Admin Prioritizes Fight Against 'Left-Wing Terror' Over Islamic Extremism
(TPM) "The Trump administration’s effort to create a new bogeyman of left-wing terrorism has now resulted in a major policy change unveiled by Secretary of State Marco Rubio Thursday in a speech to officials from more than 60 countries whom he gathered in D.C."
"Declaring Islamic terrorism 'severely diminished,' Rubio said the counterterrorism apparatus must be retooled to confront the supposed threat from 'far-left terror,' Reuters reports."
“ 'We can and we must identify and map this threat and rebuild our counterterrorism architecture to defeat it,' Rubio said, marking a dramatic shift away from the post-9/11 posture of U.S. counterterrorism efforts."
"To this point, the administration has aimed to elevate political protestors and progressive groups and activists into a vast far-left 'antifa' conspiracy at home — and link it up with imagined fellow travelers abroad with wild and unsubstantiated claims of international coordination and connections. Establishing a (flimsy) link to international terrorism — a related effort which has been spearheaded by White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka and Rubio — seems intended to invoke counterterrorism powers under U.S. law that simply don’t exist for combating domestic terrorism."
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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/in-major-shift-trump-admin-prioritizes-left-wing-terror-over-islamic-extremism