FBI, DHS officials deny agencies less focused on homegrown attacks than other threats

National security officials on Wednesday denied an April report that the Trump administration's dissolution of a Department of Homeland Security advisory group on domestic terrorism threats led the agency to pay less attention to the problem. Five weeks ago, the Daily Beast reported Homeland Security in late 2018 shuttered a group within its Office of Intelligence and Analysis that had tracked homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorists. The analysts had shared federal findings with state and local law enforcement.

On Wednesday, Brian Murphy, principal deputy undersecretary for intelligence and analysis at the department, took issue with the report. “I would like to begin by responding directly to recent inaccurate press reporting that DHS has dramatically reduced its efforts on domestic terrorism," Murphy told members of the House Homeland Security Committee. "I can assure the committee and the American public that throughout the careful calculus of balancing resources and adapting to an ever-changing threat landscape, DHS remains acutely focused on the threat from domestic terrorism,” Murphy said.

Michael C. McGarrity, assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, told lawmakers at the hearing, "We don't differentiate between a domestic terrorism attack we're trying to stop or an international terrorism attack. It's a terrorism attack we're looking to stop." Murphy did not deny the closing of Homeland Security's intelligence and analysis branch, but he defended the disbandment as a move that allowed the FBI to take the lead on domestic terrorism issues rather than Homeland Security. “DHS decided that it should pivot to reporting on domestic terrorism to better support the National Strategy for Counterterrorism, enable DHS to more effectively coordinate our resources and capabilities, and better serve the needs of states and local communities that rely on the rapid production of information to combat this threat,” Murphy said.

In the past month, three mass shootings have taken place: at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a Poway synagogue in Southern California, and a school outside Denver.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/fbi-dhs-officials-deny-agencies-less-focused-on-homegrown-attacks-than-other-threats

Homeland Security Disbands Domestic Terror Intelligence Unit https://www.thedailybeast.com/homeland-security-disbands-domestic-terror-intelligence-unit