Domestic extremists have killed more Americans than jihadists since 9/11.

It is creating a new position to coordinate investigations, identify trends and analyze legal gaps to be able to better combat the domestic threat while keeping the pedal on international terrorism probes.

Attacks by white supremacists and people motivated by racial and religious hatred and anti-government views have killed 48 people, while attacks by individuals linked to or inspired by foreign terrorist groups have claimed 26 lives, according to the think tank New America.

More Americans have been killed in right-wing attacks than jihadist ones since 9/11

Many incidents involve lone offenders who do not require a terrorist network, and increasingly the perpetrators are disaffected individuals who communicate their hatred over the Internet and through social media, Carlin said.

While prosecutors on international terrorism cases often charge defendants under a statute making it a crime to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group, no such law exists for domestic incidents. Domestic cases, depending on the circumstances, can be brought under a variety of other statutes and by other divisions.

Though there is no single ideology that governs hate and extremism, Carlin said, domestic terrorism is an act of violence with a political aim — to intimidate a civilian population.

Around the same time, a man with ties to a neo-Nazi group planted a pipe bomb along the route of a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Washington state, and his intent was to kill and maim, Carlin said. A parade worker spotted the bomb, and law enforcement officials defused it. Kevin William Harpham was sentenced to 32 years in prison.

Although the Harpham case had Mueller’s “full attention” and “hundreds of FBI agents” and local law enforcement officers were on the case, “it didn’t get as much public attention. And you didn’t have the same tools available to you.”

Carlin said the Justice Department’s National Security Division remains “very focused” on the international terrorism threat. The goal is to confront both types of terrorism, he said. When he talks to the families of people who have been killed in terrorist attacks, he said, “they don’t care how we categorize it. What they want to know is that we’re trying to prevent another family from having lost a loved one.”

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/15/how-the-justice-department-is-stepping-up-its-response-to-domestic-extremists/?utm_term=.fb01c4bc41fa