Stephen Miller Announces Chilling Hunt for "Fifth Column" [View all]

The top White House adviser is applying an old antisemitic trope to his next group of targets.

https://newrepublic.com/post/204449/stephen-miller-fifth-column

https://archive.ph/lglyH



Stephen Miller made an odious threat on X Monday against “the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists” after the Department of Justice announced it had stopped a bombing plot in California. “Following the issuance of NSPM-7 vast government resources have been unleashed to find and dismantle the violent fifth column of domestic terrorists clandestinely operating inside the United States,” Miller’s post read.

NSPM-7 refers to a memo issued by the Trump administration titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” in September that directs federal agencies to focus on domestic extremism. The document [link:kenklippenstein.com/p/trumps-nspm-7-labels-common-beliefs|defines] extremism in terms of common liberal and left-wing beliefs, such as anti-capitalism, as well as vague and subjective positions, for instance “extremism” on race, migration, and gender. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that the DOJ foiled a New Year’s Eve bombing plot against targets in Orange County and Los Angeles.

The plot was reportedly hatched by “The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group.” The group also planned to attack ICE agents and their vehicles, Bondi said. This matches up with NSPM-7’s definition of domestic terrorism, and judging from Miller’s post, discovering and foiling the supposed plot is a product of that memo. Miller’s use of “fifth column” refers to a group of people within a country seeking to undermine it from within. It has been used by right-wing groups and governments to attack Muslims and other groups they deem subversive.

In Miller’s hands, the use of such language evokes racism and bigotry, especially considering his known efforts to use his position in the Trump administration to advance his anti-immigrant, xenophobic ideology. That, coupled with Trump and conservatives’ attacks on any dissenting views, suggests that the full force of the government can now be directed at anyone who disagrees with the people in power.

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