Right wing terrorism has made it back into the news after authorities uncover a possible March 4th plot. This after Parler has come back online.
Authorities aren’t exactly fond of a sequel like this. On January 6th, right wing terrorists stormed the Capitol buildings in a terrorist attack aimed at undoing the results of the federal election. It has resulted in multiple arrests afterwards and stark warnings by authorities that those responsible will be found.
The events that followed were quite numerous. One of those events is that Amazon had finally had enough with Parler. They issued an ultimatum telling Parler that either they moderate for right wing extremist content or risk getting the boot. After the 24 hour deadline, if Parler did anything at all, it wasn’t to the satisfaction of Amazon who went on to sever ties with the site. After that, Parler struggled to get back online.
Authorities warned the public that the threat of right wing terrorism is going to continue to be a very real thing long after the January 6th terrorist attack. Though, what is notable is that if there were credible threats before now, we weren’t aware of them. Right wing extremism was in disarray as they struggled to find another place to organize.
Then, on the 15th of February, we reported on Parler coming back online. Their online presence was precarious after finding a temporary sanctuary in Russia thanks to a DDOS protection service operating in that country. The new uptime is what Parler described as “independent technology”. Still, authorities did say that they were investigating the platform for their ties to right wing extremism.
Now, barely half a month after Parler came back online, authorities yesterday warned of a possible March 4th terrorist attack plot. In response, Capitol security beefed up their security presence in an effort to respond to that possible threat. From ABC:
U.S. Capitol Police officials said Wednesday they have “obtained intelligence that shows a possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group on Thursday, March 4” — the date that far-right conspiracy theorists believe former President Donald Trump will return to power.
The intelligence, which an FBI bulletin said could involve the “Three Percenters” group prosecutors call “extremist,” is being taken “seriously,” the Capitol Police officials said in a statement posted on Twitter.
“Our Department is working with our local, state, and federal partners to stop any threats to the Capitol. We are taking the intelligence seriously. Due to the sensitive nature of this information, we cannot provide additional details at this time,” the statement said.
The Capitol complex remains surrounded with temporary fencing topped with razor wire and some 5,000 National Guard troops remain on site.
The statement issued Wednesday morning follows another Tuesday night in which officials said they had beefed up security.
A report from Al Jazeera says that the Thursday session was cancelled:
NBC News reported a joint bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security and FBI similarly that warned of planned violence.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC on Wednesday evening, said the US House of Representatives had suspended its proceedings for the day on Thursday “out of an abundance of caution” after the potential threats.
Hanna said the US Senate was still scheduled to meet, however.
US House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, later downplayed the cancellation, saying that it was cancelled for scheduling reasons. From Global:
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday downplayed the decision to cancel a session of the House of Representatives that day after Capitol Police and the FBI warned of a possible plot by a militia group to breach the building, saying it was for convenience as they had planned only one vote today and the Republican caucus had a retreat planned.
To our knowledge, authorities aren’t exactly giving much in the way of details as to where they found out about the possible plot. Still, it is interesting to note that this happened after Parler came back online. A possible coincidence? Possibly. Still, authorities weren’t exactly secretive about how they felt that that platform played a role in the last attack either. So, while a connection between Parler’s uptime and the latest plot cannot be confirmed, at this point, it can’t be ruled out based on what we know.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
