IA-0233-09
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(U//FOUO) Domestic Extremism
Lexicon
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(U//FOUO) Domestic Extremism Lexicon
26 March 2009
(U) Prepared by the Strategic Analysis Group and the Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Homeland
Environment Threat Analysis Division.
(U//FOUO) Homeland Security Reference Aids—prepared by the DHS/Office of
Intelligence and Analysis (I&A)—provide baseline information on a variety of
homeland security issues. This product is one in a series of reference aids designed to
provide operational and intelligence advice and assistance to other elements of DHS,
as well as state, local, and regional fusions centers. DHS/I&A intends this background
information to assist federal, state, local, and tribal homeland security and law
enforcement officials in conducting analytic activities. This product provides
definitions for key terms and phrases that often appear in DHS analysis that addresses
the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the
United States. Definitions were derived from a variety of open source materials and
unclassified information, then further developed during facilitated workshops with
DHS intelligence analysts knowledgeable about domestic, non-Islamic extremism in
the United States.
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(U) Definitions
(U) aboveground (U//FOUO) A term used to describe extremist groups or
individuals who operate overtly and portray themselves as
law-abiding.
(U) alternative media (U//FOUO) A term used to describe various information
sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and
issues that differ radically from those presented in mass
media products and outlets.
(U) anarchist
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who
advocate a society devoid of government structure or
ownership of individual property. Many embrace some of the
radical philosophical components of anticapitalist,
antiglobalization, communist, socialist, and other movements.
Anarchist extremists advocate changing government and
society through revolutionary violence.
(also: revolutionary anarchists)
(U) animal rights
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who
ascribe equal value to all living organisms and seek to end the
perceived abuse and suffering of animals. They believe
animals are sentient creatures that experience emotional,
physical, and mental awareness and deserve many of the
same rights as human beings; for example, the right to life
and freedom to engage in normal, instinctive animal behavior.
These groups have been known to advocate or engage in
criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an
attempt to advance their extremist goals. They have targeted
industries, businesses, and government entities that they
perceive abuse or exploit animals, including those that use
animals for testing, human services, food production, or
consumption.
(also: animal liberation)
(U) antiabortion
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who are
virulently antiabortion and advocate violence against
providers of abortion-related services, their employees, and
their facilities. Some cite various racist and anti-Semitic
beliefs to justify their criminal activities.
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(U) anti-immigration
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who are
vehemently opposed to illegal immigration, particularly along
the U.S. southwest border with Mexico, and who have been
known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts
of violence and terrorism to advance their extremist goals.
They are highly critical of the U.S. Government’s response to
illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are
designed to extend “rights” to illegal aliens, such as issuing
driver’s licenses or national identification cards and providing
in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education.
(U) antitechnology
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals opposed to
technology. These groups have been known to advocate or
engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and
terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals.
They have targeted college and university laboratories,
scholars, biotechnology industries, U.S. corporations
involved in the computer or airline industry, and others.
(also: Neo-Luddites)
(U) Aryan prison
gangs
(U//FOUO) Individuals who form organized groups while in
prison and advocate white supremacist views.
Group members may continue to operate under the auspices
of the prison gang upon their release from correctional
facilities.
(U) black bloc (U//FOUO) An organized collection of violent anarchists and
anarchist affinity groups that band together for illegal acts of
civil disturbance and use tactics that destroy property or strain
law enforcement resources. Black blocs operate in
autonomous cells that infiltrate nonviolent protests, often
without the knowledge of the organizers of the event.
(U) black nationalism (U//FOUO) A term used by black separatists to promote the
unification and separate identity of persons of black or
African American descent and who advocate the
establishment of a separate nation within the United States.
(U) black power (U//FOUO) A term used by black separatists to describe their
pride in and the perceived superiority of the black race.
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(U) black separatism (U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals of black or
African American descent who advocate the separation of the
races or the separation of specific geographic regions from
the rest of the United States; some advocate forming their
own political system within a separate nation. Such groups or
individuals also may embrace radical religious beliefs.
Members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal
activity and plot acts of violence directed toward local law
enforcement in an attempt to advance their extremist goals.
(U) Christian Identity (U//FOUO) A racist religious
philosophy that maintains
non-Jewish whites are “God’s
Chosen People” and the true
descendants of the
Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Groups or individuals can be
followers of either the Covenant
or Dual Seedline doctrine; all believe that Jews are conspiring
with Satan to control world affairs and that the world is on the
verge of the Biblical apocalypse. Dual Seedline adherents
believe Jews are the literal offspring of Satan and that nonwhites,
who are often referred to as “mud people,” are not
human beings.
(also: Identity, CI, Anglo-Israel)
(U) Cuban
independence
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who do
not recognize the legitimacy of the Communist Cuban
Government and who attempt to subvert it through acts of
violence, mainly within the United States.
(also: anti-Castro groups)
(U) decentralized
terrorist movement
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who
pursue shared ideological goals through tactics of leaderless
resistance independent of any larger terrorist organization.
(U) denial-of-service
attack
(U//FOUO) An attack that attempts to prevent or impair the
intended functionality of computer networks, systems, or
applications. Depending on the type of system targeted, the
attack can employ a variety of mechanisms and means.
(also: DoS attack)
(U) direct action (U//FOUO) Lawful or unlawful acts of civil disobedience
ranging from protests to property destruction or acts of
violence. This term is most often used by single-issue or
anarchist extremists to describe their activities.
(U) Christian Identity symbol.
adl.org
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(U) Green Anarchism
symbol.
(U) environmental
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who use
violence to end what they perceive as the degradation of the
natural environment by humans. Members have advocated or
engaged in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and
terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals.
They target industries, businesses, and government entities
that they allege are engaged in habitat destruction, citing
urban sprawl and development, logging, construction sites
and related equipment, and man-made sources of air, water,
and land pollution.
(also: ecoterrorism)
(U) ethnic-based
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who are
drawn together and form extremist beliefs based on their
ethnic or cultural background. Members have advocated or
engaged in criminal activity and have plotted acts of violence
and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals.
(U) extremist group (U//FOUO) An ideologically driven organization that
advocates or attempts to bring about political, religious,
economic, or social change through the use of force, violence,
or ideologically motivated criminal activity.
(U) green anarchism (U//FOUO) A movement of groups or
individuals who combine anarchist
ideology with an environmental focus.
They advocate a return to a preindustrial,
agrarian society, often
through acts of violence and terrorism.
(U) hacktivism (U//FOUO) (A portmanteau of “hacking” and “activism.”)
The use of cyber technologies to achieve a political end, or
technology-enabled political or social activism.
Hacktivism might include website defacements,
denial-of-service attacks, hacking into the target’s network to
introduce malicious software (malware), or information theft.
(U) hate groups (U//FOUO) A term most often used to describe white
supremacist groups. It is occasionally used to describe other
racist extremist groups.
(U) Jewish extremism (U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals of the
Jewish faith who are willing to use violence or commit other
criminal acts to protect themselves against perceived affronts
to their religious or ethnic identity.
en.wikipedia.org
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(U) leaderless
resistance
(U//FOUO) A strategy that stresses the importance of
individuals and small cells acting independently and
anonymously outside formalized organizational structures to
enhance operational security and avoid detection. It is used
by many types of domestic extremists.
(U) leftwing
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals that
embraces anticapitalist, Communist, or Socialist doctrines
and seeks to bring about change through violent revolution
rather than through established political processes. The term
also refers to leftwing, single-issue extremist movements that
are dedicated to causes such as environmentalism, opposition
to war, and the rights of animals.
(also: far left, extreme left)
(U) lone terrorist (U//FOUO) An individual motivated by extremist ideology
to commit acts of criminal violence independent of any larger
terrorist organization.
(also: lone wolf)
(U) Mexican
separatism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals of
Mexican descent who advocate the secession of southwestern
U.S. states (all or part of Arizona, California, New Mexico,
and Texas) to join with Mexico through armed struggle.
Members do not recognize the legitimacy of these U.S. states,
including the U.S. Government’s original acquisition of these
territories.
(U) militia movement (U//FOUO) A rightwing extremist movement composed of
groups or individuals who adhere to an antigovernment
ideology often incorporating various conspiracy theories.
Members oppose most federal and state laws, regulations, and
authority (particularly firearms laws and regulations) and
often conduct paramilitary training designed to resist
perceived government interference in their activities or to
overthrow the U.S. Government through the use of violence.
(also: citizens militia, unorganized militia)
(U) neo-Nazis (U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who adhere to and
promote Adolph Hitler’s beliefs and use Nazi symbols and
ideology. Subjects subscribe to virulently racist as well as
anti-Semitic beliefs, many based on national socialist ideals
derived from Nazi Germany. Neo-Nazis may attempt to
downplay or deny the Jewish Holocaust.
(also: national socialists, Nazis)
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(U) patriot movement (U//FOUO) A term used by rightwing extremists to link their
beliefs to those commonly associated with the American
Revolution. The patriot movement primarily comprises
violent antigovernment groups such as militias and sovereign
citizens.
(also: Christian patriots, patriot group, Constitutionalists,
Constitutionist)
(U) Phineas
Priesthood
(U//FOUO) A Christian Identity
doctrine derived from the Biblical
story of Phinehas, which adherents
interpret as justifying inter-racial
killing. Followers of this belief
system also have advocated
martyrdom and violence against
homosexuals, mixed-race couples,
and abortion providers.
(U) primary targeting (U//FOUO) Plans or attacks directed by extremists against
parties that are the focus of an organized campaign.
(U) Puerto Rican
independence
extremists
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who engage in criminal
activity and advocate the use of violence to achieve
Puerto Rican independence from the United States.
(U) racial Nordic
mysticism
(U//FOUO) An ideology adopted by many white supremacist
prison gangs who embrace a Norse mythological religion,
such as Odinism or Asatru.
(also: Odinism, Asatru)
(U) racialist (U//FOUO) A term used by white supremacists intended to
minimize their extreme views on racial issues.
(U) racist skinheads (U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who combine white
supremacist ideology with a skinhead ethos in which “white
power” music plays a central role. Dress may include a
shaved head or very short hair, jeans, thin suspenders, combat
boots or Doc Martens, a bomber jacket (sometimes with racist
symbols), and tattoos of Nazi-like emblems. Some are
abandoning these stereotypical identifiers.
(also: skins)
(U) radicalization (U//FOUO) The process by which an individual adopts an
extremist belief system leading to his or her willingness to
advocate or bring about political, religious, economic, or
social change through the use of force, violence, or
ideologically motivated criminal activity.
(U) Phineas Priesthood
symbol.
adl.org
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(U) rightwing
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of rightwing groups or individuals
who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily
hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and
reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.
This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements
that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to
abortion or immigration.
(also known as far right, extreme right)
(U) secondary
targeting
(U//FOUO) Plans or attacks directed against parties
(secondary targets) that provide direct financial, logistic, or
physical support to the primary target of an organized
campaign, with the goal of coercing those parties to end their
engagement with a primary target. Secondary targets can
include customers of or suppliers to a primary target or
employees of a primary target organization.
(U) single-issue
extremist groups
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who focus on a single
issue or cause—such as animal rights, environmental or
anti-abortion extremism—and often employ criminal acts.
Group members may be associated with more than one issue.
(also: special interest extremists)
(U) skinheads (U//FOUO) A subculture composed primarily of
working-class, white youth who embrace shaved heads for
males, substance abuse, and violence. Skinheads can be
categorized as racist, anti-racist or “traditional,” which
emphasizes group unity based on fashion, music, and lifestyle
rather than political ideology. Dress often includes a shaved
head or very short hair, jeans, thin suspenders, combat boots
or Doc Martens, and a bomber jacket.
(also: skins)
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(U) sovereign citizen
movement
(U//FOUO) A rightwing extremist movement composed of
groups or individuals who reject the notion of
U.S. citizenship. They claim to follow only what they believe
to be God’s law or common law and the original
10 amendments (Bill of Rights) to the U.S. Constitution.
They believe they are emancipated from all other
responsibilities associated with being a U.S. citizen, such as
paying taxes, possessing a driver’s license and motor vehicle
registration, or holding a social security number.
They generally do not recognize federal or state government
authority or laws. Several sovereign citizen groups in the
United States produce fraudulent documents for their
members in lieu of legitimate government-issued forms of
identification. Members have been known to advocate or
engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and
terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals.
They often target government officials and law enforcement.
(also: state citizens, freemen, preamble citizens, common law
citizens)
(U) tax resistance
movement
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who vehemently believe
taxes violate their constitutional rights. Among their beliefs
are that wages are not income, that paying income taxes is
voluntary, and that the 16th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution, which allowed Congress to levy taxes on
income, was not properly ratified. Members have been
known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts
of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their
extremist goals. They often target government entities such
as the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
(also: tax protest movement, tax freedom movement, antitax
movement)
(U) tertiary targeting (U//FOUO) Plans or attacks against parties with indirect
links to the primary target of an organized campaign.
Tertiary targets can include employees, customers, investors,
and other participants in a company (the secondary target)
that does business with or provides support services to the
primary target; or parties who provide direct financial,
logistic, or physical support to the secondary target.
(U) underground (U//FOUO) A term used to describe clandestine extremist
groups, individuals, or their activities.
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(U) violent antiwar
extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who
advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of
violence and terrorism in an attempt to voice their opposition
to U.S. involvement in war-related activities. They often
target the military, seats of government power, and defense
industry personnel, facilities, and activities.
(U) violent religious
sects
(U//FOUO) Religious extremist groups predisposed toward
violence. These groups often stockpile weapons, conduct
paramilitary training, and share a paranoid interpretation of
current world events, which they often associate with the end
of the world. They perceive outsiders as enemies or evil
influences; display intense xenophobia and strong distrust of
the government; and exercise extreme physical or
psychological control over group members, sometimes
isolating them from society or subjecting them to physical or
sexual abuse and harsh initiation practices.
(U) white nationalism (U//FOUO) A term used by white supremacists to emphasize
what they perceive as the uniquely white (European) heritage
of the United States.
(U) white power (U//FOUO) A term used by white supremacists to describe
their pride in and the perceived superiority of the white race.
(U) white separatism (U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who
believe in the separation of races and reject interracial
marriages. Some advocate the secession of specific
geographic regions from the rest of the United States.
Members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal
activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt
to advance their extremist goals.
(U) white supremacist
movement
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who believe that whites—
Caucasians—are intellectually and morally superior to other
races and use their racist ideology to justify committing
crimes, acts of violence, and terrorism to advance their cause.
Some advocate racial separation/segregation.
White supremacists generally fall into six categories:
Neo-Nazi, Ku Klux KlanUSPER, Christian Identity, racist
skinhead, Nordic mysticism, or Aryan prison gangs.
White supremacists have been known to embrace more than
one of these categories.
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activity to DHS and the FBI. The DHS National Operations Center (NOC) can be reached by telephone at
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each report submitted should include the date, time, location, type of activity, number of people and type of
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