As Joe Biden's tenure in the White House fades further into the rear-view mirror, more information is emerging about the lengths to which his administration went to curtail the freedoms most Americans hold dear.
As Fox News reports, Tulsi Gabbard, now serving as Director of National Intelligence, recently declassified the details of a Biden-era scheme to battle against domestic terrorism that critics say would have facilitated government spying on American citizens.
The declassification of information about the program came as a result of a push by conservative advocacy group America First Legal (AFL) after it learned, via litigation against the Department of Homeland Security, of the existence of the “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”
This Biden-era plan was borne out of that administration's assertion that the greatest threat to Americans was “right wing domestic terrorism” initiated by supporters of Donald Trump.
AFL sought declassification of the Biden plan due to its concerns about weaponization of power “by censoring disfavored speech on the Internet by labeling such speech 'misinformation,' 'disinformation,' 'hate speech,' 'domestic terrorism.'”
In the wake of the Jan. 6 unrest at the U.S. Capitol, the Biden administration “directed the U.S. Department of State, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, and Central Intelligence Agency to 'obtain from foreign partners foreign intelligence and information related to U.S.-based violent extremism,'” as AFL noted.
“In other words, the Biden administration planned to outsource surveillance of Americans to foreign governments,” AFL explained.
In response to AFL's effort, Gabbard took to X to announce the declassification of documents pertaining to Biden's plan.
“As promised, I have declassified the Biden Administration's Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” Gabbard wrote.
Gabbard also declared, “Under President Trump's leadership, @ODNIgov will bring transparency and accountability to end the weaponization of our intelligence community.”
Notably, Gabbard's declassification shed light on the Biden program that even spurred criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which opined that its provisions were reflective of “the government's ever-expanding authority to surveil and monitor American communities....”
The program, the ACLU warned, encompassed “law enforcement guidance that permits profiling on the basis of race, religion, or national origin; and the use of abusive tools such as the watchlisting system against people for constitutionally protected speech and association.”
As AFL explained, “The Biden Administration weaponized the entire intelligence apparatus -- the NSC, ODNI, CIA, FBI, DOJ, and the State Department -- to target, censor, and silence the very people it was responsible for protecting.”
Andrew Block, AFL's senior counsel opined, “The declassified plan is further proof of what we have known all along, which is that the Biden Administration used the full weight of the government to target American citizens. AFL applauds Director Gabbard for her leadership in declassifying this document,” adding that doing so will, "bring accountability to those responsible and help restore integrity and faith in the system,” and that is something millions believe is long overdue.
