DHS group proposed ‘public health’ strategy to encourage snitching, docs show
In an effort to encourage Americans to report each other to the government, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) advisory board proposed classifying political dissent as “public health” threats, new documents revealed last week.
The documents, obtained by America First Legal as part of a lawsuit against the DHS, included notes from a September 2023 meeting among members of the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group. The advisory board included former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
‘How do people safely report a concern about their neighbors?’
In the meeting, members fretted about how to boost DHS efforts to collect intelligence on American taxpayers. They discussed strategies that could help the DHS “get into local communities in a non-threatening way.”
After 9/11, the federal government created a campaign called “If You See Something, Say Something,” which encouraged Americans to report their neighbors for suspicions of terrorism. The campaign, however, was not the success that the government had hoped.
In its meeting, the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group partially blamed the campaign’s failure on the fact that “Americans have an ambivalent feeling of telling on each other.” The group’s members, therefore, sought to answer the question at hand: “How do people safely report a concern about their neighbors?”
Parents may report their children for public health
One strategy that was proposed was to package political dissent as a public health issue, which they hoped would result in teachers reporting their students and parents reporting their children to the government.
“To get a mother or teacher to come forward, it needs to be a public health catcher’s mitt,” suggested a member.
Another strategy put forward was to use corporations to report taxpayers. The federal government has had significant success with this strategy already, primarily with financial institutions. The Gold Report previously reported that US banks inform on their customers nearly two million times a year. Several financial companies were also quick to submit customers’ names to the FBI following January 6th.
Trump supporters, soldiers, religious Americans suspected of domestic terrorism
The DHS advisory board also claimed that most “domestic terrorism” comes from supporters of President Donald Trump:
It seems that most of the Domestic Terrorism threat now comes from supporters of the former president. It is not like you want a political advantage, but people have attacked the government and its institutions for the last six years.
Trump supporters are not the only ones suspected of being domestic terrorists, however. Another member noted that “religious” people or those in the “military” should also be suspects.
“If you ask researchers to dive into indicators of extremists and terrorism, they might indicate being in the military or religious. This being identified as an indicator suggests we should be more worried about these. We need the space to talk about it honestly,” the attendee said.
The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group was disbanded as a result of America First Legal’s lawsuit, which it brought with former Ambassador Ric Grenell.
