Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security senior official who served in both the Bush and Trump administrations, issued a dire warning Wednesday about a recent executive order from President Donald Trump that he described as “Orwellian beyond belief,” and one that could serve as the “central nervous system of Trump’s surveillance state.”
Last week, Trump signed an executive order dubbed “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” an executive order that creates the framework for federal agencies to monitor individuals or groups it suspects of being involved with domestic terrorism or organized political violence.
Buried in the executive order, however, is language broadening the scope of what constitutes being involved with domestic terrorism. The order makes mention of individuals that exhibit “behaviors” considered “common to organizations” that foster violent activity, an inclusion that Taylor argued makes the “opportunities for misuse virtually limitless.”
“In two decades in the national-security community – from DHS and the Pentagon to Capitol Hill and the White House – I’ve never seen anything like this,” Taylor wrote on his Substack “Treason” Wednesday.
“The opportunities for misuse are virtually limitless. What if you graffiti an anti-Trump protest sign on a park bench at night? Well, taken literally, this order could allow federal agencies to put you on a blacklist alongside the likes of ISIS suicide bombers and al Qaeda attack plotters. It’s Orwellian beyond belief.”
The federal government has maintained a terrorist watchlist – known as the Terrorist Screening Database – since 2003 following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. A 2017 court filing revealed there to be as many as 1.2 million names, including around 4,600 American citizens, placed on the list, which Taylor said makes it easier for the federal government to monitor an individual’s movements, freeze bank accounts and track communications, and without a warrant.
And, coupled with Trump’s recent designation of Antifa – an anti-fascist movement with no infrastructure or leaders – as a “domestic terrorist organization,” the executive order could be used to target nearly any of the president’s perceived opponents, Taylor argued, and crackdown and any and all political dissent among American citizens.
“Under the new framework, a group that organizes protests, circulates politically charged rhetoric, or challenges federal policy could hypothetically be branded a ‘domestic terrorist organization,’ even if it has no history of violence,” Taylor wrote.
“And once that label is applied, the administration can investigate anyone tied to it, like donors, event attendees, volunteers, or perhaps even people who shared a supportive post online… As someone who’s helped build the nation’s counterterrorism architecture, I’m telling you that it’s now being primed for (potentially) unimaginable abuse.”
