Intelligence and Security Committee Report: Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism/Introduction
INTRODUCTION
While vast resources have been spent on the 'war on terror' fighting jihadist extremism since 9/11, another type of extremism has not received the same attention: right-wing extremism. Less prominent on the public and political agenda, it has killed more people in the United States since 9/11 than the Jihadist variant. The fact that until recently right-wing extremist attacks have been more frequent, yet less deadly on average than those committed by Jihadists, has contributed to a misconception of the size of the threat.
—Munich Security Report 2020
1. On 15 March 2019, Brenton Tarrant conducted a terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 and injuring 49. Tarrant live-streamed the attack on Facebook and posted links to his 'manifesto' on 8chan, a Right-Wing Extremist-dominated site. In the first 24 hours after the attack, there were at least 1.5 million attempts to upload the video. Tarrant was inspired by international narratives, marking his weapons with the names of attackers and attacks from around the world—including reference to Darren Osborne's racially motivated attack outside a mosque in Finsbury Park in London in June 2017.
2. In the wake of Darren Osborne's attack, and the three other terrorist attacks suffered in the UK in 2017, MI5 and Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) had undertaken an overarching Operational Improvement Review (OIR) to identify improvements to the counter-terrorism machine. One of the key recommendations was that MI5 should take a bigger role in tackling what was at that time called 'Domestic Extremism'—a rather unhelpful catch-all term which covered a range of, in many instances, quite unrelated disruptive and violent activity, from right-wing and left-wing attacks to sabotage activity carried out by animal rights activists. At the time, David Anderson QC (later Lord Anderson), formerly the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, who oversaw the OIR, criticised the failure of MI5 to engage with the threat:
I detected a lingering attachment in parts of MI5 to the notion that XRW [Extreme Right-Wing] plotting does not engage their national security function in the same way as Islamist plotting does. Whatever the status of that position in the past, it can surely not survive the detonation by Anders Breivik of a bomb outside the Prime Minister's office in Oslo, or the terrorist murder by Thomas Mair of Jo Cox MP.[1]
3. In 2018, it was decided that MI5 would take over from CTP as lead for this threat, which would be termed 'Right-Wing Terrorism'. Subsequently, in April 2020, MI5 took on full primacy for what has since been renamed 'Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism' (ERWT).
4. This transfer of responsibility marked a major change in approach. ERWT is now assessed using the same language and methodology as that used in relation to the Islamist terrorist threat, and is incorporated into the UK threat level assessment. The Committee therefore considered it important to review how the transition has worked—from areas such as the transfer of data to the recruitment of CHIS (or Covert Human Intelligence Sources)—and what the Government's strategy, and MI5 and CTP's operational approach, now is. It is also crucial to understand what the impact has been on the other areas of MI5's work as it has had to absorb this new area of work, and build its understanding of this increasingly complex and diverse threat.
5. Although the shape and profile of the Far-Right movement has evolved—from the ascendency of Oswald Mosley in the 1930s to the formation of the National Front and the emergence of the British National Party (BNP)—as a belief system it encompasses a wide range of individuals and organisations whose political outlook is more extreme than those at the centre right of the political spectrum, primarily on issues such as race and immigration, many of whom espouse violence. There are of course a broad range of mainstream right-wing views which are not linked to any kind of extremist ideology, let alone terrorist intent. It is the small minority at the extremist end of the movement who have engaged in racially and politically motivated violence, which has increasingly morphed into terrorism, with attacks such as that by David Copeland in London in 1999 and the murder in 2016 of Jo Cox MP by former BNP member and neo-Nazi Thomas Mair.
6. ERWT is a fragmented and complex area—not least when it comes to the question of terminology which appears to be an ever-shifting landscape. The new ERWT threat is increasingly driven by the internet and characterised by a technologically aware demographic of predominantly young men, many of them still in their teens who are typically 'Self-Initiated Terrorists'. It is notable, and a matter of particular concern, that evidence points to a number of them having mental health issues. There are also indications that some have issues with drugs. Crucially, few of these individuals belong to organised groups, or indeed need to—they are radicalised, and can radicalise others, online from the seclusion of their bedrooms.
7. As with so many of today's security challenges, the Intelligence Community are reliant on the communication service providers (CSPs) taking action: while the Home Office is making some progress bringing the major CSPs on board when it comes to properly monitoring and removing terrorist content, a great deal is riding on the Online Safety Bill in forcing the smaller, but no less influential, organisations to focus on their responsibilities in this area. In this, the UK is not alone. Our allies are facing the same challenges, as technology and ease of communication mean that ERWT is threat without borders, and in most cases without affiliation, making it a significant challenge for the Intelligence Community.
- ↑ 'Independent Assurance of the Police and MI5 Reviews of the London and Manchester Terror Attacks'—Letter from David Anderson QC to the Home Secretary, 2 November 2017.