DHS plans training for ‘bystanders’ to target ‘radicalized’ pro-life advocates and conspiracy theorists, FOI docs show

From the first days of Joe Biden’s presidency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) saw Americans with conservative values as possible domestic terrorists.

Internal documents dated January 29, 2021, and obtained from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to DHS by America First Legal reveal plans to produce training videos that encourage “bystanders” to intervene against their potentially “radicalized” family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors, with a “Choose Your Own Adventure” approach to teaching individuals how to make “real-life decisions” when faced with a “radicalization suspect.”

“We propose creating 5 story branches, each with 3 video scenes that advance the story, for a total of 15 filmed scenes,” the memo states. “Bystanders are presented with 3 difficult choices that approximate real-life decisions at the end of each scene. At the end of each branch, after viewers have made three choices impacting the potential radicalization of others, a DHS employee reviews the path they have chosen and highlights key learnings in an interview that expands on how radicalization and potential violence may occur in the scenarios.”

In each of the branches, the suspect is depicted as having viewpoints that traditionally align with conservative values or partaking in activities that are apparently considered to be red flags by DHS.

For example, in “Branch 1,” the “Racial/Ethnic Racialization Student Story,” the “suspect” is a fictional high school student by the name of “Jamie.”

As a senior, Jamie has been “gaming online late at night constantly” and his mom has noticed “he was playing online war games more and more alone in his room.”

Jamie ends up pushing “an ethnic minority teammate” into a locker and flashing a gun “he borrowed from one of his new friends” at his girlfriend.

In “Branch 2,” the suspect is Pete, a “late-30s, white man” who is “anti-gov/authority” and abuses his wife and children.

He also, apparently, has a drinking problem, because many of the “bystanders” in this scenario are found in the local bar.

As the “bartender,” TVTP asks viewers what they would do when they notice Pete has a “new group of friends” and is talking about “plans to head to a political rally.”

“Then you overhear them talking about ‘messing with’ counter protesters,” the script informs viewers.

Then there is “Ann,” a woman in her mid-40s, who is described in “Branch 4” as a “middle-aged pro-life advocate.”

“Ann has always been religious but since the death of her mother, she’s become increasingly devout,” the memo reads. “She’s a regular in the small-town community, active in several church groups. While she has always been protective of her four kids, she has become increasingly more concerned about the welfare of other children including the unborn.”

Ann called the fictional mayor of her town a “baby killer” at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and began “ranting” about the need “to put a stop to the planned parenthood office in the next county.”

“She shares videos of violent protests on her phone and you notice increasingly more militant language from Ann,” the memo states.

And finally, there is Courtney, who, in “Branch 5” is described as a divorced “budding conspiracy theorist” in her mid-30s.

Online, Courtney is “beginning to spread conspiracy theories, and the level of anger in her posts is rising more and more.”

As her “mother,” viewers are told, you notice that Courtney “is increasingly angry at several specific public figures, accusing them of what appears to you as wild conspiracies, including hurting children.”

Of the five “branches,” only one of the “suspects” appears to lean left.

Jane, in “Branch 3,” is a college student in her early 20s, and after seeing a movie about “animal cruelty in the agricultural business,” she became “militant about food and animal rights, and other issues like testing.”

As Jamie’s roommate, “you” learn that the newly-declared vegan has developed an interest in “explosives” and is conducting “combustible experiments” in your dorm room.

In planning the series of videos, DHS says, “when casting, we would like to share diverse race, gender, cultural individuals that align to the same distribution of the United States based on the breakdown of the most recent Census.”

“These documents further reveal that the government is using taxpayer dollars to expand its capabilities to deem innocent people as ‘extremists’ or ‘domestic terrorists,'” America First Legal reports.

According to Reed D. Rubinstein, America First Legal’s senior counselor and the director of investigations, DHS “is out of control.”

“The Department of Homeland Security’s transformation into a domestic intelligence organization and a Stasi-like Deep State internal security apparatus is alarming,” Rubinstein said. “It is a very long way from ‘see something, say something’ regarding an unattended suitcase at the airport to profiling patriotic and politically conservative Americans as abusive parents and domestic terrorists because they oppose abortion on demand and voted for former President Trump.”

Melissa Fine

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