Very thought out response. At one point you say "As we know, there has been foreign interference during the 2020 elections...". Do you still believe this after the report we just read said that they have no evidence of foreign governments interfering with the voting process?

I would be more interested to see this same report for the 2016 election. Although there were many rumors about the 2020 election being messed with, I feel like they were primarily spread by President Trump. However, in 2016, the rumors seemed to be more serious and coming from both sides. I am sure an investigation was done and if anything serious was found, they would have dealt with it. In 2020, it doesn't even look like there was a serious attempt to rig the election. The good thing is that the government is on top of these investigations and knows how to prevent them. The bad thing is that people are so desperate to alter the results of our election that they would try to hack it every four years.

@Robert Niemeyer Well, maybe not under surveillance, I wouldn’t take it that far. However, if your employee takes a trip too and from China, I think it is something that could and should be noticed by an employer, even without constant surveillance. These people are handling sensitive information, monitoring suspicious activity is not the same as keeping them under surveillance.

The article does not specify what year tis happened, but considering they mention working on the F-35, I'm going to say it was somewhat recent. That plays into my point that the government and these agencies should have learned from their mistake with Edward Snowden. However, this "Chinese citizen" looks like they should have been watched more carefully due to their dual allegiance to China and the United States. Snowden was an American citizen who served in the military and had no red flags. This Chinese Citizen was raising red flags before he was caught trying to leave the states with precious documents. The article also does not mention what type of clearance this person held. Did he have alligancances to this CAS affiliate that was missed in his background check? Should he have ever gotten the position he had? And if they knew about these alliagances when they hired him, why was he not put on a watch list for exactly what he ended up doing? If he did have a high security clearance, like Snowden, that makes them more dangerous because of the information they now know. When given these security clearance, the personnel are thouroghly investigated to make sure they can be trusted with this information. But, there is no guarantee theyare not a flight risk and a threat to national security. These people still need to bewatched, especially if they have pre-existing red flags.

Clara, your analysis is very true. People get fed up with all of the issues society is facing and the issues you listed. They might try to deal with it reasonably at first, but when hope looks lost, they turn to violence to try to fix a problem or get their message across.

You said that the government should share information about domestic terrorism to the public. How transparent to you want the government to be with the public? I think there is a lot of information that the government does not share concerning this topic. However, I do not think it is a bad thing that they do not present every piece of information they find on terrorism. If they did, I think people would be too scared to leave their house.

This article brings up a good point that many people do not understand when it comes to terrorist groups within our country. When an attack happens and a terrorist group that is based overseas, people are confused as to how these people got into our country. What they do not realize is the recruiting power of these radical groups. The article mentions how they are utilizing the internet and social media to recruit people into their terrorist groups. That means that the people committing these acts of terror in the our country could never have had physical contact with other members of this terrorist group. However, because they have connection with them through the internet and they were encouraged to commit this act by their ideologies, that terrorist group can now claim responsibility for the attack. Putting a stop to radical group recruitment would make a big difference in our domestic terrorism levels, as well as our issue of terrorism overseas. Terrorist groups being able to claim credit for an attack in a country like the U.S. when they did not have to do any of the ground work is a huge win for them. They gain attention in the media which builds their reputation and spreads their message as a terrorist group. Taking away recognition from these terrorist groups would slowly suffocate and defeat them, because attention is what they want. They want people to pay attention to them so they listen to what they have to say and to spread their ideologies among other people. Ultimatley, if we can keep terrorist recruitment levels low, then that will result in a lower domestic terrorism rate. If people are not given the opportunity to radicalize, it is less likeley they will go out of there way to join a terrorist group.

Domestic terrorism is nothing new in this country, but now more than ever, it is being noticed. Technology has been advancing rapidly, and with these advancements comes challenges and more adversaries. Not only is this terrorism being documented and seen more by the public because we have immediate access to information in our pocket 24/7, but technology is also giving people more opportunities to terrorize. People are weaponizing technology and the internet. All these new innovations are so new that the government does not know how to govern them or even if they are allowed to due to our rights as Americans. Federal law enforcements efforts to stop domestic terrorism is not new either. The threat is recognized and efforts are being made, but there are so many new ways to attack, it is hard to stop. To put an end to domestic terrorism, it is going to take everyone. That means State, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement all need to work together to stop these terrorist. Usage of all resources will be necessary and that includes new technological advances. Terrorists are not the only one who are benefiting from technology. The government and other law enforcement organizations have some of the greatest minds, power, education, and technology at their disposal. We are researching, paying attention, and learning from past events and the terrorists will be stopped.