Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs purport to prevent radicalization and violence by identifying and surveilling communities that are deemed at-risk. These programs, however, only reinforce discriminatory practices against vulnerable…

Author Q&A with Dr. Maha Hilal

Dr. Maha Hilal talks to PRA about the pervasive and ongoing effects of the War on Terror domestically, the dehumanization of Muslims across the globe, and her work at Guantanamo Bay.

A Roundtable on Confronting Christian Zionism

Aidan Orly: We gather this evening in the midst of ongoing and increased assaults on Palestinians around the globe. This is a very raw moment on the heels of the murder of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist with Al Jazeera, and the…

How “Countering Violent Extremism” Groups Elevate “Former” White Nationalists

In April 2020, Matthew Heimbach, founder and long-time leader of the neonazi Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), announced he had left White nationalism behind in an article he wrote for the “countering violent extremism” organization Light Upon…

Executive Summary In the United States, the Internal Revenue Service confers tax-exempt status to charitable organizations, allowing them to receive tax-deductible donations. Most donors would assume that an organization that targets marginalized…

A Review of Spencer Ackerman’s Reign of Terror

Reading Spencer Ackerman’s new book Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump (Penguin Random House, 2021) is a…

Anti-Muslim racism and policing has been a facet of U.S. White supremacy since the dawn of the Atlantic slave trade. In the two decades following 9/11, anti-Muslim racism and state violence enacted on Muslims has been a core component of the U.S.…

No Department of Homeland Security. No Paramilitarized Border Enforcement. No War on Terror. No Trump.

On this 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001, the attacks and their political aftermath have receded into the distance: an important historical event at the start of the 2000s, long before Obama, the Tea Party, Trump, and the pandemic.…

The influence of organized anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim movements is readily apparent in policy changes over the last two years.

This report seeks to document the effects of the rise of a White nationalist movement whose policy prescriptions and rhetoric on immigrant, refugee, and Muslim populations echo the White House’s, and to generate new thinking and strategizing to…

Since the Trump administration came into office, anti-Muslim sentiment has become a glue that binds this administration’s national security leadership with anti-Muslim organizations, White nationalist organizations, and anti-government militia.

The racism, nationalism, and misogyny driving the Trump administration’s assault on immigrants is evident to all but a willfully ignorant majority on the Supreme Court of the United States. Whether in exclusionary policies like the…

It should come as no surprise that President Trump disparages scores of countries while lamenting the lack of European immigrants coming to the U.S., as he reportedly did during a meeting with lawmakers in January 2018. In addition to his racially…

ACT for America describes itself as “the NRA of national security” and a non-partisan, national security organization dedicated to fighting terrorism. However, in practice it is the largest anti-Muslim organization in the United States, claiming to…

In the United States, 2017 was a banner year for fascist and related far right activism. There were arguably the highest levels of public demonstrations by the Right since the last wave of Klan and neonazi activity in the 1980s and ‘90s. A main…

Trump’s first week in office was punctuated by an executive order to ban travelers from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days, and refugee admissions for 120 days. Under the order, Syrian refugees are…

Islamophobia & Antisemitism

Prejudices against Jews and Muslims are enduring parts of right-wing ideologies, whether these are expressed in religious or racial terms.

In a press release issued after last year’s Pulse Nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, where a Muslim-American gunman killed 49 people at a gay dance club, Donald Trump said, “Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as…

From the War On Drugs To The War On Terror

American political time is often rhetorically divided into before and after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In this model, “before” signals liberty and respect for individual rights while “after” brought increasing restrictions and surveillance…

Antisemitism and Islamophobia on U.S. College Campuses, 2007-2011

Antisemitism and Islamophobia on college campuses are manifested in a complex set of interactions among a number of different players. This report seeks to explore issues and incidents in a way that will ameliorate aggression, intimidation, and…

At the recent Values Voters Summit, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke on the “War on Christianity”, but his speech was not about prayer in schools or the so-called ‘war on Christmas,’ his focus was radical Islam. Our live blog of the summit outlines…

The intelligence lapses that failed to prevent the September 11 terrorist attacks prompted an overhaul of U.S. domestic and foreign intelligence systems, including the creation of an expansive new domestic security infrastructure. A key part of this…

Muslim communities across the United States have watched with trepidation to see what the fallout from the Boston Marathon bombings will be. Likewise, civil libertarians have anticipated that the Justice Department and the FBI would seek ways to…

In the wake of yesterday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon, we want to let our community know that we at PRA are all safe. We have been deeply touched by those of you who have reached out to express your concern.

Across college campuses last week, students were faced with a full-page ad promoting “Islamic Apartheid Week”. Funded and placed by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, it appeared during the annual “Israeli Apartheid Week” organized by pro-…

One of the stock characters in American public life is the political/religious convert who becomes the expert on the evil he once was. Pick your era or locality of evil, and you’ll find ’em. And while there are certainly authentic converts from…

Organizing & Advocacy in a Time of Struggle

Since 9/11, the New York Police Department’s Pre-Ramadan Conference and Breakfast has become one of the largest gatherings of Muslim leadership in New York City. Last July, I sat among a sea of suits and uniforms, colorful headscarves, turbans, and…

According to Slate, Department of Homeland Security has doled out more than $300 million since 9/11 to at least eight prestigious U.S. universities to support “centers of excellence” including the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and…

On August 4, 2011, the White House released a new strategy to counter violent extremism. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC) expressed support for the plan, Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, which…

PRA’s groundbreaking exposé of how tax dollars fund anti-Muslim trainings for police and counterterrorism personnel won the attention of news outlets and policy makers at its release this spring. We’ve been keeping the pressure on the Department of…

As Guantanamo is in the agonizingly slow process of shutting its doors, another kind of facility seems poised take its place on U.S. soil. Communication Management Units (CMUs), special divisions within American prisons nicknamed ‘Little Guantanamos…

Since 9/11, practicing Islam has been unfairly viewed as suspicious in some circles, including among many in law enforcement. On December 20, 2009, in Henderson, Nevada, a concerned caller notified police that seven Muslim men were praying in a gas-…

The Department of Justice has quietly released the final report on a two-year pilot program on “Suspicious Activity Reporting.” This program, the latest product of the domestic security overhaul following September 11, 2001 is cause for alarm,…

The Department of Justice has quietly released the final report on a two-year pilot program on “Suspicious Activity Reporting.” This program, the latest development of the domestic security overhaul following September 11, 2001 is cause for alarm,…

On March 25, 2010, a forum at NYU School of Law explored the role of agents provocateurs in several high-profile terrorism cases. Powerful testimony from the families and lawyers for defendants in several cases, raised an important question about…

According to students at the University of Texas-Dallas, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached them on campus and at work to inquire about their beliefs and affiliations. Without a reasonable suspicion that individuals were…

The Los Angeles Police Department encourages the public to spy on neighbors and file suspicious activity reports about innocent (non-criminal) activities that seem out of place through its “iWatch” program. A new report by Political Research…

Why are Boston Transit Police Studying Islam? While reading the February/March 2010 issue of the industry magazine Counter Terrorist (a publication of Security Solutions International), I came across a troubling advertisement.

The recent attempted bombing of NWA Flight 253 in Detroit underscores the fact that the main terrorist threat to U.S. persons is from foreign terrorists linked to Al Qaeda. Every official review of U.S. intelligence failures that led to the 9/11…

In a 2007 article for the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Colonel Bart Johnson explained how state-level intelligence “fusion centers” collect data from a range of sources and connect “seemingly unrelated” incidents that could be precursors of…

A string of robberies in southern California in 2005 by two people with an interest in violent jihad has taken on mythic importance in the drive to develop fusion centers; it has become a creation story with ideological force. Counterterrorism…

Amidst widespread concerns about the far-reaching surveillance capacities of intelligence fusion centers, citizens groups are moving forward with demands for public oversight and privacy protections.

In February, 2009, members of the Islamic Center of Irvine learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had hired Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old fitness instructor and convicted con man, to infiltrate their mosque and keep it under…

Eridiana Rodriguez vanished during her shift cleaning the office building at 2 Rector Street in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District on Tuesday night, July 7. After four days, one hundred police scoured the building and discovered the body of this…

If history is any guide, lax oversight and secrecy are a recipe for abusive political intelligence gathering by the FBI. Pervasive official secrecy continues to threaten our national values under the Obama administration, in spite of a declared…

A word of advice to activists and people praying at mosques. If a guy offers you a free stinger missile, he’s probably an informer. If he offers you free IEDs, he’s probably an informer. If he asks you to pledge an oath to his foreign terrorist…

On May 17, the Des Moines Register reported that the FBI planted an informant in an Iowa City “anarchist collective” planning to “disrupt the Republican convention.” Those advocating undercover surveillance say the government should spy upon…

In May 2009, Homeland Security released — and quickly retracted — a “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” one in a series of reference aids designed to provide operational and…

The North Central Texas Fusion Center (NCTFC) recently issued a Prevention Awareness Bulletin alerting law enforcement to beware of “significant” threats posed by a Muslim civil rights group, the antiwar organization ANSWER, and International Action…

All I need to know about the war on terror I learned from “In the Name of the Father,” the story of the Guilford Four. After a pub bombing south of London in 1974, British police rounded up three men from Belfast and a young Englishwoman.

Props go to The Muckracker, a blog of the Center for Investigative Reporting for drawing attention to Obama’s $260 million budget request for fusion centers. Its critique of the reality show “Homeland Security USA” is also prescient, well-deserved…

On March 16, David McKay goes on trial for a second time. The jury must decide whether an FBI informant named Brandon Darby induced McKay to make Molotov cocktails on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

Obama wants to hire thousands of intelligence analysts for state fusion centers to the tune of $260 million. Liberty Beat thinks there are better ways to fight terrorism than sifting through commercial databases, “suspicious activity” reports,…

National Lawyers Guild board member Thomas Cincotta will lead Political Research Associates’ (PRA) eighteen-month nationwide investigation of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) collaborations with local, state, national, and private…

The Fight Against the Patriot Act and the Surveillance State

T. Allen (Terry) Hoover, a gun rights advocate and former deputy sheriff, once had a pink submachine gun made as a gift for his wife. He is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. And in Idaho, he was a member of a right/left coalition…

Low-Intensity Conflict Targets Non-Citizens

Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the so-called war on terror has provided the U.S. government with a rationale for dramatically increasing state repression. This repression, linked with an upsurge of nationalism and nativist scapegoating,…

Exploring Racism in/and U.S. Foreign Policy

Introduction1 “Save U.S. Lives! Drop U.S. Bombs!” read the banner a woman held at a prowar rally outside the Huskies…