The indicators of homegrown violent extremist (HVE) mobilization described within a booklet produced by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), FBI, and DHS are intended to provide a roadmap of observable behaviors that could inform whether individuals or groups are preparing to engage in violent extremist activities.
The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness has published its 2019 Terrorism Threat Assessment, which is intended to inform partners within the state about the state of the threat environment but can be used by security practitioners elsewhere. It includes a section on domestic terrorism, which recounts incidents that happened across the U.S. in 2018 and discusses the threats posed by anarchists, militia groups, sovereign citizens, and white supremacists.
Today, U.S. intelligence officials, including Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee on the intelligence community’s assessment of threats to the U.S. The offered stark warnings of the threats that continue to be posed by the Islamic State, observing that in spite of significant gains against the group it is still likely to try to attack the U.S.
An interview with an Iraqi scientist who was pressed into service by the Islamic State sheds light on how the group developed a program for developing chemical weapons, including chlorine and mustard gas, that were employed on battlefields in Iraq and Syria, where they inflicted hundreds of casualties on soldiers and civilians. The scientist’s commentary corroborates what was feared by the Islamic State’s adversaries following the attacks, that the group had developed its own chemical weapons rather than acquiring them from captured stockpiles.
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) has released the 2019 National Intelligence Strategy, which is intended to provide the U.S. intelligence community with strategic direction for the next four years. In its opening pages, the document notes that the strategic environment is changing rapidly, with threats continuing to be posed by traditional adversaries as well as emerging from new actors and technologies like violent extremist groups and cyber tools.
Flu levels in the U.S. remained elevated last week, with widespread activity reported in most of the country, according to the latest update provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nationally, the percentage of clinic visits for flulike illness declined from 3.5 to 3.1 percent but is still above the national baseline of 2.2 percent. At the state level, flulike activity, another measure of clinic visits, was classified as high in nine states: Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
For the December 27 SRU, WaterISAC included a summary of an article from Homeland Security Today about how the federal government partial shutdown was affecting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center (E-ISAC) and the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center (WaterISAC) launched a new security partnership aimed at enhancing cross-sector coordination and taking advantage of the interdependencies of the electricity and water industries.
A pair of self-described “First Amendment auditors” have being showing up increasingly at government buildings across the U.S., including at police and fire departments, airports, and natural gas plants. The two men, identified as Patrick Roth and Tim Harper, are visibly armed and video tape their experiences at these buildings, such as when they encounter employees. Usually refusing to identify themselves, they zoom in on employees, calling them by name and often making them visibly uncomfortable.
In the past several days, Kurdish fighters in Syria claim to have captured a 16-year old boy from the U.S. and a 35-year-old man from Toronto who are believed to have fought for the Islamic State. The teenaged boy is alleged to have been trying to carry out an attack on civilians, and the Canadian man is said to have been captured during a clash between Kurdish forces and Islamic State fighters. The capture of these two individuals represents the latest detentions of foreign fighters who hail from North America.
1620 I Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20006
1-866-H2O-ISAC (1-866-426-4722)
© 2025 WaterISAC. All Rights Reserved.
