In May, the Trump administration released a 16-page strategy memo outlining what it called the most significant terrorist threats facing the nation. Authored by the recently appointed senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, it drew a distinction between three categories: Narco-terrorism, Islamic terrorism and left-wing terrorism. Since Gorka himself has ties to a far-right group in Hungary, perhaps it was to be expected that the document neglected to mention the right-wing violence that has plagued the United States for the last decade or more.
It was a significant omission in a memo that was long on hyperbole and short on strategy, and offered little more than a call for aggressive, violent action against terrorism. As ProPublica reported, in other contexts Gorka has described “U.S. operations turning suspected terrorists into ‘red mist’ and stacking bodies ‘like cordwood.’” He has also sported a lanyard with the letters “WWFY & WWKY,” which stands for “We will find you and we will kill you.” Obviously, Gorka, who was fired from the White House in Donald Trump’s first term but was allowed to return to the fold in the second, is a very serious and sober person — a first-rate choice to head counterterrorism efforts.
