WHY THE JANUARY 6 ATTACK ISN'T OVER: FBI agents and analysts assess that Trump's "Stop the Steal" insurrectionists could become equivalent to ISIS on US soil. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/fbi-capitol-riot-coordination-planning/2021/01/30/c5ef346e-6258-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

Bottom Line, Up Front: January 6 will be seen as a success by many domestic terrorists, leading to more recruitment and a leaderless resistance akin to Al Qaeda, with no leadership to hold accountable, if the Trump traitors aren't brought to justice.

This is pseudo-military, not professional military - but so isn't al Qaeda and ISIS...at first.

Then a culture forms up, more individuals are radicalized, and more radicals recruited.

Moreover, hostile foreign intelligence knows how to exacerbate that dynamic.

Given the intercepted communications, there can be no doubt that this is domestic terrorism - not a riot, and sure as hell not protest or a "rally."

The stated goal was at the very least to terrorize; many are quoted as intending murder or massacre.

The biggest case since another group of leaderless violent terrorists who used non-professional gear and ad hoc training to deadly effect attacked on U.S. soil.

The question is how much of this was an Op. The more organized...the more incriminating in the worst way.

We know the Proud Boys had a goal that included murder. The Oathkeepers were organized in "companies."

The question suggested is whether there was a higher level of leadership orchestrating multiple groups. If so, the situation becomes even more serious.

This action potentially suggests sophisticated tactics that might indicate familiarity with the normal behavior of various police forces in the area.

The radicalization appears to have come from certain focused, potentially experienced actors who recruited, actively or passively, individuals will to come *without* leadership to do violence.

"We get our president or we die."

"End of Days" rhetoric is a classic recruitment tool for cults and other organizers who envision a group that rushes toward a violent fate.

Important point here, watch this space - two very motivated insurrectionists from Ohio (already charged, the people who talked about gassing Congressional reps in tunnels) are frustrated they're not getting *direction* from leadership.

That may be feature, not bug.

Note: national leadership may given doctrine, direction, and general calls to action...but once on site, the cells are left to figure it out themselves, autonomously.

(If this reminds you of Al Qaeda, there's probably a reason.)

The "leaderless resistance" concept is valuable because it keeps an extremist movement going and doesn't implicate all the other cells if one is caught.

This cell got caught...but perhaps the FBI is looking for the leaders trying to keep their hands clean. They know this game.

And here is the concept in action: the national leader implausibly claims he had no idea that people would do that thing he incited them to do.

Plausible (but not really) deniability.

And here's the key point - this looseness between leaders and extremists on the ground is not accidental - it's a design feature for domestic terrorists.

And it's on American soil, not Syrian or Iraqi.

And the takeaway: America has let this go on for too long. We either let this kind of terrorism proliferate on our soil, or we can have a democracy.

Probably not both. </>