New US Counterterrorism Strategy is Solid but Incomplete – Ken’s Thought of the Week
By Threat Analyst Ken Abramowitz, author of “The Multifront War”
Editor: Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, President, American Center for Democracy (ACD)
The 2026 United States Counterterrorism Strategy was released by the White House on May 6. The analysis was quite good and focused on three main areas:
1) Narcoterrorist organizations, such as Latin American drug cartels
2) Islamic terrorist organizations, such as remnants of al Qaeda and ISIS (though Afghanistan’s Taliban was not mentioned)
3) Violent left-wing terrorist groups, such as Antifa and some transgender organizations
The report also highlighted the Red-Green alliance, in which communists and Islamists coordinate their activities. It also emphasized foreign funding of domestic terrorist organizations.
However, missing from the report were “soft power” forms of terrorism, such as:
1) Cultural terrorism – propaganda, slander, misinformation, transgenderism promotion, university setting silencing, antisemitism, anti-Christian intimidation, unmonitored mosques, unmonitored Muslim schools, hate education, incitement to genocide, foreign adulterated schoolbooks, mis-educated teachers in Teacher Colleges, and university tolerated or induced antisemitism
2) Chemical and biological terrorism: fentanyl, opioids, COVID virus, poison-laced legal drugs, and illicit drugs (meth)
3) Economic terrorism – trade boycotts, BDS, corporate intimidation, entertainment boycotts
4) Legal terrorism– lawfare, frivolous lawsuits, International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice (ICJ), cashless bail, and defund the police proponents
5) Demographic terrorism– open borders, defund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), illegal immigration, no deportation of foreign agents, unvetted Muslim migration
Furthermore, the document did not discuss state sponsors of “soft power” non-violent terrorism, namely Qatar, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, China, and Russia.
The document did not discuss the existential threat posed by mosques and Islamic schools increasingly opening in America.
The document did not discuss the threat posed by Muslim mayors, who do not respect the rights of Christians and Jews.
The document did not discuss the rising existence of Muslim no-go zones, or the threat posed by Muslims joining local police departments.
The documents did not discuss the threat posed by Muslims in Congress, especially those who support the Muslim Brotherhood.
Nor did the report discuss the threat from the hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood front groups, sponsored by a variety of foreign enemies.
It also did not discuss the necessity to require public officials to pass national security clearance tests.
Strangely, it seems the US government either ignored or is unaware of the wide range of “soft power” terrorist organizations operating in the country, undermining the culture, law, and order, and the trust of the people in the government. Our key foreign enemies like China, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Pakistan, and Turkey clearly have strategies to undermine the American culture. Unfortunately, we have no obvious strategy to protect our culture and simultaneously undermine their culture. Complete counterterror analysis and strategy must include all aspects of war and not just focus on kinetic action.
