OMAHA- The Biden administration has announced a strategy to combat the threat of domestic terrorism, a plan developed with the help of a new counterterrorism program headquartered at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The new strategy, released Tuesday, comes more than five months after a mob of insurgents loyal to then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Biden’s presidential win.

“Domestic terrorism — driven by hate, bigotry and other forms of extremism — is a stain on the soul of America,” Biden said in a statement. “It goes against everything our country strives for, and it poses a direct challenge to our national security, democracy and unity.”

Academics from UNO’s year-old National Counterterrorism Innovation Technology and Education Center joined in the working groups that drew up the strategy, said Gina Ligon, the center’s director. The center was established at UNO last year with a $36.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security. It includes more than 50 academics at universities across the country.

The strategy lays out broad goals that will be filled in with specific policies and structures in the months ahead, Ligon said. “(The strategy) is not just words. Its existence will free up resources,” she said. The key to the strategy is that it is focused not on a specific political ideology, Ligon said, but rather on a propensity for violence.

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