Boston Police intelligence bulletin lists animal rights, environmental “extremists” alongside al Qaida and ISIS

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A Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC) “quarterly threat assessment”  dated January 2016 and marked “unclassified/not for public release,” but posted publicly online, lists “animal rights and environmental extremists” and “anarchist extremists” as “groups [that] represent a significant domestic terrorist threat.” Animal rights activists, environmentalists, and anarchists are featured along with homegrown violent extremists inspired by al Qaida and ISIS, sovereign citizen extremists, and anti-abortion extremists as groups that “represent the most prominent known threat to the US” in the category of domestic terrorism. The quarterly threat assessment also describes foreign terrorist threats including ISIS, al Qaida, Jabhat al Nusra, and al Shabaab.

The Boston Police bulletin features a “threat matrix” chart, which it describes as a “snapshot of the groups that are assessed to pose a significant threat to the [Metro Boston Homeland Security Region].” The chart describes the intent, capability, and opportunity for groups ranging from al Qaeda and ISIS to animal rights and environmental extremists to attack targets in the Boston area.