Recent events in the United States and overseas have put the spotlight on terrorism and hate crimes, but there has not been an increase in extremist activity in Utah, the head of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office said Tuesday.
“Locally, we have not seen an uptick so far,” said Eric Barnhart, the special agent in charge of the field office, which covers Utah, Idaho and Montana.
Barnhart — who commented at a roundtable discussion with members of the media on a variety of subjects — stressed that there is a difference between hate crimes, when an overt action is taken, and hate speech. People might make despicable and sickening remarks, he said, but that speech isn’t always a crime and could be protected under the First Amendment.
A white nationalist demonstration in Virginia earlier this month that turned violent has put the spotlight on extremism.
Hundreds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members who were in Charlottesville to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue fought with counterdemonstrators on Aug. 12. One woman was killed when a car drove into the crowd, and two state troopers deployed in the police response died when their helicopter crashed
On Tuesday, Barnhart also said that a priority for the FBI is terrorism, which “is our No. 1 threat.”
Because people can radicalize on their own online, identifying homegrown terrorists can be tough, Barnhart said. He encouraged people to report worrisome changes in others, or let someone know if they overhear something that could indicate a problem.
The FBI investigates the information in secret to avoid harming people’s reputations, according to Barnhart.
An Uzbek national who was living legally in Idaho was indicted in 2013 in federal courts in Boise and Salt Lake City on charges that he made a bomb and funneled money to a terrorist group in his home country.
Prosecutors said Fazliddin Kurbanov communicated by email and Skype with the operator or operators of a website for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization. During these discussions, Kurbanov talked about his animosity toward Americans, particularly military members, according to evidence presented at his trial.
Kurbanov was convicted in Idaho of conspiracy to provide support to a terrorist organization, and for possession of an unregistered destructive device. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Barnhart said other FBI concerns in Utah are fraud and cybercrime. In addition, he said, abuse of opioids and other drugs is driving a lot of robberies and property crimes.
“We’re still seeing a steady flow of bank robberies,” he said, adding that most of those heists in Utah are probably committed to get money for drugs.
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