By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News
WASHINGTON DC – Back in September 2025 President Donald Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.
That memorandum could now be the open door for the pointing of fingers by US Law Enforcement since various law enforcement groups have recently coined the phrase “anti-tech extremism”
As AI hate grows centered around data centers, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center (NVRIC) published an intelligence report identifying anti-government, anti-authority violent extremists (AGAAVEs) as a growing threat to “Data Center Alley.”
It was noted that the report details pre-operational planning and suspicious activities targeting local critical infrastructure to disrupt technology operations.
The AGAAVE designation stands for Anti-Government/Anti-Authority Violent Extremists, which is now a specific FBI and DHS classification covering a wide spectrum from sovereign citizens and armed militias to ideologically driven anti-tech extremists.
It was noted that the intelligence assessment highlighted the possibility of targeting tech infrastructure, and suspicious activity indicators in which pre-operational surveillance tactics such as photography, observing security procedures, and attempts to intrude or test physical security at localized tech facilities are being done.
Does this fall under Trump’s memorandum?
That is questionable and civil rights and privacy advocates have raised concerns about the report.
Organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund has warned that “vaguely defined suspicious activity metrics (like simply taking photographs or voicing complaints) could inadvertently criminalize legal, peaceful protest behavior.”
It has been reported that seven out of 10 Americans oppose local construction of AI data centers for a variety of reasons.
In states like Missouri and Virginia city councils have been ousted due to their lack of respect for the residents’ wishes. In Festus, Missouri voters got rid of every incumbent council member and in Independence the council members who supported tax breaks for a massive artificial intelligence data center lost their re-election bids.
In Virginia’s town of Warrenton councilmembers who voted to approve a proposed Amazon data center were ousted by voters and it could happen closer to home perhaps in Red Oak.
In that city, earlier this month 4 of 5 council members voted “yes” on a data center vote even as hundreds of residents were in the audience opposing.
Whether it will eventually turn into a situation whereas the local governments do not listen and residents feel backed into a corner with few options is still anyone’s guess.
However, a Wired Magazine article did indicate there are more than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports showing DHS, FBI, and fusion centers have noted there is a “national shift taking place to surveil this new and worryingly broad category of people and activities deemed an emerging threat.”
One mention at this point regarding Trump’s Memorandum in which he allows the Department of Justice to target anyone holding “anti-American,” “anti-Christian,” and “anti-capitalism” beliefs, is that this has become a bipartisan issue where apparently Americans, Christians and capitalists are closely in agreement.
And that does pose a problem, since earlier this month Trump’s counterterrorism czar, Sebastian Gorka released a counterterrorism strategy with an emphasis on “left-wing extremists” as being one of the three top counterterrorism priorities facing the United States. In the data center quandary however, “left-wing” has become “all wing” and neither party seems to want the big brother eyesore in their neighborhood.
Rita Cook is a world traveler and writer/editor who specializes in writing on travel, auto, crime and politics. A correspondent for Texas Metro News, she has published 11 books and has also produced low-budget films.
