Page 42 of 67 FirstFirst ... 32343536373839404142434445464748495052 ... LastLast
Results 1,026 to 1,050 of 1664
  1. #1026
    Member TheMadBaron's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    A clapped out post colonial vestige of redundant imperialism
    Posts
    434
    Quote Originally Posted by elche View Post
    The electric chair for these fascists, and then throw their carcasses on the dung hill to be consumed by the dung beatles.
    Fascists of that ilk are RIGHT-wing domestic terrorists. This is the LEFT-wing domestic terrorists thread. You're lost. Terribly, terribly lost.

  2. #1027
    Thailand Expat AntRobertson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    41,562
    Listen to the victim, abused by the system
    The basis is racist, you know that we must face this.

    "It can't happen here". Oh yeah?
    "Take a look around at the cities and the towns."

    See them hunting, creeping, sneaking
    Breeding fear and loathing with the lies they're speaking

    The knife, the gun, broken bottle, petrol bomb
    There is no future when the past soon come.

    And when they come to ethnically cleanse me
    Will you speak out? Will you defend me?

    Or laugh through a glass eye as they rape our lives
    Trampled underfoot by the right on the rise


  3. #1028
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    FBI Says White Supremacists Plotted Attack on US Power Grid

    White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be “operational” on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed.


    The teen was in a text group with more than a dozen people in the fall of 2019 when he introduced the idea of saving money to buy a ranch where they could participate in militant training, according to the affidavit, which was filed under seal along with a search warrant application in Wisconsin’s Eastern U.S. District Court in March. The documents were inadvertently unsealed last week before the mistake was discovered and they were quickly sealed again.


    The teenager wanted the group to be “operational” by the 2024 election because he believed it was likely a Democrat would win, but “the timeline for being operational would accelerate if President Trump lost the 2020 election,” according to the affidavit. An informant told investigators that the teen “definitely wanted to be operational for violence, but also activism.”

    The Ohio teen, who was 17 at the time, also shared plans with a smaller group about a plot to create a power outage by shooting rifle rounds into power stations in the southeastern U.S. The teen called the plot “Light's Out” and there were plans to carry it out in the summer of 2021, the affidavit states.


    One group member, a Texas native who was a Purdue University student at the time, allegedly sent the informant a text saying “leaving the power off would wake people up to the harsh reality of life by wreaking havoc across the nation.”


    The affidavit identifies three people by name and references others who were allegedly communicating with or part of the group. The Associated Press is not naming any of the individuals because charges have not been publicly filed.


    None of the three men immediately replied to emails, texts or voicemails left Tuesday seeking comment. The father of one of the men had no comment.


    Federal prosecutors in Ohio are taking the lead on the case. Jennifer Thornton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Ohio, said she couldn't provide additional information because the investigation is ongoing, but “we want to emphasize that there is no imminent public safety threat related to this matter.”


    The affidavit details an investigation into group members, who allegedly share white supremacist ideology. The document outlines how they communicated over encrypted messaging applications before three of them eventually met up in person. They also allegedly shared recommended reading on white supremacist literature, required a “uniform” to symbolize their commitment and talked about making weapons. The affidavit says the Ohio teen put Nazi flags in his room, but his mother told him to take them down.


    Some group members also indicated that they were prepared to die for their beliefs. One man from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, allegedly told the Ohio teen: “I can say with absolute certainty that I will die for this effort. I swear it on my life.” The teen replied: “I can say the same,” the court documents state.


    According to the affidavit, the Wisconsin man also told an undercover FBI employee in February that the group was interested in taking “direct action” against the system and said, “If you truly want a fascist society I will put in the effort to work with you but recruitment is long and not going to be easy."


    He then outlined a “radicalization” process to instill a “revolutionary mindset” which ended with recruits proving they are more than just talk. He allegedly wrote that if it seemed too tough, “I recommend leaving now, we are extremely serious about our goals and ambitions.”


    The affidavit says the Ohio teen also spoke numerous times about creating Nazi militant cells around the country like those of the neo-Nazi network the Atomwaffen Division.


    Atomwaffen Division members have promoted “accelerationism,” a fringe philosophy espousing mass violence to fuel society’s collapse. More than a dozen people linked to the group or an offshoot called the Feuerkrieg Division have been charged with serious crimes in recent years.


    This investigation apparently began after a fourth man, from Canada, was stopped while trying to enter the U.S. The man told border agents that he was going to visit the Ohio teen, whom he had recently met over an encrypted app, according to the affidavit. Agents found Nazi and white supremacist images on his phone.

    FBI Says White Supremacists Plotted Attack on US Power Grid – NBC4 Washington

  4. #1029
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408
    If rioters were Black, 'hundreds' would have been killed: Washington reflects on Capitol rampage

    The United States’ stark racial inequality was on display after a mob of predominantly white supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol with ease on Wednesday then left with few immediate consequences, according to Washington residents, activists and politicians, including President-elect Joe Biden.

    The rioters broke through barricades, smashed windows, snatched souvenirs and entered Congressional offices and chambers, some taking photographs with police.
    Some carried trophies with them as they walked out.

    The lack of security and limited police response, despite weeks of promotion of the pro-Trump protest that sparked the riot, was in sharp contrast to the largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests in Washington six months ago.

    “My mom said if you did this you’d be shot,” Beatrice Mando, who works for the district and attended BLM protests last year. “She is right. There would be hundreds dead, if not more, had this group been Black.”

    In a speech on Thursday, Biden agreed there was a sharp contrast.

    “No one can tell me that if it had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday, they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently from the mob of thugs that stormed the Capitol,” he said.

    The United States saw a summer of widespread demonstrations against racial injustice that began in May following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died as a Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

    In Washington, participants in those protests said their reception was very different.

    “There were cops at every intersection in DC. There were cops at all the monuments, at the Capitol, in front of the White House,” said Abby Conejo, 29, who works at a small business in Washington.

    The Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington had been faced with rows of masked National Guard troops at the Lincoln Memorial in June, as Trump vowed to crack down on what he called lawlessness by “hoodlums” and “thugs.”

    One evening, baton-swinging police fired smoke canisters, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets to drive peaceful protesters away from the White House, so that Trump could walk to a nearby church and be photographed holding a Bible.

    “They treated us like the enemy,” Conejo said. “Where was that anger and rage yesterday? Why were these people treated like friends?”

    WORRIED ABOUT A REPEAT

    The D.C. Police Department said on Thursday it had arrested 68 people in connection with the Capitol unrest. In comparison, nearly 300 were arrested here the evening that police cleared Black Lives Matter protesters from near the White House.

    Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund praised his officers, saying they “responded valiantly” when demonstrators attacked them with “metal pipes, discharged chemical irritants and took up other weapons” and also faced two pipe bombs.

    Sund later said he would resign effective Jan. 16, according to a letter cited by news outlets.

    Local residents said they worried that the police response was so muted there may be a repeat.

    Charles Allen, a D.C. council member who represents the area, said he and his neighbors are used to First Amendment demonstrations and large gatherings.

    “That was not what this was. This was an insurrection. This was domestic terrorists coming into our city and trying to overtake the Capitol,” Allen said, adding it was traumatic for the neighborhood.

    “I think that people will feel emboldened that they can do this and I think on top of it, they feel emboldened because they left with souvenirs,” he said.

    Among the mob who stormed the Capitol were individuals who waved Confederates flags and wore clothing carrying insignia and slogans espousing white supremacist beliefs.

    “It felt like abuse to see not just white privilege but white supremacy in action,” said Makia Green, a Black Lives Matter organizer in Washington. “To see the bias from the government, from the police.”

    White supremacist groups have posed “the most persistent and lethal threat” of violent extremism in the United States in recent years, Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a congressional hearing in September.

    KIPP DC Public Schools, a group of local charter schools, canceled classes on Thursday, citing the feelings of its mostly Black student body after the riot.

    “We are disgusted when we think about the contrast between how our country is responding to this act of domestic terrorism vs the peaceful protests of this past summer,” it said in a statement. Charles McKinney, associate professor of history at Rhodes College in Tennessee, said Wednesday’s events in Washington were a reminder of the “gross disparities” in how Black people and white people are treated by law enforcement.

    “The response from law enforcement was a blatant display of systemic racism. It was a display of white privilege, the disparities in policing in this country,” he said.

    If rioters were Black, '''hundreds''' would have been killed: Washington reflects on Capitol rampage | Reuters

  5. #1030
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,211
    ^ oh my Christ.

    That race angle just doesn't fuckin' work. Black communities have problems with the cops for specific reasons. Certainly some are legit. So they quarrel with the cops.

    White rural folks have problems with the government. For good reason too. Their shitty businesses are always being taxed , traded away with globalization and regulated. So they quarrel with the government.

    Pew Research: Majority BLM protesters are white Democrats

    Pew Research: Majority BLM protesters are white

    Large-scale race protests and rallies have captured public attention around the world and amplified calls for police reforms. They are driven by young white Americans with college degrees.

  6. #1031
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    That race angle just doesn't fuckin' work.
    It does more than work the article is spot on. You are a lily-white, dumb as a rock white male who has and still is benefiting from white privilege. As usual your comments show ignorance and naivety.

    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White rural folks have problems with the government. For good reason too. Their shitty businesses are always being taxed , traded away with globalization and regulated. So they quarrel with the government.
    Right-wing domestic terrorists-f408a406bb2e0b4a8e9427511c628fb4-gif

  7. #1032
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,211
    ^ that is a string of horse fuckin shit.

    White privilege isn't a thing. White men are the world leaders in suicide and drug overdoses. For sure OD's.

  8. #1033
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White privilege isn't a thing.
    Everything that just happened was all about white privilege. The last four years has been a demonstration of white privilege and the insurrection that just took place is the crescendo of it.

    You really are the personification of white privilege yourself. A pathetic suburban white male and a dumb hoser.

    Pathetic.

  9. #1034
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post

    Local residents said they worried that the police response was so muted there may be a repeat.
    Biden's inauguration?

  10. #1035
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White privilege isn't a thing.
    Yeah, it is. You cannot just wish it away.

    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White men are the world leaders in suicide and drug overdoses.
    Nothing to do with white privelege.

  11. #1036
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,211
    Quote Originally Posted by TheRealKW View Post
    Yeah, it is. You cannot just wish it away.



    .

  12. #1037
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    It's always frightening to see Skidmark's name under a serious thread title because you know he's going to post similar things to the following

    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    That race angle just doesn't fuckin' work.
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White rural folks have problems with the government. For good reason too. Their shitty businesses are always being taxed , traded away with globalization and regulated. So they quarrel with the government.
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    White privilege isn't a thing.
    Yup, white supremacy and white privilege apologist again.

    A box of rocks, as bsnub said recently . . .
    Last edited by panama hat; 09-01-2021 at 06:52 AM. Reason: edit sp.

  13. #1038
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,211
    ^

    Serious posts like the anti right wing windmill thread ?

  14. #1039
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408
    Go away you petulant child.

  15. #1040
    Thailand Expat tomcat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    17,203
    Right-wing domestic terrorists-erl387dxyaakm_m-jpg

  16. #1041
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    Serious posts like the anti right wing windmill thread ?
    You posting in serious threads, or was that too difficult for you to understand?


    Right-wing domestic terrorists-erl387dxyaakm_m-jpg

    Fishlocker? deeks? Texpat? BoonMee? earl?

  17. #1042
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408
    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Fishlocker? deeks? Texpat? BoonMee? earl?
    All the above.

  18. #1043
    Thailand Expat
    aging one's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    22,620
    This sums up Ashli Babbit the woman protester who was killed trying to break into the capitol..

    [COLOR=var(--primary-text)]Dear family of Ashli Babbitt:
    Your sister, mom, daughter was a terrorist. Now she’s dead. You see, on January 6, 2021, she decided to go to Washington DC to attack the United States Capitol. Once she had battered down the front doors, she and her friends made their way to the chamber of the US House of Representatives, where she smashed out the windows and was trying to claw her way into the room. When it was clear she was going to make her way inside, the capitol hill police shot her.
    But this wasn’t who she was, you say? She was a typical woman from San Diego, owned a pool service company with her husband? No. She had been radicalized over the last few years by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Alex Jones, Q Anon, and Donald Trump. She listened to them, and believed them when they told her that the Democrats had stolen the election, that Democrats were Socialists hell bent on destroying America, and every other twisted, demented conspiracy theory to be puked up by right wing media and its enablers. But she also was an adult, and believing them was a choice she made.
    But she was a 14-year veteran of the Air Force, you say? She loved her country? No. She forfeited whatever right she had to the glory that comes from service to our country when she instead decided to attack the foundations on which it’s built. A terrorist with a suicide vest strapped to her chest only attacks a building, killing a few people, but what Ashli did was far worse: she attacked the institution of Democracy itself. She chose to feed into the paranoia that our country’s electoral process was a sham, and she went to the capitol with one thing in mind: to stop democracy. It’s why she was there. When she wrote on Twitter Tuesday: “Nothing will stop us. They can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours” she was writing her manifesto. And she died by it.
    But there were ten thousand people doing the same thing and only she was killed. Why? Well many of us have asked that same thing, and the answer is because of the cowardice and complicity of law enforcement. Police either had an order to stand down, to not use deadly force, or they all just chose to do so, even when the center of our government was under attack. Clearly, as demonstrated by the overwhelming use of force at protests in DC in 2020, law enforcement knew what to do, and how to do it, but they chose not to, and that choice was a deliberate choice.
    We all know who Ashli was. She wrapped herself in respectability. She claimed to love America. She supported law enforcement. She hated Antifa and Black Lives Matter. She watched Fox religiously, and followed Q Anon (“but not the crazy part”). She exemplified white privilege. Believing somehow that attacking the US Capitol was somehow saving America. She was relatively smart, but radicalized. She lived in a nice house in suburban San Diego. She was a veteran. A small business owner. She had lots of friends. And on Jan. 6 she tried to climb through a window at the US Capitol while the entirety of the United States Congress was hiding in the basement, lying on the floor. And now she’s dead. She was a terrorist.
















  19. #1044
    Thailand Expat
    panama hat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Last Online
    21-10-2023 @ 08:08 AM
    Location
    Way, Way South of the border now - thank God!
    Posts
    32,680
    Sadly neither the family nor any right-wing nutjobs will never read it

  20. #1045
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    At least 25 people under investigation for terrorism in connection with Capitol riot


    WASHINGTON – At least 25 people are under investigation for terrorism related to Wednesday's siege at the Capitol, according to a Defense official and a member of Congress.


    Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat of Colorado and a former Army Ranger, said he spoke with Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy on Sunday and was told that "at least 25 domestic terrorism cases have been opened as a result of the assault on the Capitol."


    A Defense official who was informed about the call initially confirmed that the cases involved troops but later corrected that statement. The official said some troops – active and reserve duty – may have been involved in the riot, and the military will investigate them as necessary.

    "There is concern that military members may have been involved in the riot," the official said.


    Those under investigation for domestic terrorism are suspected of taking part in the insurrection that shut down Congress as it formalized President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Five people died, including a Capitol Hill police officer, after the pro-Trump mob overwhelmed security lines.


    “We are engaged in identifying all of those who took part in breaching the Capitol, regardless of their affiliation,” Justice spokesman Marc Raimondi said Sunday.

    The Pentagon also has been asked to review all members who will be a part of the security detail for the Jan. 20 inauguration to ensure the are "not sympathetic to domestic terrorists," Crow said.


    President Donald Trump encouraged thousands of his followers to march on the Capitol after he addressed them outside the White House on Wednesday.


    Capitol riot live updates:More arrests, violence across US as Pope Francis condemns 'this movement'

    25 people under investigation for terrorism related to riot at Capitol

  21. #1046
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    Proud Boys member arrested after allegedly threatening to kill Warnock


    Eduard Florea, a member of the far-right Proud Boys group, was arrested on Tuesday night after police say they found Parler posts from him threatening the life of Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.), as well as planning to take part in the Capitol riot last week.


    Florea responded to another user on Parler who posted “F--- RAPHAEL WARNOCK LOSER” saying, “Dead man can't pass shit laws."


    He was arrested in his home in Queens, N.Y., where authorities said they found more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and military-style combat knives, NBC New York reported on Wednesday. Florea was reportedly not allowed to have that ammunition due to a previous arrest and conviction in 2013 for a firearms-related felony.

    MORE Proud Boys member arrested after allegedly threatening to kill Warnock | TheHill

    E

  22. #1047
    Thailand Expat
    happynz's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Last Online
    Today @ 10:08 AM
    Location
    inner suburb
    Posts
    11,652
    Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn1-jpg

    Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn2-jpg

    Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn3-jpg

    Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn4-jpg

    Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn5-jpg
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn1-jpg   Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn2-jpg   Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn3-jpg   Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn4-jpg   Right-wing domestic terrorists-tn5-jpg  


  23. #1048
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    47,989
    The perils of organizing underground

    Researchers see one bright spot as far-right extremists turn to private and encrypted online platforms: Friction.


    Between the lines: For fringe organizers, those platforms may provide more security than open social networks, but they make it harder to recruit new members.


    Catch up quick: The online far right is moving away from mainstream social networks and onto both right-wing-welcoming networks like Gab and privacy-friendly platforms like Telegram and Signal, due largely to the collision of three events:


    Public social media activity left a trail that's been exposing the identities of a growing list of Capitol rioters.
    The far right is exiting large social networks, either as a political statement or under force of a ban, as tech platforms crack down on extremists.

    WhatsApp botched the rollout of a new privacy policy, confusing and worrying a massive number of users of all political stripes who then went looking for alternatives.

    The catch: As the fringe right burrows underground, experts say it will quickly learn how much harder it is to organize there than on wide-open channels like Facebook and Twitter.


    Here's why:


    1) Every added step is a chance to lose a follower.

    Having to download apps and go through steps to verify their identities is bound to dissuade people from joining, said Matt Mitchell, a technology fellow at the Ford Foundation.
    And when a platform goes down — as an extended Signal outage Friday illustrated — it cuts off the intake entirely.

    2) You don't always know who you're talking to. It can be trivially easy in some cases for outsiders to infiltrate private online groups — something not lost on extremists.

    "We're seeing more recognition among groups on platforms like Telegram, Gab and MeWe that there are security researchers, law enforcement officials and journalists in these groups," said Bryce Webster-Jacobsen, Director of Intelligence at cyber intelligence firm GroupSense.

    3) You can still be deplatformed even on private or semi-private forums.

    Telegram has been deleting hate-group channels in recent days.

    Discord, another chat client, banned a major pro-Trump server earlier this month.

    Walkie-talkie app Zello deleted more than 2,000 channels being used by militia groups following an investigation by The Guardian.

    4) Out of sight, out of mind. Experts say domestic terrorists face a similar problem that groups like ISIS have faced after being deplatformed: recruiting gets harder.

    When images and videos are removed from more public platforms, it becomes more difficult for hate groups to draw in fresh members.

    Yes, but: Research shows that when fringe groups are banned from mainstream platforms, the bans often push bad actors to even darker parts of the web, where the conversation becomes even more toxic.

    That means that while far-right groups may have a harder time drawing in fresh blood than they did on mainstream social networks, the ones that do show up could be more dedicated to the cause.

    What's next: The scrutiny (and channel deletions) now rising among the alternative platforms could create smaller and even more radical splinter groups.


    "You have one fire to take out and instead you made 500 burning embers," said Mitchell.

    Why it'''s harder for the far right to organize underground - Axios

  24. #1049
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408

    FBI moves on alleged members of extremist groups Oath Keepers, Three Percenters

    A heavy-metal guitarist, the alleged leader of a Colorado paramilitary training group and two self-styled militia members from Ohio have been charged with taking part in the riot at the Capitol last week, as the FBI ratchets up its investigation into the role extremist groups played in storming the building.


    Jon Schaffer, an Indiana musician, turned himself in to the FBI on Sunday afternoon, officials said. On Jan. 6, Schaffer was photographed inside the Capitol, wearing a hat that said “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member.” Schaffer founded Iced Earth, a heavy-metal band, and music fans quickly recognized him as the FBI circulated wanted posters with his face on them.

    Schaffer was charged with six counts, including engaging in an act of physical violence. Authorities said Schaffer was among the rioters who targeted U.S. Capitol Police with bear spray.

    Also charged in a court filing made public Sunday was Robert Gieswein, 24, of Cripple Creek, Colo. Court papers say that Gieswein is affiliated with an Oath Keepers-related extremist group called the Three Percenters, and that he assaulted federal officers outside the Capitol with bear spray and a baseball bat; “encouraged other rioters as they broke a window of the Capitol building; entered … and then charged through the Capitol building.”

    Gieswein runs a private paramilitary training group called the Woodland Wild Dogs, and a patch for that group was visible on a tactical vest he wore during the attack on Congress, an FBI affidavit said.

    Gieswein gave a media interview in which he echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, the affidavit said, and said his message to Congress was “that they need to get the corrupt politicians out of office. Pelosi, the Clintons … every single one of them, Biden, Kamala.”

    ‘Trump said to do so’: Accounts of rioters who say the president spurred them to rush the Capitol could be pivotal testimony

    Also arrested Sunday were Donovan Crowl, 50, a former U.S. Marine, and Army veteran Jessica Watkins, 38. A bartender, Watkins recently told the Ohio Capital Journal that she formed the “Ohio State Regular Militia” in 2019 — a unit of the Oath Keepers, the FBI said — and that the group has appeared at a dozen protests to “protect people.”

    The FBI said Watkins posted to Parler a photograph of herself in uniform on Jan. 6, writing, “Me before forcing entry into the Capitol Building. #stopthesteal #stormthecapitol #oathkeepers #ohiomilitia.”

    Watkins and Crowl were among about 10 individuals recorded at the U.S. Capitol wearing combat helmets, ballistic goggles, tactical vests and Oath Keepers patches who “move[d] in an organized and practiced fashion and force[d] their way to the front of the crowd” to lead the siege and break-in, FBI affidavits said.

    Lawyers for the four defendants could not immediately be identified.

    The Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, and the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist group with ties to white nationalism, have drawn particular attention from FBI agents investigating the attack on Congress, as they work to determine whether those groups organized or directed the violence to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. Officials have said the Proud Boys in particular are an important focus of the FBI investigation.

    “All these extremist groups are being looked at in terms of their participation at the Capitol,” acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said Friday.

    Oath Keepers patches and logos were prominently worn by a number of those in the mob that day. It is one of the largest self-described militia groups in the United States, claiming tens of thousands of members. The group’s founder has argued that current and former U.S. military and law enforcement members can adhere to their oath to defend the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” while refusing orders or even fighting to resist tyranny.

    The Oath Keepers gained a measure of notoriety last summer when its members showed up at Black Lives Matter protests wearing military gear and carrying weapons as a kind of self-declared vigilante force to prevent vandalism. Before that, they appeared at the 2014 standoff at the Bundy ranch in Nevada and the protests in Ferguson, Mo.

    A related group, the Three Percenters formed in 2008 and is named after the bogus claim that only 3 percent of the population fought against the British in the American Revolution. The self-described militia group espouses right-wing libertarian ideals and has embraced President Trump and expressed its preparedness “to take back our country from the pure evil that is conspiring to steal our country away from the American people.”

    The group also has provided security services for various right-wing protests and movements, the FBI said.

    Overall, the Justice Department has already charged about 100 individuals, with hundreds more expected to follow, but many of those arrested so far have been what one senior law enforcement official characterized as “low-hanging fruit” — people who revealed themselves as participating in the riot on Jan. 6 through social media boasts.

    Watchdog groups have sought to identify a line of men in body armor moving up the Capitol steps

    Federal investigators are also accelerating efforts to determine whether the assault was planned and led by groups of people — rather than an impulsive outburst of violence — particularly because some of the men shown on video laying siege to the building were equipped with handheld radios and headsets and at times appeared to work in unison on particular objectives, investigators said.

    “There are breadcrumbs of organization in terms of what maybe was taking place outside the Capitol … with perhaps some type of communication with core groups of people ingressing into the Capitol,” Sherwin said.

    He said prosecutors have made it a “Tier 1 top priority” to determine “whether there was this overarching command and control and whether there were these organized teams that were organized to breach the Capitol, and then perhaps try to accomplish some type of a mission inside the Capitol.” But he cautioned it could be weeks or months before the FBI settles on an answer “to find out the actual motivations of some of those groups.”

    Gieswein is recognizable in a YouTube video of the riot in which he appears to be assaulting officers, the FBI said. He is seen wearing a distinctive Army-style helmet marked with orange tape and patches, an armored vest, goggles and a black-patterned backpack, the FBI said.

    Gieswein also was recorded watching a helmeted group break a Capitol window with a riot shield and two-by-four plank, climbing through the opening and helping others enter, the FBI said.

    He has posted multiple pictures on Facebook flashing hand signs commonly used by the Three Percenters and posing with others wearing the group’s clothing and posing in front of its flag, the FBI said.

    Even before the riot, the Oath Keepers had garnered attention and alarmed law enforcement officials. Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper who founded the group in 2009, threatened ahead of November’s election to deploy members to polling places, preemptively accusing Democrats of voter fraud on Alex Jones’s online show “Infowars.”

    Members also demonstrated in Washington after the election in support of Trump. Rhodes, who has predicted the nation’s descent into civil war, said allies would not recognize Biden’s victory as legitimate, adding in an interview with the Independent newspaper, “We’ll end up nullifying and resisting.”

    Schaffer also attended the pro-Trump march in November with other Oath Keepers, the FBI said, telling a news reporter, “We’re not going to merge in to some globalist, communist system. It will not happen. There will be a lot of bloodshed if it comes down to that, trust me. … Nobody wants this, but they’re pushing us to a point where we have no choice.”

    Such messages have been embraced by others arrested in the Jan. 6 attack.

    Larry R. Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who was charged after identifying himself to the New Yorker as the man photographed carrying zip-tie handcuffs onto the Senate floor, has described himself online as a patriot and savior, according to court documents entered in his case.

    Brock, a former A-10 pilot who said he deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, was fired two years ago from his job with an aviation training company for threatening to shoot “members of a particular religion and/or race,” according to a 2018 letter of termination submitted by authorities in his case.

    A week before the Capitol attack, he wrote on Facebook that he saw no distinction among the Democrats, the Biden administration and “an invading force of Chinese communists.”

    He signed off on the post: “Against all enemies foreign and domestic,” a reference to his military oath. He included hashtags singling out the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters.

    At a court hearing Thursday, when Brock was released to home confinement with limits on his access to firearms and the Internet, his attorney, Brook Antonio II, noted that Brock has only been charged with misdemeanors. Antonio said there was no direct evidence of Brock breaking doors or windows to get into the Capitol or doing anything violent once he was inside.

    “It’s all talk. It’s all speculation and conjecture,” said Antonio, who noted Brock’s long service in the military, including being reactivated after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and four tours in Afghanistan.

    Before the riot, law enforcement agencies were also increasingly concerned about the Proud Boys. The group’s chairman, Enrique Tarrio, had planned to attend Trump’s Jan. 6 rally but was arrested when he arrived in D.C. and charged with misdemeanor destruction of property in connection with the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner taken from a Black church during an earlier protest in Washington. He is also accused of felony possession of two extended gun magazines.

    Tarrio told The Washington Post last week that his group did not organize the Capitol siege.

    “If they think we were organizing going into the Capitol, they’re going to be sadly mistaken,” he said. “Our plan was to stay together as a group and just enjoy the day. We weren’t going to do a night march, anything like that. That’s it as far as our day.”

    Since the attack, Proud Boys leaders have urged members to pull out of pro-Trump protests planned for Sunday and around Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday.

    Court documents describe Capitol siege

    Tarrio said he is actively discouraging members from attending planned armed marches next week when Biden is inaugurated. The Proud Boys, he said, are on a “rally freeze and will not be organizing any events for the next month or so.”

    It is unclear how many Proud Boys devotees will abide by the freeze or if such a shutdown might lessen the FBI’s interest in the group. Some federal law enforcement officials have privately described the group as similar to a nascent street gang that has garnered an unusual degree of national attention, in part because Trump mentioned them specifically during one of his televised debates with Biden during the campaign. Other officials have expressed concern that the group may be growing rapidly into something more dangerous and directed.

    U.S. authorities on Friday arrested Dominic Pezzola, 43, of Rochester, N.Y., a former Marine and Proud Boys member allegedly seen in a widely viewed video shattering a Capitol window with a Capitol Police riot shield and climbing inside.

    In court papers, the FBI cited a witness who told them that the group Pezzola was with would have killed “anyone they got their hands on,” including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Vice President Pence.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...207_story.html

  25. #1050
    In Uranus
    bsnub's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    30,408

    U.S. faces higher risk of domestic extremist violence after Capitol assault

    This comes as no surprise...

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could face a heightened threat of domestic extremist violence for weeks from people angry at Donald Trump’s election defeat and inspired by the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security warned on Wednesday.

    The advisory - which said there was no specific and credible threat at this time - comes as Washington remains on high alert after hundreds of Trump supporters charged into the Capitol on Jan. 6 as Congress was formally certifying President Joe Biden’s election victory. Five died in the violence.

    “Information suggests that some ideologically motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence,” the department said in a national terrorism advisory.

    Biden’s inauguration last week occurred under heavy security, with more than 20,000 National Guard troops on duty. Officials have said about 5,000 troops will remain in Washington for the next few weeks, when Trump will face his second impeachment trial in the Senate on a charge of inciting insurrection.

    Trump spent two months peddling the false narrative that his defeat in November’s presidential election was the result of widespread voter fraud. He urged a crowd of thousands of his followers to “fight” in a fiery speech before the Jan. 6 violence.

    The DHS advisory said domestic violent extremists were motivated by issues including anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force.
    It also cited “long-standing racial and ethnic tension -including opposition to immigration” as drivers of domestic violence attacks.

    White supremacist groups have posed “the most persistent and lethal threat” of violent extremism in the United States in recent years, Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told a congressional hearing in September.

    DHS warned that the attack on the Capitol could inspire domestic extremists to attack other elected officials or government buildings.

    “This step is wildly overdue, and I applaud the Biden administration for taking it,” Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.
    DHS typically issues only one or two advisory bulletins in a year. The bulletins have mostly warned of threats from foreign terrorist groups.

    The last one, issued by the Trump administration in January 2020, declared Iran a state sponsor of terrorism and designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.
    Biden last week directed his administration to conduct a full assessment of the risk of domestic terrorism. The assessment will be carried out by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in coordination with the FBI and DHS, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

    “The January 6th assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known: the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat. The Biden administration will confront this threat with the necessary resources and resolve,” Psaki said.

    U.S. faces higher risk of domestic extremist violence after Capitol assault, says government | Reuters

Page 42 of 67 FirstFirst ... 32343536373839404142434445464748495052 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •