Sunday, July 12, 2020

Trove of Leaked FBI, Fusion Center and DHS Documents Provide Insight Into Antifa, Charlottesville, Political Bias, and the Erosion of Civil Liberties, by Eric Striker - The Unz Review


Both the FBI and to a lesser extent the Department of Homeland Security are far more concerned with political ideology and creating propaganda than upholding the law.
On June 22nd, a group of anarchist hackers called DDoSecrets dumped 270 gigabytes worth of internal documents belonging to regional police fusion centers, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The documents provide interesting insight into state surveillance tactics, political bias and dynamics, and how “threats” are prioritized.
The files — dated from 2015 to 2020 in the sample National Justice looked at — show a massive contradiction between the FBI’s ideologically selective priorities and the actual intelligence being provided to them by regional police centers, which often stress the role of “antifa” as instigators of violence.
Police Know Anarchist Extremists Always Instigate Violence At Rallies
Law enforcement is fully aware of who provokes the fighting and rioting at riots: the left. The documents from fusion centers across the country (intelligence provided by local police departments) repeatedly report this.
An intelligence PDF iconassessment by the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center regarding the Berkeley Riots of Spring 2017, where anarchists and free speech activists faced off, painstakingly details the various criminal tactics “antifa” groups used to disrupt and physically injure lawful protesters and police officers.
The anarchist extremist groups in question continue to use the same tactics to this day, yet rarely face any criminal charges. The FBI is fully informed on the matter, including where the anarchists in California train in paramilitary tactics, yet refuses to investigate or prosecute any anarchist group for conspiring to commit acts of violence.
The Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC)PDF iconreported similar information in its investigation of the Boston Free Speech Rally on August 19th, 2017. BRIC noted that the nationalist and free speech demonstrators, about 60 of them in total, had a permit for the event, while the anarchist groups that showed up to heckle-veto them were there illegally.
The leftist rioters began attacking the protesters, and later, began engaging in gratuitous yet apparently coordinated violence against police officers attempting to intervene, causing multiple injuries.
The most interesting document of all is an intelligence assessment by DHS in the run up to the now famous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which starkly contradicts the mainstream media and FBI’s narrative.
In a PDF icondocument dated August 9th, 2017, DHS wrote “We assess that anarchist extremists’ use of violence as a means to oppose racism and white supremacist extremists’ preparations to counterattack anarchist extremists are the principal drivers of violence at recent white supremacist rallies.”
In other words, the DHS accurately predicted, through its intelligence gathering resources, that the nationalist groups in Charlottesville would only engage in self-defense if attacked. The Charlottesville Police Department, Mayor, and Governor were all warned in advance that Unite the Right had the potential to be the most violent rally to date, yet according to the Heaphy investigation, they — either through incompetence but most likely through malice — enabled the carnage by ordering the police not to intervene when the anarchists attacked the nationalists.
DHS’ Ulterior Motive For Placing Russian Nationalist Group on Terror Watch List
Both the FBI and to a lesser extent the Department of Homeland Security are far more concerned with political ideology and creating propaganda than upholding the law.
A pair of documents outlining the rationale behind the seemingly random designation of the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) as an international terrorist group demonstrates this.
According to a DHS internal release dated May 15th, 2020, adding RIM to the list of global terrorists is more of a pilot program to test the ability of nations to share intelligence on such groups and their willingness to engage in surveillance against their own law-abiding citizens.
The federal government admits in between the lines that it is breaking new ground in attempts to violate civil liberties of citizens using counter-terrorism powers intended to combat Islamic extremism: “This is the first ever US designation of RMVE (Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist) terrorists and the United States joins a short but growing list of Western countries who over the last year have applied counterterrorism authorities to designate RMVEs and white supremacist extremists.
Such designations will enable formalized information sharing on RIM affiliates and other RMVE actors through HSPD-6 and PCSC agreements, dependent upon the foreign partner and their level of sharing. Information sharing between counties on RMVE groups and identities is often difficult as this issue is still in its infancy stages, so the designation provides an opportunity to share and collect information on its leaders, thereby giving us previously unknown insights as to its members and their associated networks.”
An earlier report on RIM from the National Counterterrorism Center dated April 2020 shows that the Russian-based organization’s designation is purely political.
In a section labeled “Threat to the Homeland and US Interests,” the NCTC states that RIM does not pose any threat to the United States or its interest abroad, but merely has in the past reached out to nationalists in Europe and North America for ideological discussion. The document notes that the groups who have had contact with RIM are generally not violent.
The sole instance of potential contact in recent memory between Americans and RIM — which is an above ground ultraconservative organization rather than a racialist one — is likely the 2015 International Russian Conservative Forum in St Petersburg. The conference attracted numerous above-ground, mainstream political parties, intellectuals and Christian organizations from around the world, ranging from Marine Le Pen’s Front National to Jared Taylor. The RIM terrorist designation is likely little more than an attempt to force right-wing populists in Europe to stay loyal to Washington.
FBI Prioritizes Ideology Over Fighting Crime
One particularly laughable bulletin from the FBI provided to regional police departments is warnings about “incels” (men who are involuntarily celibate) and something called “clowncels” (incels who are fans of the movie Joker).
In the memo, the FBI admits that it “has no information indicating specific, credible threats to particular locations or venues,” yet commands police departments to pay special attention to this community.
The FBI’s obsession with incels in lieu of any intelligence regarding credible threats reveals that the FBI is allowing Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League to set its investigatory priorities. Last year the ADL arbitrarily declared men incapable of procuring romantic partners a domestic terror threat.
Another document dated October 16th, 2018 on “voter suppression” demonstrates the FBI’s lack of respect for free speech. The FBI declared that it would begin investigating memes posted on Twitter intended to satirize low civic education by telling people to vote for Hillary Clinton via text message as a “Conspiracy Against Rights Provided by the Constitution and Laws of the United States” — a federal crime written to prevent physical violence or threats at the ballot box that can get a prosecuted person years in prison.
As for tech censorship and surveillance, the NCTC released an outline of the various social media platforms that should be watched. They distinguish between mainstream social media platforms (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Twitch, etc), chat apps (Telegram, Wire and Discord) and alternative-audience platforms (Daily Stormer, Gab, 4chan, Fascist Forge, 8Kun, and Stormfront).
In recent months, people have been reporting an explosion in the presence of undercover federal agents and informants desperately trying to entrap users on Telegram, Discord, Gab, the Chans and Fascist Forge.
For mainstream platforms, the NCTC notes that tech companies are eager to pursue “terrorist activity online,” but often lack the resources to do it completely: “Technology companies that are willing to counter terrorist activity online but lack extensive resources to monitor content or automated takedown mechanisms would probably benefit from expanded US Government and NGO information-sharing to identify how RMVEs are using their platforms.”
The close working relationship between mainstream social media companies, the FBI and “NGOs” (the ADL and SPLC) is clear and assumed, adding a new layer of understanding when it comes to tech censorship and the power of privately run organizations that are not subject general ethics or government accountability.
Ideological uniformity is important in the FBI’s relationship with local law enforcement, a PDF iconflyer sent to law enforcement personnel in Texas shows.
The event, hosted by the FBI for local cops, featured lectures on “hate” (which is not a crime) from a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church and the ex-lead singer of a skinhead rock band. The conference was hosted in December 2017, so one can only imagine this indoctrination has gotten more intense since then.
Ultimately, we can gather from these documents a climate of incompetence, rejection of facts for political reasons, and a culture of selective prosecution. Those who post memes making fun of the election are treated as conspirators against the Constitutional rights of others, while anarchists who actively conspire in the open to do the same are rarely prosecuted by the FBI.
The most disturbing aspect of all this is how groups like the Anti-Defamation League appear to have more sway over the FBI’s investigative priorities than intelligence provided to them by local fusion centers.
It appears that in defense of their power, our elites are willing to do away with all liberal pretenses and take on “emergency orders” that ultimately punishes peaceful dissent while allowing real criminals to go free.