THE GASLIGHTING OF AMERICA
antifa: the perfect scapegoat, cont'd
The United States Institute of Peace — a federal institution, founded by Congress, tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide — has seen this trend for years now:
The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the threat presented by the far right. There has been a 250 percent increase in far-right terrorist incidents since 2014. In Western countries, far-right extremism now accounts for 46 percent of attacks and 82 percent of deaths from terrorist attacks.
The rise in far-right terrorism is part of a broader rise in political violence (including violent demonstrations and riots) in the West. This rise in political violence doesn’t happen in a vacuum but is rather symptomatic of wider trends. Increasing political polarization and indications of the increased acceptability of political violence across the political spectrum in the United States present a foreboding picture of the future.
Unless these trends are addressed, and efforts to remedy the social and political cleavages that have fueled their rise, they could lay the foundations for a further increase in political violence around the globe, particularly if coupled with the continued politicization and mainstreaming of far-right extremist views.
Analysis by The Washington Post of data compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies — a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization — revealed that:
Domestic terrorism incidents have soared to new highs in the United States, driven chiefly by White-supremacist, anti-Muslim and anti-government extremists on the far right. The surge reflects a growing threat from homegrown terrorism not seen in a quarter-century, with right-wing extremist attacks and plots greatly eclipsing those from the far left…Since 2015, right-wing extremists have been involved in 267 plots or attacks and 91 fatalities, the data shows. At the same time, attacks and plots ascribed to far-left views accounted for 66 incidents leading to 19 deaths.
Throughout the years, many people tried to raise the alarm on far-right extremist groups, but their efforts were at best ignored and at worst sabotaged. In 2009, Daryl Johnson, then a senior analyst for domestic terrorism at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, wrote a private intelligence report specifically for members of law enforcement. However, conservative media outlets leaked Johnson’s report, causing a huge uproar because Johnson dared to use the term “right-wing extremism.” The report also warned that American military veterans could be prime targets for domestic extremist recruitment.
Republicans went berserk, demanding an apology on behalf of veterans and calling for Johnson to be fired. Within a year, Johnson’s entire department was dismantled and work on domestic terrorism threats came to a screeching halt.
Toward the end of the Obama administration, however, the Department of Homeland Security awarded grants to groups that countered violent extremism — like those that helped people who wanted to leave neo-Nazi and White supremacist groups — and that tried to prevent Americans from embracing these groups in the first place. But in the first weeks of the Trump administration those grants were cancelled.
As a result of years of turning a blind eye, White supremacy — as terrorism scholar John Horgan, a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University puts it — “is far more dispersed and deeply ingrained ideology in Western society.” Over the long-term “it will be far harder to defeat than jihadism.”
This threat is made far worse by the fact that — as Daryl Johnson warned in 2009 and the FBI’s Counterterrorism Policy Directive and Policy Guide finally confirmed — “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, White supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers.”
In fact, at least 81 active-duty U.S. military and U.S. veterans face charges as a result of the Capitol riot. These include people like former FBI official and Navy intelligence officer Thomas Caldwell, who gave military-style advice and organized training sessions for the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. Caldwell even started a “death list” of his enemies, saying he would get rid of them by “killing them, shooting them, and mutilating their corpses to use them as shields.”
And people like retired Lieutenant Colonel Larry Brock, Jr. an Air Force Academy graduate and combat veteran, who, after the election, told his Facebook audience that the United States was “now under occupation by a hostile governing force.” He went on to say that he saw “no distinction between a group of Americans seizing power and governing with complete disregard to the Constitution and an invading force of Chinese communists accomplishing the same objective.” He vowed to protect America “against all enemies foreign and domestic.”
Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found, in an investigation that led to over 50 internal departmental investigations, that “hundreds of active-duty and retired law enforcement officers from across the United States are members of Confederate, anti-Islam, misogynistic or anti-government militia groups on Facebook…Almost 150 of the officers they found are involved with violent anti-government groups such as the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters.”
As reported jointly by Buzz Feed and Injustice Watch, The Plain View Project — launched by Philadelphia lawyer Emily Baker-White — “examined the accounts of about 2,900 officers from eight departments across the country and an additional 600 retired officers from those same departments. She compiled posts that represented troubling conduct in a database that is replete with racist imagery and memes, and in some cases long, vitriolic exchanges involving multiple officers.”
“The project sought to compile posts, comments, and other public activity that could undermine public trust in the police and reinforce the views of critics, especially in minority communities, that the police are not there to protect them. Of the pages of officers whom the Plain View researchers could positively identify, about 1 in 5 of the current officers, and 2 in 5 of the retired officers, made public posts or comments that met that threshold – typically by displaying bias, applauding violence, scoffing at due process, or using dehumanizing language. The officers mocked Mexicans, women, and Black people, celebrated the Confederate flag, and showed a man wearing a kaffiyeh scarf in the crosshairs of a gun.”
The good news is that after years of being behind the eight ball, many in the federal government finally caught up with reality, thank God.
In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI admitted far-right extremists, particularly White supremacists, are indeed a huge problem, in a bulletin titled White Supremacists Extremism Poses Persistent Threat of Lethal Violence.
That was a start but, still, in March 2020, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz issued a report that said the FBI had “not taken sufficient action” in regard to ‘homegrown violent extremists.’ Nearly 40 percent of counterterrorism assessments went unaddressed for 18 months after deficiencies were known to the FBI.”
The report continued, “Since September 11, 2001, homegrown violent extremists (HVEs) have carried out over 20 attacks in the United States, some of which occurred after the FBI closed a counterterrorism investigation or assessment on the individual.” Between 2009 and 2017 “at least six attacks committed in the United States were by individuals who the FBI had previously assessed or investigated.”
We are happy to report that the FBI took this criticism to heart and started to make serious headway. In September 2020, FBI Director Wray told the U.S. Congress: “Within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of White supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that.” Wray continued, “Of the domestic terrorism threats, we last year elevated racially motivated extremism to be a national threat priority commensurate with homegrown violent extremists.” He said he put the threat on the same level as “jihadist-inspired people here.”
The following month, the FBI charged six people affiliated with two White supremacist, neo-Nazi groups – named Atomwaffen Division and The Base — for a thwarted plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Federal prosecutors also charged 13 people for plotting to start a civil war with the purpose of overthrowing the United States government.
Also in September 2020, then acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli told Congress, “When White supremacists act as terrorists, more people per incident are killed,” and then acting director of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf told members of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee that White supremacists presented “the most persistent and lethal threat when we talk about domestic violent extremists.”
That same month, The Wall Street Journal reported that: “White supremacists were responsible for the most ideologically inspired extremist homicides in recent years, overtaking salafist and jihadist killings in the U.S., according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. In 2019, White supremacists were responsible for 29 homicides, up from 17 in 2018, according to the center.”
This all reached critical mass on January 6, 2021, when many of these groups converged to assault the United States Capitol. They showed up ready for battle, and several had the intention of kidnapping and/or killing the vice president of the United States and other members of the U.S. Congress.
The Proud Boys were there. In fact, Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola, appropriately known as “Spaz,” was one of the first to breach the Capitol building. The Proud Boys are a far-right nationalist group is dedicated to “reinstating a spirit of Western chauvinism” in America. Their mamas must be so proud! Before the Capitol riot, one of its leaders, Joe Biggs, wrote: “Every law maker who breaks their own stupid F---ing laws should be dragged out of office and hung.”
The Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers certainly wouldn’t have missed the fun! The Three Percenters are a right-wing paramilitary-style outfit that named themselves for the three percent of the American population that fought the British Army in the Revolution. The Oath Keepers are a far-right militia-style group, largely made up of former law enforcement and military veterans. The FBI says the Oath Keepers “believe that the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights.” In the weeks before January 6th, Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the Oath Keepers, assured people that the group would provide security in Washington, with “some of our most skilled special warfare veterans standing by armed, just outside D.C.”
As the big day drew closer, the group encouraged people to join “President Trump’s fight to defeat the enemies foreign and domestic who are attempting a coup…Prepare yourselves for whatever may come. Prepare your mind, body, and spirit for battle, and above all else, prepare to STAND!”
Almost a year to the day — January 13, 2022 — eleven Americans were charged with seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding January 6th, including Stewart Rhodes.
Six months later, five members of the Proud Boys, including its former national chairman Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, were also charged with seditious conspiracy. Of the charges, Assistant U.S. Attorney Erik Kenerson explained that “the defendants’ actions showed planning, determination, and coordination.”
On May 4, 2023, after deliberating for seven days, a jury found Tarrio and three other Proud Boy leaders — Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl — guilty on 31 of 46 counts. The jury returned not-guilty verdicts on 5 counts and deadlocked on 10 others. Nordean received an 18-year prison sentence for his role in the January 6th insurrection, Joe Biggs 17 years, and Rehl 15 years. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years, the longest sentence to date.
You’ll be relieved to know that “Spaz” was acquitted of seditious conspiracy, though he was convicted of multiple other serious felonies — ultimately landing him a 10-year prison term.
At least four men who self-identify as Three Percenters were charged with conspiracy. On March 8, 2022, Texas Three Percenter Guy Reffitt was the first person to be convicted for crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol. He was convicted of five felony offenses, including obstruction of Congress, interfering with police, and bringing a firearm to a riot. He was also convicted of threatening his son, a teenager who turned his dad in to the FBI. Reffitt received seven years in prison.
At the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, appointed by Donald Trump, denounced the actions at the Capitol, making it clear that while everyone has the right to peacefully protest, people do not have the right to “storm the Capitol, carrying firearms, trespass, refuse law enforcement commands or to resort to violence.” What Reffitt and others did that day “is the antithesis of patriotism. Not only are they not patriots, they are a direct threat to our democracy, and will be punished as such.”
In addition to Stewart Rhodes, eight other Oath Keepers were charged with crimes from that day. At Rhodes’ trial, a former member of the Oath Keepers Jason Dolan testified that the group was ready to stop the certification of the 2020 election “by any means necessary.” He confirmed the group had stashed weapons in Virginia. “My thinking was you would have portions of federal government that would side with President Trump and parts that would side with President Biden.” Mr. Dolan continued, “I wanted them to hear and feel the anger, the frustration, the rage that I felt. I felt they were betraying the country and I wanted them to know that and to stop doing it.”
Another former Oath Keeper Graydon Young testified that he truly thought the assault on the Capitol was going to start a revolution: “I felt like it was a ‘Bastille-type’ moment in history, like in the French Revolution. I guess I was acting like a traitor, someone acting against my own government.”
In the end, a federal jury found four people who were with the Oath Keepers at the Capitol that day — Sandra Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs and William Isaacs — guilty of conspiracy to obstruct the work of Congress, along with several other charges including destruction of government property and conspiracy to prevent members of Congress from discharging their duties. Rhodes and fellow Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs were convicted of seditious conspiracy, and Stewart, Meggs and three other Oath Keepers were found guilty of obstructing Congress.
In the harshest January 6th punishment to date, Judge Amit Mehta handed Stewart Rhodes an 18-year prison sentence, complete with a domestic terrorism enhancement. During sentencing, Judge Mehta said, “I dare say, Mr. Rhodes – and I never have said this to anyone I have sentenced – you pose an ongoing threat and peril to our democracy and the fabric of this country.” He continued:
A seditious conspiracy, when you take those two concepts and put it together, is among the most serious crimes an American can commit. It is an offense against the government to use force. It is an offense against the people of our country. It is a series of acts in which you and others committed to use force, including potentially with weapons, against the government of the United States as it transitioned from one president to another. And what was the motive? You didn’t like the new guy.
Let me be clear about one thing to you, Mr. Rhodes, and anybody who else that is listening. In this country we don’t paint with a broad brush, and shame on you if you do. Just because somebody supports the former president, it doesn’t mean they are a White supremacist, a White nationalist. It just means they voted for the other guy.
What we absolutely cannot have is a group of citizens who — because they did not like the outcome of an election, who did not believe the law was followed as it should be — foment revolution.
It would be one thing, Mr. Rhodes, if after January 6 you had looked at what happened that day and said … that was not a good day for our democracy. But you celebrated it, you thought it was a good thing. Even as you have been incarcerated you have continued to allude to violence as an acceptable means to address grievances.