If we consistently recognized terrorism as an attack on our shared universal human rights, our campaigns against acts of terror and terrorist’s extremist ideology could have more productive priorities. In recognizing victims and demonizing terrorist criminals, the human rights argument is too quickly lost. Law enforcement, spying, and military solutions are not the only solutions to address terror.
We need a human rights-based approach to rejection of terrorist acts and anti-human rights extremist views; we must recognize such terrorist acts and ideologiesas an assault against the rights, dignity, and security of all fellow human beings.
Terrorism is an attack on ALL.
There are too many individuals who might passively agree with this, but fail to embrace this as a truth, based on our shared universal human rights. The most important campaign to challenge terror begins with recognizing that our fellow human beings truly deserve shared human rights, dignity, equality, pluralism, privacy, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and security, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) – for every individual human being.
When we accept such universal human rights, the tribalist views that some anti-rights extremism is “necessary,” “worthy,” or “deserved,” loses all credibility. We cannot simply challenge terror ideologies and acts only by those who are different from us. We must challenge terror and the extremist views behind such terror from every identity group, nationality, political or religious claim, and ideology.
Rejecting terrorism is more than recognizing that “some people did something.” Combatting terrorism is more than law enforcement, military, and spy agencies taking action. To challenge terrorism, we must commit to a human rights-based approach that consistently challenges the specific ideologies and the acts of terrorism that assault our fellow human beings. We must campaign for our fellow human beings to reject such anti-human rights ideologies, and we must call to our fellow human beings to reject such hate and violence.
Hate and Violence are Not the Answer.
On April 16, 1963, the African-American human rights leader and pastor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously spoke of the common cause in rejecting injustice, written from the Birmingham, Alabama jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The U.S.A. and the world miss the leadership of this great human rights martyr. But even in his death, nearly five years later on April 4, 1968, we were taught a lesson, as Dr. King was assassinated during a wave of political violence. Dr. King campaigned for nonviolence. The violence of political terror ended his life. It was a wake-up call for the American public to reject the terror of political violence. Generations of Americans still need to learn this lesson.
In the U.S.A., Americans rightly express sorrow, grief, and continued outrage at the mass-murder terrorism on 9/11/2001, and we continue to grieve for the victims and families of that attack. We also must recognize that the U.S.A. had been experiencing political violence terror attacks for a long time prior to the 9/11 attacks across the nation, including the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
We have seen and continue to see such terror attacks around the world. We must be consistent in our outrage, condemnation, and use of a human rights-based approach to challenging such terror acts and ideologies. Having given his life for nonviolence in human rights, surely we can learn from Dr. King’s sacrifice.
We need leadership that learns from Dr. King’s message.
A terrorist attack anywhere is a terror attack on our fellow human beings everywhere.
Let us START with this foundation.
Not just as words of compassion, but as real truth.
There is no “good” terrorism. There is no “acceptable” terrorism. There is no “deserving” terrorism. There is no “righteous” terrorism. None. Not anywhere. Not to anyone.
Historical fact shows this as truth.
Those who may have supported the acts of Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Taliban, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram, must also face the factual truth of how such terrorist extremism has been attack on all people, including many, many Muslims around the world.
Those who may have supported the acts of other religious extremists, who claimed rationale on their twisted views of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, must also face the factual truth that such terrorist extremists are responsible for murder and crimes against others of their groups and fellow human beings.
Those who may have supported the acts of white supremacist and Nazi terror must also face the factual truth of how such terrorists have murdered white children, infants, women, elderly, and helpless individuals of every type.
Those who may have supported black nationalist terror must also face the factual truth of how such terrorists have murdered fellow black human beings, left their families with widows, and their children as orphans.
Those who may have supported the acts of Anarchist and Communist terror must also face the factual truth of how such terrorists have led to the death of innocent people, to the death and mutilitation of people of color, to those struggling in poverty, and those who were not the “enemies” they claimed justification for violence.
And the list goes on and on.
Let us uncategorically reject the concept that “terror” can be a force for “good” and for “justice.” Surely, we have seen enough death, destruction, and attacks on fellow human beings’ human rights and dignity to know this is wrong.
But a human rights approach needs more than simply knowing than terrorism is wrong. We need to build an approach to fighting terror among ALL OF US – where we recognize, without exception – that terror is an attack on ALL. Wrong is wrong.
It is natural to be repulsed and angered at terrorist criminals in destroying lives, homes, and property. But to seek lasting progress against terror, our commitment to human rights, equality, freedom, security, and privacy, requires that we prioritize developing a human rights-based approach to challenging terror.
NOT with an upraised fist, but with an outstretched hand.
This is most difficult part. Surely, we want our fellow human beings safe and criminals brought to justice. But law enforcement tactics are only the smallest step. We need to find common cause in universal human rights and pluralism to reject all ideologies of terror. Some regress to hate of those who gone down the dark path to extremist ideologies. But campaigns of hate do not move us one inch closer to stopping terrorism or the ideologies of terror. We need to offer a human rights-based alternative.
We would naturally want people to leave a life of crime, to abandon support for criminal gangs, to rejoin a public that depends on shared trust of one another. So we must also naturally call for those supporting extremist terror ideologies to leave a life that opposes our shared human rights, and join us in the family of human beings that respect such shared rights and dignity. This is the long-term work, the most difficult work, the real challenge to effectively addressing and campaigning against terror and political violence.
Our military, spy, law enforcement tactics do not do this long-term, substantive work; at best they are a short-term patch in an emergency situation. They are only short-term tactics, but too many have chosen to institutionalize these tactics against terror, rather than do the difficult strategic work to campaign for human rights change on terror. Even then, some of the military, spy, police tactics (when used against human rights) can be abused and can become counterproductive. It has become so common in some cases, that some in the public no longer bother to be outraged.
We will never end terror with tactics of torture, intrusive spying, undermining democracy, and ending free expression and debate. We must not give ideologies of terror a victory by abandoning the human rights we must use as a counterargument to terrorism’s extremism. We cannot expect short-term tactics to do the job of long-term strategy. We cannot abandon human rights and democratic values, in the misguided belief that “the ends justifies the means” will somehow keep our fellow human beings “safe.”
If we have learned anything on terror, we have learned there is no “safe harbor” from the extremist terror that lives in the minds of troubled individuals. There are not enough barriers, not enough security measures, not enough police, not enough military, not enough spies, to stop terror. When we abandon our human rights values in misguided belief we will then be “safe,” we only embolden and provide justification to extremist ideologies used to rationalize terrorism. We offer no justice by jackboot, and no public protection through police state tactics.
Dr. King taught that we cannot promote justice through injustice ourselves, and that we cannot end violence through violence ourselves. If he were alive, he would tell us also that we cannot end anti-human rights terrorism by anti-human rights tactics ourselves. Our world misses his public voice of conscience. But the private voice of our own conscience speaks to us in every one of our own lives and minds. We must listen to our conscience.
We know that anti-human rights tactics against terror can undermine credibility to challenge terrorism, when dependent on violence, abandonment of values, and corruption.
An outstretched hand is not an upraised fist. We don’t need to be told the direction that the upraised fist will continue to take our human societies. We have centuries and centuries of recorded history on the lessons of those tactics. Those promoting terrorism / political violence have sought to continue the tactics of the upraised fist.
We have seen the upraised fist on the 9/11 terror attacks. We have seen the upraised fist in terror attacks around the world by extremists. We have seen the upraised fist in the terror of political violence in streets and assassinations of leaders around the world, even of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yet the disgrace of the upraised fist still does not shame and embarrass many anger activists, whose fevered illusions have rationalized that “this time” the violence against our fellow human beings will somehow be justified, and that “this time” such “ends justifies the means.” We know that there is no call to the “ends justifies the means” in our Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the laws of democratic nations, and in the conscience of human beings who seek equality and dignity for one another.
We also have painful history of corrupted organizations, who believed that they could challenge terror by becoming like the terrorists themselves, by believing that they were “above the law,” We have sadly seen those that believed they had the power and mandate to attack the human rights of those they designated as “enemies” at their whim. And where does this lead us? Where does this end? To those blinded by power over others, in the interests of “security,” where is the ability to know when they have gone “too far”? To those blinded by a cause that the “ends justifies the means,” the only ones they are deceiving are themselves. Those individuals, organizations, and institutions committed to universal human rights understand the most basic ethical mathematics that wrong is wrong. Two wrongs never equal a “right.”
When we allow ourselves to segment into tribal and identity groups on terrorism, we are consciously blinded to understanding the global problem of terror. Much of the major news media no longer reports on global terror as a problem, especially when the terror takes place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Somalia, etc. Imagine if the Western news media had a level of outrage regarding mass murder of fellow human beings in such nations, that it reserves only for fevered political debate or the latest comment by a celebrity figure. Terrorism is wrong regardless of your race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, or ethnic group.
In 2018, the Taliban terror group was responsible for 1,751 civilian casualties in 2018 in Afghanistan, according to a February 24, 2019 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). The tens of thousands of Afghanistan civilians, overwhelmingly fellow Muslims, slaughtered by the Taliban over the past 10-20 years should stagger the conscience of the world. Yet the Western media continue to refer to such Taliban terrorists as “militants,” and bipartisan political figures seek to gain their favor, without a commitment on our shared universal human rights. Challenge to terror groups and ideologies must begin with a human rights-based called for change.
But less than a year before this report (during 2018), we learned of a U.S. law enforcement organization funding an advocate of the Taliban terror group. In the Federal U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida, on March 26, 2018, the FBI testified in federal court about one of their paid informants, Mr. Seddique Mateen (Case 6:17-cr-00018-PGB-KRS). FBI Special Agent Juvenal Martin testified in federal court that Mr. Mateen was a paid FBI informant for 11 years; Mr. Mateen was also an active and aggressive promoter of the Taliban terror group, internationally promoting videos in support of the Afghanistan Taliban terrorists, who he considered his “warrior brothers.” Mr. Mateen’s activities and his role as a paid FBI informant became publicly known in court, as a result of ongoing public investigations related to his son, Omar Mateen. On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen led an ISIS-inspired terror attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 and injuring 53 Americans. During the March 2018 Orlando federal court proceedings, we also learned that the FBI sought to recruit Omar Mateen as a paid informant.
No one was fired. No one was criticized. No one was held accountable. The story was buried in the U.S. media, and outside of Orlando, most Americans never heard about it. It may be troubling to discover many might not care, and too many don’t see anything wrong with this.
The “ends justifies the means” simply does not work in long-term efforts to challenge terrorism. The path towards the “ends justifies the means” ultimately becomes the path of regret and disgrace.
Double standards are no standards.
We cannot effectively challenge terrorism and the ideological extremism behind terrorism without consistent human rights-based standards.
Only a human-rights based strategy to challenging terrorism can support the consistent values that we need that “A terrorist attack anywhere is a terror attack on our fellow human beings everywhere.”
As Dr. King stated, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
The world has invested endless billions and billions of dollars and effort into the military, spy, and law enforcement tactics to counter terrorism.
It is time to make a new national and international commitment to finding shared universal human rights standards of common ground, consistency, and credibility for fellow human beings to challenge the ideologies and the acts of terrorism, which are attacks on all of us.
If we consistently recognize that terrorism is an attack on our common universal human rights, then our campaign against terrorist acts and terrorist extremist ideology can have more effective priorities.
Equality, pluralism, privacy, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and security, as defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human Rights (UDHR) – for everyone.
When we accept this universal human right, tribalists believe that some anti-enforcement extremism is “necessary”, “valuable” or “deserved” and loses all credibility.
On April 16, 1963, African-American human rights leader and pastor Dr. Martin Luther King issued a common reason for rejecting injustice at Birmingham Prison, Alabama: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice.”
The country and the world have missed the leadership of this great human rights martyr. But even after his death, five years later, on April 4, 1968, we still learned the lesson. Dr. King was assassinated.
In the United States, Americans expressed sadness, sorrow and continued indignation at the Holocaust terrorism that took place on September 11, 2001. We continue to feel sorry for the victims and families of this attack.
We will never end terrorism by torture, intrusive, undermining democracy, ending the freedom of expression and the strategy of debate. We must not renounce the human rights that we must use to combat terrorist extremism. We may not believe that the corrupt means will really make our fellow human beings “safe.”
We saw the rising fist of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. We have seen extremists raise their fists in terrorist attacks around the world. We have seen the horrors of street political violence and the assassination of leaders around the world, even of Dr. Martin Luther King. However, the shame of raising a fist still does not make many angry activists feel ashamed and embarrassed. The fanatical fantasy has rationalized the “this time” violence against human compatriots to a certain extent. We know that in our “World Declaration of Human Rights”, the laws of democratic countries and the conscience of mankind, we seek equality and dignity, and there is no place to use the means of corruption.
When we allow ourselves to be divided into tribal and identity groups of terrorism, we consciously do not understand the global horror problem. Many major news media no longer report global terrorism, especially when terrorists occur in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Somalia. They did not report the persecution of people in China and other parts of the world. Terrorism is wrong regardless of your race, nationality, religion, race or ethnicity.
But less than a year before this report (2018), we learned that US law enforcement agencies have funded supporters of the Taliban terrorist organization. On March 26, 2018, in the US District Court for the District of Orlando, Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified in the federal court that it paid a supporter of the Taliban, Seddique Mateen (Case 6: 17-cr-00018-PGB) ) -KRS). The FBI testified in the federal court that Mr. Mateen has been a informant for the FBI for 11 years; Mr. Martin is also an active promoter of the Taliban terrorist organization, who promoted international videos supporting Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan, which he considers to be his “Warrior Brothers.” Due to a public investigation related to his son Omar Mateen, Mr. Mateen’s activities and his role as a paid FBI informant were announced in court. On June 12, 2016, his son Omar Mateen made an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 Americans. During the Orlando Court in March 2018, we also learned that the FBI tried to recruit Omar Mateen as a paying user.
ایک دہشت گرد حملے کہیں بھی ہمارے ساتھی انسانوں پر دہشت گردی کا حملہ ہر جگہ ہے.
دہشت گردی کا سب سے انسانی حقوق پر حملہ
اگر ہم دہشت گردی کو اپنے مشترکہ عالمگیر انسانی حقوق پر حملے کے طور پر تسلیم کرتے ہیں تو دہشت گردی اور دہشت گردانہ نظریات کی کارروائیوں کے خلاف ہماری مہمات زیادہ پیداواری ترجیحات کا باعث بن سکتی ہیں ۔ متاثرین اور ڈھونڈتے دہشت گردی کے مجرموں کو تسلیم کرنے میں انسانی حقوق کی دلیل تیزی سے کھو گئی ہے ۔ قانون نافذ کرنے والے ، جاسوسی اور فوجی حل دہشت گردی کا حل کرنے کا واحد حل نہیں ہیں ۔
ہمیں ایک انسانی حقوق پر مبنی اندازِ فکر دہشت گردانہ کارروائیوں اور انسانی حقوق کے مخالف انتہاپسند خیالات کو مسترد کرنے کی ضرورت ہے ۔ ہمیں اس طرح کی دہشت گردانہ کارروائیوں کو تسلیم کرنا چاہیے اور تمام انسانوں کے حقوق ، وقار اور سلامتی کے خلاف ادیولوگیساس پر حملہ کرنا چاہیے ۔
دہشت گردی سب پر حملہ ہے ۔
دہشت گردی کو چیلنج کرنے کے لئے سب سے اہم مہم اس بات کو تسلیم کرنا ہے کہ ہمارے ساتھی انسانی حقوق ، وقار ، مساوات ، کثرتیت ، رازداری ، ضمیر کی آزادی ، اظہار کی آزادی ، مذہبی آزادی اور سلامتی ۔ انسانی حقوق کا آفاقی منشور سب کیلئے ہے ۔
جب ہم اس آفاقی انسانی حقوق کو قبول کرتے ہیں تو دہشت گردی قابل قبول نہیں ہو سکتی ۔ ہمیں دہشت گردی کے نظریے اور سب کے اعمال پر چیلنج کرنا ہے ۔ ہمیں اس طرح کی دہشت گردی کے پیچھے تمام شناختی گروہوں ، قومیت ، سیاسی یا مذہبی دعووں اور نظریات میں دہشت گردی اور انتہاپسند خیالات کو چیلنج کرنا چاہیے ۔
دہشت گردی کو مسترد کرنا اس حقیقت کو قبول کرنے سے کہیں زیادہ ہے کہ “کچھ لوگ کچھ اعمال کرتے تھے” ۔ دہشت گردی کی مسترد قانون نافذ کرنے والے ، فوجی اور جاسوسی ایجنسیوں سے زیادہ کارروائی کر رہی ہے ۔ دہشت گردی کو چیلنج کرنے کے لیے ہمیں ایک انسانی حقوق پر مبنی اندازِ فکر کا ارتکاب کرنا چاہیے جو مسلسل نظریے اور دہشت گردی کے اقدامات پر چیلنج کر رہا ہے ۔ ہمیں اپنے ساتھی انسانوں کے لئے مہم جوئی کرنی چاہئے اور انسانی حقوق کے نظریات کو مسترد کرنے اور ہمیں اپنے ساتھی انسانوں کو اس طرح کی نفرت اور تشدد کو مسترد کرنے کی ضرورت ہے ۔
نفرت اور تشدد کو مسترد کرنا چاہیے ۔
16 اپریل 1963 کو افریقی نژاد امریکی انسانی حقوق کے رہنما اور پادری ڈاکٹر مارٹن لوتھر کنگ جونیئر مشہور نے اس بات کا ذکر کیا کہ وہ ناانصافی کو مسترد کرنے کی عام وجہ سے ، جو برمنگھم ، Alabama جیل سے لکھی گئی تھی ، کو ہر جگہ انصاف کرنے کا خطرہ بھی ہے ۔ امریکہ اور دنیا نے اس عظیم انسانی حقوق کے شہید ہونے کی قیادت کو یاد کیا ۔ لیکن یہاں تک کہ اس کی موت میں تقریبا پانچ سال بعد اپریل 4 ، 1968 ، ہم ایک سبق سکھایا گیا تھا ، کیونکہ ڈاکٹر بادشاہ سیاسی تشدد کی لہر کے دوران قتل کیا گیا تھا. ڈاکٹر کنگ مہم عدم تشدد کے لئے. سیاسی دہشت گردی کی تشدد سے ان کی زندگی ختم ہو گئی ۔ یہ امریکی عوام کو سیاسی تشدد کی دہشت گردی کو مسترد کرنے کے لئے ایک جاگ اپ کال تھی. امریکیوں کی نسلوں کو اب بھی اس سبق کو سیکھنے کی ضرورت ہے.
امریکہ میں ، امریکیوں نے 9/11/2001 پر بڑے پیمانے پر قتل کی دہشت گردی میں غم ، غم ، اور مسلسل غم و غصہ کا اظہار کیا ، اور ہم اس حملے کے متاثرین اور خاندانوں کے لئے غمگین ہوتے ہیں. ہمیں یہ بھی تسلیم کرنا چاہئے کہ امریکہ نے ملک بھر میں 9/11 حملوں سے قبل ایک طویل عرصے تک سیاسی تشدد کے دہشت گردانہ حملوں کا سامنا کیا تھا ، بشمول ڈاکٹر مارٹن لوتھر کنگ جونیئر.
ہم نے دیکھا اور دنیا بھر میں اس طرح کے دہشت گردانہ حملوں کو دیکھنے کے لئے جاری ہے. ہمیں اس طرح کے دہشت گردی اور نظریات کو چیلنج کرنے کے لیے اپنے غصے ، مذمت ، اور انسانی حقوق پر مبنی اندازِ فکر کا استعمال کرنا چاہیے ۔ انسانی حقوق میں عدم تشدد کے لئے اپنی جان دی گئی ہے ، یقینا ہم ڈاکٹر بادشاہ کی قربانی سے سیکھ سکتے ہیں.
ہمیں ایسی قیادت کی ضرورت ہے جو ڈاکٹر کنگ کے پیغام سے سیکھتا ہے.
ایک دہشت گرد حملے کہیں بھی ہمارے ساتھی انسانوں پر دہشت گردی کا حملہ ہر جگہ ہے.
آئیے ہم اس بنیاد سے شروع کریں ۔
تمام دہشت گردی غلط ہے ۔ کوئی دہشت گردی قابل قدر نہیں ہے ۔
القاعدہ ، داعش ، طالبان ، بوکو حرام حرم کی حمایت حاصل کرنے والے افراد کو یہ احساس ہونا چاہئے کہ دنیا میں مسلمانوں سمیت کتنے لوگوں کو قتل کیا گیا ہے ۔
جو لوگ عیسائیت ، ہندومت ، بدھ مت اور یہودیت کی بنیاد پر دوسرے مذہبی انتہاپسندوں کے اعمال کی تائید کرتے ہیں وہ یہ تسلیم کرتے ہیں کہ دہشت گرد تمام عقائد کے لوگوں پر حملہ کرتے ہیں ۔
جو لوگ سفید نسل پرستی اور نازی دہشت گردی کی حمایت کر سکتے ہیں اس حقیقت سے بے نقاب ہونا چاہیے کہ اس طرح کے دہشت گردوں نے سفید بچوں ، بچوں ، عورتوں ، بوڑھے اور لاچار لوگ ہلاک کیے ہیں ۔
جن لوگوں نے سیاہ قوم پرست دہشت گردی کی حمایت کی ہے وہ اس حقیقت کا سامنا کرنا چاہئے کہ اس طرح کے دہشت گردوں نے سیاہ انسانوں کو قتل کیا اور اپنے خاندانوں کو یتیم خانے میں یتیموں کے طور پر چھوڑ دیا اور ان کے بچوں کے طور پر بیواؤں.
اراجکتاوادی اور کمیونسٹ دہشت گردی کی حمایت کرنے والوں کو حقیقت کا سامنا کرنا چاہئے کہ وہ غربت میں مبتلا ہیں ، تمام نسلوں کے لوگ ، اور جو لوگ امن کے معصوم لوگوں پر حملہ کرتے ہیں.
اور فہرست پر اور پر جاتا ہے.
ہم انکاٹیگوراکالل کو یہ تصور مسترد کرتے ہیں کہ “دہشت گردی” کے لئے ایک قوت ہو سکتا ہے “اچھا ” اور “انصاف” کے لئے ، ہم نے کافی موت ، تباہی ، اور ساتھی انسانوں کے انسانی حقوق اور وقار پر حملوں کو دیکھا ہے کہ یہ غلط ہے.
ہمارے انسانی حقوق کے نقطہ نظر کو استثناء کے بغیر تسلیم کرنا چاہیے-دہشت گردی بالکل ایک حملہ ہے ۔ غلط غلط ہے ۔
ہم انسانوں تک پہنچنے کی طرف سے حل تلاش کرنا ضروری ہے. ہم انسانوں تک پہنچنے کی طرف سے حل تلاش کرنا ضروری ہے. ہمارے فوجی ، جاسوس ، قانون نافذ کرنے والے حکمت عملی مختصر مدتی حل ہیں. ہمیں لوگوں کو دہشت گردی اور انتہاپسندی کے ترک کرنے پر قائل کرنے کے لئے انسانی حقوق کے طویل المیعاد حل کی بھی ضرورت ہے ۔
Si reconocemos constantemente el terrorismo como un ataque a nuestros derechos humanos universales compartidos, nuestras campañas contra los actos de terror y la ideología extremista del terrorismo podrían tener prioridades más productivas. Al reconocer a las víctimas y demonizar a los criminales terroristas, el argumento de los derechos humanos se pierde demasiado rápido. La policía, el espionaje y las soluciones militares no son las únicas soluciones para hacer frente al terrorismo.
Necesitamos un enfoque basado en los derechos humanos para el rechazo de los actos terroristas y las opiniones extremistas contra los derechos humanos; debemos reconocer tales actos e ideologías terroristas como un ataque a los derechos, la dignidad y la seguridad de todos los seres humanos.
El terrorismo es un ataque a TODOS.
Hay demasiados inidividuales que podrían estar pasivamente de acuerdo con esto, pero no aceptaresto como una verdad, basado en nuestros derechos humanos universales compartidos. La campaña más importante para desafiar el terrorismo comienza reconociendo que nuestros pares realmente merecen derechos humanos compartidos, dignidad, igualdad, pluralismo, privacidad, libertad de conciencia, libertad de expresión, libertad de expresión y seguridad, como Universal Declaración de Derechos Humanos (UDHR) – para todo ser humano.
Cuando aceptamos estos derechos humanos universales, el tribalista considera que algún extremismo anti-derechos es “necesario”, “digno”, o “merecido”, pierde toda credibilidad. No podemos simplemente desafiar las ideologías del terror y actuar sólo para aquellos que son diferentes de nosotros. Debemos desafiar las opiniones terroristas y extremistas detrás de ese terror de todos los grupos de identidad, nacionalidad, reivindicación e ideología política o religiosa.
Rechazar el terrorismo es más que reconocer que “algunas personas hicieron algo”.
El odio y la violencia no son la respuesta.
El 16 de abril de 1963, el líder y pastor afroamericano de los derechos humanos Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. habló famosamente de la causa común al rechazar la injusticia, escrita desde la cárcel en Birmingham, Alabama: “La injusticia en cualquier lugar es una amenaza para la justicia en todas partes”. y el mundo echa de menos el liderazgo de este gran mártir de los derechos humanos. Pero incluso en su muerte, casi cinco años después, el 4 de abril de 1968, se nos enseñó una lección, ya que el Dr. King fue asesinado durante una ola de violencia política. El Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fue un activista por la no violencia. La violencia del terror político puso fin a su vida. Fue una llamada de atención para que el público estadounidense rechazara el terror de la violencia política. Generaciones de estadounidenses todavía necesitan aprender esta lección.
En los Estados Unidos, los estadounidenses expresan con razón su pesar, dolor y su continua indignación por el terrorismo de asesinato en masa el 11 de septiembre de 2001, y seguimos llorando por las víctimas y las familias de ese ataque. También debemos reconocer que Estados Unidos había estado experimentando ataques terroristas de violencia política durante mucho tiempo antes de los ataques del 11 de septiembre de 2001, incluido el asesinato del Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hemos visto y seguimos viendo tales ataques terroristas en todo el mundo. Debemos ser coherentes en nuestra indignación, condena y uso de un enfoque basado en los derechos humanos para desafiar tales actos e ideologías terroristas. Habiendo dado su vida debido a la no violencia en los derechos humanos, seguramente podemos aprender del sacrificio del Dr. King.
Necesitamos un liderazgo que aprenda del mensaje del Dr. King.
Un ataque terrorista en cualquier lugar es un ataque terrorista contra nuestros semejantes en todas partes.
Empecemos con esta fundación.
No sólo como palabras de compasión, sino como verdad real.
No hay un buen terrorismo. No hay terrorismo “aceptable”. No hay terrorismo “merecedor”. No hay terrorismo “justo”. Ninguno. No en ninguna parte. No a nadie.
El hecho histórico lo demuestra como verdad.
Aquellos que pueden haber apoyado los actos de Al-Qaeda, EIIL, talibanes, Al-Shabab, Boko Haram también deben enfrentar la verdad fáctica de cómo tal extremismo terrorista ha sido atacado contra todas las personas, incluidos muchos, muchos musulmanes en todo el mundo.
Aquellos que pueden haber apoyado las acciones de otros extremistas religiosos, que reclamaron razones para sus opiniones retorcidas del cristianismo, el hinduismo, el budismo, el judaísmo, también deben confrontar la verdad fáctica de que estos extremistas terroristas son responsables de asesinatos y crímenes contra otros de sus grupos y otros seres humanos.
Aquellos que pueden haber apoyado actos de supremacismo blanco y terror nazi también deben enfrentar la verdad fáctica de cómo tales terroristas han asesinado a niños blancos, bebés, mujeres, ancianos e individuos indefensos de todo tipo.
Aquellos que pueden haber apoyado el terror nacionalista negro también deben confrontar la verdad fáctica de cómo estos terroristas han asesinado a otros seres humanos negros, dejado a sus familias con viudas y sus hijos como huérfanos.
Aquellos que han apoyado actos de terror anarquista y comunista también deben confrontar la verdad fáctica de cómo tales terroristas han llevado a la muerte de personas inocentes, la muerte y heridas extremas a personas de color, los que luchan en la pobreza y la gente inocente simplemente tratando de vivir sus vidas en paz.
Y la lista sigue y sigue.
Rechacemos categóricamente el concepto de que “terror” puede ser una fuerza para “bueno” y “justicia”.
Pero un enfoque de derechos humanos necesita algo más que saber que el terrorismo está mal. Necesitamos construir un enfoque para luchar contra el terrorismo entre TODOS LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS -donde reconocemos, sin excepción- que el terror es un ataque a TODOS.
Es natural ser rechazado y enojado con criminales terroristas en la destrucción de vidas, hogares y propiedades. Pero para buscar un progreso duradero contra el terrorismo, nuestro compromiso con los derechos humanos, la igualdad, la libertad, la seguridad y la privacidad nos obliga a priorizar el desarrollo de un enfoque basado en los derechos humanos para desafiar el terrorismo en materia de derechos humanos.
NO con el puño levantado, sino con la mano extendida.
Esta es la parte más difícil. Seguramente queremos que nuestros semejantes estén a salvo y que los criminales sean llevados ante la justicia. Pero las tácticas de aplicación de la ley son sólo el paso más pequeño. Necesitamos encontrar una causa común en los derechos humanos universales y el pluralismo para rechazar todas las ideologías del terror. Algunos se remontan al odio de aquellos que fueron por el oscuro camino hacia las ideologías extremistas. Pero las campañas de odio no nos acercan ni un centímetro más a detener el terrorismo o las ideologías del terror. Tenemos que ofrecer una alternativa basada en los derechos humanos.
Por supuesto, nos gustaría que la gente dejara una vida de crimen, que abandonara el apoyo a las bandas criminales, que se reincorporara a una audiencia que depende de la confianza compartida entre sí. Así, por supuesto, también debemos pedir a quienes apoyan las ideologías terroristas extremistas que abandonen una vida que se opone a nuestros derechos humanos compartidos y se unan a la familia de los seres humanos que respetan los derechos y la dignidad universales. Este es el trabajo a largo plazo, el trabajo más difícil, el verdadero desafío para abordar y hacer campaña eficazmente contra el terrorismo y la violencia política.
Nuestras tácticas militares, de espionaje y de aplicación de la ley no hacen este trabajo sustantivo a largo plazo; en el mejor de los casos son un parche a corto plazo en una situación de emergencia. Son sólo tácticas a corto plazo, pero demasiadas han optado por institucionalizar estas tácticas antiterroristas, en lugar de hacer el difícil trabajo estratégico para hacer campaña por el cambio de los derechos humanos contra el terrorismo. Incluso entonces, algunas tácticas militares, de espionaje y policiales (cuando se usan contra los derechos humanos) pueden ser abusadas y pueden volverse contraproducentes. Se ha vuelto tan común en algunos casos que algunos en el público ya no se molestan en indignarse.
Nunca acabaremos con el terror con tácticas de tortura, espionaje intrusivo, socavación de la democracia y fin a la libertad de expresión y debate. No debemos dar victoria a las ideologías del terror abandonando los derechos humanos que debemos utilizar como contraargumento al extremismo del terrorismo. No podemos esperar que las tácticas a corto plazo hagan el trabajo de la estrategia a largo plazo. No podemos abandonar los derechos humanos y los valores democráticos, en la creencia equivocada de que “los fines justifican los medios” de alguna manera mantendráa a nuestros semejantes “seguros”.
Si hemos aprendido algo sobre el terror, hemos aprendido que no hay “puerto seguro” de terror extremista que viva en la mente de individuos atribulados. No hay suficientes barreras, no hay suficientes medidas de seguridad, no hay suficiente policía sin suficiente policía, no hay suficientes militares, no hay suficientes espías, para detener el terror. Cuando abandonamos nuestros valores de derechos humanos en la creencia equivocada, entonces seremos “seguros”, sólo envalentonamos y proporcionamos justificación para las ideologías extremistas utilizadas para racionalizar el terrorismo. No ofrecemos justicia para el robo, ni protección pública a través de tácticas de la policía estatal.
El Dr. King enseñó que no podemos promover la justicia a través de la injusticia nosotros mismos, y que nosotros mismos no podemos poner fin a la violencia a través de la violencia. Si estuviera vivo, también nos diría que no podemos poner fin al terrorismo de derechos humanos con tácticas de derechos humanos nosotros mismos. Nuestro mundo extraña al Dr. King como una voz pública de conciencia. Pero la voz privada de nuestra propia conciencia nos habla en cada una de nuestras propias vidas y mentes. Debemos escuchar nuestra conciencia.
Sabemos que las tácticas de derechos humanos contra el terrorismo pueden socavar la credibilidad para desafiar el terrorismo, cuando depende de la violencia, el abandono de los valores y la corrupción.
Una mano extendida no es un puño levantado. No es necesario que nos digan la dirección de que el puño levantado seguirá tomando nuestras sociedades humanas. Tenemos siglos y siglos de historia registrados en las lecciones de esas tácticas. Aquellos que promueven el terrorismo/violencia política han tratado de continuar las tácticas del puño levantado.
Hemos visto el puño levantado en los ataques terroristas del 11 de septiembre de 2001. Hemos visto el puño levantado en ataques terroristas en todo el mundo por extremistas. Hemos visto el puño levantado en el terror de la violencia política en las calles y asesinatos de líderes de todo el mundo, incluyendo el Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sin embargo, la desgracia del puño levantado todavía no avergonza y avergonza a muchos activistas de la ira, cuyas ilusiones han racionalizado que la violencia “esta vez” contra nuestros semejantes de alguna manera estará justificada, y que “esta vez” será tal vez “fin justifica justifica” los medios.” Sabemos que no hay llamada a “fines justificalos” en nuestra Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, en las leyes de las naciones democráticas y en la conciencia de los seres humanos que buscan igualdad y dignidad de los demás.
También tenemos una historia dolorosa de organizaciones corruptas, que creían que podían desafiar el terror convirtiéndose en como los propios terroristas, creyendo que estaban “por encima de la ley”, hemos visto tristemente a aquellos que creían que tenían el poder y el mandato de atacar a los humanos derechos de aquellos que fueron designados como “enemigos” a voluntad. ¿Y adónde nos lleva esto? ¿Dónde termina esto? Para aquellos cegados por el poder sobre los demás, en el interés de “seguridad”, ¿dónde está la capacidad de saber cuándo “demasiado lejos” se han ido? A los cegados por una causa que “los fines justifican los medios”, los únicos que engañan son ellos mismos. Estas personas, organizaciones e instituciones comprometidas con los derechos humanos universales entienden las matemáticas éticas más básicas que están equivocadas. Dos errores nunca equivalen a un “derecho”.
Cuando nos permitimos segmentar los grupos tribales y de identidad sobre el terrorismo, somos conscientemente ciegos a entender el problema global del terrorismo. Gran parte de los principales medios de comunicación ya no informan sobre el terrorismo global como un problema, especialmente cuando el terrorismo tiene lugar en Irak, Siria, Afganistán, Pakistán, Nigeria, Somalia, etc. Imagínese si los medios occidentales tuvieran un nivel de indignación por el asesinato en masa de otros seres humanos en esas naciones, que está reservado sólo para el debate político febril o el último comentario de una figura de celebridad. El terrorismo es erróneo independientemente de su raza, nacionalidad, religión, etnia o etnia.
En 2018, el grupo terrorista talibán fue responsable de 1.751 víctimas civiles en 2018 en Afganistán, según un informe de 24 de febrero de 2019 de la Misión de Asistencia de las Naciones Unidas en Afganistán (UNAMA). Las decenas de miles de civiles afganos, abrumadoramente conciudadanos musulmanes, masacrados por los talibanes en los últimos 10-20 años deberían escalonar la conciencia del mundo. Pero los medios occidentales siguen refiriendo a los terroristas talibanes como “militantes”, y las figuras políticas bipartidistas tratan de ganarse su favor, sin comprometer nuestros derechos humanos universales compartidos. El desafío a los grupos e ideologías terroristas debe comenzar con un llamado al cambio basado en los derechos humanos.
Pero menos de un año antes de este informe (durante 2018), nos enteramos de una organización policial en los Estados Unidos de América que estaba financiando a un defensor del grupo terrorista talibán. En el Tribunal Federal de Distrito de los Estados Unidos en Orlando, Florida, el 26 de marzo de 2018, el FBI testificó en la corte federal sobre uno de sus informantes pagados, el Sr. Seddique Mateen (Caso 6:17-cr-00018-PGB-KRS). El agente especial del FBI Juvenal Martin testificó en la corte federal que el Sr. Mateen fue un informante pagado del FBI durante 11 años; El Sr. Mateen también fue un promotor activo y agresivo del grupo terrorista talibán, promoviendo videos internacionales en apoyo de los terroristas talibanes en Afganistán. Nos enteramos de las actividades del Sr. Mateen y su papel como informante pagado del FBI convertido a la corte, debido a las investigaciones públicas en curso relacionadas con su hijo, Omar Mateen. El 12 de junio de 2016, Omar Mateen lideró un ataque terrorista inspirado en EIIL en el club nocturno Pulse en Orlando, Florida, matando a 49 e hiriendo a 53 estadounidenses. Durante el juicio de la Corte Federal de Orlando en marzo de 2018, también nos enteramos de que el FBI trató de reclutar a Omar Mateen como un informante pagado.
Nadie fue despedido. Nadie fue criticado. Nadie asumió la responsabilidad. La historia fue enterrada en los medios de comunicación de los Estados Unidos, y fuera de Orlando, la mayoría de los estadounidenses nunca lo saben. Puede ser preocupante descubrir que a muchos no les importa, y a muchos no ven nada malo en esto.
“Los fines justifican los medios” simplemente no funcionan en los esfuerzos a largo plazo para desafiar el terrorismo. El camino hacia los “fines justifica los medios” en última instancia se convierte en el camino del arrepentimiento y la desgracia.
Los estándares dobles no son estándares.
No podemos desafiar eficazmente el terrorismo y el extremismo ideológico detrás del terrorismo sin reglas coherentes basadas en los derechos humanos.
Sólo una estrategia basada en los derechos humanos para desafiar el terrorismo puede apoyar los valores consistentes que necesitamos “un ataque terrorista en cualquier lugar para ser un ataque terrorista contra nuestros semejantes en todas partes”.
Como el Dr. King declaró, “Estamos atrapados en una red ineludible de mutualidad, atado en una sola prenda del destino. Lo que afecta directamente a uno afecta indirectamente a todos.
El mundo ha invertido miles de millones y miles de millones de dólares y esfuerzo en tácticas militares, de espionaje y de aplicación de la ley para luchar contra el terrorismo. Es hora de comprometerse a convertirse en un nuevo compromiso nacional e internacional para encontrar normas universales compartidas de derechos humanos de terreno común, coherencia y credibilidad para que otros seres humanos desafien las ideologías y los actos de terrorismo, que son ataques contra todos nosotros.
In a growing pattern of extremist activity in Pakistan, Pakistan Christian minorities were once again the targets of terrorist violence in Balochistan’s Quetta and a fire in Punjab’s Lahore on Sunday, April 15, 2018.
In Quetta, a terrorist attack on Pakistan Christian minorities targeted individuals leaving Christian church services in the Quetta neighborhood of Essa Nagri area. The terrorists used motorbikes to drive up and gun down Christians after church services. DIG Quetta Abdur Razzaq Cheema reported that the terrorists managed to flee the scene after the attack. Two Christian minorities, Rashid Khalid and Azhar Iqbal, have reported killed as a result of the terror attack, and at least five are reported injured. Police officer Javed Ahmed told the Associated Press that a young girl was among the wounded and that two others were in critical condition at a hospital.
The Quetta area is known to have a significant concentration of the Pakistan Christian minorities, and has been a target of terror attacks in the past, including repeated terror attacks by the ISIS terrorist movement on Pakistan Christian minorities, most recently on April 2, 2018 (the day after Easter) and on December 17, 2017 (the Sunday before Christmas). As the Pakistan Dawn media reports, the continuing practice of terror attacks on Christian minorities is growing in Pakistan.
On the day after Easter, on Monday April 2, 2018, ISIS terrorists targeted Pakistan Christian minorities in Quetta killing four Christians in a rickshaw in a similar motorbike terror attack; the April 2 terror attack resulted in the murder of a total of seven individuals, including shooting of a 12 year old girl.
April 2, 2018 – ISIS Terrorist Attack on Pakistan Christians – Quetta
Quetta’s Christian minorities were also the target of an ISIS terrorist attack in December 17, 2017 with 9 murdered and 30 injured by a terrorist bomb attack on the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church on Quetta’s Zarghoon Road.
December 17, 2017 – ISIS Terror Attack on Pakistan Christian Church – Quetta
————
In the Shahdara area of Lahore, R.E.A.L. has also received multiple reports of a fire at a Christian minority church under contruction in an area to be developed for the Gospel Jesus Mission Ministry. Reports state that a tent was torched. The incident remains under investigation, but reportedly no First Incident Report has yet been registered by the Punjab Police.
In addition, Lahore has been the scene of a growing extremist movement by the Tehreek-i-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYRA) and its Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) supporters. As R.E.A.L. reported in November 2017, these extremist movements sought to disrupt public activities in Lahore, Quetta, Islamabad and throughout Pakistan, including violent attacks on the police, and ultimately a SURRENDER by the Pakistan authorities.
Extremist Group Tehreek-i-Labaik Violent Attacks and Disruption Across Pakistan – November 2017
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) extends its condolences and prayers for the victims and loved ones of yet another horrific act of terrorism. Terrorism is an attack on the shared Universal Human Rights of all of our fellow human beings, and is assault on the Universal Human Rights of all people. We must all reject terrorism and the extremist ideolodgies and promoting such terror anywhere in the world.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has been reporting on threats to human rights and security of people persecuted by the totalitarian North Korea government, as well as the world conflicts impacted by the North Korea security threats. A key issue that is not getting recognition, however, was a catastrophic terror threat by North Korea, which is threat not only to its people, the region, and the United States, but is also a catastrophic terror threat to the world. To those unfamiliar with R.E.A.L.’s mission, R.E.A.L. represents non-partisan, non-political, human rights activist volunteers with a focus on defending our shared universal human rights, including the human right of security. Among other topics, R.E.A.L. routinely has reported on terror threats to the shared human rights of our fellow human beings. While R.E.A.L continues to urge Communist North Korea to seek peace, North Korea’s terror threats must also be acknowledged and rejected by responsible nations and people of the world.
For decades, Communist North Korea has threatened its neighbors and the world from its isolated totalitarian state, which has been known largely for well-documented “crimes against humanity” against its own citizens. Much of the world got used to ignoring and dismissing such threats. But on September 3, 2017, the North Korea’s thermonuclear bomb test demonstrated substantially increased nuclear bomb capability, with estimations in the possible bomb yield ranging from 120 kilotonsto250 kilotons. It has greatly concerned many in the public and the world. As a result of that bomb testing, the world’s focus has mostly been on the ability of North Korea to use a thermonuclear bomb for a surface blast to kill many thousands of people in a concentrated area, with fallout affecting others based on the wind direction; it is a grave concern to those committed to global human rights and security.
Along with its expanded nuclear bomb capability on September 3, North Korea also gained another first – by announcing itself as the first nation threatening, capable, and likely willing to use a high altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) bomb. As part of the September 3, North Korea state news (KCNA) report (screenshot) of its nuclear bomb test entitled “Kim Jong Un Gives Guidance to Nuclear Weaponization,” North Korea stated that it is willing to use its enhanced nuclear bomb capability to produce a high altitude Electromagnetic Pulse blast (EMP, also abbreviated as HEMP). North Korea used KCNA to state: “The H-bomb, the explosive power of which is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds kiloton, is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even a high altitude for super-powerful EMP attack according to strategic goals.”
North Korea’s high altitude “super-powerful” EMP threat is the same type of catastrophic, massive terror threat, as those threatening to poison food and water supplies, spread biological or chemical weapons, in areas which not only could go beyond cities, states, but even across borders. This is the main part of the security issue, which keeps getting buried in details on missiles, ships, timelines, and personalities. The September 3 North Korea boast of a “super-powerful” EMP threat was nothing less than a catastrophic terrorist threat against the world. We must recognize catastrophic terror threats as unacceptable threats against our shared universal human rights and security.
Can you imagine a nation-state proudly issuing a public press release about its new “super-powerful” ability to poison food and water supplies, to spread weaponized airborne versions of smallpox, plague, anthrax, or to release cyanide, ricin, chlorine chemical gas to poison many people? The sane world would rightfully condemn such a statement by any nation with horror and outrage. But North Korea’s terror threat statement of being willing to release a high altitude EMP weapon on the world was largely met with indifference by the world’s media, and politicians demanding that other nations be more understanding in respecting North Korea. Would pundits have made the same statements if the press release with EMP terror threat had been issued by ISIS, rather than North Korea? Would anyone really expect to be able to effectively negotiate with leaders that seek to boast about the ability to commit such mass terror attacks on the world?
The concept of a high altitude EMP blast would be to shoot a nuclear missile high up into the atmosphere and detonate it there; for this purpose, high altitude is defined as 40 to 500 kilometers (20 to 300 miles) above the Earth’s surface. The high altitude nuclear explosion would not have the physical destructive impact of a nuclear bomb surface blast, nor would it have any “fallout” (which comes from radioactive soil after a surface blast). But the high altitude nuclear explosion would send out a series of electromagnetic pulse broadband, high amplitude waves (invisible like radio waves) that would damage or destroy the electrical infrastructure, wiring, and electronic devices over a broad area. The EMP blast has three types of signals, as I will summarize based on a description by scientist Dr. Jack Liu. The first would be an E1 signal that is extremely fast, created by the nuclear blast’s gamma radiation ripping electrons out of the atmosphere, sending them down to Earth at nearly the speed of light, and impacted by the Earth’s magnetic field to create an electromagnetic pulse over a broad area. The second would be an E2 signal, created by gamma and neutron collisions, which would have an impact similar to lightning. The third would be an E3 signal lasting up to hundreds of seconds, creating impacts like a geomagnetic storm, that would impact major long line electrical conductors, and other electrical infrastructure.
A high altitude EMP bomb would likely destroy the electrical infrastructure used for the survival and lives by many, many millions of people, including crippling the infrastructure of a population not only in a local target area, but across a regional or national area, and even possibly across multiple national borders, depending on where it was launched. Many EMP analyses also believe that high altitude EMP pulses at the E1 level would also damage wiring and miniaturized Integrated Circuits (ICs). ICs are small square flat pieces of semiconductor material, typical silicon, on which thousand or millions tiny resistors, capacitors, and transistors are “integrated.” This technological innovation allowed massive change in the way the public lives and functions, as this miniaturization revolution allowed computer and electronics to become part of nearly every area of life. To provide context on such miniaturization, the original computer, ENIAC, was the size of three or four double decker buses and was thousands of times less powerful than a laptop computer today.
This IC revolution allowed most of the technology changes that are not only part of modern society, but more importantly, modern society has become dependent on to effectively function. People are dependent on ICs every day, but since they rarely actually see them inside their electronics, television, radio, automobiles, telephones, banking systems, even many public toilets and sinks, they never think about them, but simply take for granted that they will work. A high altitude EMP blast, as proudly threatened by North Korea, would change that. ICs are ubiquitously used in mobile telephones, computers, and many other forms of electronics. But electrical infrastructure and personal electronics are the tip of the iceberg in the extensive use of ICs throughout society in the 21st century. Such electronics and ICs are widely integrated within every aspect of society: medicine, banks and financial institutions, farms and food stores, retail services, utilities, public transportation, emergency services, law enforcement, sanitation. The vast use of ICs as part of modernization in the 21st century comes with one very specific weak spot, such electronics and ICs are particularly vulnerable to high altitude EMP blasts.
Numerous studies and Congressional testimony has been provided on the such EMP threats to the U.S. Government over the past 30+ years. Many of the early studies were done using data gathered from 1950s, 1960s nuclear bomb tests in secluded or ocean areas, during a time when electronic and communication systems did not have the ICs in widespread use, as they are today. (The first patent for an IC was not granted until 1961.) So much of the “EMP testing” that we have is either based on world electrical and electronic environments that were significantly different, or in controlled laboratory environments that can only simulate a very finite range of possibilities. So we have different scientists that have come up with a range of testimony and findings on high altitude EMP attacks and the impact on society. There is a good deal of classified research on this topic, which unfortunately is not available to the public; R.E.A.L. urges the U.S. government to reconsider the impact of such level of classification and the need to inform the public on such catastrophic threats. However, I have collected the unclassified, public source testimony and studies presented on this topic. They are gathered at: http://www.emergencysafety.org/emp-research-and-testimony/
Consistently, most scientists believe that a high altitude nuclear blast in the atmosphere would release damaging EMP pulse waves that would impact and destroy wiring, electrical infrastructure, and many “personal electronic” devices. There is some debate over whether and to what extent, an EMP blast would impact automobiles, airplanes, and vehicles, and whether their electronics have enough “shielding” to prevent EMP pulse waves damaging them. Most scientists I have read believe there will be impact of a high altitude nuclear blast on transportation electronic systems. But should a high altitude EMP blast affect transportation systems, we can be certain there will be significant public disruption and conflict.
Given the difficulty in seeking to “replicate” such a dangerous threat to society, with a high altitude nuclear bomb with gamma rays ripping electrons out of the atmosphere and impacted by the magnetic field of the Earth, there is only so much testing (and so much “proof”) that can actually be done to completely understand the full affects. The extreme danger of such atmospheric testing is some of the EMP scientific analyses has to be done by scientific modeling. We have results of an actual 1962 high altitutde nuclear blast atmospheric test (Starfish Prime test) that discovered it could create EMP impacts as far as over 800 miles away in that test, with an impact that “drove much of the instrumentation off scale.” But even in 1962, at the early days of the IC technology just receiving a patent, a high altitude EMP test over the middle of the ocean impacted electrical systems, telecommunication systems, aircraft radios, and utilities over 800 miles away. Lowell Wood, a physicist and expert on EMP at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told Congress in 1999 (October 7, 1999: “EMP Threats to the U.S. Military and Civilian Infrastructure”) that: “Most fortunately, these tests took place over Johnston Island in the mid-Pacific rather than the Nevada Test Site, or the electromagnetic pulse would still be indelibly imprinted in the minds of the citizenry of the western U.S., as well as in the history books.” “As it was, significant damage was done to both civilian and military electrical systems throughout the Hawaiian Islands, over 800 miles away from ground zero.”
A high altitude EMP blast is very different from a low altitude, microwave-based EMP attacks. In 2008, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported on both High Altitude EMP (HEMP) attacks, and what were considered to be more “likely,” terrorists using surface level, low altitude microwave based devices to create a localized EMP affect. The low altitude microwave-based EMP attack is to create a local disruption, and vehicles are not likely to be affected by such EMP attacks, and the power and strength of a High Power Microwave (HPM) EMP attack is not as powerful as a high altitude EMP (HEMP) attack. In terms of this specific threat from North Korea, unfortunately, most of the limited preparedness efforts have been focused on recovering from a ground level microwave attack, rather than a high altitude EMP blast affecting a wide area.
The affected area of a high altitude EMP blast differs among scientists, and as previously stated, most of the research on this is classified, so there is only a limited amount of public information available as unclassified for the public. According to a 1983 study done by D. Hafemeister (California Polytechnic University), as referenced by MIT’s Dr. Jack Liu in May 2017, the larger the nuclear explosion, the greater the affected area. Dr. Liu then estimated that a high altitude EMP blast at an “optimum height” would result in a correlation of blast yield to area covered, with a 250 kiloton blast covering a radius of 250 km (155 miles) and 1 megaton blast (currently not demonstrated as being part of North Korea’s capabilities) covering a radius of 1,000 km (621 miles). This would likely be the most “conservative” estimate. Based on my review of Hafemeister’s study, I believe he intended the optimum height to be 300 miles/500 km.
If you look at the details of D. Hafemeister’s 1983 EMP study, however, Hafemeister also estimated that a high altitude EMP blast at 310 miles (500 km) in the atmosphere over the United States would affect the entire nation, and at 155 miles (250 km) in the atmosphere would affect half of the U.S. As with much of the unclassified reports on such EMP research, the public is provided the minimum detail; based on this, it appear that Hafemeister estimated this based on use of a 1 megaton nuclear blast. Dr. Liu does not mention this part of D. Hafemeister’s study in his analysis of potential EMP threat.
The March 26, 2008 Congressional Research Service (CRS) study (Order Code RL32544) on High Altitude EMP blast impacts has a more dire prediction in terms of a footprint of a high altitude EMP blast. On page 6, Figure 1 of this 2008 CRS study “Estimated Area Affected by High-Altitude EMP,” it provides an impact map from a 1997 Congressional EMP study stating that a blast at 30 miles in the atmosphere would affect a radius of 480 miles, at 120 miles in the atmosphere would affect a radius of 1,000 miles, and at 300 miles (500 kilometers) in the atmosphere would affect a radius of 1,470 miles. This CRS figure refers to 1997 Congressional public, unclassified testimony provided by Dr. Gary L. Smith, Director, Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Johns Hopkins University, on the topic “Threat Posed by Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) to U.S. Military Systems and Civil Infrastructure.” Based on Dr. Smith’s analysis, high altitude EMP blasts in the center of the U.S., could not only affect an extended part of the U.S., and concluded in his 1997 testimony on EMP “that a burst on the order of 500 kilometers [310 miles] in altitude can cover the entire continental United States.” Notably, Dr. Smith also testified that the EMP threat was “not terribly burst-strength dependent.” Dr. George W. Ullrich, Deputy Director, Defense Special Weapons Agency, provided similar views in his 1997 testimony on EMP threats: ” For example, if a megaton class weapon were to be detonated 400 kilometers [248 miles] above Omaha, nearly the entire contiguous 48 States would be affected with potentially damaging EMP experience from Boston to Los Angeles, from Chicago to New Orleans.” In terms of EMP blast yield, to the extent it may be found to be consistent with nuclear blast “yield” (scientists do not agree on this), it is notable that current nuclear bomb test studies indicate that North Korea “only” has achieved nuclear bomb capability of 120 kiloton to the latest estimate of 250 kiltons, not yet 1 megaton (MT) thus far. (However, new intelligence relayed to the public in October 2017 indicates that such estimates may be underestimating the EMP threat, due to new “Super-EMP warheads.”)
As shown in the impact study graphic included in the 2008 CRS study using Dr. Smith’s 1997 testimony, such a high altitude EMP blast could also impact most of Canada and Mexico as well as the United States, with the maximum coverage in that analysis being 1,470 miles (2365 kilometers). Based on this study and scientific analysis, such a blast over Nebraska, U.S., with a coverage range of 1,470 miles, could reach from Mexico City, Mexico into the Canadian Northwest Territories.
United Kingdom-based London Center for Public Policy Research and other researchers have published similar dramatic 1,470 mile high altitude EMP impact assessments. If Dr. Smith, Dr. Ulhrich, and others assessing potential distance of a high altitude EMP blast impact are correct, what would be the impact of a 1,470 mile (2365 kilometers) coverage area be around the world? The world media frequently forgets the large geographic size of the United States; the analysis of 1,470 mile potential coverage of a high altitude EMP blast is more than a regional or national threat, but represents a global terror threat.
While many write about such studies and their impact on the United States, such a global threat would similarly impact any other part of the world. To provide context of such a global threat, I have provided impact, using the 1,470 (2365 km) coverage estimate described by numerous scientists of a high-altitude EMP burst at 300 mile above the Earth. Based on such a 1,470 mile EMP impact area assessment, such a high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Berlin, Germany would impact ALL of Western Europe, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Germany, Austria, Belarus, Ukraine, Romaina, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, all the way to Iceland, and across the Mediterranean Sea into Africa (Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco). Such a 1,470 mile high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Karchi, Pakistan would impact from Bangladesh to most of Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the Arabian Sea, from Kazakhstan to Sri Lanka. Such a 1,470 mile high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Beijing, China, would impact much of Asia, from parts of Russia to Myanmar, Taiwan, North and South Korea, and Japan. Such a 1,470 mile high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Moscow, Russia, would impact Russia and much of Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Modova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and most of Europe including, the northern regions of Norway, Sweden to the southern parts of Greece and Italy, reaching France and the border of the United Kingdom, and south beyond Turkey into Syria. Similar results would be found with a blast over Bangkok impacting much of Asia, reaching from China to Jakarta, Indonesia, and with a blast over Niger, Africa, impacting much of North Africa from Gabon, Congo, Sudan, reaching north into the Mediterranean Sea all the way to Malta, and from Egypt through most of the Western Sahara.
These calculations and assessment by Dr. Smith, Dr. Ulhrich, and others, are part of a range of scientific assessments. Yet even the most “conservative” assessments, such as Dr. Jack Liu’s interpretation of D. Hafemeister’s 1983 EMP study, also would demonstrate a catastrophic impact at any part of the world targeted by such a high altitude EMP blast. Based on Dr. Liu’s assessment, a 250 kiloton high altitude nuclear blast would have an EMP affect over 250 kilometers, or 155 miles. This too shows an international impact of high altitude EMP blasts, while not as far reaching in sheer miles, still impacting many millions of people across cities, states, and even across borders of different nations.
Based on such a 155 mile EMP (250 km) impact area assessment, such a high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Dunkirk, France would impact most of France, Belgium, Netherlands, and a significant part of the United Kingdom across the English Channel, including major cities of Paris, London, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Amsterdam affecting a combined population of over 28.9 million people. Such a 155 mile high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above Reading, Pennsylvania (USA) would impact Washington DC, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, MD, Atlantic City, NJ, Connecticut, and Delaware, all the way north to Ithaca, New York, affecting a combined population of over 32 million people. Such a 155 mile high altitude EMP blast coverage centered above slightly east of Beijing, China would impact major Chinese population centers, including Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Langfang, Tianjin, Cangzhou, Baoding, Hengshui, affecting a combined population of over 73.9 million people. Any one of these single EMP attacks would affect more than the entire population of North Korea (25 million).
Regardless of the scientific study, analysis, or modeling used, the basic conclusions of a high altitude EMP blast, as boasted by North Korea on September 3, 2017, remains the same: the resulting impact would be a catastrophic terror attack on our fellow human beings – anywhere in the world. The world must denounce the terror threat and contempt for human life shown by North Korea in its threat against humanity.
North Korea’s September 3, 2017 high altitude EMP blast terror threat is not simply a threat to its regional neighbors or the United States – it is a catastrophic terror threat against the WORLD.
The concept of state-based, transborder, truly “catastrophic terror” threats remains an ongoing struggle to understand and appreciate in security, military, and human rights organizations and the public. The public hears little discussion or education on such challenges, and the concept of “catastrophic terror” is not part of most of public’s consideration of geopolitical, security, and human rights issues. The public is used to relatively contained terror threats that are bound to very limited areas, certainly no larger than a city or cities (with multiple attacks) at the worst. The concept of catastrophic terror threats, impacting multiple cities, large widespread areas, are typically the worst-case views of Chemical, Biological, Nuclear, and Radiological (CBRN) analysts, seeking to plan for ways to prevent, stop, or contain airborne threats for a regional area, which thus far, the world has seen few examples of truly catastrophic terror. The primary concern thus far in such planning has been for biological and radiological (e.g., “dirty bomb”) weapons.
What these CBRN security planners have to address catastrophic terror threats in these circumstances that you typically would not have in a high altitude EMP catastrophic terror attack is TIME. With radiological weapons, radiation sensors would detect changes in atmosphere and allow alerts for the public to go inside within minutes and find areas of protection. With biological weapons, spreading sickness provides a physical alert of time, and biological detection devices again provide the public with a margin of safety for containment and control.
High altitude EMP blast waves travel at nearly the speed of LIGHT. A missile can reach from North Korea even to the remote United States within 30 minutes (or less). By the time, it is understood that it is an EMP blast, it will be too late, the EMP damage will be done nearly instantly, as the EMP waves travel at the nearly the speed of light and would affect the targeted area almost immediately. The luxury of TIME that is provided with most other catastrophic terror attacks is readily not provided in an EMP attack, and the nature of an EMP attack is such that it would shut down and prevent methods for any communication or warning nearly instantly after the EMP blast. It is a uniquely difficult catastrophic terror threat to manage, and its global threat anywhere in the world must not underestimated.
In his 1997 testimony, APL Director Dr. Smith stated: “The EMP threat is unique in two respects. First, its peak field amplitude and rise rate are high. These quantities depend upon the rate of rise and the energy of the gamma ray output of the weapon. These features of EMP will induce potentially damaging voltages and currents in unprotected electronic circuits and components. Second, the area covered by an EMP signal can be immense. As a consequence, large portions of extended power and communications networks, for example, can simultaneously be put at risk. Such far-reaching effects are peculiar to EMP. Neither natural phenomena nor any other nuclear weapon effects are so widespread.” Dr. Smith also estimated that the EMP blast’s electric field would be “on the order of 50 kilovolts per meter with a rise time on the order of 10 nanoseconds and a decay time to half maximum of about 200 nanoseconds” (50,000 volts per meter) which is double the 25,000 volts per meter in D. Hafemeister’s 1983 study, referenced by Dr. Jack Liu and others.
On October 12, 2017, the U.S. Congress received new unclassified testimony that indicated that North Korea had obtained “Super-EMP” nuclear warheads with the capability with four times the EMP blast’s electric field as estimated by California Polytech’s D. Hafemeister, and double the EMP blast’s electric field as estimated by APL’s Dr. Smith, with the capability of an EMP blast electric field of 100,000 volts per meter. Such new intelligence publicly provided to the U.S. Congress in October 2017, indicates that North Korea has obtained so-called “Super-EMP” nuclear warheads, designed to maximize a high level of gamma rays to generate EMP E1 pulses which would arrive over a target area at nearly the speed of light. This breakthrough may make previous EMP threat studies obsolete, as they were based on studies of nuclear EMP affects many decades ago, not the current EMP capabilities, that we now know that North Korea has today. According to such new intelligence, the North Korea “Super-EMP” nuclear warheads have EMP capabilities of “over 100,000 volts per meter.”
On October 12, 2017, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former Chief of Staff of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) [aka “EMP Commission”], described a different threat challenge altogether. According to Dr. Pry, U.S. intelligence had learned that North Korea had obtained “Super-EMP warhead[s], capable of generating high intensity EMP fields over 100,000 volts per meter.” According to Dr. Pry’s October 12, 2017 testimony, “In 2004, two Russian generals, both EMP experts, warned the EMP Commission that the design for Russia’s Super-EMP warhead, capable of generating high intensity EMP fields over 100,000 volts per meter, was ‘accidentally’ transferred to North Korea. They also said that due to ‘brain drain,’ Russian scientists were in North Korea, as were Chinese and Pakistani scientists according to the Russians, helping with the North’s missile and nuclear weapon programs. In 2009, South Korean military intelligence told their press that Russian scientists are in North Korea helping develop an EMP nuclear weapon. In 2013, a Chinese military commentator stated North Korea has Super-EMP nuclear weapons.” “Super-EMP weapons are low-yield and designed to produce not a big kinetic explosion, but rather a high level of gamma rays, which generates the high-frequency E1 EMP that is most damaging to the broadest range of electronics. North Korean nuclear tests, including the first in 2006, whose occurrence was predicted to the EMP Commission two years in advance by the two Russian EMP experts, mostly have yields consistent with the size of a Super-EMP weapon. The Russian generals’ accurate prediction about when North Korea would perform its first nuclear test, and of a yield consistent with a Super-EMP weapon, indicates their warning about a North Korean Super-EMP weapon should be taken very seriously.”
One of the challenges in effective reporting on this terrorist threat remains the minimization of such a risk, based on years of counterterrorism thinking on this from a low altitude, microwaved-based EMP threat, or the years of “Cold War” era dismissal of this from the U.S.S.R., based on an agreed upon policy of mature government command and control resources on why we would reject “mutually assured destruction.”
So the terrorist threat of a high altitude EMP blast from a “rogue” nuclear nation has not really been taken very seriously, as the potential actors who might perform such an attack either did not have anything close the capability of this, or had a mature enough military infrastructure to respect the consequences.
So the high altitude EMP blast threat has not been taken seriously until now with the isolated, totalitarian nation of North Korea. Yet even today, a number of factors prevents the public from fully appreciating the terror threat that North Korea represents not only to the region and to the U.S., but to the world.
Thus far, the inability for the public to take this North Korea terror threat seriously is compounded by a number of factors: (1) an unwarranted belief that North Korea does not have significant missile launch capability, (2) an overconfidence that we can consistently eliminate missile threats from North Korea and that North Korea’s ability to target specific cities with a nuclear missile is limited, (3) political partisan personalities viewed as the “real threat” rather than the North Korea years of determination to develop weapons capabilities across many U.S. administrations, (4) the failure to understand that North Korea plans to not only survive a nuclear exchange but win it, (5) the denial that there is “no proof” that an EMP blast will affect electric infrastructure and electronics, and (6) the failure to understand that North Korea’s threat, especially its EMP terror threat is not only a threat to the U.S., but to the world.
Underestimation of North Korea Weapons Capability. The belief that North Korea does not have significant missile launch capability is grounded in Western arrogance and largely disrespect for the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as well as some degree of unstated racist views towards North Koreans as “backwards.” Such denial of North Korea weapons capability has increasingly been shown to ignore or be behind publicly demonstrated facts, and a high altitude EMP blast 300 miles in the atmosphere doesn’t sound so impossible when one considers that North Korea launched a missile 2,300 miles into the atmosphere just three months ago. On July 28, 2017, North Korea fired an ICBM missile (Hwasong-14) at an elevated trajectory of 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles) high and for a distance of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles). On a flatter, standard trajectory, this missile would have traveled along a significantly broader distance, up to 10,400 kilometers (6,500 miles), and some analysts believe North Korea is currently building capability for missile strike of 11,700 kilometers (7,250 miles). Based on a standard trajectory of such a distance, this would have given North Korea the capability to hit deep within the mainland U.S. For context, from a fixed launch made within the North Korea soil, a launch of a missile reaching 6,500 miles could target Chicago, while a missile reaching 7,250 miles could readily target anywhere on the East Coast, including Washington DC (6,850 mi), NYC (6,750 mi), and Boston (6,700 mi). The July launch basically provided evidence that North Korea was only about 200-300 miles away in terms of missile technology of a direct strike on the United States East Coast. It should be noted than on May 2017, two months before the July missile launch, there was still a widely believed perception that North Korea’s missile capability could only reach to a distance of 3,000 miles. Furthermore, also as of May 2017, experts on North Korea were still reporting that North Korea’s nuclear bomb capability was only 20 kilotons and assessing threats based on this dramatically outdated intelligence, but by September 3, this was re-assessed as 120 kilotons and shortly thereafter as 250 kilotons. The North Korea experts have repeatedly underestimated North Korea’s weapons capabilities.
On October 20, 2017, the CIA Director Mike Pompeo warned that North Korea is on the cusp of being able to hit the U.S. with a nuclear missile. He stated “They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a U.S. policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving.” “We are not out of time… But we are running out of time.” NK News reported that he remarked “U.S. intelligence on the progress of Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile development was imprecise, he stipulated, saying that ‘when you’re now talking about months, our capacity to understand that at a detailed level is in some sense irrelevant’.” North Korea has demonstrated the ability to have missile launches at high altitudes over land masses; the North Korea September 15, 2017 missile launch over the Japanese island of Hokkaido, was reported as 475 miles in the atmosphere (770 kilometers) over Japan at the apogee of its flight path. Another limitation that the U.S. has on the missile challenge is the belief that North Korea’s mobile missile launching capability is only limited to launches from its mainland, when it has been continuing to improve and test on Submarine Based Launch Missiles (SBLM) for a long time, with a fleet of a reported 60 submarines. Too many in the U.S. are overconfident that only land-launched North Korea missiles can be easily targeted by U.S. missile intercept defenses, with the assumption that North Korea can only launch high altitude missiles over Guam towards the U.S., and that our intercept defenses can be sufficient to deal with a cluster of missiles that could be launched with a nuclear and/or nuclear EMP missile within a missile cluster. Individuals interviewed in defense roles continue to state that they believe the North Korea still has a significant amount of development yet to complete in missile guidance and re-entry capability. This confidence does not take into consideration that for a high-altitude EMP missile, re-entry and missile guidance for pinpoint surface attacks are not a necessity.
Missile Defense and Complex, Catastrophic Terror Threat. Given the vast expenditures in missile defense systems, Americans certainly do seek to have confidence in their effectiveness in stopping missiles launched at the United States. However, that confidence should also be based on an understanding of what such defense systems actually do. Shipboard Aegis systems are designed to target specific types of missiles, and are designed to defend thousands of square kilometers. However, to be able to shoot down a missile such as the one launched by North Korea on September 15, 2017 over Japan with an apogee of 475 miles in the atmosphere, a U.S. ship with a Aegis missile defense would need to be virtually in North Korea waters and would have to be ready to strike nearly instantly with the short 1-to-2 minute timeframe to “chase” such a missile in the air at such altitudes. THAAD and Patriot missile defenses are designed for missiles coming down, in the post-mid-course or terminal phases. So essentially other than planning to have perfect readiness and success with Aegis, the U.S. missile defense is largely dependent on the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) interceptors based in Alaska and California. In July 2017, the Washington Post reported that Pentagon’s leading weapons tester, the Directorate of Operational Test and Evaluation, found that in staged tests, the GMD system took out test missile in 10 out of 17 tests, and a recent CBS “60 minutes” interview suggested that the GMD interceptor system was showing a “55 percent success rate” in terms of its defensive capabilities. Most importantly, to understand in the case of the North Korea EMP threat, the missile needs only to explode in the atmosphere. It does not have to have “re-entry” capability like other nuclear surface missiles, nor does it need to have a precision “targeting” system to hit a specific targeted city.
Politics and the Actual North Korea Threat. We know from history that terrorist violence against the public impacts people from every political viewpoint, which is why it is essential that terror threats be impartially assessed based on public safety issues, not political concerns or partisan views. In the politically charged atmosphere of the United States, political partisans (and particularly the U.S. political media) are more focused on U.S. President Trump than on the ongoing North Korea terrorist threat situation. The reality is that the North Korea terror threat will exist no matter who is in public office in the U.S., and it is a threat that has been building for many decades across multiple administrations controlled by different political parties. There are those who are more interested in proving President Trump is “wrong” on anything as their real priority, rather than objectively assessing the situation that has been developing for a long time with North Korea, including a nuclear bomb and missile tests during President Obama’s administration. On November 4, 2017, New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof wrote: “Trump didn’t create the problem, and it’s real: We should fear North Korea’s gaining the capacity to destroy U.S. cities. Eerily, on my last visit, North Koreans repeatedly said that a nuclear war with the U.S. was not only survivable but winnable.” Mr. Kristof is neither a fan of President Trump, nor is he “conservative.” But in a charged political world, there is reality that some facts actually exist as facts, regardless of one’s political viewpoints. North Korea has been working to develop such aggressive weapons capabilities for a long-time, including working with Pakistan nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan, which Mr. Khan admitted to in 2004, and which began as early as 1993. North Korea did not simply begin its nuclear bomb ambitions in 2017 after President Trump took office, but has been actively involved in seeking to develop nuclear bombs for decades. These historical facts are conveniently forgotten by the U.S. political media when reporting on the North Korea’s nuclear bomb and ICBM breakthroughs in 2017, as if these are “sudden” advancements, rather than the achievements of decades of work, testing, and determination by North Korea. The idea that North Korea could threaten not only nuclear bomb attacks, but also a high altitude EMP threat, which could impact a much larger segment of the world, and the focus remains primarily on the U.S. administration, demonstrates how significantly the U.S. media is failing to recognize the very real and serious security and human rights threat that North Korea presents to the world.
North Korea Confidence in Winning Nuclear Exchange. Multiple U.S. media figures have interviewed North Korea government leaders with astonishment over the North Korea lack of concern, even confidence, in a nuclear war with the United States. The message that Americans are failing to understand is that there are leaders in North Korea that not only expect to “survive” a nuclear war exchange with the United States, but also to be victorious in such a war. Such report have come from Nicholas Kristoff (New York Times)and Evan Osnos (New Yorker). The NYT’s Nicholas Kristof wrote that North Korea governments leaders view “nuclear war is imminent but survivable.” “This military mobilization is accompanied by the ubiquitous assumption that North Korea could not only survive a nuclear conflict, but also win it.” In addition, according to Kristof, the North Korea people also believe this: “Ryang Song-chol, a 41-year-old factory worker, looked surprised when I asked if his country could survive a war with America. ‘We would certainly win,’ he said.” Kristof has also appeared on NBC television sharing this report.
The New Yorker’s Evan Osnos reported a similar discussion with North Korea government representatives, including North Korea Foreign Ministry’s Pak Song Il, who told Osnos “‘A few thousand would survive,’ Pak said. ‘And the military would say, ‘Who cares? As long as the United States is destroyed, then we are all starting for the same line again.’ He added, ‘A lot of people would die. But not everyone would die.” Osnos also wrote: “In the event of a nuclear war, American strategists assume that North Korea would first launch a nuclear or chemical weapon at an American military base in Japan or Guam, in the belief that the U.S. would then hold its fire, rather than risk a strike on its mainland. I mentioned that to Pak, but he countered with a different view. ‘The point of nuclear war is to give total destruction to another party,’ he said. ‘There are no moves, no maneuvers. That’s a conventional war.’ ”
Like other extremists, the North Korea state-based terror views global threats using nuclear and EMP devices to further the cause of their goals in Korean unification as well as mass violence and destruction towards any that oppose their ambitions. North Korea does not need nuclear weapons or EMP blasts for “deterrence” in preserving its regime, any more than it has needed such weapons of mass destruction over the past 64 years since the armistice (July 27, 1953) in the Korea War to preserve the North Korea regime. North Korea has had deterrence for all of these decades by its armed proximity to U.S. ally nations, which it has regularly threatened to use its existing weapons against such area U.S. ally nations, as methods of North Korea world policy. The claims that it now needs such advanced weapons to ensure “deterrence” are based on those unfamiliar with history.
False Claims of Lack of “Proof” of EMP Threats. Despite the magnitude of a nuclear dictatorship threatening to use a high altitude EMP weapon against the world, there are those who find a receptive U.S. media in claiming there is no real “proof” that EMP weapons are a threat. On November 1, 2017, Wired Magazine’s Brian Barrett provided a voice to such dismissal of EMP threats in an article entitled “North Korea’s Plenty Scary Without an Overhyped EMP Threat.” Wired Magazine used to be focused on technology issues, but in recent years, has migrated to focus on cultural and political topics. Brian Barrett focuses his explanation on how EMP is an “overhyped threat,” by referencing to a 91-year old former Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett, who Brian Barrett believes has exaggerated the EMP threat. (Mr. Bartlett lives in a remote location, not dependent on electronic technology.)
Wired writer Brian Barrett has ready access to all of the scientific testimony, is aware of the 1962 Starfish Prime testing, and is aware of documented studies and testimony from physicists and scientists, so there is no lack of information in this case. It is simply Wired writer Brian Barrett’s choice to believes the way to “prove” that EMP is “overhyped” is by targeting a retired politician. This is the challenge with an increasing political focus of U.S. media on virtually every topic. But when it comes to catastrophic terror threats, such political tunnel vision is more than short-sighted, but it is openly dangerous in public policy discussions. Wired writer Brian Barrett also interviews Dr. Peter Pry, but Barrett seeks to reject Dr. Pry’s views because the EMP Commission that Dr. Pry was leading did not get funds for continuing in FY 2018.
Ignoring most of the other physicists, scientists from John Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory, California Polytechnic University, and MIT associated with EMP studies, Wired writer Brian Barrett also interviews two other individuals, Philip Coyle and Sharon Burke. Philip Coyle is a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and is not an expert in EMP studies, but this is primary “expert” that Wired journalist uses to try to discredit EMP threats (which we know for a fact since 1962 exist). Barrett concludes simply that Coyle is “skeptical as to the true impact of the type of nuclear-based attack outlined by the EMP Commission.” Barrett quotes Coyle as stating “I don’t know how the proponents of EMP get such huge results. I just don’t follow their logic.” Wired writer Brian Barrett does not state what “huge results” that Philip Coyle doubts or what “logic” he is questioning, he just simply provides such a vague quote as his type of “proof” that “people” question EMP threats and moves on. Wired writer also quotes Sharon Burke with the New America Foundation, who states “There’s still not proof that it would destroy a wide area of electrical equipment today,” ignoring the actual test results seen in the 1962 high altitude Starfish Prime nuclear test, and repeated documented testimony from Dr. Gary L. Smith, Director, Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Johns Hopkins University, Dr. George W. Ullrich, Deputy Director, Defense Special Weapons Agency, and others who actually had direct knowledge of such tests and EMP impacts.
One of the repeated recommendation of EMP scientists and physicists was that the Defense Department improve its protection and readiness for electrical equipment from an EMP blast. Reportedly efforts to do so have been scaled back or halted in recent years. New America Foundation’s Sharon Burke, quoted by Wired writer Brian Barrett, as claiming there is “no proof” of the EMP threat, also previously served in the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Operational Energy in the Obama administration. In her statements of the lack of “proof” by high altitude EMP nuclear blasts, Sharon Burke (and Wired writer Brian Barrett) conveniently neglect to mention that meaningful tests would be prohibited under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, signed by the United States in 1996.
As to the issue of “proof” of consequences of a high altitude EMP nuclear blast, the only true scientific “proof” would be to have more high altitude nuclear EMP blasts (which we cannot do under the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.) We also haven’t done such tests, due to a lack of interest or unwillingness to gather information, but for the obvious reason that the tests done thus far demonstrated a significant danger and risk to public safety and electrical infrastructure, that full scale public “testing” would be a threat to the public to repeat. Like other terror threats, we do not need to do full scale public testing of every threat to recognize the danger. We do not regularly conduct public radiological “dirty bomb” tests. We do not regularly conduct weaponized smallpox or anthrax tests on the public, or conduct cyanide or ricin chemical weapon tests in public conditions to ensure that we have absolute “proof” that they will “work.” As high altitude EMP blasts actually interact with the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic fields, the idea that without more “proof” in the field, we can’t really believe it is a threat is reckless. Scientists conduct laboratory tests to mimic conditions to the extent possible, but the argument that with “field tests” of any terror threats, we don’t have “proof” of the threat is not rational.
Failure to Grasp EMP as a Global Threat. The idea that a high altitude EMP blast is an American problem is as illogical and irresponsible as suggesting that any other type of terror threat, natural disaster, and threat to our shared human rights of security is limited only to one geographic area or region. The reality is that a terror threat or any type of natural disaster can endanger the public in any part of the world, and our shared human rights of security should gain the focus of human rights activists on the lives and safety of people anywhere in the world threatened by weapons and acts of terror. As R.E.A.L. has pointed out such high altitude EMP blasts, even with the most conservative estimates, can impact not only millions in diverse cities, states, and regions, but also in multiple countries with a single high altitude EMP blast. High altitude EMP weapons represent a global terror threat to all of the world. Among other nations of the world facing catastrophic terror from such weapons, R.E.A.L. points to Communist China to reconsider even the most conservative EMP terror weapon would have over the Beijing area, and the likely 73 million impacted by such an attack. It is troubling to see the failure of security analysts to bring such an obvious incentive to China’s attention in dealing with the North Korea threat to world peace and security.
The concept that a high altitude EMP blast is a “military weapon” is as misguided and reckless as the idea that weaponized anthrax, ricin, cyanide, or other banned weapons are acceptable as anything less than weapons of terror in the 21st century. We have international conventions which explicitly ban the use and stockpiling of such weapons by responsible nations for military purposes, but we have yet to ban the use of high altitude EMP weapons. We recognize other banned weapons as used by those supporting acts of terror, and it is time to recognize high altitude EMP weapons as the same type of banned weapon, as biological and chemical weapons, only to be used by terrorist actors.
R.E.A.L. has not sought to provide this description of the North Korea call for a catastrophic terror threat using high altitude EMP blast as anything more than to recognize that this is a terror threat, and moreover, it is a global terror threat, not just a terror threat to the United States of America. With that basis, there is enough serious threat information on high altitude EMP blasts that those supporting our shared human rights and security need to take such a catastrophic terror threat seriously. Terror attacks rarely target individuals of only one political or identity group, despite the intent of terrorist actors. We know all too well the painful lessons of failing to take terror threats seriously, and the U.S. and the world has paid the price in suffering and the loss of innocents lives repeatedly.
We can learn our lessons from the past. We can work as nations to have better infrastructure and individual preparedness against such threats. The nations of the world can also unite in their determination that those individual terrorist actors, or state sponsors of terror such as North Korea, know that the world will not accept and will not stand by as threats or acts of catastrophic terror are made against our fellow human beings.
To North Korea and its leaders, as R.E.A.L. has repeatedly stated and implored in your language to you, we urge to stop your path of threats of catastrophic terror and nuclear bomb violence against the world, and renounce such unnecessary and suicidal weapons of mass destruction that will bring no peace to your nation, the region, or the world.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) condemns and rejects the ongoing pattern of violence and hate that it sees involving extremist events, as well as protests of extremists. A coherent society must reject violence at all such events, before and after such events, and by those participating and those protesting. Those leading such events and those leading protests of such events must take responsibility for condemning such violence without exception.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty does, has, and will continue to condemn and reject the hate of white supremacism, white nationalism, and Nazi ideologies that express reject our shared Universal Human Rights, reject human equality, reject the dignity of others, and that have longed been involved with violence and murder in pursuit of global aims of hate against others. The public must always remember the role of white supremacy in slavery of blacks in America, and the long history of white supremacist persecution and violence against black Americans, which it took a generation to work to change. The public must also always remember the role of Nazi ideology in The Holocaust that murdered 6,000,000 Jewish people, as well as others: people of color, handicapped, gay, Christians, women, Muslims, and groups of other nationalities / ethnic backgrounds. We have challenged such white supremacist, white nationalism, and Nazi ideologies including terrorist violence by such extremists in the United States, including the recent murder of Heather Heyer and injury of 19 in Charlottesville, Virginia by Neo-Nazi supporter James Alex Fields, Jr. using a vehicle, and other attacks we have seen, including the 2009 attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Over the years, R.E.A.L. has been a target of threats of violence, hate, and harassment by white supremacists and Nazis, and we continue to get such harassment today. But R.E.A.L. does not respond to hate with hate. We continue to offer an outstretched hand of human rights and compassion, not an upraised fist, to those who are lost, to find their way back to the family of human rights and dignity for all.
Once again, in Gainesville, Florida, we have seen white nationalist public violence, with an attempted homicide by white nationalist extremists supporting an event by National Policy Institute (NPI) white nationalist speaker Richard B. Spencer. A fringe extremist figure since 2009, Richard Spencer’s white supremacist events have been drawing violent individuals and violence over the past nine months in venues across the United States. Richard Spencer has failed to provide any public statement condemning the acts of his white nationalist supporters in this attempted homicide. Richard B. Spencer is president of the NPI, a white nationalist lobbying and activist group based in Alexandria, Virginia, and as R.E.A.L. reported in early 2010, manages an online blog called “Alternative Right” to provide a digital venue for white nationalist ideologues. Since 2009, R.E.A.L. has peacefully protested Richard Spencer and his fellow fringe white nationalists for their rejection of our shared universal human rights.
After the latest Richard Spencer speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville, three white nationalist and Neo-Nazi extremists were arrested in Gainesville, Florida, and charged with attempted homicide, after one of them shot a handgun at a crowd of protesters, reportedly hitting a building. There were no injuries and a bullet from the rifle struck a building. The extremists were all from Texas and traveled to Florida to participate in unrest surrounding a white supremacist speaker at the University of Florida in Gainesville. The Gainesville police identified the men arrested as: (1) Tyler Tenbrick, 28, of Richmond, Texas, (2) Colton Fears, 28, of Pasadena, Texas. (3) William Fears, 30, of Pasadena, Texas. Tyler Tenbrick reported fired the handgun, and the two Fears brothers reportedly urged him to shoot at a crowd of protester. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) stated that it had been previously monitoring the activities of the three men arrested as white supremacists, including documenting their activities with extremist groups Vanguard America, Patriot Front, neo-Nazi Aryan Renaissance Society, and support for Richard B. Spencer’s “Alternative Right” blog (aka “Alt-Right” blog).
Among the white nationalist extremists, the Chicago Tribune reports that William Fears was part of the Charlottesville, Virginia extremist event and previously was involved in violence there: “he came to Charlottesville equipped for violence – and found it. He threw and took punches.” William Fears was reported previously arrested for aggravated kidnapping and criminal trespass.
The Gainesville police state that “Tenbrink is a convicted felon and faces additional charges of possession of a firearm by convicted felon” and that [a]t least two of the three have shown connections to extremist groups.” The Gainesville police state that: “The three remain in the Alachua County Jail. The Fears brothers are under $1M bond and Tenbrink under a $3M bond.” After the shooting, the white nationalists fled in a silver jeep, but were identified by their license plate and arrested 20 miles outside of Gainesville, Florida. “Units from Alachua Police Department, High Springs Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol conducted a high-risk Felony stop on the vehicle at the 405 Mile Marker of Interstate 75 North and took the three into custody.” The Chicago Tribune reported that “all three men have attended white supremacist events.”
White nationalist shooter Tyler Tenbrink is arrested and handcuffed by Florida Highway Patrol troopers Brian Blanco / Getty Images)
According to the Gainesville, Florida police report: “an investigation revealed they engaged in an argument with another group of people that turned violent with gunfire.” “Shortly before 5:30pm, it was reported that a silver Jeep stopped to argue with a group of protesters and began threatening, offering Nazi salutes and shouting chants about Hitler to the group that was near the bus stop. During the altercation, Tenbrink produced a handgun while the Fears brothers encouraged him to shoot at the victims. Tenbrink fired a single shot at the group which thankfully missed the group and struck a nearby building. The suspects then fled in a silver jeep.”
Individual police reports for the suspects further details the altercation which led to this attempted homicide. The attack was off the University of Florida campus at a nearby bus stop on Archer Road in Gainesville. The attack happened after the white nationalist extremists reportedly harassed and shouted at a group of “six to eight protesters” at the bus stop, and one of the protesters being harassed used “a baton to hit the rear window” of the white nationalist’s vehicle. The police report states the white nationalist Tyler Tenbrick emerged with a handgun, with co-defendents threatening to “kill them” (victims at bus stop), and Tenbrick fired a shot “which missed and struck the business” behind the person they threatened.
Scene of Attempted Homicide in Gainesville by White Nationalists (First Coast News – FCN)
According to the Gainesville, Florida police, “The victim (“VIC”) “was sitting at the bus stop located at 3315 SW Archer Road immediately following the Richard Spencer speaking event which occurred nearby on the University of Florida campus. The containing the defendants pulled up to VIC’s location and one of the passengers began yelling Hail Hitler and other chants at VIC. An argument ensured and VIC used a baton to hit the rear window of DEF’s vehicle. The VIC said the vehicle pulled away approximately 10 feet and then quickly stopped. DEF (Tenbrink) emerged from the vehicle and produced a handgun. CoDEF (C. Fears) and CoDEF (W. Fears) were yelling at both VICS, “I’m going to f***** kill you.” CoDEF (C. Fears) and CoDEF (W. Fears) were also yelling, “kill them” and “shoot them.” DEF (Tenbrink) fired a single shot at VIC, which missed and struck the business directly behind VIC. The DEFs jumped back in the vehicle and fled eastbound on SW Archer Road.” “A traffic stop was conducted and the vehicle was occupied by 4 males and a firearm was also located. VIC was tranported to the location of the suspect vehicle traffic stop and positively identified DEF (Tedbrink), CoDef (C. Fears) and CoDef (W. Fears) as the subjects who threatened him. VIC stated that DEF (Tedbrink) was the person who fired the shot. VIC also stated that CoDef (W. Fears) to be the subject who emerged from the passenger side and yelling at them.”
Reuters andother mediahas interviewed the white nationalists from Texas, prior to their involvement in in the attempted homicide. Reuters stated that “Reuters journalists spoke with Tenbrink and Colton Fears ahead of the Spencer speech on Thursday,” and that Tyler Tenbrick described himself as a “white nationalist” looking to preserve his “way of life,” and he was also interviewed by the Washington Post that reported Tenbrick was there to the white supremacist slogan of the “14 words” related to the future of white race. The attack took place after the event and protest was over, and the white nationalists and protesters had left the University of Florida Gainesville campus.
In addition to these three individuals arrested, two others were arrested by the police in connection the Richard Spencer speech at the University of Florida, bringing the total arrested to five. The other two arrested were: Sean Brijmohan, 28, of Orlando, Florida for Carrying Firearm on School Property (who reportedly was working for a media group), and David Notte, 34, arrested for Resisting Officer without Violence.
On Thursday, October 19, 2017, white supremacist speaker Richard Spencer held a speech at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, which was attended by about 20 white nationalist and Neo-Nazi supporters of Spencer. The less than 2 dozen white nationalist supporters were protested by 2,500 protesters outside the University of Florida Phillips Center conference hall were the Spencer speech occurred, as well as many more protesters who gained access to the “ticket only” event, which Spencer was having at the University of Florida. The protesters mostly shouted down Spencer.
While the majority of the protests were non-violent, there were a number of “violent confrontations,” including at least one beating by protesters of a man outside the event, and reporting of other violent confrontations on social media. Twitter and other social media showed photos and videos of “Anti-Hate” protesters chasing, threatening, and punching individuals, with one video showing a crowd of protesters laughing and cheering as one white nationalist was sprayed with pepper spray, before led away by the police. The University of Florida Alligator reported: “Other Spencer supporters were also surrounded by people shouting expletives and ‘Nazi scum’ as they followed them to police barricades. Some urged the crowd not to become violent. The swastika-wearing man was shoved by multiple protesters, and witnesses saw a protester punch him in the mouth.” Reuters reported that: “There were a few scuffles on campus that left five people with minor injuries, the university said in a statement.”
After one white nationalist surrounded by a crowd of “Anti-Hate” protesters was posted on Twitter, who reportedly was spit in his face, Miami WSVN’s Craig Taylor asked the person capturing the video of they could air the video. But as Twitter users attacked the video as “poorly acted Nazi street theater,” WSVN’s Craig Taylor replied “see what you’re talking about. Likely won’t be aired,” and replied “We’ve considered this and didn’t deem it as newsworthy as other stuff we’re getting.”
R.E.A.L. rejects the continuing pattern of normalizing such public violence by any extremist individuals. Violence is not the answer. There is no “acceptable or justifiable violence” in beating people in the street, in attacking vehicles, in shooting at and attempting to murder our fellow citizens. While people may have strong views in rejecting the ideology of others, violence is not the answer and cannot be acceptable as part of any political activity, free speech activity, or protest activity. R.E.A.L. continues to call for those involved in white nationalist activities to denounce violence by their supporters and R.E.A.L. continues to call for those involved in protests against white nationalists to denounce violence by protesters. Such violence and hate are NOT acceptable means of advocacy for human rights, equality, liberty, and freedom of our fellow human beings.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty calls for human rights-based, peaceful protests and debates to challenge the anti-human rights views and hate of white nationalists, white supremacists, and Neo-Nazis. The answer to hate is not other hate. The answer to anti-human rights views is not rejecting human rights of security by acts of violence. Wrong is wrong.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty offers consistent, non-political leadership for peace-based human rights activism to challenge extremist and other anti-human rights views by tyrants, dictators, terrorists, and other enemies of our shared human rights.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty stands ready for peaceful debate or protest to extremist leaders. Our message has and will remain a consistent focus on our shared universal human rights. We offer an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist to urge all to support our universal human rights for our fellow human beings. Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.
On Sunday, September 24, 2017, a masked man attacked the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Antioch, Tennessee (a suburb of Nashville) with a gun, killing one woman and injuring seven others, in addition to injuring himself. Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) condemns this act of violence and hate; our research leads R.E.A.L. to believe this was not a random act of violence, and based on our research, it is R.E.A.L.’s conclusion this attack was performed by a supporter of black nationalist hate.
The attacker, 25 year old, Emanuel Kidega Samson, a U.S. resident from Sudan, shot one woman to death in the church parking lot, Melanie Smith, and then sought to attack Christians in the church as the Sunday services were ending. After killing Melanie Smith in the parking lot, the armed attacker then entered the church, where he was confronted by the church usher, 22-year-old Robert Engle. The attacker pistol-whipped Robert Engle, who received a “significant injury to his head.” Then the attacker continued to shoot Christian worshipers in the church, shooting six others, including the pastor, his wife, and four other elderly worshipers. During the mass shooting, many of the 42 Christians in the church hid and ducked under church pews, while the attacker sought to gun people down. Some hid in a child’s worship room, which a 10 year old child helped to barricade.
The attacker shot the Christian worshipers using a .40-caliber handgun, firing 12 rounds, and reloading the gun at least once, according to police spokesman Don Aaron. The police stated that the attacker also wore a tactical vest with three additional magazines of ammunition. In the SUV that he kept idling to escape after attacking the church, the attacker also had an unloaded semi-automatic AR-15 rifle and an additional handgun. The police also stated that he had “many more rounds [of ammunition] available.”
Church usher Robert Engle recovered from his injury, and raced out to his own automobile to retrieve his own licensed gun to protect the Christian congregation. Robert Engle returned and held the attacker, Emanuel Kidega Samson, until police arrived. During Engle’s initial struggle with the attacker, Samson shot himself by accident. Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson said of Robert Engle, “He’s the hero. He’s the person who stopped this madness.”
The attacker, Emanuel Kidega Samson, received medical treatment, then was placed in police custody. He has currently been charged with one count of murder, and additional charges, including attempted murder, are expected by the police. A judicial commissioner has ordered that Emanuel Kidega Samson be held without bond pending further court proceedings. The latest report states that the attacker did not appear for a preliminary hearing, which was rescheduled for October 6, 2017. (Update: at the October 6, 2017 court hearing, the preliminary hearing was again rescheduled to October 23, per the Tennesseean: “During a brief hearing Friday, Davidson County General Sessions Judge Dianne Turner set Samson’s preliminary hearing for Oct. 23.”)
The Memphis FBI Field Office’s Nashville Resident Agency, the Civil Rights Division, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee have opened a civil rights investigation into the shooting. Tennessee police had previously been involved with Emanuel Kidega Samson in January 2017 over a domestic dispute, in March 2017 when he was accused of trying to force entry into a home of woman who claimed he had hit her, and in June 2017, when police checked on Samson after receiving a report that he had sent his father a suicidal text message.
The victims were of this attack were all white, adult, Christians, and most of them were elderly and women. The attacker killed Melanie Smith, 39 years old, outside of the church. Inside the church, he shot Pastor Joey Spann (David Joseph Spann) (66), his wife Peggy Spann (65), Linda Bush (68), Catherine C. Dickerson (64), William “Don” Jenkins (84), and his wife Marlene Jenkins (84). The attacker also injured church usher, Robert Engle (25), during the attack. The Burnette Chapel Church of Christ was a multi-ethnic and multi-racial house of worship. All of the victims of this attack were white. Five victims in the hospital are in stable condition. Pastor Joey Spann, who was shot in the chest, had been in critical condition, but his condition has since improved. R.E.A.L. expresses our concerns and shares our prayers for the victims and the loved ones of this vicious attack.
The attacker, Emanuel Kidega Samson, a black male, is not a U.S. citizen, but has been living as a U.S. resident since the 1990s. The attacker Samson had previously identified himself as a Christian, despite recent religious and social views, as documented on his social media Facebook account, researched by R.E.A.L. After the attack, local News Channel 5 reported that “you don’t see on his social media accounts is anything that would suggest terrorism as a possible motive.” R.E.A.L.’s investigation shows a different pattern and a growing public support of extremist views by the attacker on social media, including a recent post by an extremist attacking “Jesus” as “dumb a** sh**.”
Five years ago, the attacker publicly identified himself as a Christian. But by 2017, the attacker had been increasingly posting messages about the Black Panthers black nationalist and extremist group (whose 20th century members were responsible for terror attacks in the U.S.) and promoting messages by the Anonymous hacker criminal group.
Based on R.E.A.L.’s research of the attackers’ social media and the fact that only white Christians were targeted in this attack, R.E.A.L. would conclude that there is a high chance that the attack was motivated by black nationalist extremist views. If so, this would be the fifth such black nationalist terrorist attack in the past 14 months.
Previous black nationalist extremist terror attacks in the U.S. have included: (1)April 18, 2017 Fresno, California terror attack by NOI activist Kori Ali Muhammad (killing three whites in the streets of Fresno and a fourth hotel guard), (2)July 17, 2016 terror attack in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by Gavin Eugene Long (acknowledged former NOI extremist) (killing three police officers), (3)July 8, 2016 terror attack in Bristol, Tennessee, by Lakeem Keon Scott (targeting whites on a highway, killing 1 woman and injuring three others), and (4)July 7, 2016 terror attack in Dallas, Texas by Micah Johnson (linked to NOI extremist) and supporter of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) and Black Riders Liberation Party (killing 5 and injuring 11). In these four black nationalist-associated terror attacks, all of the victims killed were white, except for one of the Baton Rouge police officers.
By August 2, 2017, the attacker’s embrace of black nationalist extremists included posting a video where the speaker shouted about how black Americans should not “bring me Jesus and that dumb a** sh**,” while warning about “Europeans infecting us.” This was posted by African Diaspora culture activist Ankh Ma’at Ra, who distributes a number of videos, which would be considered part of the Pan-Africanist or Black Nationalist Consciousness Community/Movement (CC) ideology. The interview was recorded by “black consciousness” activist “Sa Neter,” who promotes such ideologies through videos shared on YouTube and Social Media, which he publishes on behalf of a “House of Konsciousness” (HOK) movement. “Sa Neter” has alsodefended black nationalist and virulent racistLouis Farrakhan, who leads the “Nation of Islam” (NOI) extremists, although as part of the Consciouness Community” movement, “Sa Neter” appears to have different religious views. Ankh Ma’at Ra offers alternatives on religious views including rejecting the concept to “love your enemy.” “Sa Neter” has also distribued videos on “Black News 101” (which was terminated by YouTube), including interviews of individuals promoting black nationalist violence, and was re-established as “Black News 102.” The Sa Neter videos promote a broad range of black nationalist and pan-African views from diverse views of New Black Panthers, Kemetic, Hebrew Israelite, Moorish Science Temple, and Nation of Islam perspectives.
While the corporate media is reporting on the attacker’s body-building photos, the increasing migration of the attacker’s public postings to focus on topics from conspiracy sites on a general “the West is attacking Africa and Africans” type of message is being generally ignored. The tone of his social media postings begin to change in December 2015.
In the days before his attack on the church, the attacker called for people to “join his rebellion,” with postings that also stated: “Everything you’ve ever doubted or made to be believe as false, is real. & vice versa, B.” He stated “Become the creator instead of what’s created. Whatever you say, goes.” He wrote“You are more than what they told us.” By August 30, 2017, he wrote: “Every single legend before me was just a false alarm. Every single thought that you think you think you thought is wrong. Crawling through hell with gasoline garments on, army-strong, barel to the devil this is the rebirth of Kong.” By August 15, 2017, he wrote about the darkened sun by the solar eclipse, “Join my rebellion and gaze into that mf with 0 **’s given, dawg.” On August 2, 2017, he posted a video from a black nationalist activist “Sa Neter,” who works out of New York City. “Sa Neter” interviewed another “Africa Stand Up” activist who described the failure to support black Americans, and called for black Americans to understand their community, including by rejecting Jesus Christ.
He also began projectingthat because the names of hurricanes were quickly given with reports about such natural disasters that unknown powers conspired knew about these way in advance. (Weather conspiracy theories are frequent among posting of black nationalist extremists supporting the Nation of Islam.)
The attacker’s social media showed an increasing focus on extremist conspiracy issues, hate of police, support for the Black Panther extremist group (associated with other attacks), including posting report on calls by Black Panther extremists to “tell Blacks to ‘Arm up’,” and posting report on reported “execution” of Black Panther extremists by the police, stating “Police murder a Black Panther general execution style and try to cover it up.” The attacker continued to distance his focus on Christianity, as pan-African and black nationalist activists offered alternative views on America and the West.
The attacker increasingly also posted anti-West conspiracy theories; he posted on how “1 Trillion Stolen from Africa in 50 years and Diverted to Western Countries Illegally.” He posted on how the U.S. Government has lied in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, posted on how “Doctors who discovered cancer enzymes in vaccines have been murdered,” posted on “Woman leading Flint lead poisoning lawsuit found shot dead in her home.” With such posts, the attacker wrote text like “I believe in incidents, not accidents. There has never been such a thing as “by chance ” & nor will there ever will be.”
While this case will continue to be investigated by law enforcement authorities, R.E.A.L. urges the investigators not to discount what would appear to be links in the support of the armed Black Panther movement (viewed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – SPLC) , and other black nationalist anti-white hate as motivations behind the attack, killing, and targeted shootings at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ.
R.E.A.L. has noted an significant increase in black nationalist hate and violence in the past year, and as previously noted multiple terror attacks linked to black nationalist views over the past 14 months. On August 8, 2017, the SPLC also reported on an increased trend of black nationalist violence, in an article titled “Return of the Violent Black Nationalist Violence.” In the August 8, 2017 SPLC report, the SPLC stated that: “Since 2000, the number of Black Nationalist groups in the United States has jumped dramatically from 48 groups to 193 in 2016.” In this this report, the SPLC notes the violence from the Fresno, Dallas, and Baton Rouge attacks, and states that “the U.S. has not experienced this level of violent Black Nationalism in nearly 40 years.”
According to the SPLC report, “The Black Nationalist Movement represents a swath of antigovernment, anti-police, racist, and radical religious ideologies. While organized groups have refrained from violence, they attract adherents (e.g. ‘lone wolves’) who are motivated to commit violence, criminal behavior, or other subversive acts as a result of Black Nationalism’s radical ideology. As a result, lone individuals prone to violence who are affiliated with Black Nationalism, pose a potential threat to law enforcement, government officials and others. Like other domestic extremists, the merging of antigovernment, racist and religious extremist ideologies is cause for concern. Historically, this convergence of extremist beliefs serves as a catalyst for radicalization and mobilization towards violent action for some members and affiliates.” The SPLC report describes that “Black Nationalist Groups of Concern,” which the SPLC states “attract violent individuals whom they indoctrinate and push toward extremism,” including: Nation of Islam (NOI), New Black Panther Party (NBPP), New Black Panther Nation (NBPN), New Black Liberation Militia (NBLM), Five Percent Nation (based out of Harlem), Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI), and the Moorish Nation (linked to Sovereign Citizen Extremists – SCE). Dallas terrorist Micah Xavier Johnson was a member of the New Black Panther Party. According to the ADL, terrorist Gavin Long was also associated with the “Moorish Sovereign Citizens” SCE. There is a similar group known as the “Nuwaubian Nation.”
In the attack on the Antioch church, the law enforcement investigation must continue. However, as R.E.A.L. has shown, the attacker had sympathy with at least the Black Panther Party described in this SPLC report.
This remains not only a counterterrorism security issue, but also a human rights issue for Americans to address, which is particularly compounded in the U.S. due to public concerns of cases involving police abuse of authority. When increasing public sympathy support black nationalist extremism, the security and human rights are compounded by a disinterest and unwillingness to hear messages to reject extremist views and to support nonviolence solutions for human rights progress.
Among Emanuel Kidega Samson’s 4,700+ followers on Facebook, virtually none of them have “un-friended” him, over a day after his attack on Burnette Chapel Church of Christ. Three of his followers publicly asked him why he did this or condemned the attack on his Facebook timeline.
In addition, once again, we see yet another attacker in the U.S., who had been working as a security guard. The night before his attack on the Antioch Christian church, the attacker worked as an unarmed security guard with Crimson Security of Murfreesboro. Channel 17 News also reports that he was in the process of working to renew his license as a security guard with the Academy of Personal Protection and Security. For context, R.E.A.L. has pointed out previous terrorist attacks in the U.S. by current or former security guards in Orlando (Omar Mateen, G4S), St.Cloud, MN (Dahir A. Adan – Securitas), NYC and New Jersey (Ahmad Raham – Summit Security), and Fort Lauderdale, FL (Esteban Santiago – Signal 88). This attack in Antioch is the fifth known attack on U.S. by a trusted security guard.
The human rights challenge to black nationalist violence requires a recognition of the need to support both belief and identity systems, as well as provide leadership in activist solutions for nonviolence in promoting human rights change.
For the U.S., cultural challenges and religious challenges are mixed together without clear and consistent leadership to provide inspirational and identity leadership to frustrated individuals. Among many frustrated black and African-Americans, there are not only extremists, but also those similarly frustrated indivividuals, who are indicating that “Christianity” is a “white” religion, and this remains a struggle in social coherency during increasing times of social and racial unrest. A number of individuals get drawn to the “Nation of Islam” extremist movement, simply because of its strength in leadership and its defiance to “white America,” despite and/or because of the NOI’s racist views.
Religious and cultural analyst Adam Coleman explains that ineffectiveness among some traditional U.S. Christian organizations have made frustrated black and African-American searching for additional sources of inspiration. According to the analyst Adam Coleman, the “Consciousness Community” (CC) includes “is a rather nebulous entity. There are a few main belief systems that people who consider themselves to be conscious tend to subscribe to, but no formal creed or organization around which the CC revolves. These include the Hebrew Israelites, Moorish Scientists, Egyptian (Kemetic) spiritualists, and practitioners of African mysticism.” He states: “Each of these groups purport to solve the identity problem, faced by people of African descent, by restoring the individual to their true identity. The primary draw for these groups is that rather than simply offering an alternative belief system, they offer an identity system.” He states: “Those who consider themselves ‘conscious’ typically take on some form of Pan-Africanist or Black Nationalist ideology. That is to say they hope to reclaim control of Africa’s resources and establish an autonomous nation of African people including those of the Diaspora.” In addition, he states that “Among the CC, anti-Caucasian sentiment ranges from latent resentment to violent aversion. By extension, Western society as a whole is viewed as a power structure that is bent on subduing people of color.”
R.E.A.L. has previously also identified this shortcoming within the Christian and faith-other based leadership, to offer activist guidance and solutions to those that claim that nonviolence is not a solution. As R.E.A.L. described in our report “Compassion And Nonviolence Leadership For Racial Justice” on April 25, 2017, “America needs such leaders of compassion and nonviolence today, in our important national issues of racial justice.” In the Autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he described the essential need to leverage the new revolution of nonviolence as a solution to supporting racial justice in America. In Chapter 29 of this autobiography, pages 328 to 330, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. explained that “Before this century, virtually all revolutions had been based on hope and hate…. What was new about Mahatma Gandhi’s movement in India was that he mounted a revolution based on hope and love, hope and nonviolence.” This was the model that Reverend King sought to use to bring change to racial equality in America. Reverend King explained “As long as long as the hope was fulfilled there was little questioning of nonviolence.” But when hopes were not realized, some came to despair and sought other ways for change. Reverend King stated that “revolution, though born of despair, cannot be sustained by despair. This was the ultimate contradiction of the Black Power movement.” He explained that hope was essential for any campaign for long-term change. Reverend King rejected the “blatantly illogical” answer by some promoting violence and “overthrowing racist state and local governments.” He concluded “nonviolence is power, but it is the right and good use of power,” in support of human rights and racial equality for all Americans.
======================
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) reject all hate-based and terrorist violence, as we have provided reports on many other terrorist violence and attacks, including the recent terrorist attack and violence in Charlottesville, Viriginia. Responsible supporter of human rights, dignity, and shared public security must unequivocally condemn all such violence and terrorism, no matter what the ideological justification, including the increasing number of violent black nationalist attacks that we have seen in the United States of America. Violent attacks on our fellow human beings are wrong, and we must set a consistent standard of rejection and condemnation for such violence and hate. To work to change the atmosphere of violence and hate, while some may call for forgiveness of brutal violence, we must clearly condemn such acts of murder and violence, and enforce our laws to make it clear such actions can never be accepted by our society. The continuing challenges of racial equality and justice in America can never justify the violence and terrorism that we have continued to see. Those solutions cannot be based on hate, but must find an understanding of our societal needs to end the causes of such violence. We must, as a nation, work towards solutions of nonviolence for all Americans.
Summary – the Anarchist/Anarcho-Communist/”Antifa” War on Human Rights and the Need for the Responsible Majority to Challenge.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports the shared universal human rights of all people, and all Americans, including their right to security and life, which too many violent extremists would take away. R.E.A.L.’s leadership has focused half a century in challenging racial and Nazi hate and terrorist movements. But R.E.A.L. has also challenged the ideas of Communist and Anarchist violent movements, which have long history of terror, violence, and attacks on the United States; this has included violence against R.E.A.L. volunteers.
R.E.A.L. provides this information on the Anarchist threat to Americans, who have been largely uninformed and uneducated on the history of Anarchist terror and violence, which is too widely given misguided glamorization today. After this general summary, R.E.A.L. has provided a detailed review of this continuing human rights threat. R.E.A.L. will document and clarify that the Anarchist leaders of so-called “Anti-Facist” or “Antifa” movements are not merely an “Anti-Racist” movement as some might want to believe, but they represent Anarcho-Communism, and a history of Anarchist violence and Anti-democracy ideology that has threatened American human rights for over 100 years.
The context of our history and its details matter if we are to defend our shared human rights, democracy, and democratic values. We cannot work for justice, equality, liberty, solve problems or educate our fellow Americans on problems that we do not understand. Today, we see too many who call for violence over use of informed democratic processes. We have seen what happens in America and around the world when individuals replace politics with acts of violence. Such political violence, especially in democratic nations, do not further the cause of human rights and dignity. Before we act, we must first learn.
R.E.A.L. notes that violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists, and their acts of terror, represent the smallest fringe of the American public. As with Nazis, white supremacists, and other fringe extremists, it is essential not to exaggerate their numbers and their influence. But with many American young people unfamiliar with the violent history and anti-democracy views of such extremists, and the disinterest by the U.S. political media in reporting such facts, R.E.A.L. has summarized the history and continuing threat to American human rights by such violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communist extremists. Such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism is seeing a new revival in the United States of America, and those concerned about human rights, law, and the safety of our fellow citizens must be vigilant about such threats. In terms of journalistic integrity, it is deeply troubling to see the U.S. political media glamorizing such extremist movements that have been responsible for so much violence, terrorism, and death in America.
The many learned individuals in the press do know better. While we must not exaggerate the impact of such extremists, we must recognize there are at least 50 known armed Anarchist extremist groups in America today, and the years of lack of consistency in law enforcement on Anarchist violence has allowed thousands of violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists to develop, practice tactics of bombing and violence, and gain experience in attacking the public, our government, and law enforcement, using the streets of America as their training grounds. Responsible security measures need to be implemented to protect all Americans from violent extremist groups, especially those with a history of over a century of terrorism in the U.S. Among American national security concerns, this should be a priority.
With over a century of Anarchist terrorism and anti-democracy violence against America, R.E.A.L. will document the continuing pattern of Anarchist bombing and suicide bomb efforts, murder, assassination, attacks on the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon, and government and legal instituations, attacks on our businesses, killing of our citizens, numerous firebomb attacks, and mass-murder terror plots. This history of such Anarchist terrorism has now come to include so-called “Antifa” firebombings and other mob violence attacks on American citizens.
As R.E.A.L. will document, Anarchist and “Antifa” activists openly state, they are not working to defend our “rights” or our “democracy,” and they have contempt for and seek the destruction of both. To those rationalizing and normalizing Anarchist terrorism and violence, this undermines support for our shared human rights, democracy, law, and certainly justice. In a democracy, “justice” by violent force is not simply the opinion of a group of self-appointed criminals, whose their belief that the “ends justifies the means” shows contempt and outweighs the decisions of the American people, their shared legal system, and their Constitutional rights.
The Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign is not an “anti-racist” campaign respecting our rights and equality, it is an Anarcho-Communist campaign attacking American rights, with the goal to further insurrection against all U.S. institutions and democracy. Political partisans may think such attacks only target other political partisans. They do not. Such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” attacks are an attack on our law, our Constitution, and the rights of every American.
R.E.A.L. brings decades of experience in genuine and peaceful efforts to challenge the racist and hate views for decades of white nationalists, white supremacists, and Nazis. R.E.A.L. understands the problem and the challenge. R.E.A.L. provides a pro-human rights position to challenge anti-human rights extremists from every ideology. But we know that tactics hate and violence only destroys ourselves and our integrity. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”
The concept that hate, violence, and terrorism can be rationalized by anyone’s political beliefs goes to the core of attacking our shared democracy and American’s Constitutional and human rights. We are responsible for equality and liberty precisely to provide for the common American and members of the public to provide a responsible and peaceful response to anti-human rights extremism that would attack our shared rights and democracy. This must recognize the threat that Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremist violence and hate also poses to our nation.
Americans act from their conscience, and they have a proud history of standing up to end injustice. Those who respect this American compassion for justice must not be silent about the efforts by violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists to twist and pervert genuine expressions of peaceful protest and concern into acts of violence that have no respect for any human rights. In our mathematical ethics of human and civil rights, we Americans know that two wrongs do not equal a right. R.E.A.L. calls for the American public to reject extremist movements that want to teach us hate and violence as paths to love and peace. We intrinsically know this does not make sense, and we must listen to our frustrated fellow citizens, yet guide them away from the path of attacking democracy and human rights as proposed by Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violent ideologies.
Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence has frequently gained interest during periods of political and social unrest in America, with the false promise of quick change through violence and insurrection, rather than the hard work of finding lasting solutions based on shared law and respect. We have seen that political and social change is never achieved from their anti-democracy ideologies, radical hate, and acts of violence. America has achieved lasting political and social change through shared respect, compassion, compromise, and dignity for one another. America’s real accomplishments in working to end wars, achieve progress in social and racial justice, promote fairness in labor and capitalism, were truly reached not by street violence, destruction, lawlessness, and hate, but by outstretched hands of those with different views finding common cause and even compromise, in peace and progress, despite their differences.
Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists will try to convince frustrated Americans that our democratic system and our society is nothing but a “zero-sum” struggle and just a division of winners and losers. To those who understand the diversity of the American experience, we know that simplistic argument is not true. In a shared democratic society, we cannot long afford any massive group to only be a “loser.” Our democracy has worked because, no matter how frustrated some may be, our society is combination of both “winners” and “losers” at every area and group in America, who work together to raise each other up, not tear each other down. The freedom and ability of change and compromise from such democracy and democratic processes is why Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists fear and hate democracy so much, and whose primary mission is to de-legitimize democracy and democratic processes in America.
As R.E.A.L. will document, the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign is not an “anti-racist” campaign respecting our rights and equality, it is an Anarcho-Communist campaign attacking American rights, with the goal to further insurrection against all U.S. institutions and democracy. Political partisans may think such attacks only target other political partisans. They do not. Such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” attacks are an attack on our law, our Constitution, and the rights of every American.
R.E.A.L.’s struggle for American human rights is centered on our commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). (Eleanor Roosevelt, who chaired the writing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, barely escaped from being killed or maimed by an Anarchist terrorist suicide bomb.) Our commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the UDHR is the most fundamental aspect of our “war of ideas” with Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorists and criminals. Both the U.S. Constitution and UDHR give Americans human rights of freedom. The UDHR also commits to our right of security as human beings and our right to human dignity. Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorists declare war not only with the U.S. Government, U.S. authorities, U.S. democracy, but also declare war on the truths that we hold self evident. Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism declares war on our free speech, free thought, the basic safety of the individual to be free from mob violence in the street, as we have seen so often from the Anarchist, Anarcho-Communists, and the campaign they ironically call “Antifa.”
To fight this “war of ideas,” Americans need to stand resolute to challenge those within the Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, and “Antifa” movements that seek to attack our shared human rights and Constitutional rights. We stand for American truth of seeking all human beings as created equal, not some more equal than others, based on your political views. We stand in support of freedom of speech and freedom on conscience, not just for those we like and those like us, but for all people. We stand in support of all human beings “born free and equal in dignity and rights,” not to have our fellow Americans chased and beaten in street by “Antifa” mobs with baseball bats and clubs. Our universal human rights ensure that: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Again, not just those we agree with and those we like. But everyone.
The Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, and “Antifa” movements think they can pick and choose who has these rights, they believe they alone can choose what laws we can respect. They claim they acting to overthrow authority, but that is not true. They really seek to overthrow our representative authority, and the rights of every man and woman in America. Because if we sit still and allow them to choose which of us has freedom of speech, security, and any other freedom at their whim, then we have surrendered not some, but everyone of our freedoms.
The Anarchists, Anarcho-Communist and their “Antifa” movement claim they are war with the decision-makers. They are; they are at war with every single one of us in America that are free to make decisions in our representative democracy and in our lives. They are at war with this entire nation, every race, political group, religion, gender, age, and identity group. They are at war with our Constitutional and human rights.
The “Responsible Majority” – of American citizens, families, faith groups, human rights groups, institutions, leaders, government, law enforcement, and media – must not stay silent and cower at their threats to this nation and our human rights. This is not just a law enforcement issue. This is not just a homeland security issue. This is not just a political issue. No. This is OUR issue, OUR problem, and jointly as Americans, our Responsibility for Equality and Liberty – for all.
Extremists may think they can attack our rights and seek the destruction of our democracy, but it is our role as the “Responsible Majority” of Americans to demonstrate that Americans will not surrender to mobs of masked Anarchist criminals and terrorists. The “Responsible Majority” of Americans must show that we understand the history, true agenda, and objectives of violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists, and we must show that we are not afraid to defend our shared human rights and democracy.
R.E.A.L. calls for those confused by the Anarchists, Anarcho-Communist and their “Antifa” movement to abandon their cause of extremism, violence, and hate. We call for their families to remind them of the freedoms that so many have sacrificed for all Americans. With an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist, we urge them to stop their attacks on this nation, and return to family of the American people that respect our shared Constitutional and human rights.
We must urge our fellow Americans to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.
(1) The First Foreign Terrorist Attacks in America by Anarchists.
The first foreign terrorist organization (FTO) performing terror attacks across America began nearly 100 years ago with nail-bombs and terrorist attacks, suicide bombing, and other attacks across the nation, after assassinating the President of the United States of America. But these early terror attacks were not based on racist or religious hate; they were Anarchist terrorism, which remains a continuing threat to human rights in America today. The Anarchist terrorist message threat to America has changed little in the past 100 years in the views of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism: “there will have to be murder: we will kill” and “there will be destruction.”
Terrorists have supported the Anarcho-Communist extremist cause to kill, maim, and destroy government, courts, newspapers, business, and homes in the United States of America. Anarchist mass-murder terrorism plots against Americans has ranged from nail bombs against newspapers, U.S. Post Office, government, and police, bombings across the U.S. target the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol, cyanide poison gas plots to murder Americans on subways, to more recent Anarchist arson violence on vehicles, beating people in the streets with clubs, baseball bats, and other violent attacks on Americans and others.
One of the earliest FTO Anarchist terrorist leaders supporting terror plots against America was German-American Anarchist Johann Joseph “Hans” Most. In his native Germany, Johann Most promoted acts of violence as “action as propaganda” or what Anarchists and communists would calls as “propaganda of the deed” (also known as “the Attentat”). Johnann Most promoted the use of terrorist bombs in Germany, but was forced to flee Germany and eventually ended up in the United States. In America, Johann Most provided Anarchist terrorist ideological leadership for a new generation of American citizens in Anarchist terrorism. Most inspired other anarchists in America including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Alexander Berkman went on to attempt to murder Henry Clay Frick in 1892, who survived and Berkman was imprisoned. Emma Goldman was repeatedly imprisoned for incitement to riots, and was an advocate of politically motivated murder (the “Attentat”) and violent revolution. Emma Goldman became a protégé of Anarchist terrorist ideologue Johann Most; she was eventually deported to the USSR in 1919.
On September 6, 1901 in Buffalo, New York, Anarchist terrorist Leon Czolgosz assassinated U.S. President William McKinley. With the growing anarchist terrorist ideologies spread across America and financial difficulties, Leon Czolgosz was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill the U.S. President. Anarchist terrorist ideologue Johnann Most praised this terrorist murder of the U.S. President as Anarchist should not consider it a “crime” to murder a “ruler.” Anarchist protégé of Johann Most, Emma Goldman defended the “ideals” of the presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz later in book entitled “The Psychology of Political Violence.” (For context, in his career before politics, President William McKinley was a volunteer and war hero in the Union Army fighting against the Confederate States of America, who rose to the rank of Brevet Major in the 23rd Ohio Infantry. That is who the Anarchist terrorists murdered.)
Prior to such Anarchist waves of terrorism, America was rocked in Chicago, Illinois by the Haymarket bombing and subsequent riot, which led to the death of five police, four civilians, and many wounded. While no one was ever prosecuted for actually throwing the bomb at the Haymarket bombing, eight Anarchists were convicted of conspiracy in the bombing. One of the Anarchist bombing conspirators was August Spies, who was an associate of Anarchist terror idelogue Johann Most.
Anarchist terror ideologue Johann Most continued to promote a form of Anarchist violence, which combined Anarchist and Communist theories, called “Anarcho-Communism,” which is seen in the combined red and black flags and symbols of violent Anarchist groups today. Violent Anarchist groups have often worked with violent Communist groups, sharing extremist values of destructions. The black / red combination of Anarchist and Communist values was defined as “Anarcho-communism,” which seeks the abolition of state, capitalism, private property, through insurrection, to be replaced by communal (e.g., communist) economies. The shared black and red symbols of Anarcho-Communism remain the symbols of such violent insurrectionist extremist movements, regardless of what terms leaders use to disguise their intent, as we have seen with the so-called “Anti Fascist” or “Antifa” events, disguised to bring unknowing and well-intentioned Anti-Racist and other supporters into Anarcho-Communist and Anarchist violent riots and attacks.
Anarchist terrorist violence was among the first major forms of mass nationwide terrorism in 20th century America, organized early by Anarchist Galleanist group (led by an Italian Anarchist leader Luigi Galleani). The Galleanist Anarchist terror attacks used nail bombs mailed to attack government officials, then newspapers, and police. The terrorist attacks of 1919, nearly 100 years ago were the first major plots on U.S. America was forced to deal with the bloody terrorism of Anarchism – directly attacking Americans. 36 Anarchist terrorist bombs were used in April 1919 alone, intended for the Anarcho-Communist May Day (May 1) celebration, attacking the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Supreme Court, the predecessor group of the FBI (then known as the Bureau of Investigation), Senators, Congressmen, mayors, governors, police, U.S. Postmaster General, business leaders, and newspapers. Of the Anarchist bombs, 16 were setaside as having “insufficient postage” and never reached their targets, 12 of the 16 Anarchist terrorist bombs were disarmed, but among the terror bombs that exploded, one of the terrorist injured a Senator’s wife, and severely burned her face and neck. Another victim of the Anarchist terrorist bomb was a working class Black American housekeeper. The Anarchist terrorist bombs were sent to New York City, Washington DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Pennsylvania, Utah, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Two months later, another series of Anarchist terrorist bombs spread across the nation, with bombs packaged with heavy metal slugs to function as shrapnel, simultaneously sent to 8 U.S. cities, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Patterson in New Jersey, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia. The Anarchist targets were the police, a Catholic priest, a mayor, businessmen, a state legistlator, and three judges. The bombs killed two men, and an Anarchist suicide bomb terrorist attack on the home of the U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, injuring the Attorney General.
The Anarchist terrorist suicide bomber, Carlo Valdinoci, also nearly injured or killed Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) (the future U.S. president), who was then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and who lived across the street from Palmer. The Anarchist terrorist suicide bomber exploded across the street from FDR’s house, minutes before FDR was there, with the terrorist body parts landing on FDR’s doorstep. For further context, one of individuals who was also nearly killed in this Anarchist suicide bombing was Eleanor Roosevelt, FDR’s wife. Surviving this near Anarchist terrorist bombing, Eleanor Roosevelt would also go on to become the Chairperson of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 1946, and a contributor in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948.
The Anarchist terrorist attacks were accompanied with a manifesto calling for “Class war,” and attack on the “darkness of your laws.” The Anarchist terrorists provided pink flyers with each of their bombs entitled “Plain Words,” which described their call to terrorist murder and killing: “There will have to be bloodshed; we will not dodge; there will have to be murder: we will kill, because it is necessary; there will have to be destruction; we will destroy to rid the world of your tyrannical institutions.”
Other terrorist attacks included the Preparedness Day suitcase bomb terrorist attack in San Francisco, CA, killing 10 and injuring 40 (widely suspected to be done by Anarchists), and large black powder bomb that killed nine policemen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1917, suspected to be done by an Anarchist terrorist linked to a New York City bombing of Wall Street.
Anarchist terrorists then attacked New York City, using wagon with a bomb, as an early version of a “car bomb” on September 16, 1920 at Wall Street, killing 38 and injured 143 Americans. This mass casualty Anarchist terrorist attacks was the largest terrorist attack on American soil at the time. A terror group called the “American Anarchist Fighters” left threatening notes in a Post Office Box, calling for release of terrorist prisoners or “it will be sure death for all of you,” found before the Wall Street Anarchist terrorist attack.
Such Anarchist terrorism was the beginning of U.S. problems with Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Anarchist terror attacks in the U.S. led to the Anarchist Exclusion Act (1918), after repeated Anarchist terrorist acts; it was signed into law as Public Law 65-221. The sponsoring government agencies at the time held meetings, to address “disposition of cases of alien anarchists, some of whom are Italian anarchists and others Industrial Workers of the World [IWW] and Russian Union workers, now pending.” Using such laws and the Sedition Act, a number of Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists were arrested, and some were deported to Russia.
In 1920, after the series of Anarchist terrorist attacks, a number of Anarchists were arrested during what were called the “Palmer Raids,” named after the U.S. Attorney General Palmer injured in the Anarchist suicide bombing on his home. While the crackdown on Anarchist terrorist ideologues and terrorist violence gave the American government a short pause in Anarchist terror attacks dwindling by the 1930s, largely due to improved police procedures and coordination, Anarchist terror and violence would return to plague the United States.
(Regarding the U.S. government reference to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in discussion over the Anarchist Exclusion Act, it is noteworthy that the Industrial Workers of the World union organization is also prominant in recent protest activities in the U.S. Historically, the IWW, aka “Wobblies,” have stated their use of violence has been “defensive” in nature and their links to anarchism more related to “anarcho-syndicalism.” The concept behind Anarcho-syndicalism, similar to Anarcho-Communism, is to call for revolutionality industrial unionism, aka “syndicalism,” as a means for workers to gain control over a capitalist economy. Like Anarcho-Communists, Anarcho-Syndicalists also use the red/black flag.) R.E.A.L. notes for the record, that during the January 20, 2017, Anarchist Black Bloc riots in Washington D.C., there were numerous Black Bloc Anarchists photographed carrying red Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) flags.
Let us reflect on the progress of American unions and Anarchist violence. Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists rationalized their acts of terror against America, by claiming they were “fighting for the working man.” But how did labor unions progress in America? NOT through such violence. The reality is that meaningful progress in labor was achieved through law, changed through America’s representative democracy, peaceful protest, and collective efforts in peace, not violence. The National Labor Relations Act and collective bargaining was acheived through shared respect and compromise, not by Anarchist bombs, murders, and hate. What the Anarchist violent terrorism acheived was delaying such American progress, by their tactics of terrorism, which were truly focused on dividing America and undermining its democratic processes.
——————–
(2) The Weather Underground Anarchist Terrorist Attacks Across America.
A radical Anarcho-Communist organization known as the “Weather Underground” led terrorism and riots attacks against the United States government and its public for another 20 years, through the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. The Weather Underground led violent riots across Chicago in what were known as “Days of Rage” in October 1969, with 300 violent extremists attacking Chicago’s business district, including destruction of a Chicago police statue, remembering the victims of the 1884 Anarchist Haymarket bomb and riot. In July 1970, the “Weather Underground Organization (WUO)” “Weathermen” issued a “Declaration of a State of War against the United States government, and adopted fake identities. WUO terrorist leader Bernardine Rae Ohrnstein (aka Bernardine Dohrn) wrote in the WUO terrorist Declartion of War that: “Revolutionary violence is the only way.” (This is how the sickness of violence of affects the mind and spirit: Bernardine Dohrn also praised the Tate-LaBianca murders by Charles Manson murders in 1969.)
Anarcho-Communist terrorists of the WUO were identified, however, during a failed terrorist operation, when three of the terrorist were killed while building a bomb that was intended for a terrorist attack on Fort Dix, New Jersey to kill U.S. Army soldiers. (If the WUO terrorist attack on Fort Dix had been successful, it would have killed 100 people.)
The WUO terrorist group claimed dozens of bombings and terrorist attacks during 1969 through 1977, including bombings in: Chicago police bombing (1969), Chicago Haymarket police bombing (1969), New York City police department bombing (1970), San Francisco police bombing (1970), Judge Murtagh house firebombing (1970), National Guard Association Building bombing in Washington DC (1970), Bank of America NYC bombing (1970), Queens court bombing (1970), U.S. Capitol bombing (1971), Office of California Prisons in Sacramento and San Francisco bombing (1971), MIT bombing (1971), New York Department of Corrections in Albany, New York bombing (1971), Pentagon bombing in Washington D.C. (1972), 103rd Police Precinct in New York bombing (1973), ITT headquarters buildings in New York City and Rome, Italy bombing (1973), U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare offices in San Francisco bombing (1974), Office of the California Attorney General bombing (1974), Gulf Oil’s Pittsburgh headquarters bombing (1974), Anaconda Corporation bombing (1974), State Department bombing (1975), Offices of Dept. of Defense in Oakland bombing (1975), Puerto Rican bank in NYC bombing (1975), Kennecott Corporation bombing (1975), California Senator office bomb plot (1977).
Due to prosecutorial misconduct with FBI COINTELPRO illegal searches in collecting evidence, the leaders of the WUO terrorists mostly escaped accountability. WUO leader Bernardine Dohrn pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated battery and bail jumping, for which she was fined $1,500 and given three years probation. Ms. Dohrn served less than one year in prison for refusing to testify against another WUO terrorist regaring a bank robbery. WUO co-leader Bill Ayers was not prosecuted. The cost of maintaining a law enforcement focus at the FBI was that future Anarcho-Communist terrorists were given a lesson that the U.S. government would allow such terrorist bombings to go on, without consequences and accountability. This remains the root of the continuing degradation of law and order in America today. WUO leader Bill Ayers told the New York Times that “I don’t regret setting bombs,” and viewed his terrorist acts as “symbolic acts of extreme vandalism.” WUO leader Bill Ayers was and remains married to WUO co-leader Bernardine Dohrn. According to Wikipedia, WUO leader Bernardine Dohrn “now serves on the board of numerous human rights committees.”
Once again, let us reflect on how the Vietnam War ended. It was not achieved by Anarchist WUO terrorist bombings, violence, criminal acts, and hate. This political change was achieved by peaceful political protest, and political decisions in America’s representative democracy. What did the Anarchist WUO terrorist acts achieve in this area? The only thing such terrorist violence achieved was undermining the legitimate efforts by peaceful protesters by linking concerns on these issues with such anti-democracy hate and violence. The WUO terrorism did not progress these areas, but actually worked to delay progress, and such Anarchist addiction to violence to overthrow the U.S. government continued even AFTER direct U.S. military involvement ending in August 15, 1973, with the last few Americans in South Vietnam removed in April 30, 1975.
——————–
(3) Anarchist Cynaide on Chicago Subway and Mass Power Outages.
In 2002, Chicago police discovered (largely by accident) an Anarchist terrorist plot to use cyanide poison gas in the Chicago subway, organized by Wisconsin’s Joseph Daniel Konopka, who called himself “Dr. Ch@os.” Konopka used Internet chat rooms to recruit supporters, and held meetings at a location near Green Bay, Wisconsin. Konopka called his Anarchist terror associates the “Realm of Chaos” and stated that he had committed 50 acts of damaging power substations and communication facilities. Chicago police found that Konopka had a 1 1/4 pounds of cyanide compounds in a Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) blue line tunnel. He was never charged with any terrorist crimes, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges for 11 felonies, initially receiving a prison sentence of 23 years, but an appeals court threw out a conviction on arson and so he remained imprisoned for 13 years for the cyanide plot at ADX Florence supermax prison, Fremont County, Colorado. Anarchist Dr. Ch@os is scheduled for release in two years on August 24, 2019. From his prison cell, Anarchist terrorist Dr. Ch@os calls for “rational anarchists” to “capture” technology to be used to “transcend regimes and borders.”
Dr. Ch@os’ Anarchist terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st century was indicative of a new resurgence in Anarchist terrorism in America, with Anarchists organizing by using the Internet and social media. Now Anarchists openly promote use of baseball bats in the street as “mainstream” support for terrorism and violence, with very few voices in the American human rights community willing to speak out and object to such “normalization” of Anarchist terrorism.
——————–
(4) 21st Century Anarchist Terrorist Bombings and Threats.
Anarchist bombings have continued but thus far were usually on a smaller scale in the early 21st century. Such anarchist terrorist bombings were rarely recognized as “acts of terrorism” by the U.S. mainstream media, and usually relegated to local press reports, which would lose interest after one or two reports, with minimal to know follow-up. Major U.S. cities (New York City, Portland) have typically been targets of random, small-scale Anarchist terrorist bombings, usually with few arrests. Once again, a pattern of a failure to take Anarchist terrorism seriously and hold violent individuals accountable on a regular basis become a routine practice, and sent the wrong signal to Anarchists that such terror acts would go without punishment, further emboldening an entrenched pattern of Anarchist violence in the United States. Bombings at Starbucks coffee shops and McDonalds restaurants causing mainly property damage receive little press and media coverage, and are quickly forgotten. As we have seen in other Anarchist acts of terrorism, such violence has not changed or stopped chains or franchises of restaurants, coffee shops, or other businesses. Such Anarchist terrorism has achieved only thunderstorms of senseless violence, hate, and fear, but like thunderstorms in life, the American people wait out storm and go on with their lives.
Some Anarchists rationalized firebomb terrorism against Starbucks coffee shops in America, based on Starbucks CEO’s Howard Shultz support for Israel. With virtually no institutional memory of such Anarchist terrorist attacks, including Anti-Semitic rationalization by some Anarchists in attacks on Starbucks coffee shops, there is no one holding such same Anarchists accountable for credibility, when they would later claim to be “Anti-Fascist.”
In some cases, Anarchist terrorists only needed to make terrorist threats of bombs to be effective. As we reported in 2005, a flier released and attritubed to the Anarchist Black Cross Boston made a series of threats to Boston areas organizations as a part of “protests” against the Iraq War. As the Boston Herald reported, “The flier, released by Anarchist Black Cross Boston, goes on to list the address of Boston Police Headquarters in Roxbury, FBI headquarters in Government Center, the IRS building and a military recruiting center on Summer Street. There is also a list of corporate sites, including Fidelity, the Gap, Niketown, and Raytheon’s Waltham location.” With relative anonymity, the continued use of masks among Anarchist Black Bloc protesters, Anarchists have been able to have limited scrutiny as potential terrorist threats to Americans, while too much of U.S. political media has gone from largely ignoring Anarchists to openly defending and promoting them.
Violent Anarchists in the past typically used other notable events for them as a basis for terrorism and violence. One that has been regularly used by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists is May Day (May 1), which is widely celebrated by Communists and radical organizations as an inspiration to insurrection.
Cleveland Anarchist Terror Plot to Blow Up Bridge, Attack Community
In 2012, such Anarchists plotted terrorist attacks to destroy a Cleveland bridge, and also planned attacks for hotels and banks in Cleveland, Ohio. In addition, the “May Day” terrorist plots also made references to possibly attack hospitals in Cleveland. The Anarchist terrorists finally made their primary target a bridge used by the public. This plot was foiled on May 1, 2012, when five American Anarchist terrorists were arrested for a terrorist bomb plot in Cleveland, planned to be an Anarchist “May Day” bombing. Three of the Anarchist terror plotters were sentenced to prison for a bomb plot to blow up the Route 82 bridge looking from Brecksville across the Cuyahoga River to Sagamore Hills. Another man pleaded guilty to a related charge, with four sentenced to prison, and one evaluated for mental competency. Cleveland’s WKSU news reported on November 30, 2012 that: “the men thought of themselves as anarchists and wanted to topple the busy commuter bridge to demonstrate their anger with corporations and government.” The Anarchist terrorists planted eight packs of plastic explosives strapped to a concrete abutment at the bottom of one of the bridge’s pillars. The Anarchists terrorists obtained a code for a bomb detonator to blow up the Cleveland bridge that would have killed many Ohio Americans, but the Anarchists were using a fake explosive that was provided by an FBI informant. The Anarchists were frustrated members of the Occupy protest, which were disappointed that Occupy had not pursued a sufficiently insurrectionist direction.
In addition, the criminal complaint for these Cleveland terrorists stated that they also planned to make bombs to be used throughout Cleveland, and sought to use “The Anarchist Cook Book,” a long time terrorist bomb-making reference guide. The federal complaint also stated that the terrorists were considered attacks on hotels and banks in Cleveland, and also wanted to move on after the Cleveland terrorist attacks to firebombs involving the NATO summit in Chicago. As it turned out, other Anarchist terrorists had already made terror plots for Chicago.
Chicago Anarchist Terror Plot on Attack NATO Summit, President Obama Campaign Office, Police
The history of Anarchist terrorist plots in America in the early 21st century also included May 2012 (post “May Day”) terror plots for Chicago, just after a separate Anarchist terror group was plotting attacks to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, Ohio. The Chicago terrorists, who were called the “NATO 3,” Brian Church, Jared Chase, and Brent Betterly, were sentenced to prison for felony charges of possession of an incendiary device, as well as charges of mob action. Brian Church was from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Jared Chase was from Keene, New Hampshire, and Brent Vincent Betterly, was reportedly from Oakland Park, Florida. This is yet another case of violent Anarchists traveling to plot terror in other parts of the country.
According to the initial May 19, 2012 criminal complaint against the three Anarchists, Brian Church, Jared Chase, and Brent Betterly are “self-proclaimed anarchists, and members of the ‘Black Bloc’ group,’ who traveled together from Florida to the Chicago area in preparation for committing terrorist acts of violence and destruction directed against different targets in protest to the May 2012 NATO Summit, then U.S. President Barack Obama, and the Chicago Police Department (CPD). Specifically, plans were made to destroy police cars and attack four CPD stations with destructive devices, in an effort to undermine the police response to the conspirators’ other planned actions for the NATO Summit. Some of the targets included the Campaign Headquarters of U.S. President Barack Obama, the personal residence of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, and certain downtown financial institutions.” The complaint also stated that Brian Church “stated that he wanted to recruit four groups of four co-conspirators (for a total of sixteen people) to conduct the raids, and that reconnaissance had already been conducted at CPD Headquarters located at 3510 South Michigan Avenue for the purposed of a planned attack. As part of their effrots, the defendents also possessed and/or constructed improvised explosive-incendiary devices and various types of dangerous weapons (including a mortar gun, swords, hunting bow, throwing stars, and knives with brass-knockle handles), as well as police counter-measures such as pre-positioned shields, assault vest, gas mask equipment, and other gear to help hide their identify durint their operations. At one point in the investigation, church stated that he also wanted to buy several assault rifles, and indicated that if a police officer was going to point a gun at him, then Church would be ‘pointing one back’ at the cop.”
The complaint also stated that on “May 8, 2012, as part of their pre-NATO Summit preparations, the defendants resided in an apartment, along with other individuals, located at the three-flat residence on 1013 West 32nd Street, Chicago, Illinois. During the investigation, topics of converstaion by the conpirators included committing acts of violence in other jurisdictions, planning escape routes, discussing and conducting late-night training sessions for engaging in combat with the police, and avoiding detection by law enforcement’s use of electronic surveillance, FBI informants, and forensic evidence. In one conversation, a defendant stated that ‘the city doesn’t know what it’s in for’ and that ‘after NATO, the city will never be the same’ as before.” “On May 16, 2012, Church, Chase, Betterly and others engaged in detailed conversations about the preparation of numerous incendiary devices known as ‘Molotov Cocktails’ made out of empty beer bottles that were filled with gasonline and fitted with fusing. During these activities, Chase obtained gasoline at the BP Gas Station located at 31st and Halted, and then returned to the safe house at 1013 West 32nd Street. Upon return, the defendants using gloves began to make the Molotov Cocktails and cut bandanas as timing devices. During construction, Church and Chase assisted in the preparation and Betterly gave instructions on how to properly assemble and use the Molotov Cocktails. While the Molotov Cocktails were being poured, church discussed the NATO Summit, the protests, and how the Molotove Cocktails would be used for violence and intimidating acts of destruction. At one point, Church asked if others had ever seen a ‘cop on fire’ and discussed throwing one of the Molotov Cocktails into the 9th District Police station. Upon completion of several of the devices, plans were then discussed to load the Molotov Cocktails into a car loaded near the residence.”
Given the immiment threat to public safety, surveillance officers obtained a search warrant for the Chicago Police Department, and the police, FBI, and U.S. Secret service found the weapons, completed Molotov Cocktail fire bombs, pipe bomb instructions, Chicago area map, computer, recording and video devices, and assault vest. Despite the terror plot, the Chicago 3 Anarchist terrorists were convicted on explosives, arson, and mob violence charges. Judge Thaddeus Wilson gave them sentences of five to eight years in prison, and stated “No matter what they do in other countries, Americans will not stand for the throwing of Molotov cocktails at police in the streets.”
Anarchist Brian “Jacob” Church was released from prison in November 2014. Anarchist Brent Betterly was released from prison in April 2015. Anarchist Jared Chase, now Maya Chase, remains in prison at Pontiac Correctional Institute, and with additional charges of violence against police, he is now set to be released in June 2019.
There is widespread discussion on social media that one of the members of the three arrested Anarchist terrorists has gone back to active violence. This discussion is based on photographs and comparison of facial and distinctive tattoo markings. R.E.A.L. is aware of this conjecture, but without any hard facts, there is nothing to report at this time.
Another tactic for Anarchist terrorist efforts has to co-opt environment concerns and encourage violence, as we have seen with extremists like the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) between 1997 and 2009, largely using various tactics of arson and firebombs to attack and destroy business, government, and housing facilities. While such terrorist attacks were largely in California and Washington State, there were attacks in Oregon, Maine, Michigan, Connecticut, Alaska, New Mexico, Alabama, Indiana, Arkansas, Ohio, North Carolina, and Maryland. Periodically, Anarchist and firebomb attacks that went array, resulted in identifying suspects, and arrests, as in the Lincoln, Auburn and Sutter Creek series of 15 firebombs in California. But many others required extended investigations, as the indictment of four ELF members for firebombs in Michigan 8 YEARS after the attack, with a significant sentence of one ELF member, Marie Mason, was sentenced to 22 years in prison, 10 years after the attack. But over the years, many firebomb attacks have been ignored as “merely” vandalism by the media, and law enforcement has had limited effectiveness in linking such attacks to political terrorism. Such ELF efforts were supported and promoted by numerous Anarchist extremist sites on the Internet, including Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) extremist support organizations. In some cases, the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Sacramento, California investigated Anarchist-linked ELF arson attacks, and offered rewards.
Once again, what did such Anarchist terrorism achieve to promote environmental causes? The only thing such Anarchist terrorism achieved was undermining legitimate, peaceful, and responsible efforts to achieve environmental change through cooperative and democratic processes. Environmental progress over decades has been achieved despite, not because of such Anarchist violence.
——————–
(6) Anarchists Frustrated with Occupy Protests Call for More “Insurrectionist” Goals.
During 2011-2012, American protesters challenged the conditions of economic justice in the United States formed a series of “Occupy” protests, starting at Wall Street in New York City, and spreading to 600 cities in the U.S., as well as global protesters in 951 cities in 82 nations. The focus changed with various protest activities in different areas and participants, but the overall focus was the protesters views of economic and social inequality. The initial protest activity, “Occupy Wall Street,” resulted in protesters taking over part of New York City’s Zuccotti Park. The argument that protesters made was that financial inequality by a “1 percent” was harming the social equality for the “99 percent.” While the Occupy protests included illegal acts, the majority of activities were non-violent. Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists were frustrated with this, and sought a different, more “insurrectionist” approach. Among the values that the Occupy National Gathering (NatGat) sought to agree on was: “peace, nonviolence.”
Some Occupy-related violence did occur, including incitement by Anarchists within the organization that sought to move the Occupy protests towards a more insurrectionist direction. This included Occupy clashes with police in Oakland, California, in January 2012, at Frank Ogawa Plaza which resulted in 400 arrested; witnesses blamed Black Bloc Anarchists for inciting the Oakland violence. A 2012 photograph of the Oakland violence shows individuals dressed in the typical Anarchist Black Bloc black clothing and bandanna scrafs breaking down fencing at the plaza. In addition, some frustrated Anarchists formerly with Occupy movement also went on to plot (foiled) terrorist bombing attacks in Cleveland and Chicago.
Among the others frustrated by Occupy movements failure to adopt “insurrectionist” goals were Anarchist associated with Natasha Lennard. “Antifa” activist and media writer Natasha Lennard asked on July 12, 2012, “After National Gathering, Is There Room for Insurrectionary Anarchism in Occupy?”. Those on the political left who respected such protests should pay attention to the real message from the violent Anarchist movement. As “Antifa” activist and media writer Natasha Lennard wrote, Anarchists were disappointed about the failure of the Occupy protests to represent an opportunity “where insurrectionary action could be fostered.” One of Natasha Lennard’s fellow Anarchists in Brooklyn told her that Occupy was “counterproductive” because “it was gutted of any insurrectionary potential.” Natasha Lennard wrote: “For many anarchists who participated in and organized Occupy actions, the idea of protesting money in politics or free education was always comparatively unimportant.” She pointed out that while “the Occupy struggles provided a space to insert insurrectionary ‘methods’,”the failure (per the Anarchists) to have “escalation” by supports of the Occupy Movement, made the protests into nothing more than a “wasteland” for “insurrectionary anarchists.”
This should provide a lesson to those who believe that Anarchists and Antifa activist Natasha Lennard’s support for “Antifa” as “anti-racist;” this is a failure to understand the real priorities and objective of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist exttemists. Anarchist extremists do not seek “progress” in America, they only seek “insurrection.” This has been the case for the past 100 years in the U.S., no matter what cause or unrest the Anarchists attach themselve to, if the unrest does not produce “insurrection,” then it is a “waste” to them. This is because the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists have different targets; they do not support our shared human rights and democratic values, but only have a singular end goal of violent insurrection.
The Anarchists within the remnants of the “Occupy” movement are increasingly gaining support for the cause of violence and hate. In California, in February 2017, “Occupy Oakland” promoted the violence of the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” movement, writing “we will control the streets,” and “We will dismantle the state. This is war.” Less than five years, such calls for public violence and riots by Anarchist individuals within the Occupy movement are a far cry from the 2012 Occupy National Gathering which stated its support for “peace, non-violence,” with Occupy groups on social media openly promoting “Antifa” mob violence.
——————–
(7) Anarchist Terrorist Plots Often Obscured in Media Reports.
Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism is not only the “left-wing versus right-wing” distinction that many in the U.S. media want to simplistically portray it. Anarchist and anti-government terrorism blurs in many areas, and with government and media organizations focusing on releasing only information that supports a narrative they support, it is difficult to determine how much conflation between Anarchist and Anti-Government groups is going on. An additional problem in the 21st century is the difficulty in getting accurate information about Anarchist violence and terrorism, with a U.S. media that has become increasingly sympathetic to such views. In 2009, a Democratic Party HQ in Denver, Colorado was attacked, largely leading the media to suspect “right-wing” violence, when in fact, it turned out to be an Anarchist making such attacks. In 2012, reports of an “anarchist militia group” based out of U.S. Army Fort Stewart, Georgia, with members sporting Anarchist symbol tattoos, plotting attacks to overthrow the U.S. government, according to Georgia prosecutors in the case. The group was discovered after its leaders murdered two of its members about its silence. But the prosecution remained focused on the two murders, with reports about terror plots, bomb materials, and other information, including a reported assassination plot against U.S. President Barack Obama, with details never made available to the public.
But a consistent and coherent view of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorist and violent threats remains difficult to discern, with the combination of the normalization of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence infilitrating many large protest activities, and the increasingly willing of the U.S. media to shield or, in some cases, openly praise such violence and terrorism. While some members of the political media have believed that they could “leverage” such anarchist violence to damage political and governmental bodies they disagree with, the reality is failing to challenge such violent and hate has only undermined the integrity and credibility in the media.
——————–
(8) Anarchist Terrorism Glamorization by Film Industry.
Anarchist terrorism and violence also became increasingly glamorized by Hollywood writers and producers in major films by writers, actors, and artists, with a practice of portraying authorities figures as “fascist,” and thus legitimizing and normalizing acts of Anarchist violence against them. In 2006, the “V for Vendetta” glamorized Anarchist terrorism, which would inspire young Anarchists for many years to come. In the “V for Vandetta film,” the Anarchist terrorist “hero” is responsible for stabbings, murders, and leads terrorist bombings around London, including the destruction of Parliament and Downing Street. (It is no small irony that Time/Warner, Inc.’s Warner Brothers used this Anarchist normalization film to generate over $190M in capitalist revenue.) This Warner Brothers effort led to an even more widespread popular use of the Guy Fawkes for Anarchist to disguise themselves. In 2013, the 1919 Anarchist bombings across the United States were portrayed in another film, “No God, No Master.” Not surprisingly, the film version on some of the 1919 Anarchist terrorist attacks seeks to re-write history and portray the terrorists with sympathy and their victims as villains, conveniently leaving out the innocents killed and injured in such terror acts.
——————–
(9) Anarchist Terrorists Adopt Black Bloc Tactics.
During the 1980s, Anarchists in Europe began using a strategy called a “Black Bloc,” which is a method of anonymous riots and protests, by wearing all black clothing, scarves, sunglasses, ski masks, and motorcycle helmets. This approach to Anarchist violence became more visible in 1999, when Anarchist Black Bloc tactics were used in the Seattle, Washington riots outside of the World Trade Organization (WTO). During the riots, police and WTO representatives were physically and violently attacked by the Anarchists. The riots were called “N30,” based on the November 30, 1999 date, and Anarchist terrorists in a Black Bloc formation began smashing windows between Pike Street from 6th Avenue. The Black Bloc violence encouraged other non-violent protesters to join in the terrorist attacks of vehicles and buildings, and the police became overwhelmed by the number of the rioters. Police declared a 50 block area for “no protest”, and curfew, by the National Guard was called in to end the violent insurrection. Anarchist terrorists found the violence to be a “victory,” by adapting new methods to recruit otherwise non-violent protesters to join into fevered Anarchist terrorist violence as part of a group effort against law enforcement and representative government authority. In 2000, Anarchist extremists used another major Black Bloc operations against the against the IMF in Washington DC, Festival De La Pueblo March in Boston in 2002, and the siege of the Lewiston Armory in Maine, 2003. This would become one of the new tactics of Anarchist operations.
With the use of Black Bloc organization tactics, Anarchist terrorists could now hide within any public protest activity, protected by the police and free speech, and by using peaceful protesters as the equivalent to “human shields,” go out and commit violence, incite riots, and then slip away, while the police and law enforcement felt paralyzed to effectively act. While such Anarchist Black Bloc violence and riots were less dramatic in terms of being life-threatening, Anarchist terrorists found this to be a tactic which would allow them to continue to spread a regular series of attacks, without meaningful consequences. U.S. law enforcement has been mainly interested in restoring the peace, and not arresting those “human shield” of peaceful protesters caught up in the Anarchist terrorist riot. Law enforcement has also been understandably concerned about “over-reaction” to such violence, after the decades of WUO terrorism went without consequence due to prosecutorial misconduct.
In Europe, such Anarchist Black Bloc attacks happen during every G20 event, and in the United States such Anarchist Black Bloc attacks frequently happen during conservative and Republican national events. Recent U.S. Presidents (both Obama and Trump) have been threatened in Europe by such Anarchist Black Bloc events.
Anarchist terrorists’ weapon of choice migrated from bombs to baseball bats, which could be readily purchased, untraceable, not illegal, and allowed them commit violence and disappear into a crowd. The United States of America has seen such Anarchist terror on a routine basis from the Anarchist Black Bloc groups, and from the perspective that it has become so commonplacee, the question as to who exactly the Anarchists are “terrorizing” is a legitimate question. Basically every year, we see Anarchist Black Bloc terrorist smashing windows, destroying police vehicles, throwing molotov cocktail fire bombs, throwing gas bombs, starting arson fires, and attacking the public, and by today, it is becoming a routine occurance.
——————–
(10) Anarchists Infiltration of Protest Groups Expands Reach and Recruitment for Violence.
In 2009, the DHS reported that “Many leftwing extremists use the tactic of direct action to inflict economic damage on businesses and other targets to force the targeted organization to abandon what the extremists deem objectionable. Direct actions range from animal releases, property theft, vandalism, and cyber attacks—all of which extremists regard as nonviolent—to bombings and arson.” The DHS reported that Anarchist extremists “frequently advocate criminal actions of varying scale and scope to accomplish their goals,” and DHS identifed some of the Anarchist extremist groups as Crimethinc, the Ruckus Society, and Recreate 68.
But during the early 21st century, and especially over the past 10 years, Anarchist extremist and terrorist movements have profligated across the Internet and social media, with minimal resistance, largely because many of the organizations focused on identifying terrorist and extremist groups either have a focus on what they consider “right-wing” extremists, which are actually racist and Nazi groups, or on religious extremist movements. A coherent, organized, and responsible tracking of Anarcho-Communist extremist and terrorism is largely lacking, and of absolutely no interest to the U.S. mainstream media, which mostly considers Anarchist violence and terrorism as either “harmless” or even “positive.” The U.S. mainstream media has failed to grasp that the continuing underming of law and order also undermines the ability of legitimate state authority to protect American human rights, and has failed to appreciate the anti-democracy message of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists.
Furthermore, by Anarchist extremists co-opting peaceful protest movements by their use of Black Bloc and violent tactics, Anarchists found a new way to strike at the United States, its government, and its people, to maximize new recruits and not be held accountable for their acts of violence. During the early 21st century, political events, presence of U.S. government leaders, World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings, International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings, business activities, and the Iraq War were regular uses of Anarchist Black Block violence. In Washington DC, Anarchists attacked local businesses in the Georgetown area, and workers, due to an IMF meeting in Washington DC. While DC businesses tried to board up their windows, extremists attacking the businesses included injuring one woman worker for Abercrombie and Fitch store, by hitting her in the head with a brick.
Woman Holding Bloodied Head After Anarchist Terrorist Brick Attack in Washington D.C., October 2007, Channel 5 News
But the U.S. media increasingly gave little critical coverage of such Anarchist activities within protest marches, and the random Anarchist violence continued to become “normalized” as “routine” by both the media and law enforcement. Did such Anarchist violence change any globalist organizations and functions? History will show that such Anarchist terrorism, violence, and criminal acts achieved nothing in actual change in globalism or corporate responsibility. All such Anarchists achieved was to de-legitimize protest in the minds of some who witnessed their violence and contempt for law, democracy, and shared human rights and dignity.
Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists have also used political party national conventions in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, as organizing, recruiting, and training events in the United States, by using and infiltrating political protests for random acts of violence, Black Blocs, and using disaffection of protesters with major political candidates to try to recruit new members to their anti-democracy cause. This includes targeting both the Republican National Convention (RNC) and the Democratic National Convention (DNC). In the 2000 RNC and DNC conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, Anarchist terrorists used urine- and acid-filled Super Soaker guns on police, lighting fires and blocking traffic. The 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles was used by Anarchists not only for violence, but also for organizing a “North American Anarchist Conference” to organize and recruit for future violence. During the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Anarchist extremist threats included those by the Anarchist the Bl(A)ck Tea Society group that sought “direct actions to confront the Democratic National Convention in Boston,” and “No DNC: finish the american revolution.” At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Anarchist extremist Black Blocs led violent protests, and attacked police. Anarchist extremist group Crimethinc wrote that the Anarchist violence at “the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions constituted the most significant nationwide effort anarchists have undertaken to organize militant action in the US in several years.” Police arrested some Anarchist terrorists with pipe bombs who planned to use them at the 2008 Republican Convetion. In 2012, Anarchists planned to use acid-filled eggs as part of violence at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in Charlotte and Tampa, although alert law enforcement was able to better control Anarchist violence at the 2012 conventions. At the Democratic National Convention, violent Anarchist sought to attack using “urine-filled eggs, acid-filled Christmas ornaments, and water guns containing urine, all meant to be used against the law enforcement security forces throughout the city.” At each American national political convention, Anarchist terrorists have gained more and more training in violence, knowledge of law enforcement tactics, and have started to obtain police planning documents and spread them online to better organize attacks on the democratic and political processes.
The U.S. war in Iraq was a regular cover and recruitment for Anarchist terrorist and Black Bloc violence, while infiltrating and co-opting anti-war protests by otherwise peaceful protesters. Any major anti-war demonstration became an opportunity for Anarchist organizations to issue Black Bloc violent groups into the streets, often in to as many as 25-50 cities simultaneously in one day. With police inability to recognize Anarchist terrorist activity among the protesters, too frequently Anarchist terrorists managed to commit acts of violence without consequence and to then hide among the protest crowds. Such Anarchist efforts were more than simply scattered acts of violence; they also provided opportunities to organize, train, and practice coordinated Anarchist violence. While Middle East wars provided terrorist training opportunities, America and Europe’s struggles and failure to have an effective “War of Ideas” to manage violent Anarchist infiltration of anti-war and other protests, has allowed national protests to become Anarchist Black Bloc violence training opportunities. Just as with the Vietnam War, the unpopular Iraq War was not settled due to the extremist violence of Anarchist terrorists and criminals, but was decided by the democratic processes that the American people use for their political system. The real goal of such Anarchist violence and terrorism has been to use opportunities of political and social unrest to promote an end to U.S. representative democracy and its government.
——————–
(11) Anarchist Terrorists Redefine Racial Strife as “Fascist” Challenge to Legitimize Non-State Violence.
Over the past 10 years, a key effort by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists in recruitment and rationalization of acts of violence has been in arguing that such political and terrorist violence was to fight “racism,” which remains a legitimate challenge in the U.S. although the degree of racist activity has actually significantly reduced over the past 50 years, thanks to the sober and responsible work of non-violent human and civil rights activists and government officials. Those who actually worked for real achievements in American civil rights and racial justice know that it was not achieved with violence and division, but by compassion and integrity. Such rights and dignity were not improved with an upraised fist, but with an outstretched hand. Americans shared the democratic vision of non-violent leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr.
With the growth of ubiquitious instant hand-held video, using a combination of new social media tools Twitter (2006), YouTube (2005), and the new iPhone (2007), injustices that were not previously documented and widely shared among the public, could now be instantly distributed among what would be called “social media” to mass audiences. In August 2014, a police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri of an 18-year old black man, Michael Brown, launched massive protests, and also a demand for by those in support of racial justice for law enforcement accountability and responsibility in using violence appropriately. Protesters organized around a Twitter term (hashtag) of #BlackLivesMatters, and concerned Americans began to follow and document other acts of excessive police violence, which now could be instantly recorded, documented, and shared to a mass audience, without the mainstream media’s involvement. Additional police violence in Cleveland, OH, Cincinnati, OH, Baltimore, MD, Baton Rouge, LA, Chicago, IL, New York City, NY, among others, led to nationwide campaigns calling for racial justice and reviews of police use of violence involving black Americans. Most of the protests and concerned citizens involved in these were individuals that were genuinely and legimitately concerned about abuse of authority and persecution of black Americans, and were working to promote racial justice and respect for all Americans. R.E.A.L. shared and promoted such concerns for racial justice, as part of our members’ many, many decades of support for racial equality, justice, and human rights in America.
But just as with the Iraq War protests, Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists sought to try to infiltrate and manipulate actitivies during protests for their own anti-democracy and anti-Human Rights agenda. Furthermore, Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists sought to use such public concern and unrest for extremist recruitment, and discouraging concerned individuals from supporting democracy, and rejecting the authority of state law enforcement, which they urged the public to consider as “fascists.” Anarchists and Anacho-Communists sought to portray such public disturbances, excessive police violence, and killings of black Americans during police activity, as a rise of new “fascist” state within the United States. By Anarchists portraying the challenge as a “fight against fascists,” they sought to legitimize and normalize violence against police and other figures of authority.
Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists sought to de-legimitimize the use of state-sanctioned violence in law, law enforcement, and public order. With efforts to try to undermine the authority and the right of law enforcement to use violence to maintain the law, the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists offered another alternative to the public: “AntiFascist” vigilante violence by Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists. Not only were such extremists seeking to end the authority of law enforcement, they also sought to establish and Anarcho-Communist led “Anti-Fascist” movement as an alternative method of “enforcing justice.”
——————–
(12) Anarco-Communists and the History of the “Anti-Fascist” (Antifa) Movement.
It is wrong to allow the public to be deceived that such Anarcho-Communist movements, as the so-called “Anti-Fascist Action” (“Antifa”) are nothing more than another “anti-racist” movement. That is not true. Anarchist terrorism has a history of over 100 years terrosits attacks on U.S. and U.S. democracy, and violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists have adopted concerns over racist views to promote their own ideology.
The history of the “Anti-Fascist” movement began in the 1920s, with the combined efforts of Anarchists, Communists, and Socialists in rejecting Benito Mussolini in fascist Italy. The Italian Communists began with non-violent activities, but the Italian Anarchists organized repeated bombings against the Italian fascist community. Italian Anarchists were also the source of Foreign Terrorist Organization involvement in bring Anarchist terrorism to the United States. During Nazi Hitler’s rise to power, similar Anti-Fascist efforts developed in Spain, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The German Anti-Fascist organization was known as “Antifaschistische Aktion,” and was a predominantly Communist violent organization, which physically attacked and challenged Nazis in Nazi Germany. The Antifaschistische Aktion group was frequently known as “Antifa.” The original German Antifaschistische Aktion (“Antifa”) logo had two red (Communist) flags.
The concept of an “Antifa” organization was revived in Germany in the 1980s by Anarchists, Communists, and Anarcho-Communists, which sought block modern Neo-Nazi rallies. The modern Antifaschistische Aktion group has no connection to the 1930s group, other than adopting it banner of two flags, and changing it from two Red (Communist) flags to one Red (Communist) and one Black (Anarchist) flag in the logo, symbolizing the “Antifa’s” commitment to Anarcho-Communism.
For context within the United States, this European “Antifa”-based organization and violent approach is very different from the U.S. historical Civil Rights and legacy of effective and peaceful Anti-Racist movements, which have dealt with white supremacist and white nationalist hate in America. But increasingly, Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist extremists have sought to redefine the struggle in promoting racial equality and peacefully rejecting hate, as instead a violent struggle of being “Against Fascism,” based on the European model and history.
Within the United States, American Anarcho-Communists have adapated the modern German flag of Antifaschistische Aktion, and simply translated this into English as “Antifascist Action,” as an American version of “Antifa.” The Americanized version of Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” was then integrated as part of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist infiltration of American political and civil rights protests, with a new black and red flag banner to further recruit new followers to anti-democracy Anarcho-Communist views. Some groups in Washington DC and events calling for or engaged in violence have modified the “Antifa” logo to have two Anarchist (black) flags. Several groups Portland-based “Rose City Antifa,” “Antifa Today” reversed the order of the “Antifa” flag to show the Anarchist (black) on top and the Communist (red) on the bottom.
Anarchist activist Mark Bray has described for Vox that this American “Antifa” is led by “anarchists and communists who are way outside the traditional conservative-liberal spectrum,” confirming the Anarcho-Communist vision of the American version of “Antifa.” Anarchist activist Mark Bray also described such “Antifa” Anarcho-Communists as having “no allegiance to liberal democracy.” As Anarchist activist Mark Bray also told Vox, “remember that antifa isn’t concerned with free speech or other liberal democratic values.” Antifa activist and media writer Natasha Lennard also challenge respect for democracy and human rights. On January 19, 2017, she condemned those who would respect law and free speech, and rejection of Antifa views of disruption and violence, saying a division should be made to reject: “when someone, in professed name of democracy, would sooner condemn or even imprison anti-fascist, anti-racist actors before they would see a ceremony affirming and buoying fascism meet with interference.” The next day, Natasha Lennard joined Anarchist Black Blocs in the Washington DC January 20 riots, and praised those assaulting Richard Spencer. She argues that the Antifa campaign is not based on “a rights framework,” and “[t]his is not a question of rights, it’s a question of justice.” On August 16, 2017, Natasha Lennard rationalized her Antifa support in attacking rights: “We’re not asking for Nazi speech rights to be curtailed. Antifa is not about asking.” The Anarchist and Anacho-Communist writers seek to rationalize their self-appointed authority to make up their own laws, and be the judge, jury, and punishers of other Americans, without regard to democracy, the law, and human rights. As Antifa” media writer Natasha Lennard writes in The Nation: “[t]his is not a question of rights, it’s a question of justice.”
A further detailed review of the Anarcho-Communist views of the American “Antifa” leaders shows that the threat is more than just a lack of “allegiance” to democracy, but an open and public REJECTION of representative democracy. It has no intentions of supporting peaceful Anti-Racist causes, “liberal” causes, the support of the U.S. Constituion, or “patriotic” views – all of which the American Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists clearly reject. While the Anarcho-Communists have allowed some to be deceived about their real intentions to help slowly recruit members to their cause, the misinformation about what “Antifa” actually represents has also become frustrating for some doctrinaire Anarchists and Anarcho-Communist groups, who have felt compelled to make it clear that “Antifa” does not represent American anti-racism and it does not support American democracy.
Anarchist groups such as Crimethinc have felt increasingly confident to reveal more of their real agenda, which is to attack and end democracy in America. Thoughtful Americans should give sober and serious thought as to the manipulation by Anarchist movements to incite Americans to move for insurrection against democracy itself. (Crimethinc was one of the Anarchist extremist groups in 2009 DHS report regarding Anarchist and extremist groups in a report on terrorist threats to the United States.)
In a recent statement by the Anarchist extremist group Crimethinc, the Anarchists attack democracy itself as an option in America: “Anarchism is one of the most thoroughgoing forms of opposition to fascism, in that it entails opposition to hierarchy itself. Virtually every framework that countenances hierarchy, be it democracy or ‘national liberation,’ enables old power imbalances like white supremacy and patriarchy to remain in place, hidden within the legitimacy of the prevailing structures.” To the Crimethinc Anarchists, they call for Americans “to cut to the root of things” – that is to abandon “the legitimacy” of the U.S. government and of DEMOCRACY itself. As the Anarchists at “Its Going Down” write: “Refining laws and electing politicians cannot dismantle white supremacy.” Such Anarhists and Anarcho-Communists do not seek political “allies,” but as “It’s Going Down” writes, they seek the overthrow and destruction of “the whole system.” The Anarchist “Its Going Down” site makes it clear in its article “The Liberal Myth of Free Speech” that it rejects “the lie of free speech.”
So Anarchist extremists have sough to persuade Americans that challenging racist fringe groups means rejecting democracy. This is the long-run strategy for Anarchists and Anarcho-Communist organizations, which have a goal to recruit more member for violent overthrow of the U.S. Government, businesses, and institutions in America.
Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists have manipulated too many in the public and the media to believe that the protests by such American “Antifa” are simply “anti-racist,” conveniently omitting the rest of story to mainstream media and those who might not be fully convinced, of the rest of the Anarcho-Communist extremist commitment to violence and rejection of democracy. Among the few in the U.S. political media to challenge such Antifa violence, The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart wrote “Antifa’s violent tactics have elicited substantial support from the mainstream left.” Beinart also wrote: “Antifa believes it is pursuing the opposite of authoritarianism. Many of its activists oppose the very notion of a centralized state. But in the name of protecting the vulnerable, antifascists have granted themselves the authority to decide which Americans may publicly assemble and which may not. That authority rests on no democratic foundation.”
Ignoring the evidence of Anarcho-Communist violence, as well as the Anarcho-Communist links to the so-called American “Antifa,” U.S. Today journalist Doug Stanglin, claimed that such “Antifa” was not violent. In an August 23, 2017 article, “What is antifa and what does the movement want?,” he wrote: “Members pointedly do not eschew violence but rather see themselves as engaging in ‘self-defense,’ protecting other protesters and primarily confronting neo-Nazis and white supremacists to deny them a platform to publicly spread their views.” Doug Stanglin writes that such “self-defense” violence (totally ignoring the 100 years of Anarchist terrorist violence and the numerous attacks by the new Anarcho-Commmunist “Antifa” is considered necessary to stop “fascism.” He quotes the Portland, Oregon-based Rose City Antifa’s Facebook page (May 24, 2017) prior to a violent Anarchist event in Portland: “We are unapologetic about the reality that fighting fascism at points requires physical militancy.”
USA Today’s Stanglin does not mention the history of violence, the calls by Antifa to burn down U.S. courts, the attacks by “Antifa” on the public, and the growing nexus between Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist acts of violence and terrorism, and the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign against law, government, and democracy itself.
Core Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists have selectively revealed their true objective on the destruction of representative democracy in America for a more selected group of those deceived that their “Antifa” campaign equals what Americans would understand as patriotic and Constitutional challenges to racism. They would begin to be more candid about their goals in overthrowing the U.S. government and subverting democracy as more campaigns gained greater media and public support. For the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists, a significant political change in the election of a new president became an opportunity for them to gain new followers, and to move from merely fringe terrorists to more aggressively working in the overthrow of the U.S. government and democratic processes.
The modern American Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign was provided a uniquely historical opportunity for expansion as a result of the 2016-2017 political unrest, and the decision by the U.S. political media to repeatedly use the term “fascist” to describe political figures it rejected. The 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and 2017 post-election period provided unparalleled openings for Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists to expand their Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign, by using the U.S. political media which was actively working to de-legitimize the 2016 election and the new administration. With the Washington Post and other mainstream media political pundits calling the new president a “fascist,” now Anarcho-Communists no longer had to wait for a random appearance of a fringe White Supremacists and Nazis to rationalize acts of violence.
By labeling the new government leader as a “fascist,” and by association anyone working for him, “working for a fascist,” the Anarcho-Communists now had a ready made straw-man argument for 24×7 continuous violent “direct action” by those in the “Antifa” campaign. Anything said or done by the new government would now become rationalization for Antifa violence and terrorism, based on claim that this was merely “self-defense” against a “fascist” government. Furthermore, any criticism or honest investigation into “Antifa” campaign violence by Anarcho-Communists would be rebutted with a ready critique, “do you support fascism?”
By the U.S. political media normalizing the slanderous use of the word “fascist,” this gave Anarcho-Communists a ready tactic to silence anyone who challenged or disagreed with their anti-democracy, anti-free speech authoritarianism.
The more the U.S. political media pursued extreme political partisan attacks against the new government as “fascist,” the more the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign, including its violence and terrorism became legitimized. It created a “perfect storm” to advance Anarcho-Communist violence, with too many human rights groups afraid of pointing out the truth on this violence, and a U.S. political media which became more concerned about challenging government leaders it did not like to stop and consider the consequences of enabling growing Anarcho-Communist violence and terrorism.
At the same time this was happening in 2016, DHS and FBI were recognizing “Antifa” as presenting a threat of “domestic terrorist violence.” According to a Politico report, “Federal authorities have been warning state and local officials since early 2016 that leftist extremists known as “antifa” had become increasingly confrontational and dangerous, so much so that the Department of Homeland Security formally classified their activities as ‘domestic terrorist violence,’ according to interviews and confidential law enforcement documents obtained by POLITICO.”
——————–
(13) Early Anarchist Use of “Antifa” Campaign for Violence in America.
Despite widespread U.S. political misperception, the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaigns in the U.S. did not begin in 2016 during political unrest or in 2014 after the Ferguson police violence. In fact, the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaigns had been active for some time in the early 21st century, but the U.S. mainstream media choose not to pay attention to this in its news reporting. Information on this is scattered and inconsistent due to the disinterest by mainstream media in most instances. But as Eli Lake has recently wrote for Bloomberg about the “Antifa” campaign, “[t]his movement in the U.S. has been around for decades.”
This is not a trivial point of history. There are those within the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists that have a propaganda lie that the political unrest in the U.S. during 2015-2017, particularly the past two years, is the nexus for its “Antifa” campaign. But this is simply a blantant lie, and it is documented that this is a lie. The objective of the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist propaganda lie is to normalize, rationalize, and legitimize their use of violence and hate, to those who are angry and frustrated due to political unrest. The Anarchists seeks to manipulate such anger to get Americans to lose their commitment to our rights and our democracy, and choose acts of violence and hate instead. The real goal of the Anarchists is to move such “Antifa” campaigners toward the real goal of the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists which is total national insurrection. They don’t want change; they want destruction of America.
R.E.A.L. noticed a particular uptake in “Antifa” violent activity in 2009 (8 years ago), but as we have previously reported such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence has been a threat to U.S. for over 100 years. R.E.A.L. volunteers challenging Hamas were targets of violence by Anarcho-Communists in 2009. We were aware of other groups calling themselves “Antifa” in October 2009 in Philadelphia, PA threatening other extremists. R.E.A.L reported on violent “Antifa” counterprotests in Los Angeles, CA in 2010, and in Philadelphia, PA in 2010.
We also have a clear proof point of “Antifa” violence in 2012 in Chicago, because this violence was significant and public enough that it could not be ignored by the media, although it was only Chicago media. In this case, the “Antifa” group also used the name “Anti-Racist Action (ARA).”
On May 19, 2012, a gang of “15 to 18” masked and hooded “antifascist” (“Antifa”) criminals attacked a restaurant “Ashford House” in Tinley Park, Cook County, Illinois near Chicago. The Chicago Tribune also described the Anarchists “Antifa” attack as “anti-racists” with the “Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement.” Their target was a group of white nationalists eating at the restaurant, but their terrorist attack included the general public. The masked “Antifa” thugs came in “wielding bats and hammers” (according to the Chicago Tribune) to attack the public and smash up the restaurant. The Chicago Tribune also reported: “A long-time waitress, who declined to give her name, said of the melee: ‘It was the scariest frickin’ day of my life.’ The woman later said outside the restaurant that she first noticed the group of victims in the parking lot around 12:30 p.m., milling around some cars with out-of-state plates. About 15 minutes later, the second waitress told the woman that there was a brawl in the restaurant. The woman said when she emerged, she saw the attacking group attacking patrons with bats and hammers. All the dishes and plates were knocked off the tables and smashed, and people were either lying on the ground bleeding or crouched behind tables, she said.” Mother Jones News reported (in 2017) that the terrorists used “baseball bats, police batons, hammers, and nunchucks” in attacking the public and the restaurant.
In addition to the “Antifa” criminals attacking those they identified as white nationalists, Mother Jones news reported that “[a]n 80-year-old woman celebrating her granddaughter’s high school graduation at a nearby table was also pushed to the floor. A retired cop who believed he was witnessing a terrorist attack used a chair to knock out one of the masked intruders. That’s when they ran off, dragging their dazed companion. In less than two minutes, the anti-racists had unleashed a flurry of destruction. A mosaic of smashed glass covered the floor.Blood polka-dotted the ceiling. Three people required medical care.”
R.E.A.L. has a provided link to a video excerpt of the attack. This should provide a clear vision of the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist campaign of violence represents.
Five were arrested from the group of masked criminal thugs, who arrived in cars with Indiana license plates (which is only way they were caught.) The five arrested and charged were Dylan Sutherland, Jason Sutherland, John Tucker, Cody Sutherland, and Alex Stuck. Some of the group claimed to be members of an “anti-racist” group, “Hoosier Anti-Racist Movement” (HARM). But research into their supporters provided a clearer part of the story. Jason Sutherland had a fund-raising site describing themselves as “five antifascists.” This was in the Spring of 2012. The criminals were support by “Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)” groups, who described them as “Antifa” and the “Tinley Park 5” (“TP5”). The five arrested Anarchist “Antifa” accepted a plea-deal for a reduced sentence, and all of them have now been released, and are publicly trying to maintain a “low profile” while on parole, with Jason Sutherland continuing in 2017 to tell the media they were fighting “a war” and that the public needs to “take sides.”
One of the “Antifa” TP5 supporters, which Mother Jones News calls “Telly,” likely for pseudonym “telephoneassasin,” has been working to help create the East Coast “Torch Antifa” network. The “Torch Antifa” has gone on to publicize other “Antifa” events and acts of violence, including a link to a May 2017 attack in Chicago, where “Known White Supremacist Tom Christensen Sent to Hospital by Antifa,” bragging that this man was “sent to the hospital in an ambulance following a lengthy meeting with the business end of several cue sticks.”
As previously mentioned, Anarchists viewed the Occupy movement as insufficiently violent and insurrectionary. So it was with these Anarchists. “Antifa” terrorist John Tucker, who as a cousin to the Sutherland brothers, told Mother Jones News that: “The feeling was that Occupy had been too moderate and unfocused.” So these Anarchists sought acts of violence. We have continued to see a pattern of violent attacks by such Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists, using any rationale of “injustice” as a larger goal to promote violence and attack our shared human rights. Such “Antifa” is not based on peaceful defiance and rejection of racism, but is based on its own hatred and calls for violence, which only perpetuate more hate and violence.
——————–
(14) Political Unrest Provides “Perfect Storm” to Advance Anarcho-Communist Violence.
During the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, Anarchist violence and terrorism was increasingly used on a routine basis to disrupt Republican political events, with major Anarchist-led and inspired events in Chicago, Portland, Oregon, throughout California, Arizona, New York, among many others. Black bloc mobs went from merely smashing vehicles and starting fires, to openly attacking, chasing, and beating chasing political activists. Too often, especially in California, law enforcement stood by and did nothing during such violent riots, which set the stage for the growing Anarchist violence crisis in 2017, by allowing a further normalization of Anarchist and Anarchist-inspired violence. Those performing such violence were given the misleading view by too many unwilling to act in law enforcement, that their criminal activity would be “permissible.” [For the record, R.E.A.L. is a non-partisan organization; we are reporting on this Anarchist violence, as we do other anti-human rights violence and terrorism, and regardless of who and what its targets are. The challenge to R.E.A.L. is the threat of such violence and terrorism to our shared human rights, in this case, for all Americans.]
With the political strife following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists found the popular division as another opportunity to spread their message of Anarcho-Communist violence against authority and rejection of democracy. They found an unparalleled receptive audience in frustrated American political partisans and the U.S. political media.
On January 20, 2017, R.E.A.L. was present in Washington, D.C. as explosions went off and the ground itself shook. The sounds of massive explosions could be heard blocks away from a violent standoff between law enforcement and Anarchist rioters. The Anarchist rioters, using the “DisruptJ20” movement and those protesting against the U.S. president’s inauguration as “human shields” between themselves and the police, created Anarchist Black Bloc terrorist violence throughout Washington D.C. Anarchist terrorists clad in black, wearing masks, attacked Washington D.C. buildings, smashing windows, setting fire to automobiles, and attacking the police and the public. Cordons of police were needed, with one of the largest deployments of law enforcement, including National Guard and other U.S. military within Washington D.C. on January 20, to contain and prevent the Anarchist terrorists from breaking through police and security barriers and threaten the lives of the public and President-Elect.
By the end of January 20, 2017, over 200 had been arrested by law enforcement desperate to get the “J20” riots under control, many charged with felony riot criminal charges. But the Anarchist terrorists scored a new victory by engaging and recruiting political protesters to begin to take their side. The Washington Post and other major U.S. media painted a sympathetic position towards the Anarchist terrorists, which has continued to this day.
Notably a number of supporter of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were part of Anarchist Black Bloc organizations during the January 20 riot in Washington D.C. The planning efforts of “Anti-Capitalist” IWW were publicized on January 6 by the Anarchist news service “It’s Going Down,” which reported that they met and discussing planning efforts for public disruption with “two members from the Counter-Inaugural Welcoming Committee, as well as two members of the General Defense Committee (GDC) of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).” According to the IWW GDC Facebook site, their role within the union is to promote “militant anti-fascism.” A number of Anarchist Black Bloc individuals were photographed at the January 20 riot, carrying red IWW union flags. According to the IWW GDC Facebook site, in April 2017, they sought donations for bail for “35 IWW members [that] have been charged with felonies” at the Disrupt J20 riots. The IWW frequently posts articles on social media from the Anarchist “It’s Going Down” radical website, and the Communist Jacobinmag radical website. On May 1, 2017, in Washington DC, supporters/members of the IWW wearing IWW shirts and flying IWW red flags protested outside the DC Superior Court, making threats against the court and chanting “burn it down.” The IWW has appeared in numerous other “protests” including recent threats outside of the Alexandria, Virginia apartment building where a Nazi extremist lives. Responsible union members should be asking about the IWW’s involvement in such riots, threats to destroy U.S. courts, and other violent activity.
Those supporting American human rights and Constitutional rights have a responsibility to reject and condemn the Anarachist and Anarcho-Communist lawless and violent campaign of “Antifa,” as nothing other than an attack on shared rights, liberties, freedoms, and a direct assault on American democracy itself.
——————–
(15) Violent Assault on Fringe Nazi Leader by Anarchist Black Bloc Gets Media Praise.
In addition to Anarchist extremists, other political fringe elements showed up on January 20 to get media attention, which they never would have ever received in any other time. So fringe extremists such as Richard Spencer of the Neo-Nazi National Policy Institute (NPI), who would normally have a small room of a few dozen fellow extremists, now received Washington Post and international media coverage. Such strawman extremist figures provided violent Anarchists with all the excuse they needed for further acts of violence. As the media went to interview Richard Spencer, one of the Anarchist terrorist from the Black Bloc broke away to punch Spencer in the face, while the media was interviewing him. This violence became a media sensation, and gave the Anarchists new legitimization for acts of violence; unlike calls for non-violent “civil disobedience” in debates over civil rights and political issues, these were calls for open VIOLENT disobedience to police and government.
The next day, on January 21, 2017, much of the political media was using this as the new headline story, decrying the number of Anarchist terrorists being arrested (rather than the violence and destruction they had wrought), ignoring the concerns of legitimate peaceful protesters as not “sensational” enough, and focusing on legitimizing and normalizing Anarchist violence in the on-camera punch by the Anarchist attacking Nazi Richard Spencer. As R.E.A.L. has previously reported, a sea of support for the Anarcho-Communist violence flooded the Establishment media – Newsweek: “The Infinite Joy of Watching a Nazi Get Punched to Music,” The Nation: “If You Appreciated Seeing Neo Nazi Richard Spencer Get Punched, Thank the Black Bloc,” The New York Times: “Internet Asking Is it O.K. to Punch a Nazi?”, The Independent: “Yes, it is OK to punch a Nazi like Richard Spencer in the face,” Washington Post: A step-by-step guide to a meme about punching a Nazi in the face,” The Guardian: “Is punching Richard Spencer inciting violence or ‘American as apple pie’?”. The “reporter” for The Nation was an open participant in the Anarchist Black Bloc violence in Washington D.C., and the “reporter” for the Washington Post article promoted sales for shirts to “punch a Nazi.” The Nation’s Natasha Lennard glowingly describes her role and support for the Anarchist Black Bloc, which attacked the police, public, building, and vehicles on its “J20” riots, by creating a straw-man “enemy” which the Anarchists were “fighting against.” Natasha Lennard writes that “You don’t have to fight neo-Nazis in the street, but you should support those who do,” which reads well to those who actually were not in Washington D.C. on January 20, but the reality there were “neo-Nazis in the street,” except a random fringe extremist or two, like Richard Spencer. She portrays circumstances that never existed, as a way to rationalize and normalize Anarchist violence and terrorism in the mainstream media. Those few challenging this normalization of Anarchist violence would then face slander of being falsely accused of “defending” Nazis, when the reality is that those few courageous individuals in human rights were defending America’s democracy and freedoms from the threat by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists.
This was the glowing media reaction to the Anarchist violence, and praising public assualt in the streets of Washington D.C., while failing to condemn the Anarchist “J20” riots across the city, leaving fire, damage, destruction, and assault in its wake. Such praise of Anti-human rights violence by Anarchists terrorists was nothing less than an open assault on the law and American democracy by the U.S. and mainstream media. Such acceptance and support for public violence has rejuvenated and glamorized the Anarchist terrorist movement in 2017.
——————-
(16) Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist Use Political Unrest to Recruit and Attack Democracy.
In the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist after-glow of their public relations “victory” on January 20, such extremist movements began looking for new opportunities to use political unrest to promote their cause. Having practiced efforts at public deceit over an Anti-Fascist cause, which was really an Anarcho-Communist cause for several years, the efforts of much of the coastal political U.S. media to attack political candidate and the President Trump as a “fascist,” provided another opportunity for them. While previously the Anarcho-Communists could only use their “Antifa” recruitment campaign in the occasional appearance of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, now the U.S. polical media gave the Archo-Communists a ready propaganda gift that the U.S. President was “a fascist,” and anyone associated with the U.S. Government was now “working for a fascist.” The struggle between the new president and the political media was so intense, that the political media not only would not step back from such incendiary rhetoric, it felt compelled to repeat and expand on it. It was a “dream” opportunity for the Anarcho-Communists. With the Washington Post pundits calling the U.S. President a “fascist” and the New York Times pundits calling the U.S. President a “terrorist,” certainly no one was going to look very closely at what the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists misson statement.
As political unrest grew and political media became more fevered, the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists only had to state that they were offering an “Antifa” against a government itself which was led by a “fascist” or a “terrorist,” according to major media pundits. If you dared to question the history of violence and actual terrorist attacks on America by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists, the ready response would be, “don’t you want to stop ‘fascism’? Perhaps you are a ‘fascist’ too.” By positioning themselves as the only “Antifa” defenders against “fascism,” the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists achieved what their ideology was best focused for: silencing free speech and demonizing those who would ask questions about them.
At each new protest involving political unrest, Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists continued to infiltrate Black Blocs (which had now been glamorized by the political media) to commit acts of violence and incite riots. Increasingly, they convinced more recruits that “violence is the answer” and when major U.S. political media were openly questioning the benefits of democracy, the Anarcho-Communist argument that democracy and the U.S. government system should be overthrown, was less of a hard sell for them.
After a century of terrorist acts designed to destory and overthrow the U.S. Government and democracy, Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists were faced with a new problem: how to harness the public political unrest effectively enough to actually complete their vision. One of the key goals, the Anarcho-Communists realized was that they needed to continue to encourage disaffected members of the American public to attack and destroy Freedom of Speech of those that they opposed. Opposing voices remained a threat to their plans.
But the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists realized that destruction of Free Speech would not be quickly acheived without significant convincing. So they wanted for opportunities of extremists in on the right, and set them as “straw man” individuals who represented a threat of “hate speech.” In this era of political unrest, they argued, convincingly to too many, after all, if we have an “Antifa” movement to stop the “fascist control” of our nation, we cannot allow “hate speech” to proceed without consequence. As a result, they began convincing thousands of Americans to promote the view that “hate speech is not free speech,” and of course, the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign would decide what represented “hate speech.”
This was another step in the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorist efforts to de-legitimize law in America. They had been working for years to de-legitimize law enforcement, then to de-legitimize law enforcement’s right to use violence to enforce the law, now the next step would be to de-legitimize the Constitutional right of the government to protect free speech. The Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists then just needed to watch for opportunities to use Black Bloc organized violence to recruit new Americans to attack Constitutionally-protected free speech. The literal “war of words” was working, and Anarcho-Communist campaigning was successfully, leveraging political unrest, to turn Americans against one another in denying free speech to each other. The Anarcho-Communists needed to continue to link such Antifa-assessed “hate speech” into an actual “fascist threat,” which was becoming a reality, with their enhanced support by an agitated U.S. political media. The IWW GDC describes in the tri-fold membership application that their role is in “defense of those who find themselves at odds with the bosses, the police, and the courts because of their commitment to the working class,” rationalizing a support for defensible criminal activity, simply as another worthy campaign to challenge “fascists” in every branch of commercial and state authority.
——————–
(17) Armed Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists Parade with Automatic Weapons in American Streets.
Anarchist / Anarcho-Communists are building an “Antifa” network of groups with automatic weapons across the U.S.
In early 2017, Anarchist extremist and terrorist movements, communicating and organizing by using modern social media, continued to grow as the U.S. media continued to legitimize Anarchist violence. This included the use of automatic weapons, rifles, and other guns taken by Anarchists, Anarcho-Communists at public events. There has been increased public activities by armed Anarchist extremist groups, such as “John Brown’s Gun Club” and other Anarchist “Redneck Revolt” groups and similar armed Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “clubs.” Such armed Anarchist group have been seen wearing masks and disgusing their identity, repeatedly attended political events and protests with automatic weapons, including AR-15 and AK-47 automatic rifles. (John Brown was an armed abolitionist, who led a failed armed raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry on October 16 through 18, 1859, prior to the U.S. Civil War.)
The armed Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist organizations are part of a nationwide network that calls itself “Redneck Revolt,” which armed chapters in 26 states and 47 cites/regions. The “Redneck Revolt” has a symbol with a red bandanna mask, a gun, and wrench. The armed Anarchist “gun clubs” operate out of Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Bernardino Valley, and Bay Area branch), Florida (Tampa Bay, Greater Orlando), Georgia (Atlanta, Savannah) Idaho (North Idaho), Illinois (Central Illinois, Chicago), Kansas (Northeast Kansas), Louisiana (New Orleans), Maine, Michigan (Southeast Michigan, Northern Lower Michigan, Lansing), Missouri (Mid-Missouri, Phelps County), New York (North Country, Suffolk County-Long Island), North Carolina (Silver Valley, Carolina Mountain, Shelby), Ohio (Scioto, Cincinnati), Oklahoma (Oklahoma City), Oregon (Rose City, Springfield), Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), Rhode Island, South Dakota (Black Hills), Texas (San Antonio, Houston), Virginia (Roanoke Valley), Washington State (Puget Sound), West Virginia (Friendly City), Wisconsin (Fond du Lac, Upper Peninsula).
Using the “Antifa” campaign argument, such armed Anarchists further rationalized such weapons as part of their fight against “fascism,” and they filmed themselves in armed formations on public streets and marching among the public. This is not the only armed Anarchist “Antifa” group, others exist to support Anarchist and Communist armed causes in the United States of America, including the “Socialist Rifle Association,” which regularly posts images of “Antifa” banners, automatic weapons, and knives.
The Phoenix News Times repeatedlyreported on such armed Anarchist campaigns and protests, including one reporter (now working for the Southern Poverty Law Center), who was repeatedly threatened for photographing the Anarchists parading with automatic weapons. According to the New Times, “Redneck Revolt began as a blog run by JBGC member Dave Strano, an anarchist activist who previously has operated out of Kansas and Colorado,” and Dave Strano was “a leading member of a group called Anarchist Black Cross.”
This group of armed Anarchist and “Antifa” sent 20 of their armed members to protests in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12, 2017. Prior to the protests, the armed Anarchist groups issued a warning on its website: “To the fascists and all who stand with them, we’ll be seeing you in Virginia.” After the Charlottesville riots, this armed Anarchist / “Antifa Redneck Revolt group posted to its web site that “Redneck Revolt members formed a unified skirmish line” against white supremacists, as part of its activities in Charlottesville. According their posting online, most of the Redneck Revolt members were “open-carrying tactical rifles.”
The IWW Mid-Atlantic General Defense Committee used its social media communications on Facebook to promote the Anarchist John Brown’s Gun Club armed campaigns, writing on July 15, 2017 that: “The working class is not going to take state repression, institutional racism or any other axes of oppression sitting down.”
The armed Anarchist groups have appeared at public demonstrations that R.E.A.L. has seen documentation on at Phoenix, AZ (repeatedly), Boston, MA, and Charlottesville, VA. This included an armed patrol of such Anarchists with automatic weapons with protesters outside of recent speech by the U.S. President in Phoenix, where protesters threw flaming smoke bombs at the police. Before the attacks on the police in Phoenix, the armed Anarchists marched throughout the public crowds with their automatic weapons. With the growing tolerance for mob violence at Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / “Antifa” events, this armed presence represents a security challenge that should be considered in ensuring peaceful nature of public protests and events.
——————–
(18) Berkeley Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist Campaign.
Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists had used Berkeley, California as one of the many coastal university communities, as primary sources of recruitment and ideological indoctrination, and their riots on February 1, 2017 gave them a sense of empowerment in challenging law and order. The reason for the riot was the appearance of a controversial speaker, Milo Yiannopoulos. British controversial right-wing personality Milo Yiannopoulos has remained a controversial figure due to his frequently offensive comments on women, race, and other topics. Yiannopoulos decided to start a campus speaking tour in late 2015, which gained a series of protests during 2016. Repeated efforts were made during 2016 to interrupt and keep him from speaking.
After the U.S. presidential election, he sought to continue such campus speaking engagements in 2017. On January 20, 2017, his speech outside the University of Washington led to violent protests outisde the event, including violent use of pepper spray, bricks, and other violence among protesters and counterprotesters. The violence between the two groups escalated when one of male IWW protesters was shot by a woman counterprotester who told the Seattle Times that she feared injury outside the event. The IWW protester was released from the hospital, and the woman counterprotester’s court case remains pending.
Instead of recognizing that such political violence was getting out of control, Milo Yiannopoulos decided to go forward with another public discussion 10 days later at the University of Berkeley, California. The Yiannopoulos speaking event was canceled at 6:15 PM on February 1, 2017, but this did not stop the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist rioters who sought to make certain they used their counter-protests over this non-event to injure and destroy.
An estimated 150 Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist rioters infilitrated the protest group of 1,500 University of Berkeley protesters, to turn the protest against Yiannopoulos and his views into a violent riot, using Black Bloc attire and attacks. The Anarchists attacked and injured the public with clubs and metal bars, set fires, threw rocks at police, threw Molotov Cocktail firebombs, smashed windows, and damaged property around the campus and businesses.
Anarchists rallied around what they sought to portray as an “Antifa” protest, and they were joined by California-based By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). BAMN had a leading role in a 2016 Sacramento riot, with one of BAMN’s organizer’s Yvette Felarca filmed in attacking and beating a man during the riot, with her supporters dragging a man to the ground, beating, and kicking him. In the 2016 Sacramento riot, at least 10 people suffered stab wounds and lacerations.
In videos of the February 1, 2017 riots and violent attacks shared by proud members of the Anarchist organizations on social media, Anarchists could be seen taking wooden clubs which had been used to hold flags, metal rods, and pepper spray to attack individuals outside the event and speaking to the media. Videos of Anarchists were posted to social media, showing them going into crowds of counterprotesters and bludgeoning them, beating them into the ground, and seeking to badly injure anyone who disagreed with the Anarachists riot. Black Block Anarchists assaulted a Syrian Muslim man in a suit, with metal rods and pepper spray, because they claimed “he looked like a Nazi,” and they attacked a white woman with pepper spray while giving an interview to the media. Berkeley reporter Malini Ramaiyer wrote: a “co-reporter was threatened as she recorded students marching down the street, and I was threatened when I took pictures of the vandalism, I myself became afraid and upset.”
Despite all of the violence, physical attacks, and firebombs, the University of California police department arrested only one individual for failure to disperse. The February 2017 Anarchist terrorist would not be the last time that such Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists terrorist and rioting overcame the ability of law enforcement to control and contain the situation.
——————————
(19) The Washington Post Glamorizes Anarchist Violence (Again).
Despite this and a rash of other violent Anarchist terrorist attacks across the country, including violent riots and terrorism in Washington D.C., the washington Post choose to provide glowing and supporting coverage of those behind Anarchist attacks on American human rights.
On August 10, 2017, Washington Post writer Ms. Perry Stein wrote an article which recieved front page electronic media coverage: “What draws Americans to anarchy? It’s more than just smashing windows,” with a photo of young man with sunglasses carrying a baseball bat joined by a young woman with a black bandanna mask. They were both dressed in all black, with the man wearing stylistic black sunglasses and balancing his baseball bat weapon on his shoulder, taken in an idyllic park setting, as such support for public violence was “normal.”
The Washington Post writer describe such violent Anarchists as simply another form of form of civil responsibility: “[b]y day, they are graphic designers, legal assistants, nonprofit workers and students. But outside their 9-to-5 jobs, they call themselves anarchists — bucking the system, shunning the government and sometimes even rioting and smashing windows to make a point.” Ms. Stein sought to rationalize and legitimize such Anarchist criminal violence, stating that “[w]hat the court documents call ‘malicious’ and ‘violent’ acts, the anarchists see as a necessary way to draw attention to poverty, racism, educational inequality and other problems.”
Washington Post described violent Anarchists as sympathetic, including the Anarchist riot mob tactics of Black Blocs, writing that Anarchists felt “[y]ou can breathe easy at a black bloc. You know if one person gets demasked, they will have your back.” The Washington Post went on to address that many new violent Anarchists were formed around the DisruptJ20 meetings, “many people leading the meetings were anarchists.” After the Washington Post writer giving one of the women Anarchists (who is a legal assistant) an unchallenged opportunity to defend her violence “of course they’re breaking windows, they’re mad,” she concludes that such violent Anarchism promotes meeting the public’s needs: “People assume that anarchism is so extreme. But I associate it with wanting everyone’s needs to be met.”
Washington Post reporter Ms. Stein neglected to report that one of the Anarchists that she interviewed who wants “everyone’s needs to be met,” had been recently leading protest chants to have the DC Superior Court burned down. This Anarchist leader protested, along with local members of IWW, outside DC Superior Court, at its Indiana Avenue entrance, on May 1, 2017. The Anarchist and IWW protested jointly called for the dropping of all criminal charges against the Anarchists for the J20 riots in Washington, D.C., or they chanted “if we don’t get it, burn it down.”
——————–
(20) Women’s Rights Activists Must Denounce Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist Terrorism and Violence by Women.
R.E.A.L. has seen the growth of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence across the United States to see a broad range of women Anarchist leaders in violence and terrorism. While the majority of such terrorists and violent rioters remain men, a significant portion of such terrorist are women, especially young women. In 2017, R.E.A.L. has seen a staggering number of women arrested as part of violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist riots, and a sizable number calling for violence against the U.S. Government, bombing of U.S. courts and other government buildings, and associated with advocating and participating in acts of violence and firebombing. Anarchist terrorism has long had a history of unfortunate involvement of women among those promoting and participating in acts of terror.
Americans have a preconceived notion that terrorist leaders must be men. However, over the past 100 years, when it has come to Anarchist terrorism, women have played a growing role as terrorist ideological, logistical leaders, and more recently in active participants in bombings and mob violence. Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence provides a gender neutral opportunity for leadership roles by women, an aspect that may not be fully appreciated by American law enforcement and human rights activists. One of the earliest victims of Anarchist terrorist bombings in America was a working woman.
Emma Goldman was one of the first American Anarchist terrorist advocates, promoting such Anarchist terrorist violence on behalf of her ideological mentor Johann Most. Court filings claimed that she was a significant influence on the Anarchist assassin of President McKinley, where Anarchist Leon Czolgosz viewed himself as a “monster-slayer” of the Union Civil War hero president. Ms. Goldman had met with the terrorist Leon Czolgosz twice before the presidential assassination (May 5 and July 12, 1901). Regardless of her role, Ms. Goldman regularly promoted the ideology of Anarchist terrorist violence in the United States, before she was deported to the USSR.
In the mid-20th century, Bernardine Rae Ohrnstein (aka Bernardine Dohrn) led the Anarchist terrorist group Weather Underground Organization (WUO), which was responsible for terrorist bombings across the United States, including bombings in the U.S. Capital and the U.S. Pentagon. Of the most widely known 18 members of the Anarchist WUO terrorist group, nine (50%) were women. This represents a very different perspective on Anarchist terrorism, in terms of American pre-conceived notions, as to terrorist actors. WUO terrorist members Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson, Kathy Boudin, Diana Oughton, were all at the WUO terrorist site when a nail bomb intended to kill 100 at U.S. Army Fort Dix prematurely exploded. Ms. Oughton was killed; Wilkerson and Boudin escaped. Boudin was convicted as part of an armed bank robbery, where two police officers were killed. Wilkerson is a teacher and Boudin is a professor.
In the later 20th century, other Anarchist terrorist leaders were discovered to be American women, including Cincinnati’s Marie Mason, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for firebombings. In another notorious pattern of firebombing in California, the majority of an Anarchist terrorist group was women, led by the Holland sisters in California.
The Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist use of “Black Bloc” tactics with individuals hiding behind black bandannas, masks, black hoods, and all black clothing has also attracted an increasing number of American women to be involved in such Anarchist violence. R.E.A.L. has seen such Anarchist women involved with firebombing activities and other violence promoted by Anarchist groups on social media. At the January 20, 2017 Anarchist riots, of the 213 arrested and charged with felony riot charges, at least 80 to 90 of those are women.
As Anarchist ideologue Mark Bray wrote in the Washington Post in August 2017 regarding the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign, “[b]ehind the masks, antifa are nurses, teachers, neighbors, and relatives.” Historical fact and current history shows that women are actively involved in Anarcho-Communist terrorism and violence. This presents a news and troubling component in Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence in the 21st century. When not tens, but hundreds of women are engaged in fringe Anarcho-Communist violence, it presents a different challenge for human rights, security, and those we entrust in critical areas of protecting vulnerable Americas often in areas of social services.
In repeated Anarchist infiltration of U.S. protest activities, R.E.A.L. has also noticed a significant number of women involved with riots, firebombs, and other other acts of violence. This is not a popular topic for discussion among the U.S. liberal and political media, but it should be a serious concern for those legitimately concerned with women’s rights. We cannot improve human rights, by violently abandoning such rights in the street, and against those with who we disagree. This does not and will not progress women’s equality in society. We do not promote justice by Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / Antifa women calling for the D.C. Superior Court to be burned down, or promoting acts of violence which impact women and men alike. The U.S. political media promoting women who attack human rights, democracy, and our shared human rights does not help women’s rights or women’s equality.
R.E.A.L. sees once again in the early 21st century that Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist ideologues among women speaking against human rights, freedom, and liberty, using Antifa campaign tactics as justification against shared human rights. Antifa activist and media writer Natasha Lennard repeatedly writes that Antifa does not act out of “a rights framework,” and “[t]his is not a question of rights, it’s a question of justice.” It does grave damage to women’s rights, equality, and equity to promote campaigns that rejected our shared rights, and that “justice” can be achieved by mob violence without a defense of our shared human rights. Isn’t rejecting equality of human rights the same argument that misogynists have repeated made to repress and deny women’s equality?
R.E.A.L. believes that acts of violence and destruction do not further women’s rights, women’s equality, or support for human rights for any women or feminist causes. On the contrary, such acts of violence, with increasing involvement by women, will only work to stigmatize legimitate and peaceful activists and protesters for such women’s equality and feminist causes. R.E.A.L. urges major women’s rights and feminist organizations to disavow the increasing acts of Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, and “Antifa” violence that we are seeing from women, as counter-productive to the very important work being done for women’s equality and dignity.
——————–
(21) Charlottesville Riots and the Failure to Stop Violence.
On August 11, 2017, the American people saw a deeply troubling site in Charlottesville, Virginia – a mob of 250 people marching with fire-light torches in the night as part of a two day protest, reportedly regarding the statue of Robert E. Lee. The statue of the former Confederate States of America (CSA) general on a horse was centered in Emanicipation Park, Charlottesville, where the protest was to take place the next day on August 12. The statue was erected in 1924 in the Emancipation Park area of Charlottesville, 59 years after the end of the U.S. Civil War; the park was originally called Lee Park, but the name had been changed. It had been there for 93 years. But continuing debate across America on the appropriateness of having such statues for Civil War figures had been intensely debated in the past decade, especially after the Charleston, South Carolina white supremacist terrorist attack on a church of African-Americans on June 17, 2015. For two years across the U.S., CSA flags were being taken down and a number of CSA statues were debated by public with some being removed.
R.E.A.L.’s position on this matter is public knowledge. Since 2009, R.E.A.L. has publicly demonstrated and called for the state governments, local governments, and federal government to reassess its position on the many Confederate statues (over 700) across the nation, and we have held peaceful demonstrations outside Robert E. Lee’s main Arlington House, calling for the public and its representative government to consider replacing some of the many symbols of Civil War division with symbols of healing and unity. At that speaking event, R.E.A.L. had careful discussions with the U.S. Park Police in advance to ensure that it would be a peaceful and respectful event (and it was). R.E.A.L. was warned to watch out for those groups that use large sticks with signs or banners, that they would turn into clubs. R.E.A.L.’s peaceful speaking event remains available for the public to see today.
Extremists of every kind who want to incite and encourage trouble have no interest in peaceful and calm speaking. They seek to agitate, to frighten, to disgust, and to incite violence. R.E.A.L. has always found such extremism objectionable and counterproductive to any progress in America. So it was that on August 11, 2017, an event led by former Occupy protester, now leading what he called an “Alt-Right” event, Jason Kessler organized a two day event in Charlottesville, VA. The first night was a march of “Unite The Right” demonstrators to a different site, onto the University of Virginia, near a statue of Thomas Jefferson, carrying fire-lit torches. It was symbolic of violence and incitement, and was the tactics that Americans have historically seen Nazi organizations use in the past. R.E.A.L. is well-aware that too many Americans, at every station in life, have a limited education on both American and European history, and recognizes that some may not have been aware of such connations. Regardless, the rest of America was aware of this.
As R.E.A.L. detailed on August 13, 2017 in our article “Charlottesville And Continuing Challenge Of Nazi Movements,” the demonstrators marching to the Lee statue were chanting the Nazi chant “Blood and Soil,” which was popularized by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany “Blut und Boden.” For those who still didn’t grasp the point, a number of the demonstrators made a “Heil Hitler” salute. America has and will have disagreements over immigration, racial unrest, and other challenges. But to those that promote such ideas as those expressed by Nazi Germany, responsible for the Holocaust of 6,000,000 Jews, there is only one word for this: “despicable.” R.E.A.L. is unconvinced that Jason Kessler did not know that the public would react this way, and these actions reframed the activites of the 250 marchers from an issue regarding the CSA statue to a more sinister and offensive message to America.
For the record, R.E.A.L. has been a long and dedicated challenger of Nazi and white supremacist views, which R.E.A.L. considers to be a disgusting and despicable rejection of our shared universal human rights. R.E.A.L. has received numerous threats and death threats from Nazis and white supremacists, who have made life difficult for our peaceful members. However, in the United States, we live in a nation of laws, not a nation of opinions. We may find the views of any one individual or group of individuals repellent, but as individuals, we and our personal views are not “the law.” We are not the “U.S. Constitution.” Our laws and our rights exist for all Americans, and we have representative law enforcement that is responsible to enforce those laws.
Let us be clear, while R.E.A.L. rejects the views, as we immediately reported, of those making hateful white supremacist and Nazi remarks, they too have freedom of speech, based on the laws of the nation. The individuals responsible for enforcing such laws are our duly-deputized law enforcement. On August 11 and August 12, law enforcement was not successful in effectively performing their responsibility, which has added to a growing public safety problem, not just for Charlottesville, but also the rest of the nation. Our law enforcement have a difficult job and we all respect that, but they have a job that it is their responsibility to perform. Such de-legitimization of law enforcement authority is precisely what anti-democracy extremists want. Ineffective public safety measures must not be allowed to encourage political violence.
The August 11 night torch-lit march to the Thomas Jefferson statue at the University of Virginia (UVA) may not have required a permit, but with 250 individuals carrying flame-lit torches, it would be basic public safety to carefully control and moderate the activites, if not canceling them due to the obvious public safety threat. This is not just R.E.A.L.’s opinion, but this is UVA SEC-032: “Open Burn and Open Flame Operations at the University of Virginia.” According to UVA SEC-032, UVA specifically prohibits the use “open flame” tiki torches without approval of “Office of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) or the University of Virginia Medical Center Fire Protection Inspector’s Office.” Who from UVA or the Virginia State government inspected and authorized this incredibly dangerous event on August 11? This may seem like a minor “detail,” but these are the type of public safety details, which are essential to manage for public safety operations involving extremist groups, especialy violent exteremists. For the record, R.E.A.L. has probably completed at 100 permits for first amendment demonstrations, and we are vastly familiar with typical public safety concerns and questions of law enforcement involving such demonstrations. While there may not have been a permit required for this event, there would be basic public safety questions which anyone in law enforcement would be asking serious questions about. In any event, routine UVA Fire Safety questions would have been asked about any event of such an event of 250 people carrying flame torches onto the UVA campus.
On the night of August 11, a small group of counter-protesters circled the Jefferson statue, which resulted in scuffles between the protesters and counter-protesters. The Virginia State Police eventually came in to break up a fight at UVA among the protesters with flame-lit torches (incredibly there were no fatalities), but both the VSP and the Charlottesville Police needed to do a better job of managing public safety. It was the responsibility of the police to do their job. This situation never should have gotten out of hand to begin with. Dependence on luck is not a strategy for public safety and law enforcement. The failure to get the August 11 demonstration under control set the stage for a disaster the following day, August 12, 2017, when significantly larger crowds appeared with participants from diverse groups and attendees. To the extent that the Charlottesville police were outmanned, the Virginia State Police should have a much larger presence to help keep this situation under control. Being polite and friendly with our law enforcement should not keep citizens from expecting them to do their job. It should be very clear that was not effectively done on August 11 and 12.
R.E.A.L. has faced other Nazi and white supremacist events in the past. In our members’ lifetime, we have not witnessed any that demonstrations that have so quickly gotten totally out of control as the one in Charlottesville, VA on August 12, 2017. The next day, August 12, 2017, the number of “UniteTheRight” demonstrators had doubled from 250 to 500. The stated cause of the demonstration was regarding the Lee statue. There has been much discussion about who such individuals in the demonstrations represented. Those in the “Unite The Right” who were not affiliated with white nationalist, white supremacist, and Nazi causes are certainly very short-sighted. They may have driven a long distance and hoped to make some particular political statement. But after the August 11, 2017 “Blood and Soil” torch-lit march, anyone who continued to be involved in the August 12, 2017 protests had to know that public opinion would have associated them with such extremism. But lacking common sense and intelligence is not a criminal offense, and they continued to have a right to their free speech on August 12, in the park where they had a permit for a demonstration.
R.E.A.L. has specific insight into some of the attendees from the “Unite The Right” group and some of them were white supremacists and Nazis that have challenged and disrupted R.E.A.L. events where we had permits in the past. Unlike too many of the counterprotesters, R.E.A.L.’s approach was to use patience and to offer prayers and hope for such extremists to find a conscience to direct them to better understand our shared human rights. When they screamed, we prayed. Then we moved on. This type of thinking is lost on Anarchists / Anarcho-Communists and their “Antifa” campaign. The “Antifa” extremists are not interested in the rights and laws of their fellow human beings, other than how they can bully, attack, and commit acts of violence as use of force to silence them. While R.E.A.L. offers an outstretched hand, “Antifa” extremists offer only an upraised fist. We know that does not and will not work.
Just as there were “Antifa” violent extremists, there were are also many non-violent counterprotesters as well. There were clearly non-violent protesters that got caught up in both sides. Certainly, with the knowledge of the history of such violence, mature individuals would have gained enough common sense to know not to associate with such violent individuals. Those non-violent protesters who saw individuals within both the protesters and counterprotesters with automatic rifles, other weapons, etc., had a civic duty to themselves, their community, and their families, to swallow their pride and get out of there. But once again, lacking common sense and intelligence is not a criminal offense, and all Americans have freedom of speech.
According to the armed Anarchist network “Redneck Revolt,” “Redneck Revolt members formed a unified skirmish line” against white supremacist on August 12. The armed Anarchists in the “Redneck Revolt” with “tactical weapons,” per their own posting urging white supremacists for a fight days before the event. Other Anarchists brought clubs, pepper spray, urine vials (which were used to hit the news media), and even a portable flamethrower. The white supremacists and Nazi extremist also had individuals armed with guns, pepper spray, smoke bombs, clubs, and shields. This included extremists from the Nazi “Vanguard America,” the KKK, and other extremists. It was clear from the beginning that the August 12 riots would be a disaster.
The August 12, 2017 “Unite The Right” demonstration in their park was to begin at 12 noon at Emancipation Park by the Robert E. Lee statue. At this point, the number of protesters were at least 500, and it would have appeared there were at least 1000 counterprotesters. But as soon as the protesters began leaving their cars and walking in the street, both the Nazi / white supremacists and the “Antifa” extremists began fighting. This is not speculation. Much of the event was live on television and social media, and millions could see this happening. By 11:00 AM, fighting had already begun, and there was fighting in the streets for over a half hour, with no control by the police to break up the violence. The public could see it happening live. So if we could see it happening live, how could the command centers for Charlottesville and Virginia State Police not see it happening? R.E.A.L. posted a video of such mob violence by both extremist groups at 11:34 AM on August 12 on Twitter “As #Americans have asked so many times, in so many #Mob #Riots across the nation, not just #Charlottesville, where are the #POLICE?”.
The crowded area, with so many agitated and armed individuals, lack of police control, lack of effective road blocks, was a disaster waiting to happen, as it would be not just in Charlottesville, but in any town or city in America. White supremacists attacked a professor in parking lot, The Hill journalist Taylor Lorenz said that she was punched by counterprotestors during the violence, but the streets of Charlottesville had turned into a slugfest by shortly after 11 AM. Incredibly, only three people were arrested. While the Virginia State Police finally declared the gathering an unlawful assembly by 11:40 AM, there still was poor organization in getting protesters and counterprotesters peacefully and safely outside of the park area. It was astounding to some watching that mobs of counterprotesters were being allowed near vehicles. Some on 4th street were shouting and pounding on vehicles, and some hit the vehicles. As previously reported by R.E.A.L., Nazi supporter James Alex Fields, Jr. drove his car into part of the crowd surrounding these vehicle, killing one woman and injuring 19. James Fields’ criminal act resulted in charges including second degree murder, and he will face the criminal consequences deserved for his act of terror. The Charlottesville riots resulted in 1 death and 34 injuries, yet only 11 were arrested including James Fields. As R.E.A.L. has previously written, R.E.A.L. condemns and deplores the acts of those among the Nazis, white supremacists, and white nationalists, not only for their hate, but also for their violence. But is simply not accurate that they were the only ones involved in such violence.
Americans that are legimitately supporting of peaceful anti-racist protest have historical lessons of how to deal with such violence. R.E.A.L. has painful experience in knowing how difficult it is to maintain order among agitated individuals from diverse, and sometimes unknown areas in a public demonstration. Like anything else important in life, maintaining such order is not always easy. But that does not mean it is not a responsibility. Americans only need to look to the example of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who when he found people had infiltrated protests who sought violence, he canceled the demonstration and LEFT. R.E.A.L. asks those who support legitimate peaceful anti-racist protests, do you really believe that your statements and your responsibility for human rights restraint should give you the need to reject the example of Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Law enforcement lost control of public safety in Charlottesville. Basic public safety and common sense measures, traffic controls, barriers, etc., were not effectively utilized. While law enforcement spokepersons will issue defensive statements on this, privately they must have serious and sober meetings on lessons learned on what must change for the next such event. With the growing violence of both Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / Antifa, as well as white supremacist / Nazi extremists, law enforcement will need to take public safety measures more seriously, and work with courts to have ready measures to manage safety conditions to prevent them spirally into emergencies. From a public perspective, the American public needs to use common sense and stay away from unsafe, violent conditions. Our protests and demonstrations can be held peacefully and safely, but when violent individuals with weapons appear, we should be going to law enforcement for public safety and protection, not exacting our own violence. The Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / “Antifa” movement does not care about avoiding such violence, because the reality is they seek such violence as part of a larger objective of insurrection of all authority, law, and representative democracy. Rather than find a degree of humility for its role in promoting the out of control violence, the extremist “Antifa” sought more violence; the injured and killed in Charlottesville were not enough for them. Instead of realizing the consequences of their promotion of political violence, the “Antifa” extremist among the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists only seek more violence. The victims of such continuing promotion of violence are the American people and American law.
——————————
(22) Lost Opportunity to Clearly Define Ideological Threats Used by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists.
The U.S. President denounced the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, but efforts to condemn those involved in violence on both sides, led to outrage by the U.S. political media, numerous political leaders, and many in the public. By this point, the Anarcho-Communist effort to portray their “Antifa” campaign as simply “anti-racist” had been largely successful among those who had no interest or time in actually researching what they really represented. But just as the U.S. political media, including many which had been openly promoting and glamorizing Anarchist violence (as what it considered a “righteous” response to its own political frustration), had no interest in clarifying who and what happened in Charlottesville, an inexperienced White House and President also struggled in communications as well. Experienced individuals in the human rights, law enforcement, and security must assist in clarifying that the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist violent “Antifa” campaign also rejects our human and Constitutional rights.
To those who argue there is no “moral equality” between Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist and its violent “Antifa” campaign versus Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, this is certainly true. In the United States, white supremacy was a component of slavery of over 3 million African Americans. In Europe, Nazism led to the Holocaust of 6 million Jews. These anti-human rights ideologies must be rejected without question and without qualification. Communist totalitarian regimes have long been a source of mass murder, with millions killed in Communist China (4-40 million per various estimates) and millions killed in the former USSR alone (8-61 million per various estimates), and continuing killings and horrific repression in Communist nations today. Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism has been a plague for over a century, extensively throughout Europe (not discussed in this article), and also with 50+ bomb attacks across America, killings, assassination, and other violence in the United States. There is no “moral equality” between such anti-democracy ideologies of death, mass violence, and repression of our shared human rights. There is, however, an immoral equality of those anti-human rights ideologies, not based on “right versus left,” but based on “right versus wrong.” Wrong is wrong. This is the only equality that we need to understand for a human rights perspective. There is no “good wrong.”
To be clear, President Trump’s career in business was not focused on analysis of human rights and political extremism; no one realistically would expect that he would bring such skill sets and knowledge. Furthermore, those in the White House communications also seemed to have an intuitive knack at getting at such facts, in part, because of a defensive position from a constant position of being under attack by the U.S. political media. Individuals skilled in such matters should be providing the White House, DHS, and the FBI with insight and leadership, based on their experience and training. None of us, even the President, have experience and knowledge in everything, and can be expected to speak effectively on any topic at any moment. Donald Trump does not have a Political Science degree and years of experience on publicly speaking on topics about political science ideologies and racial/political extremists (this is not an “excuse” by non-partisan R.E.A.L., merely a statement of fact). The Charlottesville disaster was clearly unexpected and the opportunity for clarity on what the problems were was not effectively seized. The White House attempted to convey what they understood to be the issue, but the entire issue of Anarcho-Communist infiltration of such events was viewed as either too complex for the general public to understand, or there was limited availability of specialists to clearly explain this.
Either way, the White House efforts to describe the problem did not address the challenges of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence that is the root of its “Antifa” campaign, and whose ideological name and values remained completely outside of the official discussion of the Charlottesville disaster.
Slang political terms such as “Alt-Left” are unhelpful and counterproductive in defining the significant and serious security and human rights threats of violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist ideologies. We need a serious focus by law enforcement and homeland security on such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence which has plagued the United States for over 100 years, and once again, in Charlottesville managed to infiltrate public protests for the express purpose of violence with a singular goal of national insurrection. It is unfair and unreasonable to legitimate and peaceful protesters who reject racist and Nazi views, but respect our shared Constitutional and human rights, to allow such violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist campaigners to infiltrate public events and not call out exactly what they truly represent.
The mistake in not addressing all of the anti-human rights ideologies involved in the Charlottesville violence provided a propaganda victory for the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communists, who used their spin of the comments to further rationalize the need for their “Anti-Fascist” (“Antifa”) campaign. This assisted the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist campaign to de-legitimize the U.S. Government credibility. The U.S. political media gave the Anarcho-Communist campaign more credibility, by repeatedly arguing that the White House was “taking the side of fascists” and giving a “moral equivalence” to “Anti-Fascists working against racism” and “Nazis and white supremacists.”
Days after the Charlottesville riots and debacle, the U.S. political media, which largely does include many issues with significant training on U.S./world history and extremist issues, continued to provide article after article and additional media glamorizing the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign, as well as giving sympathetic coverage to such spokespersons. Regardless of their depth of knowledge, the U.S. political media needs to recognize the basic mathematical truth in human rights that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
——————————
(23) Increased Calls and Support for “Antifa” Violence.
After the Charlottesville riots, in the Nation magazine pro-Anarachist media writer Natasha Lennard argued that American human rights were expendable when dealing with those we disagree with. In her August 16, 2017 article, “Not Rights but Justice: It’s Time to Make Nazis Afraid Again,” Natasha Lennard condemns those supporting human rights for condemning violence, when they need to “embrace a diversity of tactics” to challenge Nazi and white supremacist hate.
Natasha Lennard rejects the priority of respecting the liberties of human rights, and argues that the “Antifa” campaign of violence and threats against those the disagree with is a more important end of “social justice,” which justifies the mean. She writes in The Nation: “The mistake is to conflate the defense of liberties with the struggle for social justice. They are not the same thing, and we stymie our efforts to crush the racist far right—which we must—if we remain confined to a rights discourse.” Natasha Lennard dismissed the “paranoiac reactions from liberal centrists, citing low-level property damage and a few neo-Nazi black eyes as a rise in leftist terror.” To Antifa activist and media writer Natasha Lennard, “This is not a question of rights, it’s a question of justice,” but it is the type of “justice” where Anarchists, Anarcho-Communists, and Antifa have decided to make their own “laws” and be their own judge, jury, and punishers.
But, of course, educated Americans know that the history of such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence and terrorism is more than that. It includes nationwide bombings, nail bombs, suicide bombing, cyanide, firebombs, killing and maiming Americans, bombing the U.S. Capital, bombing the Pentagon, plots to bomb bridges and buildings, and assassination of a U.S. president. The history of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence and terrorism is more than a “few black eyes.”
In describing herself as part of the Antifa campaign, Natasha Lennard argues that while there is no “right” to use acts of violence, she considers that physical violence is a key responsibility of the Antifa campaign, which rejects “the good faith of state power,” and instead calls for “direct and confrontational intervention—the sort of which is itself often not protected by a rights framework.”
Too many in the media, including extremist Natasha Lennard, called for “scum” to be removed. On August 18, 2017, media writer Natasha Lennard commented on social media regarding 20 individuals who had been identified by “New York City Antifa” in the New York City area at the Charlottesville riots. Natasha Lennard replied: “some NY scum in need of removal… exposing fascists in our midst is central antifa work – physical confrontation is just a fraction of it.”
——————————
(24) Violent Anarchist Get Media Legitimization for Violence as “Antifa”.
The Washington Post, once again, legitmized Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / “Antifa” violence on August 16, 2017, in an article written by Anarchist activist and Dartmouth College lecturer Mark Bray. Mark Bray lectures on history, but unfortunately he has neglected the history of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence in America as part of his promotion of such ideologies, and their co-opting of anti-racist views for what they call an “Antifa” campaign. (Notably, the Washington Post kept Mark Bray’s article outside of its paywall.)
While Mark Bray glamorized Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist / “Antifa” violence on his Twitter account, with a prominent image of masked men carrying baseball balls in his profile, he wrote in the Washington Post that such an “Antifa” campaign was merely “popular opposition to fascism as we witnessed in Charlottesville.”
Mark Bray neglected to describe the 100 years of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism in the United States, its efforts to infiltrate and twist peaceful protest efforts to spawn insurrection and violence. He counted on the power of the U.S. political media to set a narrative that ignored all the historical fact, and what the American people could see with their own eyes, to further a campaign to assist the Anarcho-Communist goals of ultimate destrucion of democracy. So to the Washington Post audience, Anarchist activist Mark Bray wrote about the efforts by the Anarcho-Communist in “Antifa” simply “demands that we take seriously the violence of white supremacists,”and that the “vast majority of anti-fascist organizing is nonviolent,” while “physical violence against white supremacists is both ethically justifiable and strategically effective.” Using sympathetic mainstream political media, Mark Bray sought to reinvent “Antifa” violence as merely “anti-racist.” But the truth is that American history has shown us that anti-racist causes are NOT forwarded by the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist violence and insurrection, but by cooperative efforts by all Americans to achieve social and legal change, based on a commitment to our shared Constitutional human rights that Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist community does not have. Anarchist publications, such as Anarchist Action, publicized Mark Bray’s use of the Washington Post to glamorize their “Antifa” campaign.
Later on to a more narrow audience to a Vox reporter, Washington Post author Mark Bray would admit that “Antifa” Anarcho-Communists had “no allegiance to liberal democracy,” and that “antifa isn’t concerned with free speech or other liberal democratic values.”
Anarchist Mark Bray went on to NBC Television to defend “Antifa” violence. According to Mark Bray, violence is both ethically responsible when it comes to the “fascists” that he designates, as well relative when it comes to property violence. Anarchist Mark Bray repeated defended the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” violence as “historically formed and ethically reasonable.” By portraying everyone who the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” attacks as “fascists,” he repeatedly defends the history of being “ethically reasonable” to deny their human rights and to use phyical violence against them. In terms or property damage, Anarchist Mark Bray waved that as being relative as to whether or not that constitued “violence.” For example, he told NBC that “property destruction is certainly part of the repertoire of what some of these groups will do to achieve their goals. Some say it’s violence, some say it’s not because it’s not against human beings, that’s a matter of opinion.” Actually, Mark Bray, it is not “a matter of opinion,” it is a matter of LAW, but Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists have no respect for American law.
Without any working history or familiarization of the century of Anarcho-Communist terrorism and violence in America, his U.S. political media interviewers fail to ask why bombings of homes, newspapers, restaurants, plots to destroy bridges, hospitals, cyanide plots on subways, in America are part of Mark Bray’s “relative” view of Anarcho-Communist “violence,” as merely “property destruction.” No one in the U.S. political media challenged Mark Bray on the role of Anarcho-Communist terrorist murders, mutilation, and injuries, as to how this pursued “Antifa” goals. Did the assassination of Union Civil War hero U.S. President McKinley further “Antifa” challenges against racism? What was “anti-racist” about Anarchist bombings on public places, restaurants, homes, businesses, plots to attack bridges, hospitals?
This is why it is essential to have an informed and honest discussion on the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist history of violence and terrorism in America, and the real insurrectionist intent behind the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist commitment in its “Antifa” campaign, to hijack anti-racist concerns for the larger Anarcho-Communist goals of attacking American human rights and destruction of American representative democracy.
On August 21, 2017, Dartmouth college’s Office of the President made the following statement, titled “Statement on Lecturer in History Mark Bray,” as follows: “Recent statements made by Lecturer in History Mark Bray supporting violent protest do not represent the views of Dartmouth. As an institution, we condemn anything but civil discourse in the exchange of opinions and ideas. Dartmouth embraces free speech and open inquiry in all matters, and all on our campus enjoy the freedom to speak, write, listen and debate in pursuit of better learning and understanding; however, the endorsement of violence in any form is contrary to Dartmouth values.”
Despite Dartmouth College’s statement, Mark Bray has continued to repeatedly use Dartmouth College symbols on the background wallpaper, during televised news broadcasts and interviews, giving the appear of the college’s legitimizing such calls for public violence and attacks on human rights. Dartmouth College needs to do more than issue a one paragraph statement.
——————————
(25) Emboldened Anarchists / Anarcho-Communist Use “Antifa” Target HOMES.
In August 2017, Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist continued to gain positive U.S. political media coverage for its acts of public violence using their “Antifa” campaign. This emboldened Anarcho-Communists and their supporters to take further public actions and gain more supporters.
Supporters of the Washington DC branch of the IWW decided to hold a march in Alexandria, Virginia to protest outside an apartment building where Nazi National Policy Institute (NPI) figure Richard Spencer lives. R.E.A.L. rejects and condemns the views of the NPI, and R.E.A.L. has also challenged Richard Spencer’s views since 2009. But there is a very significant difference with peaceful protest and ideological disagreement, and the practices of the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” in violently assaulting Richard Spencer in the street. There is a difference between our peaceful use of free speech and violent criminal acts done on behalf anti-human rights movements.
But with the U.S. political media praising the violent attacks on Richard Spencer on January 20, 2017, and the flood of positive U.S. political media support for the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” based on the disaster in Charlottesville, more “Antifa” activists felt emboldened to take further action.
So on August 13, 2017, we saw an “Antifa” activist and IWW supporter, sharing a video of the mob protests outside of this apartment building, writing “Marching through the streets of Old Alexandria to protest Richard Spencer’s residence and his general existence in the world.” One response to the “Antifa” activist wrote on August 14, “How has somebody not burned down his house yet?” The national and the DC IWW union branches published images of the protests outside the apartment building to their social media account, and IWW member flying red “IWW” flags along with “Antifa” members were active participants.
To anyone paying close attention, there would be a very real question as exactly who was the “fascist” in this situation.
To those who reject the views of Richard Spencer, as R.E.A.L does, there may be some that believe that he deserves to be protested tenaciously. But there is a different question here. When the “Antifa” start targeting the homes of those they consider “fascists,” who and what is next? Did all of those in the Alexandria apartment building deserve this? And at what point will mob threats outside of homes become a clear and present danger to public safety, especially in Virginia, which has had such serious law enforcement struggles with maintaining law and order?
If they disagree with you, me, or anyone else, will this newly empowered Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist extremist mob feel justified to go after where you live? As one Anarchist activist wrote, why hadn’t “somebody not burned down his house,” and certainly with this 100 years of commitment to acts of violence, why wouldn’t this be next for such Anarchists? After all, attacking the homes and murdering innocent Americans is PRECISELY how such Anarchist terrorists got their start, with Anarchist terrorist nail bombs across the United States, as well as a suicide bomb attack to try to murder the Attorney General of the United States.
What level of violent attacks on the American public will it take for American law enforcement to arrest criminals making threats, and when will the U.S. media recognize the true violent threat to American democracy behind the Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign?
——————————
(26) Anarchists / Anarcho-Communists Defeat Police in Berkeley, Beat People in Streets.
On August 26 and August 27, 2017, renewed Anarchist / Anarcho-Communists / “Antifa” terrorists conducted mob violence in the streets, beating people at random, and feeling empowered as a mob force to attack the public at will in total defiance and contempt for law enforcement.
At Berkeley’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park’s Crescent lawn, two protests had been scheduled, one “No to Marxism in America,” which was canceled and had few attendees, and another “Bay Area Rally Against Hate.” This was again a case of dual protests at the same location. In the morning, a reported “thousands” of demonstrators showed up for the “Bay Area Rally.”
However, only a few showed up for the “No to Marxism in America” demonstration, primarily a single right-wing individual, Joey Gibson, who attempted to speak in the park, after canceling his own demonstration after threats in San Francisco. Once again, from a pragmatic view, R.E.A.L. urges peaceful activists to combine common sense with their activism in terms of timing and locations, but we respect and defend our shared Constitutional and human rights of free speech. As we see yet again, the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” violent campaign used such protests for mob violence and hate.
By the early afternoon, “hundreds” of the “Antifa” violent mob hijacked yet another demonstration and Gibson was immediatedly mobbed, attacked, and shot with pepper spray by Anarchists / Anarcho-Communists supporting their “Antifa’ campaign of physical criminal violence. Gibson was not the only one attacked. The “Antifa” violent mob inspired others, including many of the “thousands” of otherwise “peaceful” demmonstrators to rush over the police barricades to take control of MLK Civic Center Park for their mob violence. After taking control the MLK Park, the “Antifa” mob continued their violence in the streets and moved to celebrate their violence to attack others at Ohlone Park. Berkelyside news reporter Cliff Magnes stated on August 28, 2017: “Watching them try to take over a peaceful crowd and turn that crowd into a mob is a deeply troubling experience.”
ABC News Channel 10 reported that there were “hundreds” of the Anarchist / Anarcho-Communist “Antifa,” many of which were obviously attired in the Black Bloc gear to conceal their identities when they commit acts of criminal violence.
Berkeley news helicopters showed mobs of Anarchist Black Bloc “Antifa” running down the streets, spraying individuals with pepper spray, chasing people down the street to assault them, knock to the ground, and beat and kick them. Those remaining in the park and the nearby streets were abanadoned by the Berkeley law enforcement, who withdrew and allowed the criminal “Antifa” mob violence to go on without consequence. ABC 10 News reported that: “Berkeley Police Chief Andrew Greenwood said he ordered officers to abandon the park when the black-clad activists arrived. Confronting them would have risked escalating the violence and jeopardizing the safety of the peaceful protesters, Greenwood said.” Berkeleyside news reported that 400 police had been assigned to maintain order.
That is not the perspective that the public could see with “Antifa” violent criminals beating and threatening people at random, while the Berkeley police did nothing. Six people were badly enough by the “Antifa” rioters that they required paramedic treatment, and two had to be hospitalized.
One California journalist, Lizzie Johnson, described how the “Antifa” was completely overcoming the Berkeley police: “The park has been completely taken over by the Antifa. Berkeley police struggling to figure out what to do. Tear gas didn’t work. The police are firing rubber bullets in Berkeley. Blocks away a couple with a youn daughter were walking toward it. Stay away. Massive militant anarchist showing in Berkeley today. The group is dangerous and destructive.” She wrote: “The Berkeley police have stood down. A sea of black masks as far as I can see. This is what WAS NOT supposed to happen.” She described the violence: “Everyone is fighting. Clouds of pepper spray from the fray. Hundreds of men and women dressed in all black. Antifa. Out of sea of black is a single flag, red with an A in a circle.” That is the symbol of Anarcho-Communism, with the “A” for Anarchism.
Journalists reported being threatened and attacked, who were trying to cover the news on the mob of narchists / Anarcho-Communists gathering on behalf of their violent “Antifa” campaign at Berkeley’s Crescent Park. Journalist Lizzie Johnson reported: ” ‘Take his camera, take his phone,’ they are shouting at a journalist,” as the public could see a journalist running from Anarchist Black Bloc “Antifa” terrorists in the park, chasing after him with an “Antifa” flag as he tried to escape in the crowd.
The Berkleyside News reported that a “freelance photographer, who asked not to be named, said he was attacked by an antifa member at Ohlone Park toward the end of the march. ‘I was punched in the face and struck to the ground after asking him to please stop hurting a lady with a camera that they were assaulting,’ he said.” It also reported: “Two Berkeleyside contributing photographers felt the effects in their eyes of pepper spray used by protesters. Another said she saw at least four cameras get smashed.” KTVU reported: “A KTVU reporter had her camera shoved out of her hand by people dressed in black.”
One left-wing Mexican-American writer, using a pseudonym, due to fear of mob attacks, reported how the Anarchist-led violent “Antifa” questioned who he was when he was taking photographs of the event, and then threatened him. He writes to the Berkleyside: “A young woman in her 20s, who had been deputized by undisclosed authorities to informally police and report on those who she found troublesome confronted me. In an aggressive tone she told me to stop taking pictures.I tried to reason with her. I did. I tried to establish a dialogue. I tried to explain to her that we were on the same side and that I was simply taking pictures. She was having no part of it. She quickly communicated to her confederates nearby that she needed help containing me.” His report continues that this extremist quickly was confronted by an “Antifa” mob who decide that he was a “Nazi” and needed to be threatened. He concluded that “As I was backing up, I bumped into a young man wearing a bandana across his face, black pants and combat boots, with his arms crossed on his chest. He couldn’t have been more than 20. ‘You should get out of here’ he said sternly, blocking my way…”
Video after video showed scenes of unrelenting mob Anarchist violence beating people, knocking them down, and then piling onto their victims, pummeling them and kicking in the street. While the Berkeley police, like the Charlottesville police, and like how many other law enforcement agencies will in the future (?), stood back and did nothing. The Anarchist reign of terrorist violence in the face of police unwilling to enforce the law was one of the more disturbing scenes of political terrorism we have seen in this nation.
After the Anarchists “Antifa” ability to take the law into its own hands for hours, eventually 13 out of the “hundreds” of “Antifa” were arrested, several for injuring police officers and news media individuals; four of the violent “Antifa” rioters arrested were women. It is impossible to know just how many in the mobs of Anarchist “Antifa” terrorists simply were allowed to commit violent crimes without consequence, but anyone watching the event could clearly see that there were many, many more criminals in the mob beating people, than merely the 13 who were arrested.
The Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” mob attacks in MLK Civic Center park, came nearly 54 years, after the speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I have a dream” on August 28, 1963, calling for change through non-violence. There is no shame in such a travesty.
——————————
(27) Responsible Majority of Americans Must Defend Human Rights, Democracy, Law, and U.S. Constitution from Anarchist Violence.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has provided this article to demonstrate the significant and historical problem of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence against Americans. Despite its length, it is hardly “comprehensive,” but is only a summary of some main points of violence, and certainly there are many, many other acts of violence that are not included in this report. The point of the historical perspective of this article is to help those Americans who are unfamiliar with the history of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism and violence, and to make it clear that such extreme ideologies do not seek to promote the “right” of people of color, women, or any identity group. As such Anarchists and Anacho-Communists have explained repeatedly, they are not supporting a “rights framework” nor do they support a “liberal democracy.”
The Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist campaign of violent “Antifa” is not “new,” as some in the U.S. political media would have Americans falsely believe. While it has borrowed the banner and name from late 20th century European “Antifa,” it did not begin such violence in the United States in the past year or two. It has been active in the U.S. since the early 21st century, with active “Antifa” operations since 2009. Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist terrorism and its “Antifa” campaign violence is not a “new” phenomenon. The U.S. political media and too many Americans simply haven’t paid attention to it. The legacy of Anarcho-Communist terrorism and violence in the U.S. is over 100 years long, as an ongoing threat to American human rights and security.
R.E.A.L. has direct experience with public violence by Anarcho-Communist extremists, which were the first of extremist groups to attack our human rights events at a June 2009 event condemning the Hamas terrorist group’s use of “human shields” of innocent civilians. R.E.A.L. public events have been disrupted by both Anarcho-Communists and white supremacist extremists. But Anarcho-Communists felt empowered to physically grabbed our volunteers in the public streets, disregarding nearby police, and our solution was to engage responsible law enforcement to ensure our safety. R.E.A.L. has seen this pattern over the past 8 years, and we know the critical importance of responsible law enforcement in protecting the public for lawless Anarcho-Communist violent individuals.
This is not a new problem.
An important difference in 2016 and 2017 has been the inconsistency in by too many in law enforcement in the face of such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist mob violence. As Anarchist activist and Dartmouth College lecturer Mark Bray has told the public, such Anarchists and “Antifa” campaign violent individuals are “anti-police,” and view America from what Bray calls a “police-abolitionist lens,” that is they want the END of American law enforcement. As we have seen, some black masked men and women Anarchists hold signs like “all my heroes kill cops.”
In the United States of America, or any democratic nation of shared laws, it is a disaster to be unwilling to seriously reject and defy any organization that makes one of its primary goals to be reject our shared Constitutional and human rights and to reject the very existence of law enforcement itself. But this is and has been the vision of the violent Anarchists, Anarcho-Communists, and its resurgent “Antifa” campaign.
American Human Rights, democracy, law, and the U.S. Constitution is greater than any Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, or “Antifa” violence. But we need to effectively engage a “Responsible Majority” of American citizens, organizations, leaders, government, media, and law to challenge this recent campaign of hate and violence.
Prominent American leaders, citizens, institutions, families, and our media may understandably “not want to get involved” in challenging such hidden and violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists and their “Antifa” campaign. Many way simply want to hope they will “go away.” But U.S. history has shown that such violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists feel empowered by the silence of law-abiding and responsible American citizens. Furthermore, due to the political divisions in America today, there may be those citizens, institutions, and U.S. political media that are uncomfortable, due to their political views or their views on racism, from challenging such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence.
But we must understand Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence is not only towards one political view or party – it is against ALL political views and parties in an American democracy, it is against our representative democracy itself. Furthermore, those who are responsibly against racism and fascist hate must recognize that the Anarachist and Anarcho-Communist use of an “Antifascist” violent campaign seeks to hijack, twist, and pervert the peaceful and responsible effort by citizens who don’t share their contempt towards our “rights framework.”
Violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists don’t just attack what they call “fascists” – they attack all Americans – of every identity group – that dares to stand for our law, our rights, and democracy in our nation. They are not any type of “anti-fascism,” but they represent their own form of authoritarian mob hate and violence, hidden behind black masks to menace the public.
But let us remember this fringe of thousands of violent Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists are NOTHING compared to the MILLIONS of Americans that respect the law and our shared human rights.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) calls for a “Responsible Majority” of Americans to voice their rejection of violent Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist acts, and to reject their efforts to pervert human rights-based challenges to racism, fascism, and other hate, by using their Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign. These bullies in black who hide their face from accountability are nothing compared to the many millions of responsible men and women in America, who stand unequivocally for our shared Constitutional and human rights, our shared law, and our shared democracy. A “Responsible Majority” of Americans must not stand silent while such mobs of violence and terrorism are normalized, by a failure to speak and a failure to act. We must not accept that such fringe minorities of the American people are empowered to incite and commit public violence and crime, largely without consequences, in the streets of our cities.
with the sacrifices of so many in America for our freedoms, rights, laws, and security, a “Responsible Majority” of Americans at every level, in our homes, schools, institutions, and places of worship must stand publicly and equivocally to reject such attacks of mob violence and criminal acts by Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist mobs. This is not an issue of politics. This is an issue of human rights – all of our human rights.
As we call for the voices and action of the “Responsible Majority” of the American public, we also must call reform with the U.S. political media, a sense of focus and effectiveness by the U.S. federal government, and a new standard of determination of our law enforcement to perform their mission.
R.E.A.L. has been concerned for some time with the incendiary rhetoric of the U.S. political media. U.S. political candidates, political leaders, even political parties will come and go. But the consistent rhetoric of major arms of the U.S. political media calling some political leaders “fascist,” and those who support a political candidate “terrorist,” should be recognized as having gone too far. Some in the U.S. political media have migrated from reporting news to believing they have a role, not only to question, but to consistently agitate. Restraint is a necessary component in the American dialogue on our differences. The American public will and should passionately debate public concerns, political issues, and our differences. But our differences pale to those who reject democracy itself, who entirely reject our law, and who reject our shared Constitutional and human rights. The Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist leaders and their “Antifa” campaign have been very clear about rejecting our democracy, our law, and our rights. It is beyond irresponsible for those in the U.S. political media to continue to glamorize such violent extremists and their proponents. It is past time for the U.S. political media to re-discover restraint, tone down its incendiary rhetoric which has helped legitimize such extremism, and to work to undo the damage done by giving normalization and credibilty to Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violent groups.
The U.S. Federal Government plays an important and vital role in national public safety, law enforcement, and homeland security matters. The fate of nations in the rest of the world is also an important aspect to our representative government, but it must not overshadow vital issues of American rights and law at home. For the past two years, mob violence has become an increasing feature in the streets of American cities. As we call for the rest of the “Responsible Majority” to act on this, we must seek increased leadership from our U.S. Federal Government. Given the divisiveness we have seen in the nation, the time clearly has come for a greater commitment to inclusive and healing statements and acts, and a greater restraint in agitation with the U.S. political media. The challenge of Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence and terrorism is fed by a conviction that U.S. authority, government, law, and law enforcement is not legitimate. We must not give the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist campaigns any ammunition to attack our shared rights and democratic system. Furthermore, the U.S. Federal Government must work with clearly defined terms regarding Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist violence, and recognize the century of domestic terrorism by Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists as a legitimate and proven domestic terrorist threat. We need to clearly and unequivocally communicate the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist threats to our liberties and freedoms, and educate our public that this century of violence against the American people will not be tolerated. There has been a long and sustained focus on Foreign Terrorist Organizations, while domestic terrorist organizations have been gaining significant organization, resources, weapons, and followers. It is time for the U.S. Government to take a stronger stand on domestic terrorist threats from Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist organizations to defend our rights, our security, and the rule of law in America. This is the moment, right here, right now, where those of us who took a vow to defend the Constitution of the United States must act to protect this nation from the enemies of our shared rights and shared law.
America’s law enforcement is the front-line of the war on crime in cities and towns of America every day. Such struggle to defend our human and Constitutional rights codified into laws is the most singular essential effort in defending human rights in America. Without our laws and law enforcement, our human rights would quickly be destroyed by those who believe their use of force is greater than our rights. In 21st century America, this defense of the law and the accountability of those in our law enforcement is scrutinized like never before. Some view this as a challenge, but R.E.A.L. urges our law enforcement to use this as an opportunity to demonstrate to Americans the courage and integrity of those who chose to find careers in law enforcement. No one is and will be perfect, but our law enforcement only needs to be measured based its role in consistently and fairly enforcing the law. When our nation is being terrorized by “cop hating” Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists, who are infiltrating public events with their “Black Bloc” groups and “Antifa” violence, this is the time when Americans really need to see our law enforcement to step up. In city after city, we have seen local and state law enforcement overwhelmed by Anarchist and “Antifa” violence. Such ineffectiveness not only endangers the police and the rights in those cities, but it emboldens and encourages more and greater nationwide violence by Anarchist, Anarcho-Communist, and “Antifa” movements across the country. Those law enforcement, particularly in California and New York state, that have stood by while such violent extremists engage in mob violence with impunity, must do serious soul-searching as to damage that they allowed not only locally, but also nationally to the integrity of all those committed to law enforcement. If those responsible for law enforcement are unwilling to stop those who openly seek the destruction of our law, then they need to find another role in our democracy. The American public must have confidence in our law enforcement. America cannot fight a war on crime, by too frequent and high-profile acts of police surrender against black-masked Anarchist mobs. America has 1,000,000 in our law enforcement careers, and many more in our National Guards to protect our nation. The idea that a few hundred in an Anarchist mob can terrorize our cities with impunity must be unacceptable to everyone who enforces and respects the laws of our land.
To those who are legitimately concerned about racism and fascism, and have been led to believe that the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” campaign will work, R.E.A.L. asks what can of racism and fascism can we fight without a commitment to our shared universal human rights? Anarchist suicide bomber nearly resulted in the murder of the chairperson of the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt. If she would have been an acceptable loss to such violent Anarchists, are you and your own families an acceptable sacrifice for such Anarcho-Communist violence? How can you fight “hate” by using “hate” of your own? You know better and historic American leaders have proven this is wrong. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. took a clear stance on hate and violence: “Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.” “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” The wisdom and knowledge of legitimate and responsible American challenge to racism is there for our shared understanding. We must choose to reject the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist forces of hate and violence, which will only do further damage to our nation and to ourselves.
R.E.A.L. also makes an appeal to the Anarchists and Anarcho-Communists who seek to promote violence and insurrection in the United States. R.E.A.L. will not speak to you about human rights and democracy, as it is clear that you have no interest in respecting these in your “Antifa” extremist lexicon. So R.E.A.L. will first speak to you in the language and values that you do understand, which is mob force. Today, as your numbers are an annoyance and embarrassment to many the American public, such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist “Antifa” violence is not being taken seriously – yet. But if you are more “successful” in the cause of insurrection against democracy and rights that is at the root of the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist campaign, what then? America is a different world than the days of the 1970s Weatherman Underground. The tolerance for terrorist attacks and violence in the 21st century is very different than what it was in 20th century America, despite your recent “Black Bloc” organized attacks. What happens if you “succeed” in your goals to any significant damage to the American public and its infrastructure? Your echo chambers of extremists, and rash actions of political partisans and political media, may give you the false impression that you have broad support that you do not actually have. You believe in mob violence and force. But you are working to engender massive public resistance against your own organizations, when the American public finally has had enough of your mob violence. Even Anarcho-Communist Noam Chomsky has now publicly denounced your current “Antifa” campaign’s acts of public violence. If a doctrinaire, life-long Anarcho-Communist such as Noam Chomsky cannot accept the violent path you seek, what makes you believe the American public will accept it? In fact, it is the restraint and tolerance of the “Responsible Majority” that allows the freedom of such Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist speech, but as such public violence and terrorism continues, that same “Responsible Majority” will end such “Antifa” acts of violence and terrorism in our streets.
Finally, R.E.A.L. offers outreach to the Anarchist and Anarcho-Communist community, including the extremists the seek violence and terrorism. We urge you to consider the consequences for yourselves, your neighbors, your loved ones, and your families. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s original “I Have a Dream” speech, included the “Golden Rule,” on November 27, 1962, “I have a dream tonight. One day men will do unto others as they would have others to do unto them.” We understand how deeply hate can lodge in the hearts of frustrated people. But hate is not the answer, anymore than hate can be the answer against any of us. If you are truly against hate, as you say you are, then you must abandon your own acts of hate and violence, before the American security situation escalates. We cannot succeed in any campaign in the promoting ideas to the public, if we destroy the marketplaces and venues for shared ideas themselves.
R.E.A.L. urges you to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.
