3 ms·

Homeland Security Is Quietly Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers

30 points by aspenmayer 6y ago

aspenmayer 6y ago
> The intelligence report, titled “The Syrian Conflict and its Nexus to the U.S.-based Antifascist Movement[0],” mentions several Americans, including a left-wing podcast host who traveled to Syria to fight ISIS. The report includes a readout of these individuals’ personal information, including their Social Security numbers, home addresses, and social media accounts, much of the data generated by DHS’s Tactical Terrorism Response Teams. As the intelligence report states, “ANTIFA is being analyzed under the 2019 DHS Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism (CT) and Targeted Violence.” [0] https://www.scribd.com/document/471292844/The-Syrian-Conflict-and-Its-Nexus-to-U-S-based-Antifascist-Movements https://www.scribd.com/document/471292844/The-Syrian-Conflic...
- neatze 6y ago
  plot twist, analyst who wrote report is antifa member. I wish this report was contrasted with qanon report.
  - toiletfuneral 6y ago
    he's a member? who does he report to? which branch?
rudolph9 6y ago
> The DHS appears to define antifa broadly, to encompass various left-wing tendencies: “[A]ntifa is driven by a mixed range of far-left political ideologies, including anti-capitalism, communism, socialism, and anarchism.” In two cases, evidence of antifa affiliation was limited to photos taken in front of an antifa flag. As the intelligence report itself notes, “ANTIFA claims no official leadership,” raising questions about whether antifa even exists in any sort of operational capacity.
- rudolph9 6y ago
  This is so fucked up.
- retox 6y ago
  If antifa isn't an organisation as they claim, then any organisation employing the same tactics can be defined broadly to be antifa adjacent. If a group claims not to be nazi, but its members are photographed with nazi flags, are they a nazi organisation or not?
  - rudolph9 6y ago
    It’s not a group. It doesn’t have members. These protests have upward of 20,000 people marching on a single day. What does an antifa flag even look like? Furthermore, AG and POTUS are not calling Nazis terrorists, they are calling people who march in protests and can be loosely tied to individuals who burn garbage terrorists. They are using this as legal justification to violate the privacy of American citizens.
neatze 6y ago
I am possibly wrong and not stating this in absolute terms, but it seems to me, most view this report as negative. Unfortunately, not having multiple similar reports on different ideologies, it is very hard or even impossible to conclude it is actually negative. There is good chance there is similar report on every ideology, possible organizations, that currently show any signs of possible violence on US territory independent of politics, religion, or race.
- bscphil 6y ago
  Suppose it's true that "there is similar report on every ideology, possible organizations" then that's a major problem, not the opposite of a problem. Not every organization that shows "any signs of possible violence" is tied to a foreign power, and a consistent attempt to discover connections in cases where they're likely absent suggests an incredibly high degree of paranoia among American intelligence organizations, which might be even more dangerous than them arbitrarily going after a single organization because of the political interests of this administration.
  - neatze 6y ago
    Do you agree that people who acquired experience in urban warfare should be investigated for potential threats to homeland with or without context of current situation ?
    - bscphil 6y ago
      That's not the question at hand: the question is about "Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers". Whether they're a potential threat to the security of the state is a different question, which I don't particularly want to wade into. Also, I haven't seen any particularly good evidence that Antifa as an organization has "acquired experience in urban warfare", whatever that means. I haven't seen videos of protestors exchanging fire with cops in the street.
      - neatze 6y ago
        Leaked report in article does not tying it either to large degree, it does covers recent events and people, as far I comprehend.

30 points by aspenmayer 6y ago

> The intelligence report, titled “The Syrian Conflict and its Nexus to the U.S.-based Antifascist Movement[0],” mentions several Americans, including a left-wing podcast host who traveled to Syria to fight ISIS. The report includes a readout of these individuals’ personal information, including their Social Security numbers, home addresses, and social media accounts, much of the data generated by DHS’s Tactical Terrorism Response Teams. As the intelligence report states, “ANTIFA is being analyzed under the 2019 DHS Strategic Framework for Countering Terrorism (CT) and Targeted Violence.” [0] https://www.scribd.com/document/471292844/The-Syrian-Conflict-and-Its-Nexus-to-U-S-based-Antifascist-Movements https://www.scribd.com/document/471292844/The-Syrian-Conflic...

neatze 6y ago
plot twist, analyst who wrote report is antifa member. I wish this report was contrasted with qanon report.
- toiletfuneral 6y ago
  he's a member? who does he report to? which branch?

rudolph9 6y ago

> The DHS appears to define antifa broadly, to encompass various left-wing tendencies: “[A]ntifa is driven by a mixed range of far-left political ideologies, including anti-capitalism, communism, socialism, and anarchism.” In two cases, evidence of antifa affiliation was limited to photos taken in front of an antifa flag. As the intelligence report itself notes, “ANTIFA claims no official leadership,” raising questions about whether antifa even exists in any sort of operational capacity.

rudolph9 6y ago
This is so fucked up.
retox 6y ago
If antifa isn't an organisation as they claim, then any organisation employing the same tactics can be defined broadly to be antifa adjacent. If a group claims not to be nazi, but its members are photographed with nazi flags, are they a nazi organisation or not?
- rudolph9 6y ago
  It’s not a group. It doesn’t have members. These protests have upward of 20,000 people marching on a single day. What does an antifa flag even look like? Furthermore, AG and POTUS are not calling Nazis terrorists, they are calling people who march in protests and can be loosely tied to individuals who burn garbage terrorists. They are using this as legal justification to violate the privacy of American citizens.

neatze 6y ago

I am possibly wrong and not stating this in absolute terms, but it seems to me, most view this report as negative. Unfortunately, not having multiple similar reports on different ideologies, it is very hard or even impossible to conclude it is actually negative. There is good chance there is similar report on every ideology, possible organizations, that currently show any signs of possible violence on US territory independent of politics, religion, or race.

bscphil 6y ago
Suppose it's true that "there is similar report on every ideology, possible organizations" then that's a major problem, not the opposite of a problem. Not every organization that shows "any signs of possible violence" is tied to a foreign power, and a consistent attempt to discover connections in cases where they're likely absent suggests an incredibly high degree of paranoia among American intelligence organizations, which might be even more dangerous than them arbitrarily going after a single organization because of the political interests of this administration.
- neatze 6y ago
  Do you agree that people who acquired experience in urban warfare should be investigated for potential threats to homeland with or without context of current situation ?
  - bscphil 6y ago
    That's not the question at hand: the question is about "Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers". Whether they're a potential threat to the security of the state is a different question, which I don't particularly want to wade into. Also, I haven't seen any particularly good evidence that Antifa as an organization has "acquired experience in urban warfare", whatever that means. I haven't seen videos of protestors exchanging fire with cops in the street.
    - neatze 6y ago
      Leaked report in article does not tying it either to large degree, it does covers recent events and people, as far I comprehend.