First Time FBI Issues This
Kind of Warning
(It's about time — long
overdue)
The FBI for the first time
has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat,
according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News
(via MSN) – see more below:
FBI designates Pizza-gate and QAnon conspiracy-based theories as domestic threats. The FBI
intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30,
2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven
domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first
such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t
been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.
The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that
believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizza-gate,
the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out
of the basement of a Washington, DC pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).
From the FBI document: “The FBI
assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve
in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and
individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts.”
It also goes on to say: “… the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven
extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 presidential election cycle.”
The FBI said another factor
driving the intensity of this threat is “the
uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or
unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political
figures.”
Note: The FBI does not specify which political leaders or which cover-ups it
was referring to.
President Trump is mentioned
by name briefly in the latest FBI document, which notes that the origins of
QAnon is the conspiratorial belief that “Q,” allegedly a government official, “posts classified information online to
reveal a covert effort that is led by President Trump, to dismantle a
conspiracy involving ‘deep state’ actors and global elites allegedly engaged in
an international child sex trafficking ring.”
This recent intelligence
bulletin comes as the FBI is facing pressure to explain who it considers an
extremist, and how the government prosecutes domestic terrorists. In recent
weeks the FBI director has addressed domestic terrorism multiple times but did
not publicly mention this new conspiracy theorist threat.
The FBI is already under fire
for its approach to domestic extremism. In a contentious hearing last week
before the Senate Judiciary Committee,
FBI
Director Christopher Wray faced criticism from Democrats who said the
bureau was not focusing enough on white supremacist violence.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) said: “The terms white
supremacist and white nationalist are not included in your statement to the
committee when you talk about threats to America. There is a reference to
racism, which I think probably was meant to include that, but nothing more
specific.”
Wray told lawmakers the FBI
had done away with separate categories for black identity extremists and white
supremacists, and said the bureau was instead now focusing on “racially
motivated violence.”
But Wray added:
“I will say that a majority of the
domestic terrorism cases that we've investigated are motivated by some version
of what you might call white supremacist violence.”
The FBI had faced mounting
criticism for the term “black identity extremists,” after its use was revealed by Foreign Policy magazine
in 2017. Critics pointed out that the term was an FBI
invention based solely on race, since no group or even any specific individuals
actually identify as black identity extremists.
In May, Michael C. McGarrity, the FBI’s assistant director of the
counter-terrorism division, told Congress: “The bureau now classifies domestic terrorism
threats into four main categories: racially motivated violent extremism,
anti-government/anti-authority extremism, animal rights/environmental
extremism, and abortion extremism” (A term the bureau uses to classify both
pro-choice and anti-abortion extremists).
The new focus on conspiracy
theorists appears to fall under the broader category of anti-government
extremism and the document states: “This
is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven
domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products.”
the document states.
My 2 cents: This should be mandatory reading for every Republican
in office and all across GOP la-la land from top to bottom starting with Trump
and all those around him and stick to him like super glue.
I note that conspiracies can be very believable and damaging - they are similar in nature to Russian disinformation and would pass for cousins.
Thanks for stopping by.
No comments:
Post a Comment