FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to be active during the 2020 presidential election cycle

FBI Intelligence Bulletin, excerpt, 30 May 2019

Yahoo! News, 2 August 2019:

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. (Read the document below.)

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 Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn’t actually have a basement).

“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,” the document states. 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.” The FBI does not specify which political leaders or which cover-ups it was referring to.

FBI Conspiracy Theory Redacted by Kelli R. Grant on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/document/420379775/FBI-Conspiracy-Theory-Redacted

The Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 2019:

At a few minutes before 11 am on Saturday in El Paso, Texas, a gunman in his early 20s opened fire on a crowd of shoppers in a mall killing at least 20 and wounding dozens of others, placing the suspect’s rampage among the top ten deadliest mass shootings in US history.....

As hospitals in the local area deal with what can only be described as the bloody battlefield carnage, federal and state authorities are moving closer towards establishing the suspect’s motive for carrying out the mass casualty attack.

Federal law enforcement investigators have told CNN that they are reviewing writings they believe to have been posted online by the suspect, Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man from Dallas, but are yet to publicly confirm.
 
Essentially, the gunman’s alleged manifesto reads as a carbon copy of that espoused by those who carried out the recent and respective attacks on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

"This is a response to the Hispanic invasion," it reads, according to the FBI. It then goes on to accuse the Democratic Party of "pandering to the Hispanic voting bloc”, while also expressing his contempt for “race mixing” and support for “sending them back.”

These right-wing extremists are not only channelling neo-Nazi borne “Great Replacement” conspiracy theories, which frame demographic change as a threat to white Europeans, but also taking a cue from the words and policies of President Donald Trump.

It was only two weeks ago when Trump inspired an auditorium full of his supporters to chant “send her back” in reference to the country’s first elected black Muslim congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia and migrated to the US as the young daughter of refugee parents.

Earlier in the year, Trump smeared all immigrants approaching the US-Mexico border as invaders when he said, “People hate the word ‘invasion', but that’s what it is.”

Trump has also referred to Latin American refugees and asylum seekers as “rapists”, “criminals”, drug dealers” and “terrorists”.

It’s worth remembering that when a Rwandan politician described Rwanda’s Tutsi minority as “cockroaches” it started a genocide that resulted in the deaths of upwards of one million people in that country.....

Tweet of the Week

New Zealand today fell silent in honour of the mosque attacks' martyrs. Thank you PM @jacindaardern and New Zealand for your sincere empathy and support that has won the respect of 1.5 billion Muslims after the terrorist attack that shook the Muslim community around the world. pic.twitter.com/9LDvH0ybhD

— HH Sheikh Mohammed (@HHShkMohd) March 22, 2019

The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 March 2019:

The world's tallest building has been lit up with a giant image of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern embracing a woman at the Kilbirnie mosque in Wellington.

The Burj Khalifa, an 829-metre-tall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, beamed out a photo taken by Wellington photographer Hagen Hopkins, as well as the Arabic word "salam" and its English translation, "peace".

Far-right white supremacy is not about to crash & burn in Australia - instead it reached peak extremism on 15 March 2019

How homegrown white supremacist groups reportedly influenced the Australian terrorist who allegedly killed fifty worshippers in two New Zealand mosques on 15 March 2019.........

ABC News, 23 March 2019:

Three years before the mass shooting in Christchurch, [name redacted] was lavishing praise on prominent Australian far-right nationalist Blair Cottrell, referring to him as "Emperor".

The ABC's Background Briefing has uncovered an archive of comments from the accused mosque shooter, which were posted on the now deleted Facebook pages of Australian far-right groups United Patriots Front (UPF) and True Blue Crew (TBC).

The comments give an insight for the first time into [name redacted]'s early radical views.

[name redacted], 28, is facing trial in New Zealand for his alleged involvement in the shooting deaths of 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch last week— part of which was live streamed on his Facebook page.

At this stage, [name redacted] has been charged with one count of murder.

But in the wake of the massacre, his social media accounts were wiped from the internet, leaving very little information regarding the connections he made with individuals and groups on the far-right that operate prominently online.

What remained were fragments and digital impressions of a well-travelled young man who frequented hate-filled anonymous messaging boards and was deeply engaged in a global alt-right culture.

Although the shooter claimed in a manifesto uploaded before the attack that he was never a member of any group, the archive verified by Background Briefing reveals an allegiance to a number of high-profile Australian far-right figures.

And while specific details remain murky, these revelations about [name redacted]'s interactions with domestic far-right groups shed light on a young man captivated by white nationalism and its high-profile figurehead, Mr Cottrell.

Mr Cottrell emerged as a public figure in 2015 for his opposition to a mosque in Victoria and a graphic stunt in which he performed a mock beheading.

Since then he has become the highest profile leader of Australia's alt right.

For many he is the symbol of the so-called "white resistance" in Australia and is the figurehead for a movement that in recent times has been defined by its virulent anti-Islamic views.

Before the Facebook page of his group, the UPF, was deleted, it had more than 120,000 followers, and the data reveals [name redacted] also followed the group.

[name redacted]'s comments, dating back as early as April 2016, showed the Australian-born man was a vocal supporter of then UPF-leader Mr Cottrell.

In the information, [name redacted] made more than 30 comments on the UPF and TBC pages over a 10-month period.

Although there are no screenshots of his comments on the UPF and TBC pages, Background Briefing has verified their authenticity by comparing the archive's preserved metadata — including Facebook ID numbers and timestamps — against other public posts shared by UPF and TBC supporters.

This allowed us to connect names to comments.

In one instance, metadata shows that when members from the UPF violently clashed with counter-protesters in Coburg in 2016, [name redacted] felt compelled to respond to Mr Cottrell's critics online.

"Communists will get what communists get, I would love to be there holding one end of the rope when you get yours traitor," [name redacted] posted….

In the video, Mr Cottrell and Mr Sewell are seen wearing neat collared shirts and grinning ear-to-ear as they described Mr Trump's victory, declaring it as the end to political correctness and "Marxism" in the US.

[name redacted] was online celebrating with Mr Cottrell and Mr Sewell.

"Simply one of the most important events in modern history," [name redacted] commented on the live video.

It was here that  [name redacted]was most effusive in his support of Mr Cottrell and the movement.

"Globalists and Marxists on suicide watch, patriots and nationalists triumphant — looking forward to Emperor Blair Cottrell coming soon," he wrote.

[name redacted] made similar comments months earlier, when Mr Cottrell appeared on national TV.

"Knocked it out of the park tonight Blair," he wrote.

"Your retorts had me smiling, nodding, cheering and often laughing.

"Never believed we would have a true leader of the nationalist movement in Australia, and especially not so early in the game.

"Would gladly stand behind you."

[name redacted]'s comments in the same period also demonstrate he was invested in the rivalry between the country's far-right groups.

He directed anger at one of the UPF founders, Neil Erikson, and former UPF leader Shermon Burgess and called them "useful idiots".

"Leave the nationalist leadership to Blair and the TBC, or be named obvious plants and traitors," [name redacted] wrote in July 2016 on the TBC Facebook page.

Those comments and their metadata were archived in text form by an anonymous source when those pages were still active on Facebook.

As far as we know the ABC is the only media outlet with access to the archives.

The last activity we have from [name redacted] on the UPF Facebook page is from January 2017, in response to a post discussing Mr Cottrell's impending appearance in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court over staging a fake beheading in Bendigo two years earlier.

[name redacted] was one of more than 200 people who commented on this thread in support of Mr Cottrell.

Mr Cottrell and two other former UPF members were found guilty of inciting serious contempt of Muslims in September 2017.....

....a donation had been made to UPF in [name redacted]'s name some years earlier.....

Michael Edison Hayden is a senior investigator on white supremacists' digital strategies for the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a non-profit which is tracking hate crimes across the US and the world.

He said the Christchurch shooting was a "new reality" where the views and statements of the extreme far-right were having a profound reach on young disaffected men.

He said the accused shooter's manifesto and social media strategy was more "self-aware and performative" than anything he had seen.

"It's a signifier he was immersed in this culture of radicalisation, that he is speaking to them and he is responding to what he's seen from them and what he wants them to see," Mr Hayden said.

Mr Hayden said race-related killings from far-right personalities around the world were often based on fears about being replaced by immigrants and having their white identity erased.

"Once you get the idea you're being eliminated, once you integrate that into your everyday way of thinking, they feel like violence is being inflicted against them day in and day out," he said.

"Which is, of course, a complete perversion of the truth."

 All this raises the question ; How many other men living on the NSW North Coast and elsewhere in Australia share [name redacted]'s world view?