In the last article on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) response by the FBI provided to AmmoLand News by Gun Owners of America (GOA), the FBI is worried about so-called racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) teaming up with Islamic foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) to bring chaos to the homeland. This article is going to dive into who the FBI thinks are RMVEs and who else the federal enforcement agency considers to be domestic terrorists.
As reported here, the FBI states that RMVEs are white nationalists and white supremacists. The documents don’t list any other races with the RMVE title. The FBI states that “hate is not a crime” and says it cannot investigate First Amendment-protected speech but then claims that the RMVEs “are responsible for the most lethal attacks.” The document claims that many of the RMVEs are domestic terrorists. Some other examples of domestic terrorists the Bureau gives in the document are anti-government and anti-authority extremists (AGAAVE).
The FBI says that RMVEs are targeting racial, ethnic, and religious minorities. It says that historically, RMVEs acted within nationalized, hierarchical groups, but recently, attacks have transitioned to decentralized lone offenders or small cells. The FBI says these attacks are often against soft targets like religious facilities. Many times, these locations are “gun-free” zones, leaving the partitioners unable to defend themselves.
The government is also concerned that manifestos posted online and “ideologically-driven” websites are radicalizing Americans to become RMVEs. Some examples of manifestos on the FBI list are 2083, Siege, and The Great Replacement. The websites it lists are Fascist Forge and the Atomwaffen Division’s website.
One group that the FBI is concerned with is the California-based Rise Against Movement (RAM). The group formed out of the neo-NAZI skinhead movement. The group shares members with other NAZI groups like Patriot Front and the former Identify Evropa. The group’s members have also traveled to other countries, such as Ukraine, to network with groups like the Ukraine-based “Azov Movement.”
The FBI says that the federal law enforcement agency to investigate domestic terrorism requires the existence of a potential federal violation, the unlawful use of force or violence, and the existence of ideological motivation. Out of these domestic terrorists, the FBI seems to be more worried about “lone offender attacks” than an organized attack from a domestic terrorist group. The government agency says the primary tool for lone wolf attackers is firearms.
The FBI claims that there have been 21 attacks between 2015 and 2019. The FBI lists 74 deaths at the hands of these attackers. In addition to the murders, the FBI also listed 120 arrests of domestic terrorists in 2018. Interestingly, the FBI included the arrest of suspected domestic terrorists for charges such as fraud, drug offenses, and probation violations.
RMVEs are not the only groups that the FBI is concerned about being domestic terrorists. Other threats, according to the FBI, include AGAAVE, which includes anarchist extremism, militia extremism, animal rights/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism. The FBI also mentions Sovereign citizens and highlights their frivolous legal filings and financial schemes.
Pro-life lone offenders are the “greatest threat,” according to the FBI. It says that abortion providers are at risk of violence by these people. It also highlights property destruction and arson by the pro-life side. In addition to the pro-life crowd, the FBI is worried about what it calls involuntary celibate violent extremism (IVE) by so-called “incels.” Incels are men that blame women for “denying them sexual and romantic attention.” The FBI believes this group is the most likely to carry out a mass casualty event.
The FBI claims that these domestic terrorists are using social media and encrypted chat platforms to communicate with other like-minded individuals. People concerned about government snooping use encrypted communications apps like Signal to protect their communications from the federal government’s watchful eye. Others have used apps like Telegram because they falsely believe it is encrypted by default. The FBI believes that using encryption technologies is one of its most significant challenges when monitoring these groups.
In the next article, we will look at the FBI’s investigations into anti-fascist and anti-racist violence before covering the FBI’s take on clashes between anti-fascist and right-wing groups.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. Mr. Crump has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
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