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Rep. Elissa Slotkin wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, asking him to take unprecedented steps to designate 13 extremist movements as foreign terrorist organizations, and believes this move ” Will help reduce the pressure on these violent organizations” and their leaders’ ability to operate the team. “
However, of the 13 groups listed in the letter her office provided to BuzzFeed News, at least 4 have been disbanded. One is an American club established in California, which has been split and renamed, and the other has changed for six years. The name used in the former Slotkin letter.When it became part of the Allied National Guard
Matthew Feldman, director of the Centre for Radical Rights Analysis in London, told BuzzFeed News: “This is a great list-in 2018.” “Each [the listed groups] active. Everyone is dangerous. “
Feldman praised Slotkin’s efforts and the motivation behind the list, saying it was a step in the right direction. But he also said that this is an example of how the US government has slowly recognized the threat posed by violent extreme right-wing extremists at home and abroad.
Biden has expressed his intention to combat domestic violence extremists, especially white supremacists, such as those who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, and the FBI regards them as the greatest threat. The head of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, told lawmakers last month that domestic violence extremism “posed the deadliest and most persistent terrorism-related threat to today’s homeland.”
But experts say that it is also important to follow foreign extremist groups that often communicate, coordinate and inspire with their American counterparts.
If the Biden administration would list it as an official foreign terrorist organization (FTO), or designate it as a “specially designated global terrorist” (SDGT), as suggested by the Michigan Democrat Slotkin , This will help curb dangerous white supremacist organizations, the congressman pointed out in her letter Reuters report.
“This will also provide the U.S. government with more tools to attract and mark Americans who come in contact with, support, train, and join these people. [white supremacist extremist] group”.
But during the Donald Trump administration, Elizabeth Neumann, the former assistant secretary of counter-terrorism and threat prevention at the Department of Homeland Security, told BuzzFeed News that the process was long and difficult.
She said: “The FTO process is a very high threshold.” “I am frustrated, we can only participate in the Russian Imperial Movement. That is not the only group we have seen.”
In April 2020, the United States appointed RIM and its three leaders SDGT, which is the first time this classification has been used.
When asked about Slotkin’s letter, a State Department spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, “Generally, we do not comment on congressional correspondence, nor do we comment on allegations or deliberations related to potential nomination.” But Brinken told BuzzFeed News. MSNBC Meet the media On Sunday, the designation of an overseas white supremacist organization as a foreign terrorist organization is “what we are looking for.”
Slotkin is a former CIA analyst who mainly studies foreign terrorist organizations in the Middle East. She wrote: “The threat posed by these white supremacist organizations, the amount of their contacts with American extremists, the minimum intelligence And diplomatic reports shocked her. We have investigated these groups, and the U.S. government is relatively lacking in censorship.”
Slotkin said that the national action team should be designated as a terrorist, which is a neo-Nazi organization established in the UK and banned in 2016. Targeted British youth. U.S. counter-terrorism in 2018 report Describe it as a terrorist organization that promotes violence against politicians and ethnic minorities.A metropolitan policeman named Ben Hannam is convicted Membership on April 1.
The other is the neo-Nazi Nordic resistance movement, which is the same as in the U.S. in 2018 report Described as an anti-Western multinational organization following violent attacks (including violent attacks on Muslims and left-wing organizations).
But not all the groups she asked the government to pay attention to are currently active.
Kacper Rekawek, a Slovak researcher at the non-profit organization Counter Extremism Project, said that Slotkin’s list is a type of list that someone might have drawn up by searching for far-right extremist groups on Google.
“Rep. Slotkin’s efforts are commendable. Rekawek told BuzzFeed News that under-used names in Europe should help resist the threat of violence from extreme right-wing organizations. “However, it must be through thorough understanding of the local extreme right scenes. Analysis to understand this, including many actors, they often talk, but in terms of violence, they do not go. “
Rekawek and Feldman said that the neo-Nazi group Feuerkrieg Division, Sonnenkrieg Division, German Atomwaffen Division and Northern Order (on Slotkin’s list) have all been dissolved. Panelists-All these panels are inspired by the American Department of Atomwaffen and the American neo-Nazi James Mason”Siege culture,” – closely related to violence or violent conspiracy United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Canada, And other places.
The Rise Movement (RAM) is a white supremacist fight club established in Southern California. Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine After three members of the Balkans were imprisoned for participating in the United Right-Wing Federation in Charlottesville in August 2017, the Balkans was also disbanded. The founder of RAM, New Yorker Robert Rundo, was charged with several protests across California in another federal violence case.These allegations were dismissed in June 2019, but Restore last month.
Right now he It is said that After he was expelled from Serbia, he hid from the Bosnian authorities Belling Cat Reports say he is trying to take root in the country.
After the story was published, Slotkin’s staff clarified that they included RAM in the list to identify foreign branches of the organization.
Another problematic group on Slotkin’s list is the Azov battalion in Ukraine. The paramilitary forces were formed in 2014 by far-right extremists who volunteered to be weapons against Russian-backed forces when the war broke out in eastern Ukraine. In January 2016, it became part of the National Guard of the country and has since been called the Azov Army.
Its political branch, the National Army, has been marked by the State Council as a “nationalist hatred group.” However, designating the regiment as a foreign terrorist organization may pose challenges, especially due to the regime’s attachment to the country and the fact that Ukraine is an ally of the United States.
BuzzFeed News contacted Slotkin to comment on the list. An aide said that after Reuters reported the representative’s letter, they already knew the status of the Azov and the disbanded groups. However, the aide said they plan to at least continue to keep the active groups on the list.
The assistant said: “We are confident that we can get a certain degree of recognition.”
Read the full text of Slotkin.
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