Russia gives indirect support to Western far-right groups: US intelligence report

February 11, 2022 by 1 Comment

Pro-Russian forces in UkraineTHE KREMLIN IS PROVIDING “indirect and passive support” to Western neo-Nazi, white supremacist and other far-right groups, in an effort to subvert Western security, according to a leaked report produced by United States intelligence agencies. The report is titled “Russian Federation Support of Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists”. It was produced in July of 2021 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), with information provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency.

According to Yahoo News, which obtained a copy of the unclassified report, it “stops short” of claiming that the government of Russia is giving direct financial and other material assistance to Western far-right groups. The report admits that US intelligence agencies do not have “indications of direct Russian government support” for such groups. However, it claims that Moscow appears to tolerate “some private Russian entities’ support” for American and European far-right organizations.

A number of Russian far-right groups are “actively training foreign white nationalists” and are engaged in efforts to recruit Western far-right extremists. These recruits come from countries such as Germany, Canada and the United States. They regularly travel to Russia, where they receive paramilitary training. Upon returning to their home countries, they help Russian far-right groups to “expand their reach into the West, increase membership and raise money”, the report claims.

The report cites the example of the St. Petersburg-based Russian Imperial Movement (RIM), which is known to have provided paramilitary training to Western white supremacists and neo-Nazis. In 2020 the US Department of State designated the RIM a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group. The designation marked the first time in history that the US Department of State had formally applied the label of terrorist to a white supremacist organization. The ODNI report also cites the case of the neo-Nazi Rusich Reconnaissance and Sabotage Group, which has links with Russia’s Wagner Group, a private military contractor with significant presence in Ukraine, Africa and elsewhere.

► Author: Ian Allen | Date: 11 February 2022 | Permalink

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America’s most senior intelligence officer says its classification system is broken

January 28, 2022 by Leave a comment

Avril HainesTHE MOST SENIOR INTELLIGENCE officer in the United States has said in a letter that the nation’s system of classification is flawed and undermines its national security. This view was expressed by Avril Haines, who heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the body that directs and coordinates America’s 18 intelligence agencies. Haines, 52, was appointed to the position last year by President Joe Biden, and is seen as a potential reformist of the US intelligence community.

Haines stated her view on classification in a letter sent to two Senators, Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) and Ron Wyden (D., Ore.). The letter was in response to a formal query submitted by the two members of Congress. The query concerns the mounting backlog of classified information that is currently awaiting declassification on historical or ‘right-to-know’ legal processes. The latter require government agencies to release information to the public domain.

Some of the contents of Haines’ letter, marked “for official use only”, were reported on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. According to the paper, Haines opined that “deficiencies in the current classification system undermine our national security, as well as critical democratic objectives, by impeding our ability to share information in a timely manner”. This affects the work of policy makers, the public’s perception of the American system of government, and the nation’s ability to share critical information with its allies, said Haines.

What is more, ongoing efforts to limit the “exponential growth” of classified information in government vaults “are simply not sufficient”. This is “a fundamentally important issue that we must address”, said Haines. In an essay she authored shortly before becoming Director of National Intelligence, Haines had criticized the government’s tendency to overclassify information, claiming that “it actually encourages leaking”. In response to Haines’ letter, Senators Moran and Wyden issued a statement saying the DNI “clearly recognizes that the current broken classification system harms US national security while eroding the public’s trust in government”.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 28 January 2022 | Permalink

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Domestic extremism quickly ‘metastasizing’, US intelligence report warns

March 18, 2021 by Leave a comment

US Capitol

A MAJOR INTELLIGENCE REPORT produced for the United States Congress and the White House warns that violent extremism by ethnically and racially motivated militants is “metastasizing”, and “will almost certainly” result in further attacks in 2021. The report was produced by the National Counterterrorism Center of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. A declassified version of the report was released online, shortly after the White House and Congress were given a classified briefing on the matter.

The report —the first of its kind to be issued after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol Complex, points to threats from several strains of domestic violent extremism, ranging from environmental activists to animal rights extremists, anarchists and adherents of far-right ideologies. It states, however, that by far the greatest threat to public security is presented by ethnically and racially motivated violent extremists, in combination with armed militias. These groups “will almost certainly” grow more active in the coming months, due to a number of economic, political and social factors. Their members are feeling emboldened following the January 6 attacks, and social media are allowing these groups to expand their presence among the population. Widespread conspiracy theories about last November’s presidential elections are also fueling rightwing armed militancy, according to the report.

The same can be said about the economic pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns, which anti-government extremists view as the imposition of tyranny by a government that should be overthrown. These kinds of social disruptions “will almost certainly” fuel further violence this year, according to the report. Members of domestic extremist organizations are currently exchanging ideas on methods of violence, and devising “innovations in targeting and attack tactics”, it adds. Additionally, white supremacist groups appear to rely on “the most persistent and concerning transnational connections” of any type of domestic violent extremist organizations.

► Author: Joseph Fitsanakis | Date: 18 March 2021 | Permalink

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