Category Archives: Antifa

Hours after Joe Bidens inauguration, conservative personalities are rehashing an old disinformation campaign surrounding the antifa.com website.

If you go to antifa.com right now, youll find that the URL now takes you to the White Houses official .gov website.

Does this mean that the Biden administration owns the domain name antifa.com? Or is an official antifa entity showcasing their support for the new Democratic administration? No.

It doesn't likely mean anything, since anyone who owns any domain name can redirect it to any website. A domain name owner does not need any sort of affiliation, connection, or permission from a website owner to do so.

According to the Internet Archives Wayback Machine, the antifa.com domain name started forwarding to Joe Bidens official transition website, BuildBackBetter.gov sometime earlier this month. Then, on January 20, antifa.com began redirecting to WhiteHouse.gov.

This same misinformation about antifa.com came up during the summer when the domain started forwarding people to Joe Bidens official campaign website. As Mashable pointed out at that time, this doesnt mean anything.

Could Joe Biden or someone connected to the 46th president own the domain? Sure, its possible. Could the domain be owned by a troll or someone looking to create easily generate some sort of controversy? Also, possible.

Its not clear at this moment who owns the domain antifa.com.

The owner uses privacy protection to obfuscate their contact information in the domains whois results. Due to this, the owner of the domain is listed as WhoisGuard, a company run by the U.S.-based domain registrar, Namecheap.

However, that hasnt stopped right-wing influencers like Laura Loomer and Ryan Fournier, who have large followings on the messaging platform Telegram, from directing their fans to type in the URL themselves. These personalities have been spreading misinformation about the domain redirect in an attempt to tie the new Biden administration to an anti-right wing groups alleged official website.

But, even more important to note, there is no official antifa organization, meaning there is no entity to even create an "official" antifa website. Antifa simply stands for antifacist.

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Antifa.com now redirects to the White Houses website. This doesnt mean anything. - Mashable

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) The massive National Guard presence outside the California Capitol stayed in place Wednesday night, hours after protestors did rally around the downtown area.

There were no reports of violence.

Officers detained several protestors at one point, over concerns they were carrying explosives. One of the detainees spoke to CBS13 and did not want to identify herself.

They said that they got a tip that we had something dangerous in the car, she said.

Antifa posted to several social media accounts they would be demonstrating in Sacramento. Their trademark look is called the black block.

The black block is, youre dressed all in black, retiree FBI agent Glenn Norling said. Its very intimidating to the general public.

Norling now runs a consulting company called Train Be Ready that helps train law enforcement on how to plan for Antifa protests, which have become more visible and violent during the Trump administration.

More from CBS Sacramento:

And I believe the folks who are orchestrating these things are master manipulators of that group think, that crowd mentality, Norling said, and can contribute and understand how to tweak things, toward their goal.

Trump supporters who were denied a permit to protest the election at the Capitol did not show up in crowds.

Policing demonstrators on this Inauguration Day.

As the nation hands the power to a new president, Californias capitol security remains on high alert.

See original here:

No Reports of Violence as Antifa Hits Sacramento Streets on Inauguration Day - CBS Sacramento

Residents in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, say theyre fed up with local officials weak response to the Antifa riots that swept through the cities Wednesday.

In Seattle, city council members and Mayor Jenny Durkan merely issued statements over the Inauguration Day violence that resulted in smashed-up storefronts and burning American flags hours after President Biden was sworn in.

Victoria Beach, a community activist, told KOMO News that it wasnt enough.

Very weak. Very weak, she told the Seattle-based radio station on Thursday. Its not addressing the problem. I reached out to the mayor today [because] she needs to come out and say, Stop! Enough is enough.'

The station reached out to Durkan for an interview.

Her office instead issued a statement saying, Violent threats, vandalism, and misogynistic and homophobic hate speech are unacceptable in our community. Mayor Durkan has consistently denounced individuals who are targeting small businesses and government facilities.

But Beach said the mayor was missing the point.

We are not talking about all that other stuff, Beach said. We are talking about these fools [who are] nightly destroying our city. Thats what we want to hear about.

Seattle council members Andrew Lewis and Lisa Herbold also issued statements refusing to answer questions from KOMO News.

Property destruction is a crime, not free speech, Lewis said. Last night a small group of people committed acts of vandalism in Downtown Seattle and were promptly arrested. It has never been hard for me to distinguish between acts of petty vandalism committed by opportunists.

Herbold said, I have spoken out against property destruction and violent behavior and will continue to do so.

About 200 miles south, riots simultaneously took place in Portland, where the far-left militants vandalized the Democratic Party headquarters and the citys Immigration and Customs Enforcement building.

On Friday, local business owner Stacey Gibson said politicians werent doing enough to condemn the acts of violence or prosecute the criminals that forced her to board up her Subway franchise.

I mean, they say a lot of things, but actions are what matters, Gibson said on Fox & Friends. They dont prosecute anybody. Theyll arrest them, but theyll be out within a few hours.

She added, Theyre just going to keep doing it, which is evident. I dont have any idea why they dont, you know, just actually crack down on it. It would be great if they did.

Portland and Seattle have been hotbeds of violence at the hands of Antifa, the so-called leaderless group of anarchists who are against fascism.

The group routinely clashes with police and leaves a trail of destruction in their path.

In both cities Wednesday night, the crowds chanted, Fk Trump, fk Biden too, they dont give a fk about you.

Tensions escalated in Portland in late August when Antifa follower Michael Forest Reinoehl shot and killed a right-wing counter-protester, Aaron Danielson.

Reinoehl was shot dead by authorities days later.

Originally posted here:

Portland and Seattle residents slam 'weak' response to Antifa riots - New York Post

It was brought to our attention by some of our Newstalk Facebook friends...

Usually when information like this is passed along, we're initially skeptical. OK, rrrrriiiight...but in this case, it worked.

When you enter Antifa.com in the URL bar (not search bar) on your computer, it re-directs you to whitehouse.gov. Which just happens to be the official White House website--at least for now.

We tried it 3 times in a row and it worked. We're not the only ones who noticed this...WTRF News in D.C. also picked up on it.

According to several sources, it is not clear who owns the domain name "Antifa.com."

We tried it with both upper and lower case "A" in antifa, and both link to the White House. Previously antifa.com linked you to Joe Biden's campaign website, late last summer and fall.

It also briefly re-directed to Kamala Harris' campaign site. However, before you get too concerned, consider this.

A few brief bits of research show that anyone who owns a domain name can link, or redirect it to another one of their choice, and there's nothing the 'second' site can do about it. If we wanted to, we could re-direct "newstalk870.am" to whitehouse.gov as long as we own the newstalk domain name. In doing so, however, it renders the domain that's being redirected useless as it's OWN website.

So, the end result is, find who owns the domain "antifa.com" and you will know who is redirecting.

We ran antifa.com through the website namecheap.com, who can look up and find who owns various domain names. This is what we found:

Domain Name: antifa.com

Updated Date: 2020-08-14T19:04:21Z

Creation Date: 2002-04-24T12:35:11Z

Registry Expiry Date: 2021-04-24T12:35:10Z

Apparently the registry expires in April, so if you wanted you could go to namecheap.com and make an offer on it. It would appear whoever owns antifa.com, based upon these redirects, appears to be on the conservative or non-Joe Biden supporter side.

See more here:

Antifa.com Redirects You to Whitehouse.gov--at Least It Is Today - newstalk870.am

opinion

Ron Cunningham| Columnist

I have seen the face of antifa.

He is gray and gaunt with age, and needs glasses. When he isnt presumably burning down cities or ransacking Congress, he helps candidates get elected to local office.

Oh, and he enjoys a rousing Sunday afternoon volleyball match.

At least he did before COVID.

It was the one thing I really looked forward to, he laughs. But Ive gotten my shot, and once everybody else has their shots we can start playing again.

If you believe the likes of Donald Trump, Kat Cammack and Matt Gaetz he is the very personification of evil. Why, he was probably one of the guys who invaded Congress, cleverly disguised as Nazis, neo-Confederates, Qanonites and other true American patriots.

Scott Camil has heard it all before.

Heck, John Mitchell once tried to put him in prison for the crime of calling Richard Nixon a warmonger.

I was really surprised that they got so far, Camil said of the Trumpsters who really did occupy the Capitol. And I was surprised by how gently they were handled. We were always handled like the enemy, those guys were handled more like friends.

It may seem like ancient history now, but once upon a time the government of the United States tried to railroad Camil and the rest of the Gainesville 8 for conspiring to violently disrupt the Republican National Convention.

They did nothing of the sort. Like the Chicago 7 defendants, they were just convenient scapegoats for scheming politicians who wanted to divert public attention away from their own bloody failures.

It took a Gainesville jury of their peers almost no time at all to decide that the feds were trying to railroad the G8 for their real offense opposing the Vietnam war.

Not that acquittal was the end of it. Having failed to convict him, a federal agent would later shoot Camil in the back a botched assassination attempt disguised as a drug bust.

Half a century later, what the government did to Camil and his co-defendants is as relevant as todays headlines.

Its always been painted that the left are the bad guys, Camil reflects. Its always been clear that the right is much more violent.

So it should surprise no one that before the dust had even settled in D.C., duplicitous politicians were blaming the Capitol invasion on … antifa. Because even after all these years it still suits the Republican narrative that liberals must be the real terrorists among us.

We were veterans of a war that was still going on, and we had friends who were still fighting it, Camil recalled. We knew what we were talking about and we wanted to stop it. And the majority of Americans agreed with us. It was only the authorities who wanted to keep us down.

The Gainesville 8 was the antifa of its time. Straw men targeted by the government to steer public attention away from the fact that Nixons prosecution of an unjust war was going horribly off the rails.

I suppose it is to his credit that Trump hasnt squandered tens of thousands of American lives on an unnecessary war half a world away. All Trump wanted to do was keep his cult of personality engaged and loyal in the face of his monumental incompetence and dishonesty.

But, by all means, lets blame antifa whatever and whoever that may be.

Camils been there and done that.

Ron Cunningham is former editorial page editor of The Sun. Read his blog at http://www.floridavelocipede.com. Email him at rondarts2008@gmail.com.

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The Gainesville 8 was the antifa of its time - Gainesville Sun

Immediately after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, all corners of the political spectrum repudiated the mob of President Trumps supporters. Yet within days, prominent Republicans, party officials, conservative media voices and rank-and-file voters began making a rhetorical shift to try to downplay the groups violent actions.

In one of the ultimate dont-believe-your-eyes moments of the Trump era, these Republicans have retreated to the ranks of misinformation, claiming it was Black Lives Matter protesters and far-left groups like antifa who stormed the Capitol in spite of the pro-Trump flags and QAnon symbology in the crowd. Others have argued that the attack was no worse than the rioting and looting in cities during the Black Lives Matter movement, often exaggerating the unrest last summer while minimizing a mobs attempt to overturn an election.

The shift is revealing about how conspiracy theories, deflection and political incentives play off one another in Mr. Trumps G.O.P. For a brief time, Republican officials seemed perhaps open to grappling with what their partys leader had wrought violence in the name of their Electoral College fight. But any window of reflection now seems to be closing as Republicans try to pass blame and to compare last summers lawlessness, which was condemned by Democrats, to an attack on Congress, which was inspired by Mr. Trump.

The violence at the Capitol was shameful, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the presidents lawyer, tweeted at 6:55 a.m. the morning after the attack. Our movement values respect for law and order and for the police. But now, in a new video titled What Really Happened on January 6th? Mr. Giuliani is among those who are back to emphasizing conspiracy theories.

The riot was preplanned, said Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. This was an attempt to slander Trump. He added, The evidence is coming out.

For months, Republicans have used last summers protests as a political catchall, highlighting isolated instances of property destruction and calls to defund the police to motivate their base in November. The tactic proved somewhat effective on Election Day: Democrats lost ground in the House of Representatives, with Republican challengers hammering a message of liberal lawlessness.

About nine of every 10 voters said the protests had been a factor in their voting, according to estimates from A.P. VoteCast, a large voter survey conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago. Nearly half of those respondents backed Mr. Trump, with some saying they worried that the unrest could disrupt their communities.

Republicans are now using the looting to try to explain away the Capitol attack. The result, for some Republican voters, ranges from doubt to conspiratorial thinking.

Suzanne Doherty, 67, who traveled from Michigan to be in Washington on Jan. 6 to support Mr. Trump, came away feeling confused and depressed over the invasion of the Capitol and not trusting the images of the mob.

I heard that on antifa websites, people were invited to go to the rally and dress up like Trump supporters, but Im not sure what to believe anymore, she said. There were people there only to wreak havoc. All I know is that there was a whole gamut of people there, but the rioters were not us. Maybe they were antifa. Maybe they were B.L.M. Maybe they were extreme right militants.

The conjecture that the mob was infiltrated by Black Lives Matter and antifa has been metastasizing from the dark corners of the pro-Trump internet to the floors of Congress and the Republican base, even as law enforcement officials say there is no evidence to support it. The authorities are now flagging threats of violence and rioting leading up to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.s inauguration.

That has not stopped Republican lawmakers and some of their constituents from pushing these narratives to defend Mr. Trump.

Interviews with voters this week in Kenosha, the southeast Wisconsin city that was roiled by a high-profile police shooting last summer, captured the yawning split along ideological and racial lines. Democrats pointed to the differences in motivation between the Capitol mob and the mass protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, which was not seeking to overturn an election or being incited by the president. Republicans saw the Capitol attack as the work of outsiders or as justified by the summers isolated incidents of looting and property destruction.

I think the goal was to try to put some final nails in the coffin of Donald Trump, said Dale Rovik, a 59-year-old who supports Mr. Trump and is a native of Kenosha. I think its pretty clear that they did that to make him look bad and to accuse him and, of course, to try and impeach him again. That certainly is pretty clear to me.

Joe Pillizzi, a 67-year-old retired salesman in Kenosha who supports Mr. Trump, said he believed last summers looting and rioting had put a seed in the minds of the mob that attacked the Capitol.

If the Black Lives Matter didnt do what they did, I dont think the Capitol attack would have happened, he said.

Democrats have also seized on a point of conservative hypocrisy. For all the talk of supporting law and order, this months attacks pitted a violent mob against Capitol Hill law enforcement personnel, and a police officer was killed.

Dominique Pritchett, a 36-year-old mental health therapist in Kenosha who supports Black Lives Matter, said the events of the summer were being portrayed inaccurately by the right, while the Capitol rioters were treated far more softly by the police than peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters were.

No, the protests did not turn violent; the looting and rioting started, she said. No violence is acceptable; I think we all can agree to that. Referring to the Capitol rioters, she said: They are tearing up one of the most protected and prestigious places in the United States because No. 45 lost. Someone lost an election, versus Black and brown people getting gunned down and killed every day.

The misinformation on the right reflects the mood of Mr. Trumps most ardent base, the collection of elected officials in deep-red America who have consistently rationalized his behavior in crises. But other signs indicate that some Republicans are exasperated by Mr. Trump and his actions in a way not seen since he entered office.

A new Pew Research poll released Friday showed the presidents approval rating dropping sharply among Republicans since he inspired the mob violence, cratering to an all-time low of 60 percent, more than 14 percentage points lower than his previous nadir. Among Americans at large, Mr. Trumps approval rating was 29 percent, a low since he took office in 2017, and he had a 68 percent disapproval rating his highest recorded number.

In the House, 10 Republicans voted to impeach Mr. Trump for a second time, making it the most bipartisan effort of any impeachment effort in the countrys history. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has signaled a desire to rid the party of Mr. Trump. And in recent days in Washington, some Republicans spoke out about the misinformation that had spread through the ranks of the partys base and its elected officials.

Representative Peter Meijer, a Republican freshman who voted to impeach Mr. Trump, said in an interview with The Daily, the New York Times audio podcast, that the prevalence of false information among the base had created two worlds among congressional Republicans one that is based in reality and another grounded in conspiracy.

The world that said this was actually a landslide victory for Donald Trump, but it was all stolen away and changed and votes were flipped and Dominion Voting Systems, Mr. Meijer said, describing what he called a fever swamp of conspiracy theories.

In a video news conference Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina also made a direct appeal to Republicans still in doubt. Biden actually won, he said. The election wasnt rigged.

Their words, contrasted with Mr. Trumps own message and that of many supporters, highlight a challenge for the Republican Party. The rioters targeted law enforcement personnel, members of Congress and even Vice President Mike Pence. However, much of the partys base and many of its leaders at the local and state levels remain loyal to Mr. Trump.

Another Republican who backed impeachment, Representative Tom Rice of South Carolina, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that he was likely to face a G.O.P. primary challenger in his 2022 re-election effort because of his vote a threat the other nine Republicans who voted for impeachment will probably face as well.

FIRST G.O.P. Primary Challenger Announces Run in Michigan Against Freshman Rep. Meijer One of 10 G.O.P. Turncoats, read a headline from The Gateway Pundit, a right-wing and often conspiratorial news outlet that has amassed influence among Mr. Trumps base.

Reached by email, the site's founder, Jim Hoft, did not reply to questions but did send along several of his own news articles related to claims of antifa involvement in the Capitol attack citing the case of a man named John Sullivan, whom the right-wing media has dubbed an antifa leader in efforts to prove its theory of infiltration. He was the same man cited by Mr. Giuliani in tweets that threatened to expose and place total blame on John and the 226 members of antifa that instigated the Capitol riot.

Interviews with local and state Republican officials show the long-term effects that the amplification of misinformation has among the party. While few members of Congress have agreed with Mr. Trumps assertion that his actions were totally appropriate, several party officials did. And while many Republicans condemned violence, attacks on law enforcement personnel and the killing of a Capitol Police officer, Brian Sicknick, they did not agree that those things were the work of pro-Trump mobs acting in the presidents name, as is the consensus among law enforcement officials.

I do not believe President Trump should be blamed for what happened in D.C. on Jan. 6 any more than the media should be blamed for the carnage in Minneapolis, Portland, Dallas or Seattle, said Ed Henry, a former campaign chair for Mr. Trump in Alabama. The attack on the Capitol has not shaken my confidence in President Trump. I still support him.

Eileen Grossman, a Republican activist from Rhode Island who worked on Mr. Trumps campaign, dismissed the violence as the work of outside agitators.

I know that the violence was caused by bad actors from antifa and liberal progressives as well as Black Lives Matter, Ms. Grossman said, without citing any evidence. She added, using an acronym for Republicans in name only, that the Republicans who voted for impeachment would face primary challengers. They are RINOs and traitors.

Ms. Grossman has recently left Rhode Island because, in her words, she wanted to live in a red state. She moved to Georgia, a historically Republican state that in the last three months has voted for Mr. Biden in the presidential election and sent two Democratic candidates to the Senate.

Obviously I chose poorly, she said.

Reporting was contributed by Lisa Lerer in New York, Reid J. Epstein in Washington, Tom Kertscher in Milwaukee and Kathleen Gray in Port Huron, Mich.

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How Republicans Are Warping Reality Around the Capitol Attack - The New York Times

ANTIFA are planning clashes with pro-Trump supporters at Inauguration Day riots, flyers reveal.

The events are being organised to confront pro-Trump protesters who are headed to capitols across the US.

* Read our US Politics live blog for the latest news on Joe Biden, Donald Trump and Wednesday's inauguration

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Cities have readied themselves for the threat of violence by erecting barriers and deploying thousands of National Guard troops ahead of the inauguration of Joe Biden.

But counter demonstrations are now being planned for Seattle, Portland, Denver and Sacramento.

Flyers for events circulating were highlighted by conservative journalist Andy Ngo who is a fierce critic of Antifa and has posted videos of violent clashes its supporters have been involved in.

He tweeted: #Antifa are continuing to put out the call for riots throughout the U.S. on 20 Jan. These are some of their flyers for Seattle, northern California & Denver.

Ngo also pointed to an event organised by the Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front.

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The group was last year blamed for playing a major role in the months ofunrestinPortland.

According to the Seattle Times the group was emerging as a persistent militant voice in the city.

The paper reported that the group has anonymous leaders and considers itself anti-fascist and anti-capitalist with its goal the overthrowing of the US political system.

Earlier this month, in a foretaste of what could unfold, Antifa used chemical spray on pro-Trump supporters, who had gathered for a march.

As the two sides squared up to each on the boardwalk in Pacific Beach,California,video shows a black clad Antifa supporter pulling out a canister and spraying the MAGA fans.

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Security across the country has now been increased leading up to the big day after theFBIwarned of armed protests in all 50 US states.

Right-wing protesters were seen outside statehouses on Sunday with some of carrying rifles.

However, some militia groups told followers not to attend over fears the planned events were really police traps.

The protests came as former FBI boss James Comey warnedJoe Biden'sinauguration isunder threat from "armed, disturbed" people following the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

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National Guard troops were being activated in the days leading up toInauguration Day.

Approximately 19 states, including Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin, activated Guardsmen to their capitol cities.

Last week, anintelligence report warned that militia mobs, white supremacists, and QAnon obsessives inspired by the Capitol riots pose a greater terror threatin the US thanISISthis year.

See the original post here:

Chilling posters reveal Antifa is planning to clash with Trump fans at Inauguration Day riots - The Sun

Andy Ngo, the chronicler of violent antifa and Black Lives Matter riots, has broken the code on selling books.

A full three weeks before its Feb. 2 release, his Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy spent much of this week on Amazon as the No. 1 bestseller, a rarity for books not written by longtime authors and presidents.

In a note to Secrets, he said, I just thank everyone who responded to the antifa smears and threats by ordering the book. This is a tough economic time for many Americans and yet they see the importance of Unmasked.

He was referencing the attacks on social media from journalists and others who do not like his coverage of antifa and the riots they were involved in last year, especially in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

The protests to his book have been so hot that the popular seller Powells in Oregon decried the book and banned it from its shelves, though it will offer it online.

Unmasked held the No. 1 spot on Amazon for much of the week, before slipping to No. 2 Friday.

See original here:

Andy Ngos antifa book No. 1 weeks before release - Washington Examiner

Its not a surprise that the Trump administration has sowed divisions between people, and that includes family members.

A child is garnering attention and praise for standing up to their Trump supporter mother, who attempted to push the conspiracy theory that Antifa was responsible for the Capitol riots.

In a viral video captured by the anonymous child, the mother enters their bedroom to tell them that Antifa attacked the Capitol. They were mixed in with the Trump supporters, she said, and cited people wearing MAGA hats backwards as proof of Antifa members disguising themselves as Trump supporters in the riots.

What is wrong with that sentence? her kid replies. When their mother cannot answer, they add that she just proved that Trump supporters also stormed the Capitol.

The mother challenges them by saying that Trump supporters were peacefully assembling outside, but they argue back that they were terrorising people.

The unconvinced mother then leaves, looking fed up, but not before the child puts an end to the conversation once and for all by telling her that her stupidity is gross.

With the video going viral, people on social media effusively praised the child for shutting down their parents baseless conspiracy theory so effectively.

This isnt the first time Gen Z has confronted their conservative parents. Numerous TikTok videos involve teens trying to educate adults on issues like Black Lives Matter, with the most famous example being Claudia Conway, daughter of former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.

Go here to see the original:

Mother gets perfectly called out by her kid for believing Antifa attacked the Capitol - indy100

Some Republican congressional leaders, including U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mo Brooks and Paul Gosar, along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, joined President Trump in trying to pin the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol building on antifa, a loose movement of left-wing, anti-racist and anti-fascist activists.

The FBI negated the baseless claims, and people have recognized the conspiracy theory as a false flag an act designed to disguise the actual source or responsible party and implicate another.

In contrast, members of extreme right-wing groups like the boogaloo movement and the Proud Boys did in fact infiltrate the George Floyd protests this summer, trying to spark violence between Black Lives Matter protesters and police.

And at the Capitol, it appears Proud Boys members hid their affiliation to better blend in with the crowd.

As an expert on terrorist tactics and propaganda, I am well acquainted with the idea that far-right militants sometimes try to hide their own identities.

Terrorist deception is an age-old tactic. Deception helps terrorist groups innovate by allowing them to learn, master and experiment with new tactics while protecting their identities and reputation.

The most obvious form of deception mimicry is emulating the specific tactics and strategies of other groups.

The history of suicide terrorism, for example, is replete with examples of contagion and mimicry. Suicide terrorism spread from Iran to Lebanon to Sri Lanka to the Palestinian territories. It has been used by at least 58 different groups in 35 countries.

Just as plants and animals mimic other species to lure prey or hide from predators, mimicry enables violent groups to portray themselves in a variety of guises for both offensive and defensive purposes.

Mimicry might involve imitating actions or behavior. An al-Qaida member in Europe, for example, might disguise himself by drinking alcohol, going to strip clubs or gambling. This deceptive signaling can help him move easily among Western targets and not raise suspicion.

Mimicry can also be changing ones physical appearance. In the case of terrorist operations, groups blend into their surroundings, or don the uniforms of rival groups to sow confusion. They might change their looks and attire to mimic something less threatening for example, a pregnant woman to evade detection or invasive searches.

In 2005, Raghab Ahmad Izzat Jaradat of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group detonated an explosive belt aboard a bus near Haifa, Israel. He wore an Israeli army uniform and carried a conscript bag to avoid drawing attention. This became a common tactic used by Hamas militants to infiltrate Israeli hard targets.

Deception can also take the form of mimicry when a group makes a false claim of responsibility or attributes a failed operation to their enemies or rivals.

Willingness to claim responsibility or allocate blame depends on whether violent tactics are popular or unpopular with their constituency of supporters and whether they succeed or fail. The Islamic State, for example, rarely claimed responsibility for failed attacks.

Groups might falsely claim responsibility to garner publicity, while the actual perpetrators might want to avoid responsibility.

Al-Qaida didnt immediately claim responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, although subsequent statements and comments left no doubt as to their culpability. The reasons for this reticence relate to their goals at the time: to demoralize the West, galvanize Muslim extremists and instigate armed conflict with the West in Afghanistan and elsewhere. From this perspective it didnt matter which faction perpetrated the attacks.

Following an August 2001 suicide bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, multiple Palestinian terrorist organizations claimed responsibility for the attack. As a result, the group that was in fact responsible, Hamas, developed mimic-proof signatures such as recording videos in advance in which the bomber claims responsibility for the attack.

These videos branded Hamas ownership of attacks and undermined the reputations of rival groups who falsely claimed the attacks as their own. This innovation is now a norm and has changed the way terror groups convey ownership.

The Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol was not antifa. The arrests thus far have been dedicated Trump supporters, based on their social media posts.

But in the ultimate form of deception, a post allegedly from the Department of Justices acting pardon attorney appeared on Parler, the now-suspended social network app popular with the far right and people whove been kicked off of Twitter. It requested individuals who had stormed the Capitol to provide their name, address, license information and details of what they did that day in order to receive a pardon.

The real Justice Department hastily issued a statement advising Trump supporters that the information circulating on social media was inauthentic and should not be taken seriously.

A few days later, the FBI opened numerous investigations of assault and seditious conspiracy based in part on information gleaned from social media.

Mimicry is both offensive and defensive. Just like with predators and prey in nature, when it comes to acts of terrorism, what you see is not always what you get.

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See the rest here:

The far-right rioters at the Capitol were not antifa but violent groups often blame rivals for unpopular attacks - The Conversation US