Low Intensity Conflict Report for 22 December 2017

ADMIN NOTE: The Holiday Season is upon us. Being the week of a holiday, this report is shorter than usual. Both Strategic Intelligence and Low Intensity Conflict will be published the week of Christmas (25-29 December), although both reports will be a Year in Review, identifying the trends of 2017 and looking forward to 2018. After the new year, Strategic Intelligence will be published regularly on Thursdays, and Low Intensity Conflict on Fridays. Thank you for the support, and we hope that you have a wonderful rest of the year with us.

ADMIN NOTEx2: I’ve been sick this week, so this report is a little shorter than usual. I’ll be back next week at full force with a 2017 Year in Review. We’ll be announcing some changes to this report the first week of January. The changes will result in a much better product. Thank you for the support.

InFocus: In last week’s Low Intensity Conflict summary, we included two reports about anarchist groups targeting rail lines for sabotage. One instance occurred in Nebraska, and another happened earlier in the year in Washington State. On Monday morning, an Amtrak train derailed in DuPont, Washington, killing three and injuring others. My first thought was that anarchists had targeted a rail line carrying supplies to a pipeline project in the Dakotas and had unintentionally caused the Amtrak train to derail. By mid-morning Monday, two anarchist websites had already removed their posts about sabotaging rail lines. That was the narrative throughout much of Monday, however, investigators have since come out and said that the train’s high speed was likely the cause of the derailment. Still, anarchist activity did receive a fair amount of scorn for their activities. We assess, however, that the Amtrak derailment is not likely to deter anarchist rail sabotage activities in the future. [source: http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2017/12/engineer_remarked_about_the_sp.html]

Priority Intelligence Requirements

PIR1: What indicators describe the Alt-Left movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, and capabilities?
PIR2: What indicators describe the Alt-Right movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, and capabilities?
PIR3: What are the new indicators of future politically-related violence?
PIR4: What is the current threat index score for the Alt-Left movement?
Alt-Left Roll-Up

PIR1: What indicators describe the Alt-Left movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?

East Coast

Hudson Valley Earth First! blockade continues

Members of the Hudson Valley Earth First! continue to blockade and occupy areas in order to hinder the Valley Lateral Pipeline Company. EarthFirst! is designated by the FBI as an eco-terrorist organization for their tree spiking and monkey wrenching activities. (Source: https://www.facebook.com/HVEarthFirst/posts/2008776139371401)

J20 defendants cleared of charges

The first six defendants arrested during the Trump Inauguration protests were found “not guilty” of all charges. “Jude Ortiz, a member of the Defend J20 team that mobilised to support the defendants, called the decision “a victory for political organising”. [Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/j20-protest-trial-latest-updates-not-guilty-verdict-rioting-anti-trump-inauguration-day-washington-a8123071.html]

Hundreds of DACA activists march in D.C.

Hundreds of activist and pro-immigrant groups marched on the capitol to protest the end of DACA program as well as the Republican tax bill. Dozens were arrested as protesters yelled and disrupted the House’s vote on the bill. [Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/progressive-activists-disrupt-gop-tax-vote_us_5a396df8e4b0fc99878f47a7]

Trinity College (CT) welcomes back radical professor

Despite the pressure from Trinity College alumni to fire a radical professor, Johnny Eric Williams is set to return after several months of paid leave. Williams expressed various anti-white statements such as “whiteness needs to die,” and claimed to be the founder of the Campus Anti-Fascist Network (CAN), a group backed by the Sociology Department at Trinity. At the moment a petition has been creating calling form Williams’ termination with threats of withholding funding for the school. (Source: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10293)

Southeast

Fundraising continues for arrested Red Guards members

“On Dec 9 in Austin four comrades were arrested militantly confronting a fascist anti-immigration march. The fascists were prevented from reaching their goal but as usual pigs helped the fascists step by step, assaulting comrades as a pretext for arrest.” So far, $220 has been raised for arrested members of the Austin Red Guards, an admittedly communist revolutionary vanguard movement. [source: On Dec 9 in Austin four comrades were arrested militantly confronting a fascist anti-immigration march. The fascists were prevented from reaching their goal but as usual pigs helped the fascists step by step, assaulting comrades as a pretext for arrest. [source: https://www.fundedjustice.com/01JM29?ref=ab_9IJiTpa8fjt9IJiTpa8fjt]

Antifa calls for UTSA police to disarm and disband

After a white nationalist banner was unfurled on the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) campus, antifascists are calling for campus police to be defunded. UTSA officials responded to the banner drop by increasing police office patrols on campus to look out for and prevent similar banner dropping activities. Being anti-police and often accusing law enforcement of supporting white supremacy, Revolutionary Horizon, a local antifascist chapter, is calling for the campus police agency to be defunded, to disarm, or disband altogether within six months. [source: https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10283]

Memphis removes Confederate statues

On Wednesday night, Memphis officials had two Confederate statues from parks removed. The Nathan Bedford Forrest statue, which has been in place since 1904, and the Jefferson Davis statue had previous removal attempts denied by the Tennessee Historical Commission. However, “the Memphis City Council voted unanimously to sell the two parks to a nonprofit, which prompted the removal of the statues…for $1,000 each to a nonprofit called Memphis Greenspace.” [Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/21/us/memphis-confederate-bedford-davis-statues/index.html]

Midwest

Nothing to report.

West Coast

FBI makes Islamic terror arrest, potential Leftist ties

FBI arrested a man who was planning Christmas terror attack on the San Francisco Pier 39. According to the FBI, Everitt Aaron Jameson from Modesto picked out the location because he “had been there before and knew it was a heavily crowded area. He added that it would be easy to ‘funnel’ people into an area where he could inflict casualties.” Additionally his Facebook Profile shows he was a white convert to Islam with Facebook likes pertaining to Islam, Communism, Antifa, and anarchism. (Source: http://abc7news.com/fbi-man-planned-christmas-terror-attack-for-sfs-pier-39/2812473/)

Effort to force Berkeley PD to cease use of pepper spray

A Berkeley civilian commission is attempting to repeal a law that allows police officers to use pepper spray on violent protesters, citing “severe and long-lasting health effects.” [Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Berkeley-may-repeal-law-that-lets-police-use-12439915.php]

Southwest

Nothing to report.

National

Skeptic Community targeting Alt-Right with smear campaign and doxxing

The “Skeptic Community”, a secular humanist movement falling under an “alt-moderates” group, was rocked by allegations of targeting Alt-Right YouTube channels. A leaked Discord chat server, which was called “The Task Force”, has over 3 GBs of recordings and notable figures in the movement including a New York Times journalist. “The stated purpose of the server is to “debunk racist pseudoscience” using a team of “YouTube Scientists,” but as shown in the video and audio recordings, much of the time is spent plotting ways to smear the targets and in some cases, potentially dox them.” (Source: https://twitter.com/BravingRuin/status/942074856664977408)

Twitter suspends first round of Alt-Right/white nationalist accounts

This week, a new Twitter policy led to the removal of numerous accounts. Twitter’s new policy is that of censorship of “hate groups” and “fake news,” and includes an examination of off-site postings of prominent accounts in order to determine who should be penalized. As of earlier this week, the Twitter accounts of Jayda Franson (Britain First), Hunter Wallace (League of the South), American Renaissance, and Jared Taylor have already been terminated. (Source: https://twitter.com/getongab/status/942766879591907335) (Analyst Comment: Jared Taylor and American Renaissance are certainly the least crude and least overtly offensive Twitter accounts associated with the Alt-Right. For all of the trolling, racist memes, and insensitive statements found in the Alt-Right, Taylor is an academic and presents logical and compelling arguments to support his position of white nationalism and racial self-determination. Taylor is widely speculated to have been the first purged due to his academic and intellectual approach to white nationalism, which has been considered more effective than other attempts. Meanwhile, Alt-Right leader Richard Spencer’s Twitter account remains active.)

Daily Roll-Ups:

PIR2: What indicators describe the Alt-Right movement’s strength, capabilities, sentiment, initiatives, and infighting?

“Based Stickman” arrested… again

Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman was sent back to jail on Thursday after his court appearance. Chapman was pulled over by a park ranger earlier in the week and found with a Kubaton self defense weapon. In the state of California, the Kubaton is considered a “deadly weapon”. It should also be noted that Chapman was first arrested while allegedly driving over sand dunes in a state park. Chapman later said that a Trump bumper sticker was the reason he was pulled over. [Source: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/12/21/right-wing-protester-charged-in-berkeley-riot-back-in-custody-after-video-incident/]

PIR3: What are the new indicators of future politically-related violence?

21 DEC: Austin DSA General Meeting December 2017

29 DEC: Suffolk County (NY) Socialist Party and Redneck Revolt Coat Drive

31 DEC: NYC/NYE – Noise Demo Against the Prison Industrial Complex, In Solidarity with PPs and POWs

07 JAN: Shelby NC Redneck Revolt Meet and Greet

13 JAN: Austin Protest- Americans Making America Great Again (NO MORE SANCTUARY CITIES)

20 JAN: Nationwide Resistance Events: https://itsgoingdown.org/gearing-january-20-2018-week-outreach-solidarity-events/

16-18 March 2018 – MAGACON 2018

TBA – Richard Spencer speech at University of Cincinnati

TBA – Richard Spencer speech at University of Michigan

TBA – Lawsuits still pending to allow Richard Spencer to speak at Penn State, Ohio State, and Michigan State.

PIR4: What is the current threat index score for the Alt-Left movement?