The extremist organization known as “Antifa” has been plotting an insurgency for months, reported a law enforcement official with access to intelligence behind the misunderstood group.
Antifa appears to be one of several radical groups to exploit the George Floyd protests to pursue their own agenda.
“Antifa’s actions represent a hard break with the long tradition of a peaceful political process in the United States,” says former National Security Council staffer Rich Higgins. “Their Marxist ideology seeks not only to influence elections in the short term, but to destroy the use of elections as the determining factor in political legitimacy.”
“President Trump’s election and revitalization of America are a threat to Antifa’s nihilist goals,” adds former Defense Intelligence Agency officials Joe Myers. “They are fomenting this violence to create havoc, despair, and to target the Trump campaign for defeat in 2020.”
As I wrote in a previous article, Antifa is a loose network of anarchists and communists that seeks to “defeat fascism and combat white supremacy.” Antifa’s members are quick to use physical violence. They do not care about democracy nor do they ally with the Democratic Party.
Andy Ngo, a journalist who was beaten by Antifa activists last year, says the group’s disruption of the George Floyd protests is ‘but a glimmer of the full insurrection the far left has been working toward for decades.”
In addition to physical violence, Antifa has been enormously successful in using apps and social media (primarily gamer chat rooms, WhatsApp, and Telegram) to attract followers and create confusion.
“Social issues are transferred into the cyber realm…where you can have a wide range of bad actors getting involved in an effort to distort and disrupt. These are bad actors who want to hijack or distort the message of the peaceful protestors, or disseminate disinformation about what is really going on,” explains Karim Hijazi, CEO of cyber intelligence company Prevailion. “You will see all angles being played here, from online efforts to discredit the protesters to attempts by other bad actors to incite anger toward law enforcement officers.”
Author’s Note: The DHS has been watching Antifa since 2016 based on activities that resemble the behavior of a terrorist cell. While President Trump has received major pushback for his decision to label Antifa a “terrorist organization,” it appears he was right.
Just because Antifa is based in the United States does not mean it can avoid the “terrorist” designation or attempt to overthrow the government without punishment.