(WASHINGTON,
D.C.,)--Right-wing extremists
communicating in confidential online chats
in recent months have shared scores of documents detailing the
manufacture and
use of bombs, grenades, mines and other incendiary devices.
The
documents, which range from instructions on detonating dynamite to U.S.
military manuals for constructing improvised explosives and booby
traps, were
passed around during online conversations among members of Anticom, a
secretive
and militant group that has emerged during the past year.
Records
of the online
chats were made available to ProPublica by Unicorn Riot, a
leftist media
collective that has reported critically on racist marches and
right-wing
political rallies in cities around the U.S.
Anticom,
or Anti-Communist Action, views itself as a guerilla army fighting
against what
it has called the radical elements of the country’s political left. On
its
social media channels, Anticom openly embraces fascist ideology and
imagery,
and the group’s members have engaged in hate-filled talk involving
Jews,
Muslims, immigrants and African Americans. In recent weeks Anticom has
stepped
out of the shadows as its members have provided security to so-called
alt-right
champion Richard Spencer at a speaking event in Florida. Anticom also
helped to
organize a “White Lives Matter” protest in Shelbyville, Tennessee, last
weekend.
It
is unclear how seriously the documents shared in the chats were
explored by any
of Anticom’s members or followers, much less whether the documents were
actually used to craft incendiary devices. But the transcripts of the
chats
include racist talk and open mentions of mass killings.
The
user who posted the bomb-making documents, for instance, said he or she
wanted
to overthrow the U.S. government. “Death to all non whites,” the user
wrote in
a chat forum post on April 26. Another Anticom member encouraged
recruits to
construct a bomb and use it to carry out an attack in the style of the
2013
Boston Marathon bombing.
The
chatroom logs shared with ProPublica show that Anticom members were in
communication with another extremist group, several members of which
have
surfaced in federal investigations.
In
May, federal agents searching the Tampa home of 21-year-old Brandon
Russell
discovered an array of explosives and bomb ingredients: fuses made from
rifle
shells, a white cake-like explosive substance called HMTD, more than
one pound
of ammonium nitrate and other explosive precursors, and two different
kinds of
radioactive material. The agents promptly arrested Russell, who was
both a
member of the Florida National Guard and a leader of Atomwaffen, a
small
fascist group calling for a “white revolution in the
21st century.”
Federal
authorities only uncovered Russell's bomb-making materials after his
roommate
and fellow Atomwaffen member Devon Arthurs killed two of their
comrades.
Arthurs later told law enforcement that he acted in order to prevent
acts of domestic
terrorism, and that Atomwaffen intended “to build a FourthReich.”
Russell
participated in “neo-Nazi internet chat rooms where he threatened to
kill
people and bomb infrastructure,” and was plotting to blow up a nuclear
power
plant near Miami, according to Arthurs.
After
pleading guilty in September to illegally possessing explosive material
and an
unregistered destructive device, Russell is currently awaiting
sentencing,
which is scheduled for early next year.
Russell’s
attorney, Ian Goldstein, cast doubt on any link between Anticom and his
client’s explosives charges. Law enforcement didn’t find any manuals
for
building bombs in Russell’s home or on his computer, Goldstein said,
adding
Anticom and its online chats never came up during his research for the
case.
Federal
prosecutors in Florida would not comment on the case, or any potential
overlap
between Anticom and Russell and his neo-Nazi cell.
ProPublica
asked the FBI whether it was looking into Anticom and the bomb plans.
“The FBI
does not confirm or deny specific investigations. However, any
information
regarding violent criminal activity or threats of terrorism should be
reported
promptly to the FBI,” said a national FBI spokesperson.
Speaking
broadly, the FBI representative noted that the bureau concerns itself
with
potential acts of terrorism, not unpopular political beliefs. “Our
focus is not
on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit
violence and
other criminal acts. Furthermore, the FBI does not and will not police
ideology.”
Anticom,
through a designated spokesperson, did not dispute the authenticity of
the
logs, but said the group had months ago taken steps to ban people
threatening
violence from the online chats.
“Of
course we denounce that kind of behavior,” the person said. “If an
Anticom
member built a bomb, he'd be banned as soon as we found out.” Despite
the
intensely hateful views expressed by many Anticom members, the
spokesperson
said “all races and ideologies are welcome” in the organization so long
as they
“are anti-communist.”
The
person dismissed any suggestion that Anticom had a connection with
Atomwaffen.
Anticom’s
size is unknown, but it boasts chapters in at least 15 U.S. and
Canadian
cities, and members have shown up waving the black-and-yellow Anticom
flag at
events across the country. (One of the organization’s logos shows a
person
being hurled from a helicopter, a tactic used by right-wing death
squads in
Chile and Argentina.) Anticom’s confidential online chats, which were
conducted
on an encrypted server hosted by service called Discord, give some
sense of the
organization’s possible scale: people using more than 1,200 different
usernames
participated in the discussions.
Peter
Simi, director of the Earl Babbie Research Center at Chapman
University, noted
that violent and radical talk are part of the culture of white
extremist groups
— and that talk typically does not lead to action. Still, he
said the
material was worrisome.
“All
it takes is one person to do something with that information,” said
Simi, who
has interviewed dozens of white supremacists and co-authored the book
“American
Swastika.”
Over
the span of about seven months this year — from early February to late
September — Anticom members posted more than 90,000 messages on the
Discord
server before being kicked off the service by company officials. The
online
discussions include plenty of profanity-laden racist and anti-Semitic
banter by
people with usernames like “Augusto Pinochet,” “deplorablepatriot,” and
“Haupstürmfuhrer Pepe.” More worrisome, though, are the incitements
towards
violence.
On
April 26, one Anticom member posed a question to the rest of the group:
“Anyone
want access to my pdf library?” the person wrote. “137 pdfs of how to
manufacture explosives.”
Saved
in the PDF format, the cache of documents includes recipes for making
potent
bombs from ammonium nitrate, scientific papers on the chemical
composition of
different explosive agents, an Army manual on deploying anti-personnel
mines,
and a guide to using radio frequencies to detonate explosives, a tactic
frequently used by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some
of the bomb documents are highly technical, likely to be of little use
to
anyone but a skilled chemist or engineer. Other documents are old, like
a 1984
book showing how to build hand grenades. As a whole, however, the
documents
could easily provide a person with the tools to kill and wound scores
of
people.
J.M.
Berger, a fellow with the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in
the
Netherlands, said social media companies like Discord tend to downplay
the
dangers posed by racial extremists using their networks and are often
slow to
curb their activities. “White supremacists and antigovernment
extremists have
always collected and distributed this kind of content. The internet
makes that
process easier and cheaper and more anonymous.”
Berger
said Discord should consider contacting law enforcement, if only out of
a sense
of caution. “It’s probably not appropriate to freak out,” Berger said,
“but a
situation like this merits more scrutiny.”
A
spokesperson for Discord, which is primarily used by video game
enthusiasts who
want to communicate by voice or text, while playing games, said the
Anticom
chats were shut down in September once Discord was “alerted to activity
in
violation of our terms of service.” The company barred other white
extremist
groups off its servers in the aftermath of the lethal Unite the Right
rally in
Charlottesville in August. According to the spokesperson, Discord had
not been
in contact with any authorities, but would cooperate in any
investigation
should one be undertaken.
One
Army manual shared by Anticom members offers step-by-step plans for
creating
fire bombs by adding chemicals to gasoline or other readily available
fuels.
But the documents go well beyond explosives. There are instructions on
using
military-type assault rifles and M249 machine guns, as well as
hand-to-hand
fighting techniques.
The
chat logs also describe plans for engaging in violence at political
events
during the past year. In the days before an April 15 rally in support
of
President Donald Trump in Berkeley, California, one Anticom member
promised the
event would turn into a “bloodbath.” After the rally, which
was marked by
a series of brutal street battles between right-wingers and leftists,
another
Anticom member boasted of breaking a rival’s jaw in the fighting.
_____________________________
This report
originally ran at ProPublica and is
reprinted here with permission. ProPublica is a non-profit news
platform that
produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
ProPublica
was a recipient of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for public service, the 2016
Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting, the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for
national
reporting and a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
On
April 10, 2017 ProPublica and the New York Daily News won the Pulitzer
Prize
for public service, honoring their joint investigation on abuses in the
New
York City Police Department’s enforcement of the nuisance abatement
law. The
award was the fourth Pulitzer Prize for ProPublica and the 11th for the
Daily
News.
