January 2021

Open Letter to the U.S. Department of Justice: ADL Calls for a Criminal Investigation of Gab

The January 6 attack at our nation’s Capitol was deliberate and coordinated. Individuals who broke the law must be held accountable, but we cannot ignore that social media platforms, like Gab, may well bear a measure of criminal responsibility for the attack as well. To the extent Gab intentionally served as a forum for people to plan, coordinate, engage in or otherwise facilitate the criminal activity that took place on January 6, a Department of Justice investigation is warranted. The platform—as well as any other tech platform that may have undertaken or facilitated such actions—must be held accountable. To the extent Gab executives were aware and intended for the platform to be used to carry out violations of federal criminal law, such individuals must also be held accountable. (…) We need to determine whether white supremacist and extremist rioters used Gab’s services to plan their attack and communicate during the ongoing illegal activities of January 6. Through force, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building to obstruct Congress’ proceeding to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. These individuals engaged in several clear violations of federal criminal law. Criminal investigations should not be entered into lightly, particularly with regard to online platforms where the values of free speech rightly hold great sway. There is a considerable amount of hateful content online that should be removed by platforms under appropriate content moderation policies but does not rise to a level warranting a criminal investigation. Acknowledging that criminal investigations at times have been weaponized in this country to suppress free speech and to subvert social justice movements, ADL does not lightly call for such an investigation. But those who planned and used violence, storming the Capitol and seeking to stop certification of a legitimate election, were not engaged in constitutionally protected activity. They were engaged in dangerous criminal activity. Their actions predictably and horribly led to death, and if a platform intentionally facilitated such unlawful conduct it may itself have engaged in criminal acts for which it should be held accountable. That is what must be determined.

via adl: Open Letter to the U.S. Department of Justice: ADL Calls for a Criminal Investigation of Gab

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Furious #Extremists Call for More #Violence Around #Inauguration Day – #terror

In the immediate aftermath of the November 2020 presidential election, pro-Trump and other extremists announced their initial plans to protest President-Elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington D.C. Those calls for largescale protests on or around January 20 attracted renewed interest following the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, with threats of additional extremist violence circulating on numerous online platforms. While it is impossible for anyone to predict with certainty how the events of the next week may unfold, recent history has shown that we cannot ignore potential threats from political and other right-wing extremists. January 17: Called off, or Recalibrated? There is increased online chatter about nationwide armed protests between January 16 and 20, and in Washington D.C. starting on the 17th and running through Inauguration Day. This threat is largely traceable to antigovernment boogalooers, who were planning a January 17 march in D.C. to support gun rights and protest government overreach. That event, under the names “Tree of Liberty” and “Refuse to be Silenced,” was cancelled in the wake of the January 6 violence. Protests at state capitols were likewise announced for January 17, and while these events were not explicitly cancelled, there is little online evidence of organized planning. (…) Posts advertising an Inauguration Day “Million Militia March” first appeared on “free speech” social media platform Wimkin just after the election. One of the earliest posts, from November 29, 2020, announced, “Millions of American Militia will meet in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2021 for the purpose of preventing any attempt by the treasonous domestic enemy Joe Biden, or any other member of the Communist Organized Crime Organization known as The Democratic Party, from entering the White House belonging to We The People.” Longtime white supremacist Chester Doles posted at the time that his organization, American Patriots USA, was “proud to sponsor this great event.” Although the original post did not appear to gain much traction, in the days after the assault on the U.S. Capitol, screenshots featuring the “Million Militia March” fliers quickly spread across other platforms, including MeWe, Minds, Parler, Reddit, Telegram, Twitter, 4chan and more. While it is unclear which groups or individuals plan to attend the proposed march, the event has gained the attention of a range of pro-Trump and other extremists beyond the militia movement.

via adl: Furious Extremists Call for More Violence Around Inauguration Day

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I Am Not a Soldier, but I Have Been Trained to Kill

A sprawling tactical industry is teaching American civilians how to fight like Special Ops forces. By preparing for violence at home, are they calling it into being? 1 ‘Our Numbers Grow Every Year’ On a misty November morning just after sunrise, I pulled up to a shooting range in central Texas with a borrowed AR-15 and a few hundred rounds of dubious-quality Russian ammunition that I’d ordered over the internet. I followed a pickup down a gravel road and over two cattle guards to the far end of the property. Then I parked in a field ringed by trees whose bark was scarred by stray bullets. A handful of men had already arrived, and they were loading ammunition into their magazines as the morning birds chittered overhead. After a while, a decorated US Army veteran named Eric Dorenbush gathered us into a circle and gave a short safety briefing—don’t point your barrel at anything you’re not willing to destroy, act as if every gun is loaded—then he asked us not to share any images or videos on social media. We didn’t want information falling into the hands of terrorists or other bad actors, he explained. Plus there could be social repercussions. “This activity is considered … off-mainstream,” one of my fellow students, an orthopedist from Indiana, told me.
We had all signed up for a two-day tactical firearms course, where we’d be learning how to shoot as if we were engaged in small-unit armed combat. Once the purview of law enforcement officers and military operators, these kinds of skills are increasingly being passed down to ordinary, armed Americans by a sprawling and diffuse industry. Gun ranges and private facilities around the country teach the art of tactical shooting, in setups that range from the fly-by-night to the elaborate: At a Texas resort, you can schedule a combat training scenario inspired by the Iraq War after your trail ride; at an invitation-only facility in Florida, you can practice taking down a mass shooter at the Liberal Tears Café; at Real World Tactical, a former Marine will teach you how to survive “urban chaos through armed tactical solutions.” Under the aegis of his one-man company, Green Eye Tactical, Dorenbush says he trains SWAT teams and military contractors, but that about half of his students are people who don’t carry a gun professionally. In recent weeks, he’d worked with a 22-year-old mechanic who’d been robbed at work, a teenage girl, and several married couples. “Everyone has different things they’re preparing for, different threats,” he said. Even before the recent siege on the Capitol by men wearing body armor and carrying zip ties, the idea of civilians learning tactical skills may have conjured up images of militias and far-right violence—and not entirely without reason. The men who allegedly plotted to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer last summer prepared by running their own tactical training camp. In leaked private chats associated with the Boogaloo movement, a fringe group advocating for a second US civil war, a gun store employee brags about recruiting customers to join his tactical training group. “Everything is set up in order for our boog squad,” he wrote. “Our numbers grow every year.” But the tactical shooting world also attracts a much wider range of people: gun bros and gamers, preppers and adrenaline junkies, LARPers who want to spend their weekends cosplaying as commandos, and crime victims seeking a particular flavor of empowerment.

via wired: I Am Not a Soldier, but I Have Been Trained to Kill

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Von <a rel=”nofollow” class=”external text” href=”https://www.flickr.com/people/72538882@N00″>Joe Cereghino</a> – <a href=”//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flickr” class=”mw-redirect” title=”Flickr”>Flickr</a>: <a rel=”nofollow” class=”external text” href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/72538882@N00/5572761557″>IMG_9559.jpg</a>, CC BY 2.0, Link

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‘Trump’s horrific legacy: He destroyed the truth in America’ — Abe Foxman

The president ‘fueled it, he built it, he encouraged the lying,’ says the former ADL head. ‘He emboldened the bigots’ and must be punished. Healing the country will be harder. Donald Trump’s legacy, “the most terrible, horrific thing he has left us in America, is the destruction of truth… And a democracy can’t survive if there is no truth.” That is the warning sounded by Abraham Foxman, who has spent his life fighting racism and anti-Semitism, leading the Anti-Defamation League for decades, in the wake of last week’s deadly assault on the Capitol and with the US on alert for more violence. Speaking to The Times of Israel a week after Trump fired up supporters some of whom then invaded the Capitol, and amid growing concern that extremists will again gather in DC and across the United States to try to disrupt the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, Foxman said Trump was a demagogue who had emboldened legions of bigots. He said it was vital that Trump leave office “tarnished” — punished for his behavior — and barred from a future second presidential term. And he pleaded for a return of civility and respect in American discourse. But the biggest challenge left by Trump’s toxic presidency, and the one for which Foxman acknowledged he had no definitive solution, was the salvaging of truth. “This man lied as if it was the truth,” he said of Trump. “I don’t know what the answer is. I know it’s a strong media. I know it’s strong, democratic institutions and judiciary, but it also needs the courage of good people to stand up… I just saw a video of 15 minutes of interviews of Trump supporters,” he said. “It’s scary. It is scary what they believe.”

via timesofisrael: ‘Trump’s horrific legacy: He destroyed the truth in America’ — Abe Foxman

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Sturm auf Kapitol: Angreifer wollten laut Anklage Politiker töten – #terror #capitol

US-Vizepräsident Mike Pence wäre laut eines Berichts um ein Haar mit den Eindringlingen zusammengestoßen. Abgeordneten sollen die Erstürmer des Kapitols auch sehr nahe gekommen sein. Manche Angreifer wollten nach Angaben der Staatsanwaltschaft Politiker “gefangen nehmen und töten”. Bei der Erstürmung des US-Kapitols wollten manche Angreifer einem Justizdokument zufolge Politiker „gefangen nehmen und töten“. Es gebe dafür „starke Beweise“, hieß es in einem Dokument der Staatsanwaltschaft in Arizona zur Festnahme eines Verdächtigen. Es handelte sich dabei um einen als „Schamanen“ bekanntgewordenen Eindringling, dessen Fotos, die ihn mit nacktem Oberkörper und mit einem Kopfschmuck aus Fell und Hörnern zeigten, um die Welt gingen. Er sollte am Freitagnachmittag dem Haftrichter vorgeführt werden. Der in Arizona festgenommene Jacob Chansley soll nach Willen der Staatsanwaltschaft bis zu einem Prozess in Haft bleiben. Er sei ein aktiver Teilnehmer an einem „gewaltsamen Aufruhr“ gewesen, der zum Ziel gehabt hätte, „zu versuchen, die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten zu stürzen“, hieß es in dem Dokument. Die Anklage wirft Chansley bislang weder die geplante Gefangennahme noch die Absicht zur Tötung von Politikern vor. Chansley habe im Kapitol auf dem Schreibtisch von Vizepräsident Mike Pence aber eine Drohbotschaft hinterlassen, erklärte die Anklage. „Es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, die Gerechtigkeit wird kommen“, stand demnach auf dem Zettel.

via rnd: Sturm auf Kapitol: Angreifer wollten laut Anklage Politiker töten

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Landtag verbietet AfD Wahlstudio in Fraktionsräumen

Die rheinland-pfälzische AfD hat Ärger wegen ihres Studios für den digitalen Wahlkampf bekommen. Die Landtagsverwaltung forderte die Partei am Freitag auf, die Räume der AfD-Landtagsfraktion in Mainz nicht mehr für das Studio zu nutzen.Sie berief sich dazu auf ein Gutachten des Wissenschaftlichen Dienstes des Parlaments, das Landtagspräsident Hendrik Hering (SPD) in Auftrag gegeben hatte. Darin heißt es, die Einrichtung eines solchen Studios in den Fraktionsräumen sei verfassungsrechtlich nicht zulässig. Alle staatlichen und öffentlichen Stellen müssten im Zusammenhang mit Wahlkämpfen das Gebot strikter Zurückhaltung befolgen. Eine Fraktion dürfe sich zwar in ihren Räumen ein Studio einrichten, dürfe dieses aber nicht Dritten überlassen. Dabei sei es auch unerheblich, ob dafür eine Miete gezahlt werde, heißt es in dem Gutachten weiter.

via volksfreund: Landtag verbietet AfD Wahlstudio in Fraktionsräumen

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Nach Kapitol-Stürmung Bitcoin-Spende an US-Rechtsextreme aufgetaucht

Nach der Stürmung auf das Kapitol, sind Berichte aufgetaucht, die eine großzügige Bitcoin-Spende aus Frankreich an Rechtsextreme in den USA offenlegen. Das Online-Medium yahoo!news schreibt in einem Exklusivbericht, dass Rechtsextreme in den USA eine großzügige Bitcoin-Spende erhalten hätten, einen Monat vor der Erstürmung des Kapitols. Demnach seien am 8. Dezember 28,15 BTC (500.000 US-Dollar) auf 22 Wallets verschiedener Persönlichkeiten und Organisationen aus dem rechten politischen Spektrum des Landes transferiert worden. Das Software-Unternehmen Chainalysis stellte Nachforschungen auf Basis der Yahoo-Daten über den Ursprung der Spende an. Die Spuren führen dabei nach Frankreich. Demnach kamen die Zuwendungen von einem Account auf einer französischen Krypto-Börse und gingen unter anderem an rechte Nachrichtenseiten und Influencer, wie VDARE, Daily Stormer oder Nicholas Fuentes. Dabei handle es sich laut Recherchen von Chainalysis um einen französischen Programmierer, der einen Blog betreibe. Einen der Beiträge interpretierte die Research-Firma als Abschiedsbrief. Dort prophezeite der Franzose den „Niedergang der westlichen Zivilisation“ und vermache deshalb sein Vermögen „bestimmten Zwecken und Leuten“. Ob der Finanzier tatsächlich tot ist, bleibt ungeklärt. Allerdings gab es auf dem Blog des Programmierers seit 2014 keinen neuen Eintrag mehr.

via btc echo: Nach Kapitol-Stürmung Bitcoin-Spende an US-Rechtsextreme aufgetaucht

siehe auch: Large bitcoin payment made to far-right individuals before U.S. Capitol attack: report. Payments in bitcoin worth more than $500,000 were made to 22 different virtual wallets, most of them belonging to far-right activists and internet personalities, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, cryptocurrency compliance startup Chainalysis said on Friday. The payments, made by a French donor, of 28.15 bitcoins were made on Dec. 8, the New York-based startup, specializing in countering money laundering and fraud in the digital currency space, said in a blog post. (bit.ly/3bG83yE) Chainalysis said it now has evidence that many alt-right groups and personalities received large bitcoin donations as part of the single transaction.

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By BitcoinXio – <a rel=”nofollow” class=”external free” href=”https://forum.bitcoin.com/post170370.html#p170370″>https://forum.bitcoin.com/post170370.html#p170370</a>, CC0, Link

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