Counter-terrorism investigators raided an Australian neo-Nazi cell late last year whose members include a 23-year-old tradesman acting on behalf of a violent international organisation to recruit young men to their cause. The federal police and ASIO have been investigating allegations that tradesman Matthew Golos was encouraging others to join the racist extremist group. Among them is a Perth-based neo-Nazi who later purchased materials that could be used to make an improvised explosive device. A major investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes has also revealed that Mr Golos used the online alias Volkskrieger – German for “people’s warrior” – and encrypted communications platforms to lure Australians as young as 16 to join dangerous US-based neo-Nazi organisation The Base. The identity of Volkskrieger has been one of the mysteries on Australia’s extremist scene after it emerged he was appointed The Base’s key Australian recruiter in late 2019. In an exclusive interview, ASIO’s director-general Mike Burgess declined to identify specific targets of his agency but said he was alarmed to uncover connections between Australians and “material from The Base offshore”. “That connection disturbs us because obviously it may well lead to people going down a path of radicalisation, and that’s our principal concern,” Mr Burgess said. (…) This masthead’s investigation can also reveal that one of the Australians Mr Golos sought to recruit purchased materials that could be used to make a bomb.
James Greig, a Perth-based neo-Nazi, purchased two dozen cold packs of ammonia nitrate along with other materials that could be used to make an improvised explosive device in April 2020, according to multiple sources speaking on condition of anonymity. Months earlier, he had boasted on leaked recordings from vetting sessions for The Base about his access to weapons. Mr Greig used two online aliases, AdvocateCannabilism and James Jameson, to disguise his identity in his discussions with Mr Golos in November 2019, but multiple sources and open source intelligence confirmed his identity. During a vetting call with Mr Golos and The Base’s American leaders in November 2019, the 38-year-old Greig said he got “enjoyment watching … [terrorist Brenton] Tarrant do his thing”. Mr Greig also told Mr Golos he wanted to help build a group of networked survivalists across the country with access to firearms, legal access to firearms, so there’s no questions asked by the alphabets [the AFP and ASIO]”.
via theage: Unmasking an international neo-Nazi group’s Australian recruiter