FBI arrests more members of violent Neo-Nazi group
The FBI arrested more members of the violent extremist organization The Base, which is known as an accelerationist, white separatist groups that aims to achieve its goals through terrorism.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA Nazi's salute at a neo-Nazi rally in Kansas City, Missouri. (Dave Kaup/Reuters)(photo credit: DAVE KAUP / REUTERS)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested more members of the violent extremist organization The Base, which is known as an accelerationist, white separatist group that aims to achieve its goals through terrorism and the overthrow of existing governments, according to a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) report.The group stands apart from other racists organizations because of its violent tactics and radicalism in terms of pursuing assassinations and the rejection of political means for achieving their goals, unlike the Ku Klux Klan and other neo-Nazi groups.The FBI arrested three men in Georgia and another man in Wisconsin. Only a day before, arrests were also made in Delaware and Maryland, including a Canadian member and former soldier, who fled the country after his affiliations were discovered. Court documents associated with the arrests tell of plans to overthrow the US government.The organization has been recruiting through secretive approaches, including encrypted online messaging and member-only chat rooms, which would then lead to in-person meeting.The Base was founded in July 2018, and has tried to unite white nationalists in order to "prepare for a violent insurgency against various targets, including the United States government and non-white majority groups."Following allegations that the organization was planning to attend a pro-gun rally at the Virginia state capitol on Monday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that he received evidence that out of state. The governor declared a state of emergency following the report and imposed a temporary ban on all weapons, including firearms, around the capitol building until after the rally.Anti-fascist organizations think that the arrests may galvanize other members or sympathizers to engage in similar violence that was seen during the "Unite the Right" rally that resulted in the death of one anti-fascist activist in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.CBC contributed to this report.
