FBI Eyed White Nationalist 'Patriot Front' for a Year, Documents Show

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: RollingStone

HOME * POLITICS * POLITICS NEWS

JUNE 28, 2022 9:00AM ET

FBI Eyed White Nationalist ‘Patriot Front’ for a Year, Documents Show

The recent arrest of 31 fascists seemed to come out of nowhere. Newly-released documents show agents from the Bureau on the lookout for a long time

By ADAM RAWNSLEY & ASAWIN SUEBSAENG

When Coeur d’Alene police slapped the cuffs on members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front at a Pride event this month, the 31 fresh-faced fascists had little clue that FBI agents in the region had been keeping an eye on the group’s activities in Idaho for at least a year.

New documents show how Idaho cops and FBI agents were tracking white nationalists from Patriot Front months before the group was arrested this month for allegedly conspiring to attack a local LGBT Pride event in Coeur d’Alene.

Emails obtained through records requests by Property of the People, a Washington, DC-based transparency nonprofit, demonstrate that FBI agents in the area both reported and were updated on Patriot Front-related acts of vandalism as far back as August 2021. Those agents also helped Coeur d’Alene police prepare for Patriot Front’s alleged conspiracy to riot at a June Pride event, when local law enforcement arrested 31 members of the group.

The documents also show how conservatives’ Qanon-style rhetoric casting LGBT people as “groomers” and “pedophiles” has animated the far-right and shaped its targeting. Emails from city and law enforcement officials show threats against Coeur d’Alene’s LGBT groups came from a wider array of far-right groups than just Patriot Front.

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Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/lgbtq-fbi-patriot-front-proud-boys-1375145/

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I'm not too keen on using RollingStone as a source, but Popehat retweeted the tweet with the link.

AnyAndAllThingsHat Retweeted

https://twitter.com/Popehat

new via
@arawnsley
, with an assist from me:

rollingstone.com
FBI Eyed White Nationalist ‘Patriot Front’ for a Year, Documents Show
Authorities tracked Patriot Front months before the group was arrested for allegedly conspiring to attack a local LGBT Pride event.

Link to tweet

[IronLionZion]

1. Biden's FBI was watching them

Trump's FBI couldn't be bothered with American terrorists.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. That's an interesting observation

Wonder if that's what Wray actually did. FBI is supposedly independent. Hmmm.

[IronLionZion]

3. It's public info

They shifted their priority away from monitoring domestic terrorists and white supremacists during the Trump years. Coinciding with an increase in incidents.

[NQAS]

4. There was an article somewhere this morning . . .

that white nationalists are heavily recruiting among veterans. So these kinds of investigations and arrests are likely to increased over time. I think the FBI should go on a hiring spree to get enough people in the ranks to investigate white nationalist groups. Declare them to be a terrorist threat and go full bore on the investigations, prosecutions, and sentencing. Not a short-term thing, but a long-term, ongoing operation.

And any such investigations have to include rooting out sympathizers in the military and law enforcement (national, state, and local). Go after these people the way they went after the mob from the mid-1900s onward. No holds barred. Starting now.

[IronLionZion]

5. Yup, they want people with weapons training and combat experience

for nefarious things that sound very unpatriotic to me.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

6. I hope they keep watching them

I hope they're watching them all. More of Unpatriotic Rears need to be arrested. And the Proud Brats are just itching for their own mass arrests as well, after dedicating June to terrorizing drag queens.

Those two groups, and many others, are the biggest threats to America today. They're right in our backyards. They're armed to the teeth. They're bloodthirsty. And thanks to having no president in between Obama and Biden, they truly believe they have the right to act upon their hatred and bigotry. They're not just itching to kill their fellow Americans, they believe it's their right.

Maybe it's going to take more than mass arrests to slow this shit down. I don't know. But the fewer of them that are out there, armed and ready and "standing by," the safer we are.