Who are these people 'The Base' that have land in the PNW?

[icymist]

Below are a collection of articles concerning this group. I haven't found a direct connection to State Rep Mat Shea yet. I'm sure there will be one eventually. I'll add to the OP time to time through the edit function.

Report: Leader of neo-Nazi terrorist group owns land in Ferry County
The leader of the Base – an international neo-Nazi terrorist organization that has been subject to FBI investigations for plotting to start a race war – has taken many steps to conceal his identity, using the aliases “Roman Spear” and “Norman Wolf.”

According to an investigation published Thursday by the Guardian, the leader’s real name is Rinaldo Nazzaro, a 46-year-old who was born in the United States – and who owns 30 acres of land in rural northeast Washington.

The Guardian reported it pieced together Nazzaro’s identity through property deeds, tax affidavits, business filings, marriage documents and other public records, including email exchanges involving the Stevens County sheriff, the FBI and a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The news organization also cited confidential sources within the Base, which uses online chatrooms and encrypted apps to spread propaganda, promote hate crimes and plot acts of terrorism.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/jan/23/report-leader-of-neo-nazi-terrorist-group-owns-lan/

Neo-Nazi Rinaldo Nazzaro running US militant group The Base from Russia
Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, who uses the aliases "Norman Spear" and "Roman Wolf", left New York for St Petersburg less than two years ago.

The Base is a major counter terrorism focus for the FBI.

Seven alleged members were charged this month with various offences, including conspiracy to commit murder.

Paramilitary training
Court documents prepared by the FBI describe The Base as a "racially motivated violent extremist group" that "seeks to accelerate the downfall of the United States government, incite a race war, and establish a white ethno-state".

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51236915?fbclid=IwAR2nmjVmtaLLT3s5X3YkZlRoPxzQlN7H8oZqbeY39EaKT4xt0W7vfRdgUs4

The original article exposing the leader of The Base.

Revealed: the true identity of the leader of an American neo-Nazi terror group
The Guardian has learned the true identity of the leader and founder of the US-based neo-Nazi terror network the Base, which was recently the target of raids by the FBI after an investigation into domestic terrorism uncovered their plans to start a race war.

Members of the group stand accused of federal hate crimes, murder plots and firearms offenses, and have harbored international fugitives in recent months.

The Base’s leader previously operated under the aliases “Norman Spear” and “Roman Wolf”. Members of the network do not know his true identity due to the group’s culture of internal secrecy.

But the Guardian can reveal that “Norman Spear” is in fact US-born Rinaldo Nazzaro, 46, who has a long history of advertising his services as an intelligence, military and security contractor. He has claimed, under his alias, to have served in Russia and Afghanistan.

The revelation of his identity comes after a months-long investigation by the Guardian into Nazzaro and the activities of the Base.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/23/revealed-the-true-identity-of-the-leader-of-americas-neo-nazi-terror-group

[Princess Turandot]

1. The Anti-Defamation League has a in-depth discussion of them here:

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/the-base

In the last week, 7 suspected members were arrested by the FBI. (One is a Canadian who is in the US illegally.)
3 others were arrested in Georgia by state authorities.

[icymist]

2. Thank you very much for that.

From the above article is reference stating that the HQ (of The Base) is in Washington State.

[icymist]

3. Found an interesting thread on Twitter about The Base, click on the picture to see the whole thread

Link to tweet

?s=20

THREAD: What is The Base?

It's a "balk-right" network of white separatist paramilitaries hoping to balkanize the United States and divide it up into a series of white ethnostates.

Anti-fascists have infiltrated the group and are exposing their members.#DeBasedDoxx

[icymist]

4. August 19, 2019 article in the Seattle Times:

Spokane police investigating rumors of neo-Nazi ‘hate camp’
Spokane police are investigating rumors that members of a militant neo-Nazi group known as The Base are planning to travel through Spokane this month en route to a gathering they call a “hate camp.”

...The Base is a secretive network of neo-Nazis that emerged online last summer with the explicit goal of plotting and training for terrorist attacks. It is said to share members and ideology with the Atomwaffen Division, another terrorist group that has been linked with killings and has recruited members of the U.S. military.

Vice News, which gained access to one of the group’s online chat rooms, reported in November that The Base maintains “a trove of manuals with instructions on terror tactics, gunsmithing, data mining, interrogation tactics, counter-surveillance techniques, bomb making, chemical-weapons creation and guerrilla warfare.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/spokane-police-investigating-rumors-of-neo-nazi-hate-camp/

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. That area tends to be a hotbed of RWNJs.

The late Robert Matthews lived there a while.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jay_Mathews

[icymist]

7. Thank you. A hotbed of RWNJs?!!

WTH was I thinking when I moved out here back in 1992!!! Well, I'm here now and I'm going to look these people up for what they are. The Russian connection with The Base? Arrggh!

[FiveGoodMen]

6. Al-Qaeda, translation: "The Base"

[icymist]

8. Yeah, and they claim not to be affiliated with them:

From the above ADL article:

While “The Base” means “Al-Qaeda” in Arabic, the group claims their name “refers to a base camp in the sense of mountaineering…,” in line with their survivalist ideology. It is worth noting, however, that the group appears to admire and closely observe Islamist extremist tactics and activity. In June 2018, Norman Spear tweeted, “al-Qaida [sic] used its international network and propaganda to rally fighters around one flag united in their conviction and self-sacrifice.” However, Spear has also told an interviewer, “Cooperating with people outside our ideological circles and racial circles has inherent risk. As far as The Base is concerned, we don’t have cooperation with groups like that, nor do we ever plan to.”