{"id":126137,"date":"2019-08-01T15:29:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T19:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126137"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T19:31:13","slug":"according-to-the-fbi-anything-that-goes-against-the-msm-narrative-will-be-labelled-a-conspiracy-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=126137","title":{"rendered":"According to the FBI, &#8220;anything that goes against the MSM narrative will be labelled a conspiracy theory&#8221;."},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->Jana Winter, Contributor | Yahoo News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-01-at-3.28.57-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-126138\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-01-at-3.28.57-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"657\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-01-at-3.28.57-PM.png 657w, https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Screen-Shot-2019-08-01-at-3.28.57-PM-300x171.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 657px) 100vw, 657px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.)<\/p>\n<p>The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau\u2019s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes \u201cconspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,\u201d as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven\u2019t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>The document specifically mentions QAnon, a shadowy network that believes in a deep state conspiracy against President Trump, and Pizzagate, the theory that a pedophile ring including Clinton associates was being run out of the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant (which didn\u2019t actually have a basement).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FBI assesses these conspiracy theories very likely will emerge, spread, and evolve in the modern information marketplace, occasionally driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts,\u201d the document states. It also goes on to say the FBI believes conspiracy theory-driven extremists are likely to increase during the 2020 presidential election cycle.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI said another factor driving the intensity of this threat is \u201cthe uncovering of real conspiracies or cover-ups involving illegal, harmful, or unconstitutional activities by government officials or leading political figures.\u201d The FBI does not specify which political leaders or which cover-ups it was referring to.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump is mentioned by name briefly in the latest FBI document, which notes that the origins of QAnon is the conspiratorial belief that \u201cQ,\u201d allegedly a government official, \u201cposts classified information online to reveal a covert effort, led by President Trump, to dismantle a conspiracy involving \u2018deep state\u2019 actors and global elites allegedly engaged in an international child sex trafficking ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This recent intelligence bulletin comes as the FBI is facing pressure to explain who it considers an extremist, and how the government prosecutes domestic terrorists. In recent weeks the FBI director has addressed domestic terrorism multiple times but did not publicly mention this new conspiracy theorist threat.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI is already under fire for its approach to domestic extremism. In a contentious hearing last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray faced criticism from Democrats who said the bureau was not focusing enough on white supremacist violence. \u201cThe term \u2018white supremacist,\u2019 \u2018white nationalist\u2019 is not included in your statement to the committee when you talk about threats to America,\u201d Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said. \u201cThere is a reference to racism, which I think probably was meant to include that, but nothing more specific.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"caas-iframe fixed-height default caas-loaded\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/embeds\/420379775\/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=false&amp;access_key=key-gsGEaCDVla6DcItscaDN\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Wray told lawmakers the FBI had done away with separate categories for black identity extremists and white supremacists, and said the bureau was instead now focusing on \u201cracially motivated\u201d violence. But he added, \u201cI will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases that we&#8217;ve investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI had faced mounting criticism for the term \u201cblack identity extremists,\u201d after its use was\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2017\/10\/06\/the-fbi-has-identified-a-new-domestic-terrorist-threat-and-its-black-identity-extremists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ylk=\"slk:revealed by Foreign Policy magazine in 2017\">revealed by Foreign Policy magazine in 2017<\/a>. Critics pointed out that the term was an FBI invention based solely on race, since no group or even any specific individuals actually identify as black identity extremists.<\/p>\n<p>In May, Michael C. McGarrity, the FBI\u2019s assistant director of the counterterrorism division,\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/news\/testimony\/confronting-the-rise-of-domestic-terrorism-in-the-homeland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ylk=\"slk:told Congress\">told Congress<\/a>\u00a0the bureau now \u201cclassifies domestic terrorism threats into four main categories: racially motivated violent extremism, anti-government\/anti-authority extremism, animal rights\/environmental extremism, and abortion extremism,\u201d a term the bureau uses to classify both pro-choice and anti-abortion extremists.<\/p>\n<p>The new focus on conspiracy theorists appears to fall under the broader category of anti-government extremism. \u201cThis is the first FBI product examining the threat from conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists and provides a baseline for future intelligence products,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n<p>The new category is different in that it focuses not on racial motivations, but on violence based specifically on beliefs that, in the words of the FBI document, \u201cattempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group of actors working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others\u201d and are \u201cusually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI acknowledges conspiracy theory-driven violence is not new, but says it\u2019s gotten worse with advances in technology combined with an increasingly partisan political landscape in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election. \u201cThe advent of the Internet and social media has enabled promoters of conspiracy theories to produce and share greater volumes of material via online platforms that larger audiences of consumers can quickly and easily access,\u201d the document says.<\/p>\n<p>The bulletin says it is intended to provide guidance and \u201cinform discussions within law enforcement as they relate to potentially harmful conspiracy theories and domestic extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The FBI Phoenix field office referred Yahoo News to the bureau\u2019s national press office, which provided a written statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile our standard practice is to not comment on specific intelligence products, the FBI routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,\u201d the FBI said.<\/p>\n<p>In its statement, the FBI also said it can \u201cnever initiate an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity. As with all of our investigations, the FBI can never monitor a website or a social media platform without probable cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security, which has also been involved in monitoring domestic extremism, did not return or acknowledge emails and phone requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>While not all conspiracy theories are deadly, those identified in the FBI\u2019s 15-page report led to either attempted or successfully carried-out violent attacks. For example, the Pizzagate conspiracy led a 28-year-old man to invade a Washington, D.C., restaurant to rescue the children he believed were being kept there, and fire an assault-style weapon inside.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI document also cites an unnamed California man who was arrested on Dec. 19, 2018, after being found with what appeared to be bomb-making materials in his car. The man allegedly was planning \u201cblow up a satanic temple monument\u201d in the Capitol rotunda in Springfield, Ill., to \u201cmake Americans aware of Pizzagate and the New World Order, who were dismantling society,\u201d the document says.<\/p>\n<p>Historian David Garrow, the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr. who has worked extensively with FBI archives, raised doubts to Yahoo News about the memo. He says the FBI\u2019s default assumption is that violence is motivated by ideological beliefs rather than mental illness. \u201cThe guy who shot up the pizza place in D.C.: Do we think of him as a right-wing activist, or insane?\u201d Garrow asked.<\/p>\n<p>Garrow was similarly critical of the FBI\u2019s use of the term \u201cblack identity extremists\u201d and related attempts to ascribe incidents like the 2016 shooting of six police officers in Baton Rouge, La., to black radicalism. He said the shooter, Gavin Long, had a history of mental health problems. \u201cThe bureau\u2019s presumption \u2014 the mindset \u2014 is to see ideological motives where most of the rest of us see individual nuttiness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Identifying conspiracy theories as a threat could be a political lightning rod, since President Trump has been accused of promulgating some of them, with his frequent references to a deep state and his praise in 2015 for Alex Jones, who runs the conspiracy site InfoWars. While the FBI intelligence bulletin does not mention Jones or InfoWars by name, it does mention some of the conspiracy theories frequently associated with the far-right radio host, in particular the concept of the New World Order.<\/p>\n<p>Jones claimed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in which 26 children were killed, was a hoax, a false flag operation intended as a pretext for the government to seize or outlaw firearms. The families of a number of victims have sued Jones for defamation, saying his conspiracy-mongering contributed to death threats and online abuse they have received.<\/p>\n<p>While Trump has never endorsed Sandy Hook denialism, he was almost up until the 2016 election the most high-profile promoter of the birther conspiracy that claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States. He later dropped his claim, and deflected criticism by pointing the finger at Hillary Clinton. He said her campaign had given birth to the conspiracy, and Trump \u201cfinished it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There is no evidence that Clinton started the birther conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Uscinski, an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami, whose work on conspiracy theories is cited in the intelligence bulletin, said there\u2019s no data suggesting conspiracy theories are any more widespread now than in the past. \u201cThere is absolutely no evidence that people are more conspiratorial now,\u201d says Uscinski, after Yahoo News described the bulletin to him. \u201cThey may be, but there is not strong evidence showing this.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"caas-figure\"><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s not that people are becoming more conspiratorial, says Uscinski, but conspiracies are simply getting more media attention.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are looking back at the past with very rosy hindsight to forget our beliefs, pre-internet, in JFK [assassination] conspiracy theories and Red scares. My gosh, we have conspiracy theories about the king [of England] written into the Declaration of Independence,\u201d he said, referencing claims that the king was planning to establish tyranny over the American colonies.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that conspiracy theorists are growing in number, Uscinski argues, but that media coverage of those conspiracies has grown. \u201cFor most of the last 50 years, 60 to 80 percent of the country believe in some form of JFK conspiracy theory,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re obviously not all extremist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conspiracy theories, including Russia\u2019s role in creating and promoting them, attracted widespread attention during the 2016 presidential election when they crossed over from Internet chat groups to mainstream news coverage.\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/exclusive-the-true-origins-of-the-seth-rich-conspiracy-a-yahoo-news-investigation-100000831.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Yahoo News\u2019s \">Yahoo News\u2019s &#8220;Conspiracyland&#8221; podcast recently revealed\u00a0<\/a>that Russia\u2019s foreign intelligence service was the origin of a hoax report that tied the murder of Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer, to Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>Washington police believe that Rich was killed in a botched robbery, and there is no proof that his murder had any political connections.<\/p>\n<p>Among the violent conspiracy theories cited in the May FBI document is one involving a man who thought Transportation Security Administration agents were part of a New World Order. Another focused on the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP), a government-funded facility in Alaska that has been linked to everything from death beams to mind control. The two men arrested in connection with HAARP were \u201cstockpiling weapons, ammunition and other tactical gear in preparation to attack\u201d the facility, believing it was being used \u201cto control the weather and prevent humans from talking to God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nate Snyder, who served as a Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism official during the Obama administration, said that the FBI appears to be applying the same radicalization analysis it employs against foreign terrorism, like the Islamic State group, which has recruited followers in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe domestic violent extremists cited in the bulletin are using the same playbook that groups like ISIS and al-Qaida have used to inspire, recruit and carry out attacks,\u201d said Snyder, after reviewing a copy of the bulletin provided by Yahoo News. \u201cYou put out a bulletin and say this is the content they\u2019re looking at \u2014 and it\u2019s some guy saying he\u2019s a religious cleric or philosopher \u2014 and then you look at the content, videos on YouTube, etc., that they are pushing and show how people in the U.S. might be radicalized by that content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though the FBI document focuses on ideological motivations, FBI Director Wray, in his testimony last week, asserted that the FBI is concerned only with violence, not people\u2019s beliefs. The FBI doesn\u2019t \u201cinvestigate ideology, no matter how repugnant,\u201d he told lawmakers. \u201cWe investigate violence. And any extremist ideology, when it turns to violence, we are all over it. &#8230; In the first three quarters of this year, we&#8217;ve had more domestic terrorism arrests than the prior year, and it&#8217;s about the same number of arrests as we have on the international terrorism side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet the proliferation of the extremist categories concerns Michael German, a former FBI agent and now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice\u2019s Liberty &amp; National Security program. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the radicalization theory the FBI has promoted despite empirical studies that show it\u2019s bogus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>German says this new category is a continuing part of FBI overreach. \u201cThey like the radicalization theory because it justifies mass surveillance,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we know everyone who will do harm is coming from this particular community, mass surveillance is important. We keep broadening the number of communities we include in extremist categories.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Garrow, the historian, the FBI\u2019s expansive definition has its roots in bureau paranoia that dates back decades. \u201cI think it\u2019s their starting point,\u201d he said. \u201cThis goes all the way back to the Hoover era without question. They see ideology as a central motivating factor in human life, and they don\u2019t see mental health issues as a major factor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yet trying to label a specific belief system as prone to violence is problematic, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think most of us would do a good job in predicting what sort of wacky information could lead someone to violence, or not lead anyone to violence,\u201d Garrow said. \u201cPizzagate would be a great example of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Trump may not be supportive of labeling a group like QAnon, which sees him as a hero, as extremist, he\u2019s in favor of broadening the number of organizations that are labeled as violent extremists, at least on the left. On Saturday,\u00a0<a class=\"link rapid-noclick-resp\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1155205025121132545?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-ylk=\"slk:President Trump tweeted that\">President Trump tweeted that\u00a0<\/a>Antifa, a far-left movement opposed to what it considers fascism, should be labeled a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<p>Snyder, the former Homeland Security official, agrees that conspiracy theories may in fact inspire violence and be a threat, but questions what the government is going to do about it.<\/p>\n<p>He notes that at the Department of Homeland Security, \u201cnearly all, if not all, the intelligence analysts focusing on domestic extremist groups\u201d were eliminated under the Trump administration. \u201cThere is no one there doing this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>* Sharon Weinberger contributed reporting to this article.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html\">https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-documents-conspiracy-theories-terrorism-160000507.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exclusive: FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}