"Disrupt, Identify, Defund, Debank, Arrest & Prosecute": Trump Admin Threatens Leftist Groups

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. The State Department on Thursday hosted a summit “on the resurgence of political terrorism,” where Miller described the left as “enemies of civilization” and described efforts to “disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country.” Rubio announced the U.S. would soon designate more left-wing groups as terrorist organizations. Also on Thursday, the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting what it calls “members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups.” “They’re putting political groups in the United States and abroad on the same footing as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS,” says independent journalist Ken Klippenstein, who has been closely following the Trump administration’s designation of left-wing activism as terrorism. “This effort to designate left-wing groups as foreign terrorists, using these broad terms like 'antifa,' will allow them to go after people who are not committing violence but who are simply engaging in the political process,” adds former FBI special agent Mike German. Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House adviser Stephen Miller are pushing for a global crackdown on leftist organizations. On Thursday, hours before President Trump’s primetime address, the State Department hosted an international summit, where Miller described the left as, quote, “enemies of civilization.” This is part of Stephen Miller’s speech. STEPHEN MILLER: Here in the United States, we have taken the necessary and essential action of formally recognizing left-wing violence as a form of political terrorism that is a direct threat to our national security and the survival of our republican form of government. President Trump issued a directive — in our parlance, it’s called a national security presidential memorandum, or NSPM — NSPM-7, to be exact — that directs, for the first time in American history, all of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to work together to disrupt, identify, defund, debank, arrest and prosecute these political terrorists that are operating in our country. It’s very important to understand that left-wing political terrorism seeks as its ultimate end the overthrow of our system and form of government. AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, the State Department announced new visa restrictions targeting what it calls, quote, “members of far-left terrorist and other aligned groups.” Secretary of State Rubio talked about targeting anti-fascist organizations. SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO: The president signed National Security Presidential Memorandum Number Seven, outlining a comprehensive strategy to investigate and disrupt antifa terror networks and their allies. Last November, the State Department designated four violent, far-left extremist groups as foreign terrorist organizations. And there will be more designations soon. AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by two guests. Mike German, former FBI special agent specializing in domestic terrorism and covert operations, his latest book, Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within, also author of Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy. And we’re joined by Ken Klippenstein in Madison, Wisconsin, independent investigative journalist who’s been closely following the Trump administration’s designation of left-wing activism as terrorism. Ken, let’s begin with you. Lay out what happened at the so-called terrorism summit yesterday. And what caused you most alarm? KEN KLIPPENSTEIN: Well, it was an extraordinary event, because it pulled in representatives of over 65 different countries to discuss the supposed threat of political terrorism, and that’s kind of how it was touted to the press in the run-up to the event. But any pretense that this was going to be a neutral look at the threat of different political groups quickly fell by the wayside as they introduced a term which I have never heard before, which is “far-left terrorism,” or FLT is the acronym they’re using, to describe this new purported threat. And if you look at the language they’ve used to describe this event, the White House put out an admirably frank press release yesterday describing the event as prioritizing a counterterrorism approach that treats the political left with the same, quote, “ferocity” as we have fought traditional jihadi groups in the past. So, they’re putting left-wing political groups in the United States and abroad on the same footing as groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Ken, the legal basis of being able — of requiring intelligence organizations that are directed abroad to begin to do internal investigations and internal repression within the U.S.? KEN KLIPPENSTEIN: Yeah, so, there’s actually no domestic terrorism statute, but that doesn’t stop the FBI from using that distinction internally for them to predicate and open investigations into these groups and bringing up charges unrelated to that against the individuals. And that’s an important distinction worth noting, because I think, early on, the press kind of overlooked — a lot of the mainstream press overlooked this story, saying, “Oh, there’s no domestic terrorism statute. Nothing can happen.” That means you can’t be charged for domestic terrorism. That doesn’t mean that domestic terrorism can’t be used as the predicate for the FBI to go and open up investigations into these groups that they might not be able to open up otherwise. And we saw a great example of that in the sentences that were handed down to the anti-ICE protesters in Texas recently, in Prairieville, Texas. If you look at the sentences, they were extraordinary. It was almost — I’m not exaggerating — half a millennium of federal — years in federal prison, including 30 years for somebody who wasn’t even present at the thing, for moving left-wing literature around, which they alleged to be obstruction of justice. So, this is very real. This is not just Trump rhetoric, that I think it was regarded as early on. This is a policy that they’re very serious about pursuing, and they have the legal architecture to do so, particularly because of the “global war on terror” and the system that that created. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’d like to bring in Mike German into the conversation, former FBI special agent. Your most recent book, Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within. Talk about the historic role of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies in terms of dealing with far-right extremists in this country. MIKE GERMAN: Thanks for having me. So, it’s a bit of a misnomer that there isn’t a domestic terrorism statute. There’s an entire chapter of the U.S. criminal code called “Terrorism,” and it lists 57 federal crimes of terrorism, 52 of which apply to domestic terrorists. As an FBI agent in the 1990s, I investigated neo-Nazi groups engaged in violent and criminal activity. I investigated anti-government militia groups. Nobody suggested we didn’t have sufficient laws to address this issue. The laws distinguish, however, international terrorism from domestic terrorism and give investigators greater access to investigative tools and allow investigators to target not just terrorists, not just people who are committing crimes or assisting those committing crimes or committing violent acts, but to attack people two or three degrees separated. And that’s what I think this meeting is about, because it’s focusing on the designation of left-wing groups as foreign terrorist groups. And that’s what will allow them to start targeting civil society in a way that — in the same way that the Bush administration targeted Muslim and Arab civil society in the United States during the “global war on terrorism.” So, basically, the purpose of this meeting is to reframe the discussion around domestic terrorism to imagine that it has these foreign connections that justify the use of these much more aggressive tools to target, again — you know, people look at the material support for terrorism statute and think that it helps target terrorists, but the purpose of it is to target people who are not terrorists, who are engaging in activities that are not criminal, but the government alleges that they, through a series of arguments, in the end, benefit terrorist groups abroad. And that’s what’s dangerous, because we saw how those laws were employed in the United States during the “global war on terrorism,” where Muslim American charities were shut down, where Muslim American civil rights groups were denigrated in by the FBI director and law enforcement officials, without giving them a forum in which they could defend themselves, without laying actual criminal charges, and, basically, seizing assets without ever showing evidence of wrongdoing. AMY GOODMAN: And, you know, in your book, Mike German, Policing White Supremacy, as you talk about FBI and law enforcement not collecting data around far-right extremist violence, using their resources to target left-wing political organizations, it’s intensifying now, but it’s been going on, even though the State Department and other governments’ own reports say white nationalists are the greatest threats, commit the vast majority of political violence in this country. In the last minute we have, can you predict where this is all going now? MIKE GERMAN: I think what we’re going to see is a serious escalation of Trump’s campaign of retribution against his perceived political enemies. So, we’ve already seen organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which investigates and publishes information about far-right extremists, be charged with criminal offenses. We’ve seen 15 anti-ICE agents — or, anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis charged with very serious terrorism-related crimes. And this effort to designate left-wing groups as foreign terrorists, again, using these broad terms like “antifa,” will allow them to go after people who are not committing violence but who are simply engaging in the political process. AMY GOODMAN: Mike German, we want to thank you for being with us, former FBI special agent specializing in domestic terrorism and covert operations. His latest book, Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within. And Ken Klippenstein, independent investigative journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. We will link to your Substack newsletter. Media Options