Activists of the far-left Antifa movement began planning to foment a nationwide anti-government insurgency as early as November as the U.S. presidential campaign season kicked off in earnest, according to a law enforcement official with access to intelligence behind the shadowy group.
The radical movement has emerged as a key focus for investigators in the wake of violent protests and looting across the country after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and private security experts.
“Antifa’s actions represent a hard break with the long tradition of a peaceful political process in the United States,” said former National Security Council staff member Rich Higgins. “Their Marxist ideology seeks not only to influence elections in the short term but to destroy the use of elections as the determining factor in political legitimacy.
Added Joe Myers, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and counterinsurgency expert, “President Trump’s election and revitalization of America are a threat to Antifa’s nihilist goals. They are fomenting this violence to create havoc, despair and to target the Trumpcampaign for defeat in 2020.”
More generally, senior Trump administration officials and private analysts are warning that the radicals have rushed to exploit recent anti-police protests to set into motion a program of widespread civil unrest, a program that involves using the protests for looting and burning inner cities with the help of criminals and street gangs.
FBI counterterrorism officials have been monitoring Antifa and similar violent groups for years. In a bid to obscure its actions, Antifa has begun using cover names such as Black Lives Matter, Smash Racism, Abolish ICE and others.
Communist roots
The name Antifa is derived from the Moscow-based Communist International that in 1933 directed the Soviet-led Communist Party USA to form the American League Against War and Fascism. That group was patterned after Germany’s Antifascist Action — or Antifa — formed in 1932.
Mr. Higgins, the former NSC staffer, sees Antifaas a significant tool of leftist and communist political warfare.
“Antifa’s goal is nothing less than fomenting revolution, civil war and silencing America’s anti-communists,” said Mr. Higgins, a former Pentagon irregular warfare expert. “Their labeling of Trump supporters and patriots as Nazis and racists is standard fare for left-wing communist groups.”
The ideology of Antifa is at its center Marxism-Leninism, he said.
“Antifa is currently functioning as the command and control of the riots, which are themselves the overt utilization of targeted violence against targets such as stores — capitalism; monuments — history; and churches — God,” he said.
The radical movement has emerged as a key focus for investigators in the wake of violent protests and looting across the country after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and private security experts.
“Antifa’s actions represent a hard break with the long tradition of a peaceful political process in the United States,” said former National Security Council staff member Rich Higgins. “Their Marxist ideology seeks not only to influence elections in the short term but to destroy the use of elections as the determining factor in political legitimacy.
Added Joe Myers, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and counterinsurgency expert, “President Trump’s election and revitalization of America are a threat to Antifa’s nihilist goals. They are fomenting this violence to create havoc, despair and to target the Trumpcampaign for defeat in 2020.”
More generally, senior Trump administration officials and private analysts are warning that the radicals have rushed to exploit recent anti-police protests to set into motion a program of widespread civil unrest, a program that involves using the protests for looting and burning inner cities with the help of criminals and street gangs.
FBI counterterrorism officials have been monitoring Antifa and similar violent groups for years. In a bid to obscure its actions, Antifa has begun using cover names such as Black Lives Matter, Smash Racism, Abolish ICE and others.
Communist roots
The name Antifa is derived from the Moscow-based Communist International that in 1933 directed the Soviet-led Communist Party USA to form the American League Against War and Fascism. That group was patterned after Germany’s Antifascist Action — or Antifa — formed in 1932.
Mr. Higgins, the former NSC staffer, sees Antifaas a significant tool of leftist and communist political warfare.
“Antifa’s goal is nothing less than fomenting revolution, civil war and silencing America’s anti-communists,” said Mr. Higgins, a former Pentagon irregular warfare expert. “Their labeling of Trump supporters and patriots as Nazis and racists is standard fare for left-wing communist groups.”
The ideology of Antifa is at its center Marxism-Leninism, he said.
“Antifa is currently functioning as the command and control of the riots, which are themselves the overt utilization of targeted violence against targets such as stores — capitalism; monuments — history; and churches — God,” he said.
