For the First Time, the US State Department Designates Antifa a Foreign Terrorist Organization

Before the headline, I want to mention a story I failed to cover when it was still fresh: The Antifa attacks on a TPUSA event at Berkeley.

You can tell a Democrat doesn't control the White House because federal law enforcement is actually investigating the terrorist attack on a peaceful congregation of people.

The Department of Justice and FBI are investigating Monday's bloody riots at a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley, which authorities said Antifa protesters turned into a war zone.

"Antifa is an existential threat to our nation," Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X Monday afternoon.

"The violent riots at UC Berkeley last night are under full investigation by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force. We will continue to spare no expense unmasking all who commit and orchestrate acts of political violence."

The sold-out event at the ultra-liberal Bay Area campus, held two months to the day since TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated, drew scores of keffiyeh-clad demonstrators who lobbed smoke bombs, bottles, and set off fireworks attempting to disrupt the tour stop.
A bloodied man in a "Freedom" shirt is detained by police following a scuffle at a

"Antifa is breaking through police barricades and threatening our event attendees," TPUSA chief of staff Mikey McCoy wrote on X as the chaos unfolded.

...

"Mob assault and thuggish intimidation of attendees exercising their First Amendment rights are unacceptable," the DOJ's assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, wrote in an X post.

One of the terrorists attacking peaceful citizens was a Cultural Enrichment Officer named, of course, Jihad.

A demonstrator named "Jihad" who was at Monday's chaotic protest against Turning Point USA at the University of California-Berkeley was charged with assault and robbery for an incident at the scene, according to cops.

Jihad Dphrepaulezz, 25, allegedly snatched a chain necklace from an attendee, sparking a vicious fight that left him and the victim covered in blood -- as "antifa thugs" clashed with Charlie Kirk supporters exactly two months after the TPUSA founder's assassination.

The unidentified victim was initially arrested, too, but later released.

Of course Berkeley cops arrested the victim of Jihad. You have to be very pro-active about stopping any possible future hypothetical "backlash" against Muslims, even as Muslims are attacking people right now, for real.

Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to Berkeley demanding it preserve all records about the attacks and their response to it, meaning she intends to investigate them and does not want them destroying documents.

More: Harmeet Dhillon may be investigating whether Berkeley is continuing the abusive policies towards conservative speakers that she herself sued over as a private attorney.

In a Tuesday morning post on social media, Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco attorney who is now the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said that she sees "several issues of serious concern regarding campus and local security and Antifa's ability to operate with impunity in CA."

She said the scene on Monday night at the Cal campus, which featured conservative activists, comedian Rob Schneider and author Frank Turek, was reminiscent of Berkeley in 2017.

The Justice Department on Tuesday sent a letter to UC Berkeley saying it plans to investigate the universitys response after violence broke out ahead of a Turning Point USA event on campus one day earlier. Four people were arrested.

It appeared as though Dhillon was referencing a lawsuit and settlement her firm reached when her clients, the Berkeley College Republicans, alleged that UC Berkeley placed prohibitive restrictions on when and where events featuring conservative speakers Ann Coulter and David Horowitz could be held.

At the time, Cal maintained that the restrictions were set in place due to real security concerns following violent protests that forced the cancellation of Milo Yiannopoulos' speech earlier that year. Cal insisted the rules did not prevent the groups from holding their events.

The case was settled in 2018, with an agreement that UC Berkeley would stop charging security fees to students for speaking groups.

I wonder if they bother providing security to conservatives when their terrorist Antifa allies announce an intent to violently disrupt their events.

Berkeley released this statement:

Breaking: UC Berkeley has released a statement about the violent Antifa mobbing of the TPUSA event on Nov. 10. It says it will conduct an investigation and cooperate with any federal investigations looking into the "outside agitators" who came in prepared for violence:

"UC Berkeley condemns all violence and will hold accountable anyone who violates the law or campus regulations. The University is firmly committed to an open and robust marketplace of ideas and to maintaining a campus where people of all beliefs and perspectives can feel safe and respected.

There is no place at UC Berkeley for attempts to use violence or intimidation to prevent lawful expression or chill free speech. The University is conducting a full investigation and intends to fully cooperate with and assist any federal investigations and the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force to identify the outside agitators responsible for attempting to disrupt last night's TPUSA event. UC Berkeley will take all appropriate steps to safeguard the right of every member of our community to speak and assemble freely.

That's what they claim -- but do they really arrest Antifa when it attacks people? Or do they take the position that all left-wing mayors do, that when left-wing "protesters" begin to riot and throw molotov cocktails, you must step back to give them "space to destroy"?

Hopefully Dhillon will find out.

With that background: Antifa -- the organization that doesn't exist -- will soon officially be a foreign terrorist organization.

The State Department will designate four Antifa-linked groups operating in Europe as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specifically Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) -- putting them among the likes of ISIS, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah -- Fox News Digital has learned.

The decision marks the first time the U.S. government has applied foreign terrorist designations to Antifa-linked groups, expanding President Donald Trump's previous domestic terrorism directive to an international scale.

The four Antifa-aligned cells active in Europe -- in Germany, Italy and Greece -- are accused of organizing or carrying out bombings, shootings and other politically motivated attacks.

The designation requires U.S. financial institutions to freeze assets of FTOs and SDGTs and ban entry of the group's members into the U.S. It allows the U.S. to criminally prosecute those under U.S. jurisdiction who offer material support to FTOs or conspire to offer such support.

This is well and good, but I don't see an indication that the American Antifa is being called a terrorist organization, just the four Antifa cells in Europe.

This guy suggests that's what's going on but I'm not sure I believe it.

...

"The anarchists, Marxists, and violent extremists of Antifa have waged a terror campaign in the United States and across the Western world for decades, carrying out bombings, beatings, shootings, and riots in service of their extreme agenda," said principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Piggot.

"The State Department is committed to identifying and dismantling these terror networks that conspire to ruthlessly suppress the will of the people and violently undermine the very foundations of the United States and Western Civilization."

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., who had written to Rubio advocating for the designation, praised the move.

"I'm grateful to Secretary Rubio and the Trump administration for working with me on this critical issue -- holding these radical groups who enable, fund and support political violence in the United States and across the world accountable."

While the American Antifa cells are patterned after the original terrorist Antifa groups of Europe, I don't believe they share much (if any) funding or leadership, so designating European Antifa groups as terrorist doesn't mean that American cells are now officially terrorist groups. Just like if the State Department declared that specific mafia groups in Italy were terrorist organizations, that would not mean that the American mafia/LCN groups are terrorist.

I'm not sure this means as much as it's being sold to mean.

Related: Rubio blasts the Europeans for demanding US-made Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, while telling us we can't take care of our own hemispheric communist strongman.

Happy Friday!

posted by Ace at 11:58 AM

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