{"id":464553,"date":"2025-12-22T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/464553\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T14:58:11","slug":"neo-nazi-terror-group-steps-up-us-operations-as-fbi-pulls-back-far-right-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/464553\/","title":{"rendered":"Neo-Nazi terror group steps up US operations as FBI pulls back | Far right (US)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Amid high-profile arrests in its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/01\/suspected-members-of-neo-nazi-terror-group-the-base-arrested-in-spain\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spanish cell<\/a>, the American-born and designated neo-Nazi terrorist group the Base \u2013 once a major preoccupation of FBI counter-terrorism efforts \u2013 has all but faded from US headlines. But a flurry of online activities shows the group is still active stateside and considers the US an operational nerve center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Headed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/apr\/24\/neo-nazi-group-the-base-leader-russian-spy-allegations\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rinaldo Nazzaro<\/a>, an ex-Pentagon contractor turned alleged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/apr\/24\/neo-nazi-group-the-base-leader-russian-spy-allegations\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russian intelligence asset<\/a>, the Base has been busy of late pursuing European expansion: besides its heavily armed members in Spain, its Ukrainian wing is linked to multiple acts of terrorism inside of the country and claimed the high-profile <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/jul\/16\/the-base-terrorist-group-ukraine-assassination\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July assassination<\/a> of an intelligence officer in Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But the Base\u2019s online footprint also paints a picture of a more careful, yet active, American presence: videos from November show masked men shooting military-style rifles and pistols in what they claim is an Appalachian forest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Another June photo, from the same Appalachian cell, shows five armed men in skull masks, holding rifles and brandishing the Base\u2019s black flag, while a cell from the mid-Atlantic captures three members performing \u201csieg heil\u201d salutes, with another from the midwest showing two men firing pistols.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In the shifting political climate of the second Trump administration, where the FBI has openly rerouted resources away from investigations of far-right extremists, the Base appears free to organize and prepare for their stated objective of fomenting an armed insurgency against the US government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">At the same time, its recruitment has continued to funnel through a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/oct\/28\/neo-nazi-the-base-recruitment-russia\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russia email address<\/a> and has not ceased since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2020\/jan\/16\/fbi-arrests-suspected-neo-nazis-virginia\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the 2020 FBI crackdown<\/a> against it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nazzaro has also matched this new American law enforcement environment with emboldened rhetoric.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cOur long-term strategic goal is to accomplish something similar to what al-Qaida and IS accomplished in Syria,\u201d bragged Nazzaro in an audio recording he released in early December over a Russian-controlled app, reviewed by the Guardian. \u201cForm an organized, armed insurgency to take and hold territory. And establish a white homeland which we control and govern.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nazzaro concludes, in the same recording, how \u201conly two traditionally white nations currently possess all of these necessary prerequisites \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ukraine\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ukraine<\/a> and the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Steven Rai, an analyst at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.isdglobal.org\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD)<\/a>, who monitors the Base\u2019s every online move, described with alarm how Nazzaro\u2019s latest words and European actions illustrate its growing ambitions of openly fomenting new US operations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cNazzaro\u2019s recent statements mark a troubling escalation that has been unfolding over the past several months,\u201d said Rai, who pointed out that Nazzaro initially suggested over the summer Ukraine would be the only country where he was sanctioning attacks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMore recently, however, he [Nazzaro] has explicitly expanded this endorsement of violence to other contexts, including the United States, where he has called for the establishment of so-called \u2018acceleration teams\u2019 aimed at destabilizing society and weakening government authority through attacks on critical infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In a post on VKontakte, the Russian knockoff of Facebook where it maintains an account, the Base was explicitly calling for cells to use \u201ctargeted attacks on essential infrastructure and resources\u201d which could \u201ccontribute to the political fragmentation of the country over time if the attacks remain consistent\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Its Ukraine cell is seen within the Base as a model of active insurgency against the Ukrainian government, which is more preoccupied with resisting the full-scale Russian invasion. In the US homeland, however, with \u201caccess to firearms\u201d and \u201crugged wilderness terrain\u201d, Nazzaro and the Base believe the same opportunity exists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Europol and Spanish police, who executed the raid against the Spanish cell in early December, did not say if American authorities had any contact with them during or before their takedown of the Base.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Several sources have told the Guardian that the FBI under Kash Patel has intentionally looked away from far-right extremism, even openly mocking what is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/sep\/17\/justice-department-study-far-right-extremist-violence\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statistically<\/a> the most dangerous domestic terrorist threat facing the US, as merely part of the \u201cwoke\u201d agenda.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">But Rai thinks Nazzaro\u2019s calls for violence against Americans could act as a wake-up call to authorities, who might now have the legal space to crack down on what is designated a terrorist organization in several allied nations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201c[By] providing Base operatives in the United States with explicit strategic guidance centered around violence, Nazzaro may have inadvertently increased the group\u2019s exposure to intervention by law enforcement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">There\u2019s reason to believe the Base has also become a broader intelligence and security target in countries with capable spy agencies willing to devote resources at disrupting it. With legitimate questions surrounding its links to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2025\/dec\/15\/new-mi6-head-blaise-metreweli-speech-russia-threat\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russian sabotage operations<\/a> \u2013 a top security concern among European nations \u2013the Base is no longer considered an obscure American problem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Along with Spain, there were recent arrests of members <a href=\"https:\/\/nltimes.nl\/2024\/09\/05\/dutch-teen-two-men-custody-membership-right-wing-extremist-terrorist-group\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the Netherlands<\/a>, Belgium and the United Kingdom, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/press\/press-releases\/2024\/07\/26\/sanctions-against-terrorism-council-renews-the-eu-terrorist-list-and-designates-a-new-entity\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the European Union<\/a> declaring it a terrorist group in the league of IS and al-Qaida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Nazzaro\u2019s recent audio clip also notably mentions how he saw the instability in \u201cCanada or the European Union\u201d as promising for the Base\u2019s recruitment, in his first explicit mention of Canadian activities in years. The former Canadian cell leader of the Base, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/oct\/28\/neo-nazi-the-base-far-right-us-prison-terms\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Patrik Matthews<\/a>, is currently sitting in a US prison for his part in illegally entering the US and plotting a 2020 terrorist attack on a Virginia gun rights rally, meant to incite a neo-Nazi revolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid high-profile arrests in its Spanish cell, the American-born and designated neo-Nazi terrorist group the Base \u2013 once&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":464554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-464553","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115763813101424230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}