News and Media

In an approximately three-minute audio recording released on Soundcloud on March 14, James Mason, a long-term member of the American neo-Nazi scene and author of Siege, announced that the neo-Nazi extremist group Atomwaffen Division (AWD) was disbanding. The declaration follows the arrest of John Cameron Denton, one of the group’s alleged leaders, and four other suspected members for threatening journalists. However, even if AWD itself were to cease to operate or function, the violent neo-Nazi ideology behind the group will continue to live on.

Mason claimed that he was contacted on March 9, 2020 by members of AWD, who requested that he record a public announcement on behalf of the group. Mason stated that AWD was disbanding immediately because of infiltration and arrests of AWD members by law enforcement, as well as the claim that the media has falsely portrayed AWD as a terrorist group.

According to Politico, the U.S. State Department is considering designating at least one white supremacist group as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), which would allow the federal government to pursue material support charges against the group’s members and investigate their finances. Former U.S. government officials and counterterrorism analysts have suggested AWD as a possible candidate. It is extremely likely that Mason and AWD are claiming to have dissolved the group in anticipation of a possible designation.

Similar neo-Nazi groups have previously been proscribed in the United Kingdom, such as National Action, and AWD may attempt to adopt lessons from that group’s experience. For instance, National Action members have changed their group’s name or focused more on underground meetings and activities. In the U.S. and Europe, the Feuerkrieg Division, an ideological similar group to AWD, also announced that they were disbanding in mid-February, although this has been contested by anti-fascist activists who claim that this was a ruse. Anti-fascist researchers who have infiltrated FKD’s chats have stated that the group is attempting to rebrand.

Mason stated that AWD material will continue to remain online, however this is beyond the control of AWD members. Mason further declared that anyone claiming to be a member of AWD or using AWD’s insignia in the future is an imposter. He also again denounced the AWD “Fission” breakaway group which released videos and photos in the fall of 2019, repeating that they are not part of AWD. Mason also stated that AWD does not believe in the use of violence or “illegal threats and conspiracy,” blaming illegal actions on a “breach of discipline.” The February arrests of  Denton, Kaleb Cole, Cameron Brandon Shea, Taylor Ashley Parker-Dipeppe, and Johnny Roman Garza for threatening journalists would appear to negate Mason’s claim.

On Monday, March 16, AWD’s anonymous onion website accessible via the Tor browser is still online, and it had not been updated to reflect Mason’s announcement. Similarly, the Siege Culture website, which is dedicated to spreading Mason’s work and ideology, and its affiliated onion address are still online.

While it is possible that AWD might officially cease functioning as a group, the ideology that inspired them will live on, as will their members and supporters. AWD has promoted the book Siege as a totalizing ideology, and there is no indication that their members will abandon it or its calls to commit acts of violence. Mason himself has advocated in favor of lone actor action over group activities. It is possible that AWD members will try to create a new, smaller, and more decentralized group with trusted individuals that is less focused on producing online propaganda. AWD’s propaganda output, including videos and flyers, attracted the attention of numerous researchers, activists, and journalists. Future endeavors might emphasize intragroup activities such as training or ideological education, and deemphasize propaganda production and distribution. Mason’s declaration that material will continue to exist online is a way to distance AWD from any potential future content uploaded by supporters. Finally, it is possible that the group will continue to organize in some degree, similar to National Action’s rebranding as NS131 and then Scottish Dawn following proscription.

Mason and the Atomwaffen Division have not given the public a reason to trust their word. Their claim of ceasing operations when faced with prosecutions and potentially being added to the FTO list should not deter continued monitoring and investigations of the group and its members no matter what banner they choose to organize under.

On March 15, 2019, alleged gunman Brenton Tarrant attacked the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 and wounding dozens of others. It was the worst terrorist attack in New Zealand’s history. Tarrant is now facing life in prison while New Zealand is re-examining its counterterrorism laws.

Earlier this month, threats were reported against the Al Noor mosque and an image circulated of an unidentified individual wearing a balaclava outside the mosque. The anniversary of the attack is rightfully raising concerns about copycats. Unfortunately, the ideology to which Tarrant subscribed encourages just that. Tarrant’s manifesto, entitled “The Great Replacement,” postulated that the white European identity is directly threatened by invading migrants who seek to replace the prevalent culture with their own. He called this a “crisis of mass immigration … that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people.” Though Tarrant is an Australian who resided in New Zealand, his ideology is built around the concept of a transnational European—i.e., white—ethnic identity.

The Great Replacement concept was popularized by French writer Renaud Camus in his 2012 book, Le Grand Remplacement—“The Great Replacement.” Camus postulated that black and brown immigrants were reverse-colonizing native “white” Europeans. He broke the theory down in a 2017 interview with the New Yorker: “You have one people, and in the space of a generation you have a different people.” Followers of Camus’s theory believe that white Europeans are facing an extinction-level threat from mass immigrations.

This belief has attracted followers across Europe and the United States. During the Unite the Right rally in August 2017, white nationalists marched through Charlottesville, Virginia, chanting, “You will not replace us!” In Europe, the French group Les Identitaires and its youth wing, Generation Identity (GI), warn of the replacement of the native European culture. GI and Les Identitaires seek to counter the Great Replacement through demonstrations and activities such as blocking migrant ships traveling to Europe while warning of “the process by which the indigenous European population is replaced by non-European migrants.”

In the United States, the American Identity Movement (AIM) portrays itself as a patriotic American organization that seeks to protect the American cultural identity “against mass immigration and the scourge of globalism.” The group’s language specifically promotes American nationalism and references ideas such as “the preservation of America’s historical demographics in the face of mass immigration” and protecting “American industry and workers, rather than benefit globalist interests.” AIM was born out of the group Identity Evropa, which was one of the organizers of the Charlottesville rally. Though AIM has since sought to distance itself from Charlottesville, its rhetoric remains firmly rooted in the language of the Great Replacement theory.

And therein lies the danger of professedly non-violent groups like AIM and GI. Tarrant wrote that he could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch the destruction of the European race. If these groups truly believe they are facing an extinction-level replacement, individual members may also decide that demonstrations aren’t enough to save the race and direct action must be taken. On August 3, 2019, Patrick Crusius killed 21 people at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas. Crusius did not belong to these groups but he subscribed to the Great Replacement theory, writing in his manifesto that he supported the Christchurch shooter and warning of a white genocide.

On the anniversary of the horrific Christchurch attack, we must be wary not just of violent copycats but also of the base ideology that informed the attack. AIM and GI continue to stage demonstrations and attract new followers through the Internet. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have suspended AIM’s main accounts but many of GI’s social media accounts remain. Both groups continue to maintain active web presences elsewhere. To honor the victims of Christchurch, we must loudly reject the ideology that informed the attack and deny any harbor to those who continue to embrace it.

The security situation in Africa’s Sahel region continues to deteriorate. In January 2020, the U.N. envoy to West Africa reported that terrorist attacks have increased fivefold in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger since 2016. In 2019 alone, there were more than 4,000 deaths from terrorist attacks, compared to 770 in 2016. Recently on February 16, gunmen murdered at least 24 people, including a pastor, in an attack on a church during Sunday mass in northwestern Burkina Faso. Despite a steady stream of reports from Human Rights Watch and the World Food Programme, warning of an accelerating humanitarian crisis, efforts by  governments, joint military forces, and Western allies have thus far been insufficient.

Despite the growing Islamist threat in the area, the U.S. seems to be sending mixed signals about its commitment to the region. As reported by the New York Times in December 2019, Defense Secretary Mark Esper is mulling moving troops from West Africa to concentrate on challenges from Russia and China. After allies voiced worry over the report, Secretary Esper stated last month that the review of troops in the region would be more of a “rebalancing” and not a “reduction.” Esper’s attempt to assuage fears was followed by the quarterly report on East, North, and West African counterterrorism operations from the inspectors general of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Department of State (DoS), and Agency for International Development (USAID)—the first to be unclassified. It revealed that the United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM) had shifted from a “degrade” strategy to a “contain” strategy in dealing with violent Islamist extremists.

Burkina Faso may be the most threatened of the Sahel countries and is emblematic of conditions across the region, where al-Qaeda- and ISIS-aligned groups are stoking ethnic and religious differences to gain strength and threaten central governments. Prior to 2015, Burkina Faso was considered a relatively secure country and free of Islamist jihadist activity. Five years later, the World Food Programme warned that the country risks becoming the next Syria. In late 2019, USAFRICOM reported that “security in Burkina Faso is deteriorating faster than anywhere else in the Sahel.”  

This is particularly worrying for multiple reasons. Due to the relative peace that existed for decades, the Burkinabe government has had little need for forces dedicated to the specific jihadist threat experienced by its neighbors. It is also the poorest country in the region. The military lacks the materiel and training to present a formidable response to the terrorist threat. Though Burkina Faso is part of the G5 Sahel Joint Force and the Sahel Alliance and has the support of former colonial power France’s Operation Barkhane, vast swathes of the country appear ungoverned and communities remain vulnerable. While the violence has been mostly concentrated in the country’s north and east, it threatens the remainder of the country, as well as currently stable Ghana to the south.  

Although it is a poor country, Burkina Faso does have a “gold vein” and deposits of other resources. Gold mining accounts for approximately 10 percent of Burkina Faso’s GDP. Should the country slide into chaos, those resources could provide an economic and public relations boon to Islamic extremists. That nightmare scenario came a step closer on November 6, 2019, when Islamist militants attacked a mining company’s bus convoy, killing at least 39 people. The country’s mineral resources, for the sake of Burkina Faso’s future, must be prevented from falling into the hands of extremists.  

Finally,  with  multiple extremist groups—historically al-Qaeda-aligned and now a growing ISIS-linked network—swarming the country’s north and expanding east, Burkina Faso risks becoming the next jihadist hub. The symbiotic relationship between global Islamist networks and local jihadists, like Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), can have alarmingly destructive effects. Of the countries and regions where ISIS seeks to infiltrate, Burkina Faso and the Sahel appear the least well-equipped to respond.

To make matters worse, in desperation, the Burkinabe government gave the green light for vigilantes to take up arms. This was a controversial move that has produced unintended consequences for civilians in neighboring Nigeria, which is struggling with the persistent and brutal threat from Boko Haram.

There is some hope, however. France announced in early February 2020 that it would send an additional 600 troops to join the 4,500 already involved in Operation Barkhane. The G5 Sahel Joint Force (FCG5S) and France also agreed to step-up efforts to combat jihadists and coordinate under a new Sahel Coalition. That leaves the rest of the world. The U.S. should consider increasing existing military and financial assistance in order to bolster joint defenses and help communities under pressure from jihadist attacks and recruitment. As the crisis appears to be taking a turn for the worse, now is not the time to “rebalance” forces or resources away from the Sahel.

Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi is one of the FBI’s most wanted female terrorists, charged with helping orchestrate a 2001 Hamas suicide bombing that killed 15, including two Americans. Since 2011, however, she has resided in Jordan and publicly scoffed at U.S. attempts to bring her to justice. That needs to change.

On August 9, 2001, Tamimi drove suicide bomber Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri from the West Bank village of Aqabah to Jerusalem, where he set off explosives that killed 15 and wounded 130. Among the fatalities were 15-year-old Malka Roth and Shoshana Greenbaum, who was five months pregnant with her first child at the time. Both held U.S. citizenship. Israeli authorities arrested Tamimi shortly after the bombing and she was sentenced to 16 life sentences. But Tamimi was one of more than 1,000 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons in a 2011 prisoner swap with Hamas for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged Tamimi in 2013 in the deaths of Roth and Greenbaum. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program has offered up to $5 million for information leading to Tamimi’s capture. But Jordan has thus far yet to extradite her. Jordan’s Interpol branch removed Tamimi from its most-wanted list in 2017 after the Jordanian Court of Cassations ruled that she would not be extradited because the Jordanian parliament never ratified the country’s 1995 extradition treaty with the United States.

Tamimi remains unrepentant for her actions and vocal in her justification of political violence. She continues to exploit media platforms to promote this skewed narrative, including via a talk show on a Hamas-affiliated network.

Jordan’s Court of Cassations is the country’s highest court, but it isn’t the final word on the matter. The court’s decision was a recognition that parliament had not ratified the extradition treaty and thus Jordan was not obligated to extradite Tamimi. Nevertheless, King Abdullah can still choose to extradite Tamimi if he believes it is in the country’s national interest, even without a treaty. For now, the risk is low for King Abdullah to keep Tamimi in Jordan, but that could change if the United States were to threaten economic sanctions against Jordan.

And that threat could become very real thanks to a hidden measure in the U.S. Omnibus Spending Bill President Trump signed into law in December. The bill threatens financial aid for any country that ignores a U.S. extradition request of somebody indicted for a criminal offense that carries a life sentence. The charges against Tamimi carry the penalty of life in prison or death, which means the U.S. government could withhold Jordanian aid if Tamimi’s extradition is not carried out. The U.S. has provided billions in economic and humanitarian aid to Jordan, so it can be assumed that if pressed, King Abdullah would choose the United States over Tamimi.