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- White supremacists “pose the primary threat” of committing domestic terrorism, the FBI said.
- Since 2010, white supremacists have killed at least 77 people, the bureau said in a new report.
- The report warns that extremists have forged international connections online.
White supremacists continue to pose the greatest threat of committing “lethal violence against civilians” in the United States, the FBI said in its annual risk assessment, warning that such extremists hope to precipitate a “race war” with acts of domestic terrorism.
According to the bureau, radicals “driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race continue to pose the primary threat among [domestic violent extremists] of committing lethal violence against civilians, based on their ideology and attack history.”
Since 2010, white supremacists have carried out at least 17 lethal attacks, killing no fewer than 77 people — accounting for more than half of all fatalities from domestic terrorism, the FBI noted.
One on of the deadliest recent attacks by a white supremacist came in May, when a man targeted Black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 people and wounding three others. The gunman pleaded guilty to murder and domestic terrorism, among other charges, on Monday.
The FBI report warns that such racially-motivated extremists are acting as part of a “transnational movement,” facilitated by online networks and claiming the mantle of a “leaderless resistance” to multiculturalism. Adherents, the report states, “believe that white people of European descent are superior to and threatened by minority populations, as well as by other whites whom they perceive as supporting these populations.”
The FBI assessment comes just days after former President Donald Trump met with Nick Fuentes, one of the leading white supremacists in the US, sparking criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
Other racial supremacists also pose a threat, according to the FBI report, which notes several incidents in recent years where followers of Black Hebrew Israelite ideology, recently promoted by NBA star Kyrie Irving, have carried out deadly attacks against Jews and members of law enforcement.
Left-wing violence, by contrast, poses a smaller threat and is likely to consist of “nonlethal” criminal activity, according to the report, which states that far-left extremists, unlike their far-right opponents, are “not organized at the countrywide level.”
Anarchist violent extremists, as the FBI terms them — popularly referred to as “Antifa” — will likely “plot and potentially conduct sporadic attacks” on critical infrastructure and government buildings, as well as engage in “violent physical assaults against their perceived opponents,” according to the report. Such radicals “will probably remain focused on people or institutions seen as representing authority, capitalism, and oppression, including perceived racism or fascism,” the report states.
Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com
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