FBI investigating Antifa

 Bill Gertz:

The FBI is investigating far-left Antifa radicals linked to violent attacks around the country, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Thursday.

Mr. Wray was asked his views on whether Antifa, a leftist radical group that has triggered violent attacks in several U.S. cities, is an organized group.

“We consider Antifa to be more of a movement,” Mr. Wray said during an appearance before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. “There are certainly local and regional nodes, individuals who self-identify with Antifa who commit violent attacks, citing that as their motivation. And we have a number of predicated investigations into such individuals.”

Antifa, he added “is a real thing. It is not a fiction.”

Mr. Wray‘s remarks appeared to step back from earlier comments suggesting the group was less of a threat. Last year, Mr. Wray testified that Antifa was viewed by the FBI as more an “ideology than an organization.”

“We take anarchist, violent extremism, much of which associates with the Antifa movement extremely seriously,” Mr. Wray said later in the hearing, adding that “it is something we investigate very aggressively.”

The number of investigations into Antifa violence “dramatically increased” over the past three years, Mr. Wray said, without elaborating.

“Last year we had more arrests in the anarchist/extremist space than in the past three years combined,” he said.

The lack of organization and structure of the group “does not mean that they are any less dangerous, or less threatening,” he said.

Antifa radicals have been spotted at protests in Minnesota over the recent apparent accidental shooting death of Daunte Wright by now-resigned police officer Kimberly Potter.

The shadowy Antifa radicals often are dressed in black hoodies and backpacks and in some cases helmets. They often carry shields that have been used in often violent protests.

Many of the Antifa protests took place last summer following the death of George Floyd in police custody, when Minneapolis was set ablaze by rioters.

Antifa radicals espouse anti-capitalist, anti-fascist and anti-state views while adhering to a number of left-wing and communist ideologies. The group was especially active in opposing the Trump administration. Antifa radicals also used violent protests to oppose conservative speakers on college campuses and elsewhere.
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It has mostly independent nodes of operation with little apparent national structure.  I think this is by design to make it hard er law enforcement to target leadership.  They do have a pattern and practice for their attacks from using soup cans to assault police to arson on occasion.

The group has been especially active in the Northwest, but they also show up for riots associated with BLM.

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