America Is Losing the Ball on White Supremacist Terror Groups
by The Frontier Post
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross / Varsha Koduvayur
In late November, Australia became the latest country to list the Base, a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group, as a terrorist organization. Australia’s move is indicative of militant white supremacist groups’ growing global reach. In turn, Canberra’s move highlights the need for Washington, which has only designated a single such group as a terrorist organization, to wield that power more aggressively.
Designating white supremacist groups as terrorist entities, as Australia has done, will be a key step to fighting the threats they pose. Designations allow governments to curb the groups’ operational capabilities by making it illegal to give them money or any other material support. Designations have been a primary means of combatting terrorism in the past two decades as Washington focuses on stopping the flow of terrorist financing.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said the Base posed a “credible” threat to the country, and it was “known by security agencies to be planning and preparing terrorist attacks,” fulfilling the criteria for the group’s listing as a terrorist organization under the Australian Criminal Code Act. Earlier this year, media reports revealed the Base had plotted to expand into Australia and had targeted six Australian men—including a teenager—for recruitment, with the goal of starting a cell in the country. Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, cautioned that Australians as young as age 16 were being radicalized to support a race war, a dynamic that could potentially provide the Base with fertile territory for its expansion plans.
https://thefrontierpost.com/america-is-losing-the-ball-on-white-supremacist-terror-groups/
