Charlie Kirk is dead. It seems abundantly clear that he was killed by a leftist terrorist espousing the rhetoric and ideology of Antifa and other radical domestic terrorists. Whether this assassin acted alone or as part of a cell remains to be seen.
We can say without hesitation, however, that Kirk’s killing should have come as a surprise to no one in American law enforcement or intelligence. We have had abundant evidence for years now of the growth of a massive domestic terrorist infrastructure intent on destroying the republic and employing violence in pursuit of that aim.
The anarchists in this country are very explicit about the use of direct action, which includes violence. They celebrate it. They discuss it and describe it and glory in it.
The anarchists in this country are also highly organized. They provide detailed instructions and training to the members of constituent organizations. You can find out online where the police are. You can be told what frequencies to monitor to hear police communications. You can track the precise locations of police aircraft at all times.
The data is compiled from reports coming in from anarchist scouts on the ground and intercepts of police communications. Such operations are found in most major U.S. cities.
Members of Antifa don’t have to guess how to avoid interception of their communications. They are trained rigorously. They use burner phones. They do not discuss sensitive matters in open channels. They use encrypted messaging services like Telegram and Signal, and Discord.
Antifa members learn to protect against surveillance cameras, automatic license plate readers, and to scrub the metadata associated with any photographs they take during an action. They learn what to do when arrested. They are taught techniques for “de-arresting” colleagues, in other words, physically confronting the police and rescuing their comrades.
The actions of these groups are meticulously planned and well supported. They organize online and distribute training and organizational materials widely. Readily accessible online in a whole variety of formats are materials guiding you through every stage of the process of becoming a revolutionary. Trying to get things started and want to form your own “affinity group”? (Anarchist speak for a terrorist cell.) Never fear. Step-by-step instructions are waiting for you.
“You and your friends already constitute an affinity group, the essential building block of this model. An affinity group is a circle of friends who understand themselves as an autonomous political force. The idea is that people who already know and trust each other should work together to respond immediately, intelligently, and flexibly to emerging situations.”
“This leaderless format has proven effective for guerrilla activities of all kinds, as well as what the RAND Corporation calls “swarming” tactics in which many unpredictable autonomous groups overwhelm a centralized adversary.”
“Affinity groups are resistant to infiltration because all members share history and intimacy with each other, and no one outside the group need be informed of their plans or activities.”
Other materials will help you prevent the police from knowing what you are up to or even teach you how to defeat facial recognition technology.
“A burner phone is a single-use phone, unattached to your identity, which can theoretically be used to communicate anonymously in situations where communications may be monitored.”
“Burner phones should only ever talk to other burner phones.”
“Never turn your burner on at home.”
“Never turn your burner on in proximity to your main phone.”
“Don’t refer to yourself or any of your contacts by name.”
“Beware of IMSI catchers.”
The leftist groups on our streets don’t just pump out training materials, however. They also meticulously plan their operations and employ sophisticated techniques to frustrate law enforcement and intelligence agencies. General information may be widely distributed, but the details of particular operations are carefully safeguarded.
Tightly controlled Telegram and Discord channels are used extensively. Channels are created and then shut down regularly. Burner phones, as mentioned above, are widely used. Periodically, they are discarded and new phones obtained.
The groups in question also conduct intelligence collection operations. They train their personnel to gather intelligence on the police and to report it in the same organized format used by the U.S. military. As noted above, they monitor police communications. Then they pump all this information out to their people on the street. An anarchist on the street in D.C. can likely also see where other leftist groups are and their composition. He has a real-time understanding of everything that is happening around him.
This vast network of groups dedicated to the destruction of the republic has been growing for years without interference. In the face of this growing threat, one would presume that our law enforcement and intelligence agencies would have long since shifted into high gear and torn this domestic terror machine apart. In particular, one would think that the FBI, which is our lead counterintelligence agency and has the responsibility for investigating terror threats domestically, would have fully penetrated and dismantled Antifa and all of its allies.
Clearly, that has not happened. Instead, we appear to simply stand by waiting for people to die and then treating each investigation as a distinct criminal investigation. This may be appropriate for handling conventional crimes. It is completely inappropriate for responding to broad-based conspiracies by organized, clandestine organizations.
What is needed is a sustained effort to penetrate Antifa and its ilk, to map its structure, intercept its communications, and discern plans and intentions BEFORE people die. And then, what is needed is the political will to destroy this menace once and for all.
We need to tear this cancer out by the roots.