Thread by @JoshJPhilipp

Thread:

Antifa was allegedly planning to buy guns from the cartels, and launch an attack at the US-Mexico border. Here's my breakdown on Antifa's domestic terrorist background, and key people involved in the alleged plot.

Column here: theepochtimes.com/anti-fascist-p…

A bizarre plot has been uncovered, involving a Mexican cartel, “anti-fascist” activists in the United States, “migrant” caravans, and an alleged cartel associate named “Cobra Commander.” (1)

As strange as it sounds though, the story appears rather serious. It involves a plot to start an armed conflict at the U.S.-Mexico border. (2)

The case was uncovered in a federal investigation last year into groups and individuals behind the migrant caravans. Details were included in a Dec. 18, 2018, document from the FBI, which the Union-Tribune said it obtained. (3) sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-ba…

It states part of the federal investigation “focused on an alleged plot by a drug cartel to sell guns to protesters,” and said “activists” had planned to buy guns from a “‘Mexico-based cartel associate known as ‘Cobra Commander,’ or Ivan Riebeling.” (4)

After getting these guns, it says “The protesters wanted to ‘stage an armed rebellion at the border.'”

The document is not public, so the information cannot be independently verified. A phone call to the FBI press office to inquire was unanswered. (5)

The Union-Tribune says the FBI report is unclassified, and was provided under the conditions that names of individuals in the report were not made public. The paper didn’t publish the report online because the investigation is ongoing. (6)

It says the group behind the planned uprising was “anti-fascist activists,” an apparent reference to the anarchist-communist group Antifa—given a key individual it mentions. (7)

Antifa is classified as a domestic terrorist group and was being investigated by the FBI in 2017. The group has various branches, and carries out violent attacks for political intimidation. (8)

If Antifa was involved, this plot wouldn’t be outside the group’s operations. (9)

“Antifa operates across the U.S. in ways that involve at least potentially criminal interstate activities, such as inciting a riot and conspiracy to incite riot, as well as behavior,” said FBI Director Wray, during a Nov. 30, 2017, House Homeland Security committee hearing. (10)

Wray said, “We are investigating a number of what we would call anarchist-extremist investigations, where we would have properly predicated subjects of people who are motivated to commit violent criminal activity on kind of an Antifa ideology.” (11)

He noted that the FBI regards Antifa as an ideology, and not a single movement. He also noted the FBI has “a number of active investigations in that space all around the country,” and that funding sources behind Antifa are “something we’re keenly interested in.” (12)

Antifa was classified as a domestic terrorist organization by the FBI during the Obama administration. An FBI and Homeland Security Department assessment obtained by Politico said Antifa’s activities were called “domestic terrorist violence.” (13) theepochtimes.com/antifa-extremi…

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness website also lists Antifa under its “Domestic Terrorism” section as a group of “anarchist extremists.” It appears the page has been removed, but the web archives are still available. (14) web.archive.org/web/2017070307…

Antifa was also allegedly colluding with the terrorist groups al-Qaeda and ISIS, according to FBI documents published in “All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump,” by Ed Klein, former editor-in-chief of The New York Times Magazine. (15)

“... these violent left-wing groups traveled to Europe, met with representatives of al-Qaida and the Islamic State, or ISIS. They also went to Syria and got bomb-making instructions and toxic chemical instructions,” Klein told USA Watchdog. (16) usawatchdog.com/plot-to-destro…

Despite these connections, Antifa has been praised by many legacy news outlets, and was recently referred to by Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden as “courageous.” (17) dailycaller.com/2019/04/25/joe…

In the alleged armed plot at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Union-Tribune cites the document saying the “anti-fascist” activists had “planned to disrupt U.S. law enforcement and military security operations at the US/Mexican border.” (18)

Despite the alleged condition for obtaining the report of not naming individuals mentioned in it, the Union-Tribune named two of them. They were Antifa activist Evan Duke and Ivan "Cobra Commander" Riebeling. They denied the accusations. (19)

Reibeling told the Union-Tribune that “It doesn’t make any sense that someone from the United States would purchase guns in Mexico.” (20)

The logic that people wouldn’t buy firearms in Mexico is unclear, yet is likely based on false rumors that guns used by the Mexican cartel come primarily from the United States—a rumor that legacy news outlets have promoted. (21)

The majority of black market firearms (and precursor chemicals for drugs) in Mexico originate in China. (22) theepochtimes.com/china-is-suppl…

Reibeling is the international coordinator of Human Rights Visitors of the New World Order. He was exposed in 2018 for making threats against a journalist, Odilón García, for exposing his criminal history. (23) sandiegored.com/es/noticias/16…

According to MundoHispanico, Reibeling “called to create an army against migrants in Mexico,” in a video he published to social media. mundohispanico.com/noticias/nacio…

It says Reibeling "urged Mexicans to create an ‘international self-defense group’ to combat the caravans of migrants who passed through the Aztec country to reach the United States.” (25)

“In the recording he even asked the members of Mexican cartels to attack the migrants. However, a review of the Quadratín portal that still remains on the internet mentions the Riebeling file,” states the MundoHispanico report, translated from Spanish. (26)

According to the Union-Tribune, a few names in the FBI report overlap with a database of people monitored by the Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations. (27)

Evan Duke, meanwhile, has been described as an “anti-fascist organizer,” and is from Seattle. He has been active in Mexico, and has been involved in the migrant caravans. According to KPBS, Duke was an organizer behind the Caravan Support Network. (28) kpbs.org/news/2019/jan/…

The Caravan Support Network allegedly took part in the New Year’s Day rush of illegal aliens against the U.S. border, which had viral images of people getting teargassed. (29)

A woman from Honduras told The Epoch Times in Mexico, at the time, that she was pressured by open-borders groups to rush the border with her son. (30) theepochtimes.com/migrant-mother…

Protest organizers called on the thousands of migrants to march on the border, and the woman, Maria Luisa Cáceres, said that while she did not want to, “as we are with the caravan, we are forced to.” (31)

/end/