As wildfires raged throughout western Oregon, claims of anti-fascists wanting to burn the suburbs and eviscerate rural populations spread.
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office presented rumors of leftist violence as fact in at least two forums. Weeks later, the agency still hasn’t explained where the debunked information came from or why personnel deemed it credible enough to share publicly. But it fits within a broader political narrative being pushed from the highest office in the nation.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed anti-fascists, known as antifa, are a serious threat to suburban populations. Trump stood in front of a crowd in Michigan on Sept. 10 and repeated his claim about anti-fascists planning to infiltrate the suburbs.
However, Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the federal Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged to Congress this week that white supremacists are the “most persistent and lethal” domestic threat to the U.S. Internal records also indicate the greater threat likely came from armed vigilantes roaming the streets in search of “antifa.”
Racially motivated extremists and ad-hoc citizen militias appear to present the most pronounced threat of violence to human life, according to a Joint Intelligence Bulletin circulated to law enforcement in June by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center.
The report appears to use “domestic violent extremists” in place of white supremacists when it describes the highest threat of lethal acts of terrorism, a change in Department of Homeland Security terminology first reported by the national security blog Lawfare after leaked drafts of an annual threat assessment report were obtained by the publication.
“Based upon current information, we assess the greatest threat of lethal violence continues to emanate from lone offenders with racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist (RMVE) ideologies and [domestic violent extremists] with personalized ideologies,” the June bulletin says, without referring to white supremacists directly.
The terminology used in the report obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive is also consistent with a recent whistleblower complaint filed by former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence division, Brian Murphy. He alleges he was instructed by Wolf and Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli to edit an annual threat assessment report in order to downplay the threat of white supremacy and inflate the threat of anarchists and anti-fascists to more closely mirror Trump’s rhetoric.
The June bulletin explicitly uses the terms “anarchist extremists” and “ANTIFA” to describe leftist groups. The report says those groups present significant threats, namely to buildings and to police safety when protesters toss incendiary devices toward advancing officers.
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office received the memo June 9 from the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management, which received it the same day from an Oregon Federal Executive Board email list, according to records obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. It’s unclear how many other local agencies received the message. A spokesperson for the federal board would not say.
No local agency has publicly acknowledged the information, or how federal intelligence shapes policy decisions or directives when police respond to actions by far-right or far-left groups. The potential of violent clashes between both sides will take center stage in Portland Saturday. The far-right group Proud Boys plans to gather in North Portland, as do counter-protesters. State, county and local police have pledged to try to keep both groups apart.
The Joint Intelligence memo is titled “Domestic violent extremists could exploit current events to incite or justify attacks on law enforcement of civilians engaged in First Amendment-protected activities.”
The memo is dated June 8 and came less than two weeks after protests against police violence started in Portland. Protesters have routinely damaged public property and businesses and thrown fireworks at buildings and officers.
Trump expressed frustration at the continuing protests and sent in federal officers to police a downtown courthouse and office building in July, a move largely seen as a criticism of the local response to the demonstrations.
The report obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive says federal officials deemed demonstrators a threat to buildings and police.
“Anarchist extremists continue to pose the most significant threat of targeted assaults against police, as well as targeting government buildings and police vehicles for damage, sometimes with improvised incendiary devices,” the June bulletin says.
But the other conclusions of the memo — that white supremacists and self-styled militias are a serious threat to human life — vary vastly from the traditional rhetoric of the president and federal government. The memo concludes some white supremacists and militia extremists are trying to bring about a second civil war by “intentionally instigating violence.”
Wolf’s testimony to Congress was the highest-profile acknowledgment by the Trump administration of the significance of the right-wing threat.
Trump and his administration have been criticized for appearing to downplay or ignore the threat posed by right-wing extremists while simultaneously decrying alleged violence from the left.
Smoke blanketed Molalla and environs on Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. Residents are under a Level 3 Ð leave immediately Ð evacuation order as fires kicked up in Clackamas County. Samantha Swindler/Staff
Rumors of anti-fascist violence have spurred roving patrols, particularly after the wildfires started in early September. Armed vigilantes patrolled rural parts of Clackamas County looking for “antifa,” videos and photos on social media posts show.
The attacks on the small towns never took place, and no evidence suggests they would have if armed people were not on patrol. Leaked online chat logs reported on by The Guardian and Bellingcat, an online investigative site, showed far-right extremists were among the ranks of people looking for “antifa” in and around evacuation zones.
Alan Swinney, known locally for using paintball guns and pepper spray on counter-protesters and once pointing a gun at opponents on Aug. 22, posted to social media saying he was “doing patrols,” in evacuated areas.
Clackamas County Deputy Mark Nikolai was placed on administrative leave after one video showed him talking to a right-wing activist and blaming anti-fascists for “putting lives at stake.” Another video recorded him giving advice to vigilantes on how to use force against looters or fire-starters without getting in legal trouble.
Two days before Nikolai was placed on leave, Clackamas County Captain Jeff Smith, who has represented the sheriff’s office on the Homeland Security Task Force, told county commissioners during a Sept. 10 emergency meeting that he had credible reports of anti-fascists cutting down utility poles to spark wildfires. The information led Commissioner Paul Savas to call for the National Guard.
Sheriff Craig Roberts acknowledged three days later at a press conference that reports of anti-fascists operating a coordinated arson campaign had been roundly debunked. Roberts made clear there was no truth to the rumors but stopped short of specifically denouncing or even identifying the source of false information being shared with the county’s highest-ranking officials.
Dylan Blaylock, spokesperson for the Clackamas County Board of Commissioners, said the board remains unaware of the source of misinformation.
A call and email to Roberts' administrative assistant were not returned.
Someone at a number listed for Nikolai said they had never heard of him in a text message.
Smith has not returned multiple requests to disclose the source of information.
-- K. Rambo
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Fed intelligence sent to Oregon and Portland indicates right-wing extremists pose biggest lethal threat - OregonLive
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