Neo-Nazis are urging domestic terrorists to create smaller cells and go offline in the wake of increased FBI attention. America has a problem. Due to increased law enforcement pressure and attention, the far right appears to be adopting the offline and off-grid model to evade surveillance. While groups like Atomwaffen Division, the Base, and the Oath Keepers have made headlines as domestic terrorism threats, experts say that in the wake of federal crackdowns and the Capitol Hill insurrection, the far right is increasingly discussing organizational structures similar to that used by Timothy McVeigh, the mastermind behind the devastating Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Inside chat rooms and on Telegram channels frequented by accelerationist neo-Nazis, who believe acts of terror will hasten the collapse of the U.S. government, many proclaim the “anti-group” era has arrived, where public-facing organizations with symbols and propaganda are no longer viable, being too easily monitored and disrupted by the FBI. Instead, they say, local cells of no more than a half-dozen or so people organizing in person and planning attacks outside of traditional intelligence nets is the only way forward. A move to more underground methods would starkly contrast the way the invasion of Capitol Hill was largely planned out in the open on Facebook and other social media platforms—something that made it very easy for the FBI to identify suspects. Offline terror cells present a major challenge for authorities trying to disrupt attacks before it’s too late. “We want lone wolves, we want local cells without online recruitment,” one Telegram post from a well-followed accelerationist account recently preached, before pointing out that law enforcement, hot on the trail of domestic terrorists, is eager to infiltrate groups. “Without spending extensive resources, agencies like the DHS or FBI can’t trifle or sabotage. It doesn’t matter if you are organizing a cell via Steam, they can’t do ANYTHING if you know and trust each member personally. (…) The same account highlighted how terror groups like the Atomwaffen Division and the Base used social media and email accounts to recruit new members—some of them anti-fascist infiltrators out to expose internal communications, and, in the case of the Base, one an undercover FBI agent—and subsequently had several members arrested on terrorism-related charges.
via vice: The Far Right Looks to Small Cells and Lone Wolves After Capitol Fiasco