Antifa Boogeyman: Echoes of the Red Scare and Government Targeting Protesters

Remember when GW Bush had a fake reporter in his press conferences asking planted questions? (The Guardian: Fake reporter unmasked at White House - Jeff Gannon)

Well, Trump doesn't like the questions he gets, no problem, he brings his own reporter with planted questions.

Yahoo News: 'Antifa' website cited in conservative media attack on Biden is linked to — wait for it — Russia

Quote:

WASHINGTON — At his press briefing Wednesday, President Trump, as he usually does, called for a question from Chanel Rion, the chief White House correspondent for the conservative One America News network, which has at times replaced Fox News as the president’s favorite news outlet. Rion’s question had nothing to do with COVID-19 or the economic recovery Trump had been boasting about, but instead brought up an obscure website, antifa.com. “I wanted to highlight a kind of odd situation. In the last hour or so, if you googled ‘antifa.com,’ it would take you straight to Joe Biden’s website — his official campaign website — odd situation,” Rion said, adding, “We don’t know who’s behind that.”

Apparently we do know who's behind it. Odd all right.

Quote:

Rion went on to suggest the site posed “an interesting leadership question” for the former vice president and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

Is there a question for Trump here?

Quote:

“Should Joe Biden, the Democrat Party, Kamala Harris, should they publicly denounce the antifa as a domestic terrorist organization?” Rion asked the president.. .

Based on no evidence.


More about the website:

Quote:

After briefly redirecting to Biden’s page on Wednesday, the site went dark. Based on copies of the site on the Internet Archive, it was blank from 2013 until June of this year when it began to feature a message in support of the protests that erupted around the U.S. following the killing of George Floyd. The page declared, “we are actively increasing Membership” but provided no contact information for anyone interested in joining. “We Are Antifa: Join Us & Take Action,”....

Hmmm, site goes dark, nowhere to apply. I'm surprised they haven't used the site to gather data on people.



There have been other attempts by the Trump people directly trying to gin up the antifa boogeyman. And it's a twofur, gives them an excuse to spy on anyone protesting the government.

The Nation; Aug 3 : Homeland Security Is Quietly Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers

Quote:

“They targeted Americans like they’re Al Qaeda,” a former senior DHS intelligence officer with knowledge of the operations told The Nation. The officer, who served for years in the DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), compared the operations to the illegal surveillance of activists during the civil rights era. “They essentially were violating people’s rights like this was the ’60s…the type of **** the Church and Pike committee[s] had to address.” ... “Designating someone as foreign-sponsored can make a huge legal and practical difference in the government’s ability to pursue them," ... they are subject to warrantless search and surveillance in a way that would be illegal and unconstitutional for any other US person. ... Last week the DHS reassigned its intelligence chief after The Washington Post revealed that the agency had been compiling intelligence reports on American journalists and activists in Portland, Ore. In response to President Trump’s executive order to protect monuments and other federal property, the DHS created the Protecting American Communities Task Force, which sent DHS assets to Portland and other cities. The agency has found itself in transition under the Trump administration.“They are always pressuring I&A for political reasons. It’s been like that since the election,” the former intelligence officer said.

Whoops, getting too hot to target reporters.

The Red Scare is alive and still just as sick. No J Edgar but better toys.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/31SfoVh