A House Homeland Security Committee member today sent Secretary of State Anthony Blinken a letter calling for the immediate designation of the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers as international terrorist groups.
The author of the letter is Josh Gottheimer, a Jewish congressman from New Jersey. In the request, he cites a Jewish activist group, the Anti- Defamation League, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center, as main authorities for characterizing Proud Boys as a "white supremacist" group looking to engage in political violence domestically and globally.
If the State Department adheres to Gottheimer's recommendations, membership and financial transactions for either group will qualify as federal crimes. Being listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) also unlocks extra surveillance powers for intelligence services to utilize.
More concerning is the legal gray area of targeted, extrajudicial killings of American citizens for merely belonging to a SDGT. While drone strikes against Americans inside US borders have no precedent, US citizens -- including a 16-year-old boy -- have previously been assassinated by their own government in the Middle East.
American officials have already broken the seal on frivolous terrorism designations. Last year, the State Department arbitrarily classified the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) as an international terror group. Gottheimer cites this as a precedent for labeling a political group as terroristic with scant evidence. RIM is an above ground Russian patriotic group that has never attacked the United States nor engaged in "terrorism."
Lack of evidence for calling the Oathkeepers and Proud Boys terrorists does not appear to have impact on the actions of liberal regimes. As in Canada's decision to identify Proud Boys as terrorists, the goal is political theater meant to scare people out of engaging in right-wing political advocacy of any stripe. Such attempts at government overreach turns the label of "terrorist" into a partisan joke.
While it is unlikely that Gottheimer's demands will be fully met, the fact that he is allowed to use his position on a national security committee in this fashion reveals the mindset of many prominent Jews and liberals. The New Jersey Democrat is no far-left crank, he has previously served as an adviser to John Kerry, Wesley Clark, and both Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Currently, elites are debating the potential efficacy of a new domestic terrorism law. There are hardly any voices defending the right to free speech or assembly for white men or right-wingers. The only opinions allowed to be publicly voiced are between national security officials and Jewish groups that are openly calling for a full on war against all those who protest against them, and left-wing organizations that fear a domestic war on terror could impede the criminal activity of Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
No matter what the ruling class ends up deciding, the civil rights of at least half the country are an after thought.