Morning Briefing: Military Veterans Allegedly Had Cache of Stolen Equipment and Nazi Paraphernalia
Charles Fields and Levi Frakes were allegedly in possession of a 'cache of weaponry and armor, including a machine gun and grenade launchers, along with Nazi paraphernalia.'
Morning Briefing: Federal law enforcement reportedly “discovered a cache of weaponry and armor, including a machine gun and grenade launchers, along with Nazi paraphernalia during a raid of a home in Washington state,” and the “suspects identified in this case were actively involved in Nazi White Nationalist efforts.”
Charles Fields and Levi Frakes have since been charged by federal prosecutors “with robbery, assault and theft of government property for allegedly stealing helmets, body armor and communications equipment” from the Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside of Tacoma, Washington.
Fields and Frakes reportedly “registered a company in Washington billed as a ‘defense manufacturing and training’ service,” and the company “featured imagery associated with Nazi ideology in its logo, according to the website and public business records.”
In Rancho Mirage, California, residents reported “flyers from a known hate group put up across a shopping center parking lot… on the corner of Bob Hope and Gerald Ford,” and the flyers were apparently distributed by members of Patriot Front, the neo-fascist White Nationalist group.
Radical Reports is tracking the far right anti-LGBTIQ activists, Christian Nationalists, White Supremacists, and violent extremist groups targeting LGBTIQ events during Pride Month.
In New Holland, Pennsylvania, local law enforcement is reportedly “trying to determine the identity of a man seen stealing and destroying multiple Pride flags from the same New Holland business,” and the man allegedly “damaged several flags last month and earlier this month.”
In Boise, Idaho, Pride flags have reportedly been vandalized, and for the fifth consecutive year “at least some of those flags have been vandalized or torn down.”
Ascension Lutheran Church in San Diego, California reported that their Pride Month banner had been torn down and vandalized for the second time in as many days, and “surveillance video showed a masked lookout nearby while two others tore down the framed banner.”
Chaya Raichik, the far right social media influencer behind Libs of TikTok, has used anti-LGBTIQ rhetoric to targeted multiple public schools celebrating Pride Month, including schools in Arlington, Virginia; Salem, Oregon; and Howard County, Maryland.
If you have any tips on LGBTIQ groups or events that have been targeted online, or any intel on far right anti-LGBTIQ groups actions during Pride Month, please reach out via email or Signal.
Must Reads
Hannah Allam writes that “the White House appointed [Thomas] Fugate, a former Trump campaign worker who interned at the hard-right Heritage Foundation, to a Homeland Security role that was expanded to include the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships. Known as CP3, the office has led nationwide efforts to prevent hate-fueled attacks, school shootings and other forms of targeted violence. Fugate’s appointment is the latest shock for an office that has been decimated since President Donald Trump returned to the White House and began remaking national security to give it a laser focus on immigration. News of the appointment has trickled out in recent weeks, raising alarm among counterterrorism researchers and nonprofit groups funded by CP3. Several said they turned to LinkedIn for intel on Fugate — an unknown in their field — and were stunned to see a photo of ‘a college kid’ with a flag pin on his lapel posing with a sharply arched eyebrow. No threat prevention experience is listed in his employment history.” [ProPublica]
Jason Wilson writes that “the far right US publisher Passage Press is now part of Foundation Publishing Group and it is connected via a Foundation director, Daniel Lisi, to Network Press, whose only title to date is an ‘effective accelerationist’ manifesto by the tech-right venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Another rightwing publisher, science fiction publisher Ark Press, appears connected to Chapter House which Lisi, a literary scenester in Los Angeles, originally co-founded as an independent publisher of poetry, sci-fi and esoterica, but which now presents itself as a homeschooling resource. The developments illuminate the far right’s efforts to disseminate ideologically charged material as art in the US, and raise questions about its place in the broader culture wars waged by the Trump administration which is carrying out a broad attack on what it sees as liberal culture.” [The Guardian]
Jordan Green writes that “a far-right Pennsylvania activist and podcaster has suggested Donald Trump should be executed and FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino tortured, in both cases for failing to provide evidence in support of antisemitic conspiracy theories. ‘Donald Trump, along with every other president since John F. Kennedy, is a traitor to their country,’ Matthew Wakulik wrote on X last month. ‘This is just another example of why 95% of all federal government employees should be tried for treason and given the maximum penalty.’ Wakulik was angered by Trump’s failure to declassify government files on the Israeli military’s 1967 attack on a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Liberty, which was determined to have been a mistake… Angered because Patel and Bongino failed to say Epstein was an agent of the Israeli intelligence services, Wakulik advocated ‘torture to get information, to extract information … whether it’s waterboarding or sleep deprivation.’ Wakulik has also advocated shooting Susie Wiles, Trump’s White House chief of staff. The FBI and the Department of Justice declined to comment.” [Raw Story]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
