U.S. Lawmaker Urges State Department To Consider Foreign Terrorist Designations For O

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U.S. Lawmaker Urges State Department To Consider Foreign Terrorist Designations For Overseas White Supremacist Groups
By: Counter Extremism Project: 04-14-21
Re: info@counterextremism.com

U.S. Lawmaker Urges State Department To Consider Foreign Terrorist Designations For Overseas White Supremacist Groups

(New York, N.Y.) — Last week, Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to combat the rise of domestic extremist activity by designating more than a dozen white supremacist groups abroad as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). If implemented, the designations will enhance U.S. law enforcement’s capabilities “to engage and flag the Americans who contact, support, train, and join these [white supremacist extremist] groups.”

Representative Slotkin specifically asked Secretary Blinken to consider listing more than a dozen organizations, including the neo-Nazi groups Nordic Resistance Movement and National Action. Other groups identified in the letter include Atomwaffen Division Deutschland, Azov Battalion, Blood & Honour, Combat 18, Feuerkrieg Division, Generation Identity, Hammerskins, Northern Order, Order of Nine Angles, Rise Above Movement, and Sonnenkrieg Division.

The letter also noted that the previous administration listed three leaders of the white supremacist extremist group Russian Imperial Movement (RIM) in April 2020 as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT) in a move praised by the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) as “an important step forward in curbing violent ethno-nationalist and white supremacist movements, which are thriving in Europe and the United States.” An FTO qualification, however, requires more stringent criteria to be met than a SDGT.