Designation of groups from Italy, Germany and Greece labelled ‘ridiculous’ as experts say no active threat posed
Experts have told the Guardian the same anti-fascist groups the US state department recently named as foreign terrorist organizations and accused of “conspiring to undermine foundations of western civilization” barely qualify as groups, let alone terrorist organizations, and pose no active threat to Americans.
“The whole thing is a bit ridiculous,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, which tracks extremist movements worldwide, “because the groups designated by the administration barely exist and certainly aren’t terrorists.”
In a release put out earlier this month, the Trump administration, which has made no secret of its hatred for leftists in the US and abroad, named Antifa Ost in Germany, the Italy-based International Revolutionary Front, and two organisations in Greece – Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self Defense – to its long list of designated terrorist organizations.
It is ridiculous. The countries these groups are in, which are advanced first-world democracies just like the US, say these groups are well under control and far less active than they were years ago. But even these “barely a group” European groups are far more formal and organized than any antifa-leaning organization in the US, the Trump admin just needed someone, anyone, to slap a terrorist label on.