{"id":205559,"date":"2021-06-15T19:39:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T19:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=2f7c6ad330412a679e3e6d905ea3eb79"},"modified":"2021-06-15T19:39:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T19:39:48","slug":"qanon-followers-are-likely-planning-more-violence-against-lawmakers-warns-fbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/15\/qanon-followers-are-likely-planning-more-violence-against-lawmakers-warns-fbi\/","title":{"rendered":"QAnon Followers Are Likely Planning More Violence Against Lawmakers, Warns FBI"},"content":{"rendered":"\"A<\/a>

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned lawmakers that QAnon conspiracy theory followers may be on the verge of carrying out more violence in real life on Democrats and others that they perceive, however falsely, to be threats.<\/span><\/p>\n

QAnon followers are evidently growing restless because they believe \u201cthey can no longer ‘trust the plan\u2019 referenced in QAnon posts and that they have an obligation to change from serving as \u2018digital soldiers\u2019 towards engaging in real world violence,\u201d the <\/span>FBI warns<\/span><\/a> in a document to lawmakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

QAnon followers are conspiracy theorists who follow the word of an anonymous \u201cQ\u201d online, <\/span>widely speculated<\/span><\/a> to be fringe right wing forum 8Kun administrators Jim and Ron Watkins. The conspiracy theory-riddled posts by Q have <\/span>no basis in reality<\/span><\/a> but they\u2019ve gained purchase among Donald Trump followers and others on the right. Q often posts what amounts to smear campaigns against Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Q hasn\u2019t posted since December of 2020, and some Q followers are evidently anxious that Q\u2019s plan to take down the global cabal of mostly liberal politicians and celebrities who they <\/span>falsely believe<\/span><\/a> rule the world isn\u2019t being executed. The FBI warns, in turn, that Democrats and others who they perceive to be enemies of the cause could be in danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lack of direction and action from QAnon may lead the \u201cdigital soldiers\u201d to harm \u201cperceived members of the ‘cabal’ such as Democrats and other political opposition — instead of continually awaiting Q’s promised actions which have not occurred,\u201d the FBI document reads.<\/span><\/p>\n

The threat from militant QAnon followers is pronounced, the agency writes, following the group\u2019s large presence at the attack on the Capitol on January 6. FBI agents have arrested over 20 self-proclaimed QAnon followers in connection with the Capitol attack — though <\/span>previous reporting<\/span><\/a> has found that a belief in QAnon was one of the most common shared traits among the Trump mob from that day.<\/span><\/p>\n

QAnon followers\u2019 participation in the Capitol breach \u201cunderscores how the current environment likely will continue to act as a catalyst for some to begin accepting the legitimacy of violent action,\u201d the document says.<\/span><\/p>\n

A classified version of the FBI threat assessment was circulated among legislators in February, <\/span>CNN<\/span><\/i> reports<\/span><\/a>. But lawmakers have been frustrated with the FBI for not investigating the conspiracy theory in more depth, noting that it\u2019s an increasingly large threat to domestic safety and democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) <\/span>questioned<\/span><\/a> FBI director Christopher Wray in a hearing in April, asking why the agency \u201ccannot or won’t tell the American people directly about the threat\u201d of QAnon, in relation to the threat assessment. Wray responded that the agency is only investigating the conspiracy theory in relation to federal crimes such as those committed on January 6. <\/span><\/p>\n

But ignoring the growing threat of right wing extremists has severely hampered the agency\u2019s abilities to prevent violence before, as is evidenced by the very Capitol attack that they\u2019re now investigating. Despite the fact that Heinrich had requested the FBI to look into the threat of QAnon in December, and the fact that at least one government agency <\/span>had sent them<\/span><\/a> a warning of the violence to come on January 6, the FBI never prepared a formal report on the threat prior to the day.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, FBI officials said that they didn\u2019t want to impend upon free speech — but, as <\/span>NPR<\/span><\/i> reported in January, that didn\u2019t stop them from issuing warnings over protests for Black lives. <\/span><\/p>\n

And despite the fact that QAnon supporters and right-wing extremists have been on the rise for many years and pose a <\/span>huge threat<\/span><\/a> in the U.S., the FBI has spent an outsized amount of time investigating <\/span>left-wing protesters and advocates<\/span><\/a>, even though the right is responsible for <\/span>nearly all<\/span><\/a> modern domestic terrorism. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

QAnon followers may be gearing up for more violence against Democrats and others they perceive as threats, the FBI says.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4709,11806,5164,2571,49,134,4,4200,3542],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205559"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205560,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205559\/revisions\/205560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}