You want to be an American.
He's got flown out seven hundred WLW buried in the news and quite a bit of news US the allegedly slow cycle.
Right.
More domestic terrorism aplot diserupted. FBI orre I said four people as part of a radical pro Palestini extremist group arrested for planning an attack on New Year's Even Los Angeles. They caught them with IEDs that they're making complex pipe bombs with The FBI said they're going to target five separate locations on Christmas Eve across the Los Angeles including two big US companies as well as ice agents, vehicles
and the like. And so if you look at domestic terrorism, you know, in our lifetime, if you're a little bit older anyway, you call terrorism from abroad right nine to eleven, et cetera. And we are clearly in the age of domestic terrorism. Over the last ten years, investigations have grown over three hundred and fifty percent, and in that time period, investing open investigations, meaning there's probable cause more than quadrupled.
Mark Nzilaco's here. He is a director of the International Studies Program at the University of Dayton, also founder the Human Rights Studies Program. There, Mark, welcome back to the show. How are you.
I'm fine.
I'm doing fine. Yeah. For those who you know, we're worried about foreign terrorism, it's domestic terrorism. It's been the story of the narrative for a lot longer than that. What do we know about this group, the Turtle Island Liberation Front, the t i LF. It sounds almost like a I don't know a Clancy novel, right, I mean that kind of name alone strikes me as Turtle Island Liberation Front, very left wing, very terroristic group.
Yeah, I had that one wasn't on my radar because it's it's small, and you're correct, the name, the Turtle Islands Freedom Front. It doesn't inspire, you know, it sounds like a I don't know a vacation spot.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Abertle Island Liberation.
Front and scenes. From what I saw about the explosives there was they had gone to the desert that brought precursor chemicals to make either the multile cocktails or ID. They did not seem to be sophisticated, very sophisticated explosive devices. I don't want to downplay them at all, but They don't seem like the truck bombs of you know, uh, uh, you know the truck bombs of Oklahoma City.
They were just basic black powder, weren't.
They Yeah, something like that. Uh. And you know, their their operational securities not very good. The f I can track them complain things, and I don't, but I don't want to demand don't diminish the threat. We have thought for a decade or so that the rise of sort of neo Nazi type right wing extremists, anti government, anti immigrant, anti Semitic groups. But no, the left wing groups is still out there, particularly after Hamas launches homicidal attack. Uh,
it's genocidal attack from Gaza. There's been increases of anti semic violent threats. We had firebamb on the mayor, the governor, Yeah, Pennsylvania. So yeah, the threat less wing, the streament has always been out there. It's incredible you said it this last
time I was on your program. Step when you look at the number of people, the percentage in the thirties who believe that political violence is justifiable and use the time for political lives, I think that's thirty percent of the population thinking about using violence to settle political grievances.
It's amazing we got in that era, and so with this TLF group that their ideology is basically free Palestine, free Hawaii, free Puerto Rico, and free the world from American imperialism. By blowing up targets in Los Angeles, one just scratches their head as someone outside this going hot, how do you connect all those dusts together to the point while we're going to free Hawaii, which is a state, free Puerto Rico, by blowing up Los Angeles. You just
wonder what kind of world these people live in. And that's a scary part. Is there a when I investigate these people? Is there a mental component to this thing? Because it sounds.
Crazy, you know, it's it's very difficult to understand the causes of it. Now that I've been believed for a very long time that ideas and ideologies are behind the violence. You know that the lies can kill, whether they're coming from the propaganda's coming from the left or the right. But you're seeing something about many of the perpetrators. People are arrestler. People commit these crimes are they're socially isolated,
they're narcissistic, and they're neahilistic. They don't believe in nothing, and but there's some joy they can get, some sense of personal satisfaction they derive from belonging to some organization of Total Island Liberation front. I mean, for Christ's sakes, because one, I want a sense of purpose, a sense of meaning, and and and so it's a deep psychological and sociological problem that those of us who study domestic terrorism are trying to understand and try to come to terms with.
Yeah, and then you Mark and Slucky, you put these people out there and give them a browser, and they find each other, and that that really is the problem. That's all we're seeing arise in all this. Because now you may have the most crazy views in the world about stuff, whether it's terrorism, whether it's I don't know, sexual proclivities, anything like that, you can find kindred spirits online and form a group.
Yeah, certainly true. You know when you see these these small little groups that are very amateuristic, right, that scares me. It worries me deeply. But you talk about communicating to one another. I'd rather have a conspiracy of five, six, seven people because the more people involved in conspiracy, more likely the authorities can discover it. What really terrifies me. Is the true lone wolf. Whether they're inspired by isis like these people in our Australia or inspired by something else.
They act alone and the radicalization is deep. It's linked to psychological issues as well. They come from come from dysfunctional families and that is a phenomenon that's very difficult for us to monitor, particularly in the society like ours that believes in freedom, civil liberties. So we're you know, body Beach scares the heck out of me. We had that right in twenty eighteen, right the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, eleven dead by a lone person, Robert Power.
So what we just saw linked to a Holica celebration is to people, look myself, monitor this very very disconcerted, very frightening.
Yeah. He's doctor Mark a Tlaco, University of Date and former International Studies program director, also a founder Human Rights Studies program, expert in political terrorism. And as we're talking about today with the thwarted plot in Los Angeles New Year's Eve, five separate locations in LA targeted by this Turtle Island Liberation Front groom, extreme left wing group. We're making IEDs in the desert and or stopped by the
FBI because of the work of a confidential inflorment. Of course, you know, we just had the Bondi Beach shooting, the massacre there, and we talk about domestic terrorism this morning, which has been a concern now for the past decade and a half at least. We've gone from international terrorism to domestic terrorism now. And for the reasons we've just described, this group plan mark to attack corporate targets two US companies opposed to like government buildings. And you know, obviously
the ICE was involved in this too as well. It's not solely based on corporate targets as well, but attacking capitalist infrastructure rather than people. Are they following like that indicaate, like they're following a specific playbook here, or they just determined that these two ES companies for whatever reason were easier targets, or take us through what you think might the selection process might be.
Well, this is very similar to the domestic terrorism in the nineteen seventies, which was driven by the left right. So you had the weather Underground, the weather man organizations like this. You remember they blew up a townhouse in Manhattan when they're making a bomb and malfunction and it was killed in Dustin's. Dustin Hoffman's apartment was right next to the So these people were out there. So they
had this crazy ideology that capitalism. They're Marxists, right, So capitalism is the root of all evil, and that means corporate capitalism. And so you turned corporations and the letter bombs were sent to major corporations, and of course symbols of American imperialism, the military, right, the Pentagon, your bomb, the Pentegon. I remember having a conversation with Bernard Adorn was convicted of planting a bomb at the depending On to get into her ideology. So there was this crazy idea.
You know, you said a minute ago, how do you link free Puerto Rico to free to liberal? They can? Their ideology is such they can for us. It's it takes leaps and bounds to move from one idea to the other. That they all blown together, so that I'm worried about. You know, we saw a while back the alone individual shoots to dad U Healthcare CEO in New York. Because you're striking a blow. You're striking a blow for the revolution. The language, you know, I study of their language.
You know, these are crimes, these are revolutionary acts, right, or they're armed propaganda. I mean they've they've got a vocabulary, entire glossary of ideas that justify violence. And you read their their their their, their statements right their community case, they're absurd, they're ridiculous. But yeah, you know, for a long time, you've I talked about this several times. The threat has been on the right, the anti Semitic groups
and theo Nazi groups, the anti immigration groups. But hey, left still out there and there's reasons to strike a blow for the revolutionism.
Do we see the pendulum swing in these times? Mark Ensilaco in that when you have a Democrat or democrats electic control of the government, that you start to see a rise on the right of domestic terrorism. And conversely, when it appears Republicans control, everything goes on the left rise up.
Yeah, it's a good, workable hypothesis, and it's not quite as simple as that, but yeah, I mean, when, for example, when Barack Obama was elected I heard African American was elected president, you saw a rapid increase in the numbers of individuals who joined either anti Semitic groups, no Nazi groups, or whatever. So there was that reaction to the sort of unpresident thing of an African American becoming uh. I remember the brother lie right, the Birther stuff false right, right?
Yeah?
Yeah, so that that that narrative provides the basis for a justification of the violent tacks. So yeah, I mainly how to put this, I think we're not seeing a real number increase the number of left wing groups, but it's it's quite possible most of the violence lately has been has been on the right.
Right, yeah, And and maybe it is because of that starting to go the other way. And and both those groups on the right and left can touch hands because of their unhinged beliefs and whatever. Vilification as that comes from the candidates and and politics to party system as well, is your job is to vilify the other side. And then there are people on the extremes and the margins, uh that take that to an extreme level, and they just continue to fuel it when they talk about you know,
you know that's attacking or killing your opponents. The other thing going I hear too, Mark. I wanted to bring this up is most speaking of terrorism, Trump just designated Venezuela a foreign terrorist organization and ordered a blockade of all US anctioned oil tanker service in the country. Kind of an escalation in this to a degree in Venezuela just came out of the blue as to the threat that they pose. And I think what is clearly what's going on here, and tell me if I'm wrong, is
that the pretext is drugs. Because we all hate drugs. We're anti drug we warn drugs, ventanyls killing our society. It's universally condemned. We target drug boats first. That provides our political and military cover because you know, administrations have found broad public support for actions against drug traffickers and drug dealers. And so now we've moved to the oil confiscation control part, which was probably the whole reason we did this in the first place.
True, well, this Venezuelan situation is puzzling and it's worrisome. You know, the war on drugs, yeah, scent and al is killing Americans by the thousands, and yet the President United States pardons the former president of Honduras who had turned Honduras into an arco state. That's inexplicable to me. Americans need to play attention to what's going to slow burn in Venezuela, particularly MAGA supporters who sincerely wanted the United States out of endless wars. Well, it looks like
the president's dragging us into a regional war. Now. Granted, Venezuela won't take along the overthrow off the Marines land, but the naval, the military build up is incredible. And you know, let me give you a piece of news that was buried the sky. A blue a jet, a pressenger jet was flying from Coursau to New York and a US Air Force fuel refueling tanker cut it off with the two miles over twenty seconds from miror collision. But the plan had its transpond off and wasn't pinging.
It was involved in a colandestine operation militant when we nearly had a midair collision. Related to remember, President said a few weeks ago that airlines should consider the airspace in Venezuela's off limits as too dangerous. I mean, what's going on is something that needs to be paid attention to. Yeah, but clearly the the oil is meant to pring pressure on Cuba and around in North Korea too. Uh So, on the one hand, you've got the the shootings of
the boats get the boat singings. Three more well, in the last few days, three more boats were blown up by by our aircraft. But now so there's that that's one drugs, but the rest of the president's action seemed to be to destabilized to overthrow Maduro. So Americans need to pay attention and decide do we want to go in this direction? And then you know, there's a lot
of people pay much attention to it. But the whole issue over war crimes in that double tap the first of September, our destruction of the one vote where there's a second strike twenty minutes later killed two and the Secretary of Defense, I won't say secretary of war, Secretary of Defense refused to release the raw footage of that. Yeah, so there are things that really Americans, you and I
have seen the ebbs and flow of American politics. Recognize the importance of our institutions and their principles and our norms, and those are a thread.
But that's the danger of the times in which you're in because you know you have to pledge allegiance to as opposed to the Constitution. It's one individual in this case, Donald Trump, And if you criticize that say, you know, you're thrown out of the collective herd or somehow you're seen as an enemy. But yeah, there're a problem here is just ignoring the Constitution exists for and it's got us thus far. That's probably what we should be looking at. Nonetheless, Yeah, final point, go ahead, Mark.
Well, you know, back to the earlier point you made with the rise of the left, that was a bit of a surprise. We knew the right was acting, but I sort of I did imagine that the left would radicalize because I've got three more years of Trump. Absolutely, and other people believe he's destroying the constitution, he's an incipiate,
the autocrat, he's pro potent, et cetera, et cetera. If you believe that that the president is really the danger, that's that's that's a recipe for for for insurrections.
Yeah, we've dehumanized and made the made the you know, the figurehead. He's the problem and he's he's going to destroy bus I said that he's destroying America. Uh, people like this. Hear that in this Turtle Island Liberation Front, and they're going to take that to an extreme. He's doctor Mark Ansilaco University Dayton political terrorism expert Mark always enjoyed the condo. Thanks again, happy how they same to you? All right, take care. Let me get a time out in.
We're running light. We got to get some news in. We got weather moving in. We had fifty below zero and six inches of snow a couple days ago. Now we got all the snow melting and warm and it's gonna rain, that's gonna turn icy again. Welcome to Cincinnati, baby seven under w