By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
The FBI investigated a popular civil rights group in 2016 because agents believed the left-wing group may have been involved in a “conspiracy” to deny the “rights” of the KKK and other white supremacists, according to records obtained by the Guardian.
The records indicate that the FBI launched a “domestic terrorism” investigation into By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) after one of its members were stabbed at a white supremacist rally in June 2016.
The FBI cast the KKK as victims and labeled the activists as “extremists,” downplaying the Klan as a group “that some perceived to be supportive of a white supremacist agenda.”
The bureau considered BAMN a potential terrorism threat because of the group’s advocacy against “police brutality” and “rape and sexual assault.”
The FBI’s 46-page report ignored “100 years of Klan terrorism that has killed thousands of Americans and continues using violence right up to the present day,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent and far-right expert who examined the records for the Guardian. “This description of the KKK should be an embarrassment to FBI leadership.”
The report did not conclude that BAMN violated laws.
“It’s clear the FBI dropped the investigation having no evidence of wrongdoing. It never should have been opened in the first place,” Shanta Driver, BAMN’s national chair, said.
The FBI did not comment for the story.
