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This is less significant than it might appear. Here’s why. 1/ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/06/us/politics/terrorist-label-white-supremacy-Russian-Imperial-Movement.html
First, some outlets are reporting the designation of the Russian Imperial Movement, misleadingly, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) designation. This is incorrect. It’s a Specially Designated Global Terrorist designation. These are different mechanisms. 2/
An FTO designation is a State Dept category applied to orgs that operate transnationally. It criminalizes providing support to that org, including joining the org. ISIS, al-Qaeda, etc. are designated FTOs. 3/
SDGT designations can be made by either State OR the US Treasury, but are enforced primarily thru Treasury. They freeze org members’ assets, apply financial sanctions, etc. Qassem Soleimani was designated this way for years before the IRGC FTO designation last year. 4/
So the US has criminalized doing business with or funding RIM, & it’s made it easier to prohibit travel by RIM members to the US. But it hasn’t criminalized joining RIM, so it would be very difficult to prosecute members under this designation. 5/
Second, why RIM? The org isn’t particularly well-known internationally. It’s not a household name. This, I think, is the point: this designation lets the Tr*mp administration say, hey, we care about white supremacist terrorism—w/out engaging in a politically costly action. 6/
That also makes the action rather insignificant. Does it matter that we have a white supremacist org designated as an SDGT for the first time? Normatively, yes. Is this a real step toward fighting white supremacist terrorism? Not at all. 7/
Even the threatened Atomwaffen designation from a few weeks ago would have been more significant, despite AWD being mostly decimated & having voluntarily dissolved itself recently. At least that group operates in the US, unlike RIM (to my knowledge). 8/ https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/09/state-department-white-supremacist-group-124500
We designate orgs that operate solely in other countries as FTOs and SDGTs all the time. The significant metric here is not that we designated a white supremacist org, but that we *haven’t* designated an org with a sizable domestic branch. 9/
Ambassador Sales, in his remarks on the RIM designation, said designating a domestic org isn’t possible because of “constitutionally protected speech”. He says the standard is whether an org facilitates, directs, plans, etc. “terrorist attacks”. 10/ https://www.state.gov/briefing-with-coordinator-for-counterterrorism-ambassador-nathan-a-sales-on-the-united-states-designation-of-the-russian-imperial-movement-and-its-leaders-as-global-terrorists/
This is a willful misinterpretation of the law. Designating a *purely* domestic org isn’t possible under current counterterrorism laws. This is right. But mechanisms exist to designate domestic orgs that also operate transnationally. That’s the FTO list, in theory. 11/
Again, the threatened AWD designation undermines this argument. And that was understood by many as a threatened FTO designation, not a SDGT designation (which, yes, is for foreign orgs). RIM could have been designated an FTO! But that’s not what happened. 12/
More importantly, though, the facilitating/directing/planning terrorist attacks criterion is a farce. The white power machine in the US has been doing this for decades, both domestically & internationally. The attacks criterion is only used in practice for people of color. 13/
So don’t overstate this designation. The US has not really designated a white supremacist org a “foreign terrorist org” for the 1st time. It hasn’t designated an org w/ significant power. & it continues to avoid taking white supremacist terror in the US seriously. /fin
