The Department of Homeland Security has "overwhelming intelligence" that the nightly violence in Portland, Oregon, was "organized" by members of Antifa.
An email obtained by CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge by Brian Murphy, former acting under secretary for intelligence and analysis at DHS, said in July that the violence had reached a level at which it could not longer be classified as "opportunistic."
Murphy said the violence was "organized" by individuals with an ideology categorized as "Violent Antifa Anarchist Inspired," or VAAI.
"We have overwhelming intelligence regarding the ideologies driving individuals towards violence and why the violence has continued," Murphy said. "A core set of threat actors are organized, show up night after night, share common TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures] and drawing on like minded individuals to their cause."
The email was posted on Twitter by Herridge, the Daily Wire reported.
Murphy said he recognized "we may not be able to attribute every individual as VAAI, however, we need to look at the totality of the intelligence both current and previous and recognize the motivation for the violence and why people have shown up to commit violence for about 60 days and why individuals are using social media to encourage the VAAI on the ground to carry out acts of violence."
Murphy said the VAAI "is specific to Portland and specific to the Federal, State, and Local facilities under violent assault."
"If similar situations arise down the line the VAAI may apply," he said.
#Whistleblower #PortlandProtest Breaking: According to this @DHSgov internal email, obtained @CBSNews, former Acting Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis Brian Murphy wrote colleagues on July 25th that the Portland violence was not “opportunistic” but “organized” citing pic.twitter.com/K7Aoe0yFbB
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 14, 2020
DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said in an interview last month with Fox News that federal authorities were "targeting and reviewing" the heads of Black Lives Matter, Antifa and their funders.
Wolf said DHS has seen "groups and individuals move from Portland to other parts of the country."
"We had about about 175 arrests in Kenosha, almost 100 of them were from out of state. So, we know they are moving around. We have seen them in D.C., in Sacramento and elsewhere," he said. "They are organized. We have seen similar tactics being used from Portland and other cities across the country as well. So, we know that there is organization. I know the Department of Justice is also looking at that as well."
The post DHS intel: Antifa organized Portland violence appeared first on WND.
