Rep. Rose urges terrorist organization designation for white nationalist groups

U.S. Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) issued a statement related to the U.S. State Department’s response to his request to designate violent white nationalist extremist groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

Rose was among 40 members of Congress who called upon the State Department to designate violent white nationalist extremist groups as FTOs. The request, said Rose, followed a recent report by the Department of Homeland Security that said: “White supremacist violent extremism, one type of racially- and ethnically-motivated violent extremism, is one of the most potent forces driving domestic terrorism.”

The State Department told Rose it does not comment on deliberations related to FTO designations. “However, the Department is committed to the appropriate use of its designations authorities to target foreign groups or individuals engaging in terrorist activity to prevent them from obtaining resources and support – regardless of their ideology or motives.”

Rose, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism, says these groups meet the definition of an FTO.

“They are foreign-based, they engage in or maintain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism, and they threaten our national security — and yet the State Department is not taking action,” Rose said. “Not only are these white nationalist extremist groups engaged in international recruitment, training, and radicalization — they are some of the leading purveyors of anti-Semitism around the world. I will continue to bring attention to this glaring hole in our counterterrorism strategies because we must be prepared against the threats of today — not just yesterday.”

Rose recently chaired a House Homeland Security Committee hearing called, “Meeting the Challenge of White Nationalist Terrorism at Home and Abroad.”