BRAD SPAFFORD MIGHT HAVE BEEN DREAMING OF A TERRORIST ATTACK, BUT AT GATEWAY PUNDIT, HE'S JUST A PATRIOTIC AMERICAN

On a New Year's Day when we're waking up to reports that a man killed ten people when he drove a vehicle into crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans last night, there's another disturbing story about a possible would-be terrorist:

A Virginia man was arrested this month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of “finished explosive devices” ever found in the F.B.I.’s history.

The man, Brad Spafford, was taken into custody at a farm outside Norfolk on Dec. 17 on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint accusing him of illegally possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle. When investigators searched his 20-acre property, in Isle of Wight County, they found in a detached garage more than 150 explosive devices — mostly pipe bombs, some of them labeled “lethal,” prosecutors said.

They found more pipe bombs in a bedroom inside Mr. Spafford’s house, loosely stuffed in a backpack that bore a patch shaped like a hand grenade and a logo reading “#NoLivesMatter,” prosecutors said.

No Lives Matter is a nihilistic, far-right ideology that largely exists on encrypted online messaging apps like Telegram. The movement’s adherents promote “targeted attacks, mass killings and criminal activity” and have “historically encouraged members to engage in self-harm and animal abuse,” according to a threat assessment released in August by the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

It's hard to know what if anything Spafford was planning to do, but there's this:

... the investigation into Mr. Spafford began last year, after a neighbor reached out to the authorities. Mr. Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand while working with a homemade explosive device, the neighbor said, and he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition.

The neighbor reported that Mr. Spafford had told him that he and his friends were “preparing for something” that he “would not be able to do alone,” the court papers said.

The neighbor also told investigators that Mr. Spafford sometimes used photographs of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range and believed that “political assassinations should be brought back.” After the attempt on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s life in Pennsylvania in July, the papers said, Mr. Spafford told his neighbor that he “hoped the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala,” an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris.

The New Jersey report on No Lives Matter (NLM) finds ties to global groups that want to use violence to spread chaos:

* In July 2024, NLM shared a post on its Telegram channel to announce a partnership with Mordwaffen Division (MWD)—a European neo-Nazi group—stating “NLM x MWD deadly alliance” and “Support your local nazi terrorists.” In 2023, NLM partnered with a Russia-based WRME [white racially motivated extremist] group, Maniac Murder Cult (abbreviation MKU based on Russian translation) to co-author the NLM Kill Guide, which provided attack tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). Several pages in the guide reference MKU, calling the group its “brothers in arms” and stating “NLM x MKU we can strike anywhere, at any time.”

* In June 2024, NLM released two extremist publications called the Terror Guide and the Manhunt Guide, both of which provide TTPs for members to “sharpen” their skills.” The Terror Guide includes instructions for making poison and constructing various improvised explosive devices. The guide also provides operational security (OPSEC) practices, weapons preferences, fighting techniques, and instructions for “manhunting” victims. The Manhunt Guide provides additional tactical guidance and OPSEC techniques while providing “manhunt requirements” such as recording “brutal” beatings.

(By the way, "Mordwaffe" means "murder weapon" in German.)

In a post about all this, Digby links to a long and informative report from West Point's Countering Terrorism Center (which I'm guessing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will seek to eliminate). The report focuses on MKU (which it transliterates as MKY) and its links to No Lives Matter, the Mordwaffen Division, a group called 764 that engages in online sexual extortion (although No Lives Matter has now dissociated itself from 764), and Satanist/neo-Nazi groups such as the Order of Nine Angles. This is a very deep rabbit hole, but I'll give you just a small taste of what's in the West Point report:

M.K.Y. has published three ideological and instructional “handbooks”....

The third edition of the Haters Handbook officially stated that an alliance had been formed between M.K.Y. and NLM (No Lives Matter). Chapter 8 of this edition is titled “Weapons of Anarchy” and contains a compilation of previous instructional materials disseminated by M.K.Y. Included in this compilation is a version of the document “NLM Terror Guide,” now named “MMC/NLM Murder Guide.” This guide contains a section titled “Just Terror Tactics Truck Attacks.” ... The second tactic described in the guide is how to carry out attacks with bladed or blunt weapons....

NLM acts as the English language hub of M.K.Y., seeking to recruit and mobilize individuals from the English-speaking world. NLM has published three original instructional manuals in English, as well as many translated M.K.Y. documents.

The Sweden Herald reported in September that "At least eight attacks in Hässelby in western Stockholm can be linked" to "the Swedish part of 764 and its subgroup NLM (No lives matter)," including the stabbing of an 80-year-old man by a 14-year-old boy.

Is it possible that Spafford was planning something like this? I went to Gateway Pundit and learned that, unsurprisingly, the commenters there don't care -- they think the authorities are acting like totalitarians, while Spafford is just an ordinary American citizen exercising his fundamental human rights:

... Since when is a short barreled gun illegal? And registering arms? WTF is that all about?

Last I checked the 2nd Amendment hasn't been repealed. Every single thing this guy owned was legal, if the Constitution still means anything.

And the FBI says he was using political figure X for target practice. Still no violation of any law.

Disband the FBI now!

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Yeah and them freaking out about him making 50 rounds of ammo per day. Seriously. You shoot way more than that going to the range. And when has it become illegal to stockpile ammo? Ever since the ammo shortage during the Obama years many people do this just to avoid being caught flat footed if there is another shortage.

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If you have 25 freedom tools and 500 to 1000 rounds for each, which is normal, you are deemed a threat to society?

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Except for the pipe bombs...I see no problems.

A commenter named Jack knows who's really at fault:

Sounds like a case of Judeo-Bolsheviks trying to disarm the peasants

AFT head Steve Berkowitz Dettelbach 🔯

FBI reports into AG Merrick Horowitz Garland 🔯

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I don't believe a damn thing the media says either

Remember that BOTH sides are controlled by the minority that drove Bolshevism/World Communism

Did they take over the media for the good of the peasants -- or to enslave them?

No commenter pushes back on this. At Gateway Pundit, this is perfectly acceptable discourse.

It's hard to know whether Spafford was on the verge of engaging in a terrorist attack or was merely a garden-variety wingnut weapon hoarder. But it's a good idea for the authorities to look into him if he's violating laws. Nevertheless, much of the right believes that it's categorically impossible for a right-wing gun owner to commit an illegal act -- and the incoming Trump administration will probably agree.