Are pro-Hamas groups planning an intifada in America? Capital Research Center investigative researcher Ryan Mauro tells Glenn that many of these groups that called for the destruction of Israel after the Oct. 7 attack are now talking about restoring “occupied Turtle Island.” Ryan explains how this term is the American equivalent of calling Israel “occupied Palestine” and why these groups could become much more mainstream soon. Plus, he reveals whether they’re receiving government funding.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Ryan Mauro is a counterterrorism expert, investigative researcher from the Capitol Research Center, where he monitors extremist groups in the US.
He is also an adjunct professor at Regent University. Ryan, welcome to the program. Good to have you back.
RYAN: Of course, Glenn.
GLENN: You bet. Man, I read your story today. And America faces pro-Hamas intifada on its own soil. It is terrifying, the facts.
Do you want to take us through this? Right sure. So over at Capitol research center, where I work, we've done a series of studies. Because we wanted to collect data, to see just how anti-American the so-called pro-Palestinian movement. I think so-called. Because it's really not pro-Palestinian in groups. Don't even talk about that issue all that much.
But we want to see a level of altruism within that movement.
As I talk about in your program before, the latest study that we did, we wanted to see, how he has changed from the 15 months before the October 7th attacks. And then also look at the 15 months after the October 7th attack. Seeing, if they have changed. Who they found, based on their online postings. And their engagement and everything.
Anti-Americanism which they've always existed. Has now basically taken it over.
It's absolutely exploded. To the point where, it calls for anti-American violence, particularly towards the police has increased by about 3,000 percent.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
RYAN: When you look at about 500 of the so-called pro-Palestinian activists and organizations, charities, and groups like that.
GLENN: Oh, my goodness.
RYAN: And the overall within anti-American vitriol has increased by 186 percent since the October 7th attack.
GLENN: Okay. So tell me about these organizations. You say, they're not even really pro-Hamas anymore. They're anti-American.
Is this -- have these just been shill organizations, kind of Marxist organizations, from the beginning?
Or is this just a natural morphing from -- you know, we've got to get rid of baby Satan. To get rid of the great Satan?
RYAN: So many of them were Marxists or anarchists to begin with.
And you can tell, they weren't really forward about it. They have since become more forward about it. Many groups that have suspected terrorism are more open about it. They have a comfortable environment, an environment where it was rewarded. So the mask was able to be dropped. And October 7th was kind of like that, that tempting moment, where to show to your own radical audience, whether you're authentic or not.
You have to say something.
You couldn't just be silent anymore. And so the result is, that the mask has dropped on a lot of these pro-Palestinian groups, as to what they were really about. And they have a lot of new groups for them. Some as nonprofits. And some just as online groups that are unregistered as anything.
And so the anti-Americanism that was always there, is now a central focus.
And in some cases, more than the focus, than it is on Israel, even.
GLENN: So when you say they're really anti-American, your article talked about Fourth of July.
And how many of these anti-Israel groups, how they reacted to Fourth of July?
RYAN: As cynical as I am, I was even shocked by this. So I looked at, as many groups as I possibly could.
With a limited time frame. How they reacted to the Fourth of July holiday, last year. And what I found was over 250 anti-Israel groups, condemning the holiday. They refused to celebrate it.
In most cases saying, America is an illegitimate colonial state, using the same terminology, to delegitimize Israel.
They should -- so blatantly endorsing violence.
I saw one that was ridiculing Martin Luther King for being non-violent.
And so I look at all of this, and you can really see the infrastructure, and we're talking about easily hundreds of registered nonprofits.
And thousands of unregistered groups.
GLENN: Any of them getting money from our government?
RYAN: Yes. That has been seen in the past, particularly as regards to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Various organizations. I've done research into that. So that is certainly an issue. They get money from the big donors. The predictable names. Like the George Soros network.
And so you have these sort of mainstream left-wing democratic money powerhouses.
That are just giving money out, whether they realize, what they have to do with it or not.
They might say, oh, social justice. Then they might say, oh, you're a good guy.
But this is a business!
Like, they condemn capitalism. Either -- like, they get bonuses and raises as they fundraise more off of this.
GLENN: So tell me about the Students for Justice in Palestine. I'm trying to remember, because I know I have done in-depth stories on them.
But they now are just a blur.
Who is -- who are students for justice in Palestine?
And who is funding them? And what are they doing?
BRANDON: So Students for Justice in Palestine is kind of the back bone of the protest against Israel and the United States.
That you've seen since the October 7th attacks.
They have a presence on -- they claim, over 200 college campuses. So they're all over the place.
They're sort of the main focal point.
Not much is known of their leadership and fundraising or anything like that, because there is a particular arrangement, through complicit non-profits that they have, to make it like, you can't see anything.
I mean, there is no transparency.
We know there is a link to American Muslims for Palestine, which is run by people who come from the Hamas network, as groups are shut down. They then gravitated over to this group, that formed American Muslims for Palestine. And Students for Justice in Palestine is kind of part of that, even though we don't know too many details.
We know that they're tied to them.
And Students for Justice in Palestine did get some negative attention for their protest after the October 7th attack, especially because they openly supported them.
They were one of the first groups to actually celebrate them. Many of these groups before the Israelis even retaliated in large measure for the attack, were already saying, Israel is a genocidal state.
Stop them from retaliating. And these attacks are wrong. So what really wasn't noticed, because everyone was so shocked by them supporting the October 7th attacks, was that that same statement.
Also, where they said, they don't just support the groups that did it. They were part of that. They were part of Hamas. They were part of the popular front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is like the Communist counterpart to Hamas. And they called for violence, to resist occupied places. And then referred to the United States as occupied turtle island. That's a call for violence on American soil.
GLENN: Explain turtle island.
BRANDON: So turtle island is a terminology that comes from a Native American myth, that when the world was created. Particularly north and Central America. It was created on the back of a turtle during a global flood.
And the Native American tribes referred to it as Turtle Island collectively. Until the white man -- the settlers showed up. And then genocided them all.
And so when these groups refer to the US as Turtle Island, it's the same thing as saying, well, Israel shouldn't be called Israel. It should be called Palestine. Because this is an illegitimate country, that everyone's moral fiber is obligated to fight and to destroy.
GLENN: And truly, they're just at the beginning. And so it seems ridiculous.
But it -- it's not ridiculous. And it is working in many ways, over in Israel.
It's the erasing of the entire history, of a country.
Its legacy.
Everything about us.
By taking and saying, this is -- let me give you the quote.
Liberating colonized land is a real process, that requires confrontation, by any means necessary!
In essence, de-colonization is a call to action, a commitment to the restoration of indigenous sovereignty.
It calls upon us to engage in meaningful action, that goes beyond symbolism and rhetoric.
Resistance comes in all forms.
Armed struggle. General strikes. And popular demonstrations. All of it is legitimate.
And all of it is necessary!
Wow.
RYAN: It's unbelievable.
And the people involved in this. The students involved in this. Those are your future employers. Your future politicians. Your future influencers. I mean, that's where everything is headed. And the trend lines are not good. I was looking at a poll from 2017. And obviously, everything has gotten much more radical since then.
And they polled American results and asked them about various things related to that. And that poll in 2017, found that 8 percent of American adults supported Antifa.
Another 8 percent said that they liked white nationalism.
That's a total of about 16 percent, in 2017.
Now, if you consider the fact that Trump won the election by about one and a half percent, what that means is that -- and these groups coalesce, and form a voting bloc. Or even if they don't vote, they are just able to influence minds.
They can determine elections. And you better believe the political, industrial complex, and politicians are going to increasingly realize that and be tempted to pander to them.
GLENN: Is this why the Democratic Party seems to have just completely lost their mind.
And are going with AOC, and everybody else is a massive radical?
RYAN: I think so. I mean, this is the grassroots now.
These are the activists. The people that -- they may not represent the majority of the opinion. But they certainly, formed the majority of the online opinion makers.
GLENN: I -- you see the numbers of support for Israel.
Compared to support for the Palestinians.
And it's the support for Israel is now at record lows.
On both sides.
That -- is that a result of these organizations?
RYAN: I believe so. I think it's also a result of foreign governments that promote seditionist type beliefs and behaviors.
They want to achieve what's called discourse collapse. Where basically you fill the American news ecosystem with so much BS. That people just kind of believe what they want, or believe what appears upon their eyes most often. And I think that's why you're seeing these crazy fringe beliefs becoming mainstream.
That's great. I think if you put it all together, I would say -- when we hear death to America, we think it's crazy. But I would say, death to America is crazy as a belief system.
But as a goal, it's actually achievable. And I hope people wake up and realize that.
GLENN: Right as always. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You're doing just God's work on this. Thank you. Ryan Mauro.
RYAN: Thank you.
GLENN: Capitol Research Center investigative researcher and counterterrorism expert. It is. It is truly something we need to be very, very aware of. We -- we have won a four-year period here. But that can change on a dime.
As we're seeing this week, you know.
Economy goes away.
And Donald Trump does not win. The Republicans don't win.
And you go back to crazy town USA.
That surrounds themselves with these kinds of people.
Do you want to live in a society, that is built on the backs of these kinds of people?
The answer should be a resounding no!
But because we have such a bad media, education system, and everything else, and we're so polarized in politics, that we can no longer see the truth, these people are going to -- they are going to be the -- well, they will make Thomas Jefferson's prediction of, if we don't fight the Muslims now, he was saying this. When he was president of the United States.
Our first foreign war was with the Muslims over -- with the Barbary pirates.
And he stopped it.
And he said, I want you to know, there -- they're never going to quit.
They're never going to end.
They believe all of these things in their Koran. And they have a right to enslave you. To kill you. To take over all lands.
They have a right to the entire earth!
And if we don't defeat them now, they are going to be our first foreign war, and maybe our last foreign war.
