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| The Base | |
|---|---|
 Flag of The Base | |
| Founder | Rinaldo Nazzaro |
| Leader | Justen Michael Watkins (2020-2021)[1][2][3][4] |
| Foundation | June 2018 |
| Country | United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and Belgium |
| Motives |
|
| Headquarters | |
| Ideology | Neo-Nazism White supremacy Accelerationism Antisemitism Factions: ONA Satanism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Slogan | "Save Your Race, Join The Base."[5] |
| Status | Active |
| Size | |
| Allies | |
| Designated as a terrorist group by | |
| Website | https://thebase966874062.wordpress.com/ (defunct) |
| Part ofa series on | |||||||
| Terrorism and political violence | |||||||
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Byideology
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The Base is aneo-Nazi group andparamilitary training network formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro. The group espousesaccelerationist andwhite nationalist ideology. It is active in theUnited States,Canada,Australia,South Africa, andEurope, and designated as a terrorist organization in Canada, theUnited Kingdom, Australia,New Zealand, and theEuropean Union.
The group was founded in June 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro, who uses the pseudonyms Norman Spear and Roman Wolf.[14] Nazzaro was reported to have bought several blocks ofoff-the-grid land inWashington state, United States, in 2018 for use as asurvivalist training camp.[15]
Nazzaro, who used to work for theFBI andthe Pentagon, moved to Russia around the time he created The Base, and directs the group's activities from there. In November 2020, a feature-length interview with Nazzaro was broadcast onRussian state television.[10]
The Base is awhite nationalistaccelerationist paramilitary group and training network. It advocates the formation ofwhite ethnostates, a goal which it believes it can achieve viaterrorism and the violent overthrow of existing governments. The group's vetting process serves to connect committed extremists with terroristic skills to produce real-world violence.[14] It organizes "race warpreppers" and operates "hate camps", or training camps.[16][17][18][19] The group has links to theAtomwaffen Division and theFeuerkrieg Division, which are far-right extremist groups.[18]
Nazzaro has characterized The Base as a "survivalism and self-defense network ... sharing knowledge and training to prepare for crisis situations", but he denies its connections to neo-Nazism. Nazzaro has stated that his goal is to "build a cadre of trainers across the country."[14]
In April 2025, The Base solicited volunteers and offered financial rewards for attacks on power plants, military and police vehicles and government buildings in Ukraine, as well as for the assassination of Ukrainian military, police and political figures. This is the first time the group has demonstrated its alignment with the Kremlin's geopolitical objectives.[20][21]
The Base has been designated as a terrorist entity by the following countries:
The group is active across the United States, and it is also active in Canada.[28] Before his identity was revealed in January 2020, Nazzaro, known online as "Roman Wolf" and "Norman Spear", was personally involved in active recruitment, with the aim of formingcells in Europe, South Africa and Australia.[15][18]
The Base has recruited members by usingiFunny, amemesocial media website. In secure chat forums,Vice noted members designing memes to spread as propaganda.[14]
Propaganda from a The Base training camp nearSpokane, Washington was posted in August 2019.[29][30][31][32]
In late 2019 and early 2020, secret recordings were made of some of The Base's recruitment activities. The tapes include its attempts to recruit several Australians, including a 17-year-old and aWestern Australian man, Dean Smith, who ran for parliament forPauline Hanson's One Nation party. Another Australian who went by the name of Volkskrieger was a key person in the recruitment drive, which focused on finding people with legal access to firearms and security licences.[15][33][34]
Richard Tobin and The Base were linked tosynagogue vandalism inRacine, Wisconsin, andHancock, Michigan, which occurred a day apart in September 2019.[29] Court documents allege that Tobin organized the vandalism, then named the two members of The Base who he assigned to vandalize the synagogues. Tobin called the event "OperationKristallnacht".[35]
Yousef O. Barasneh, a Neo-NaziArab whose father immigrated fromAmman, spray-paintedswastikas and otheranti-Semitic symbols and slogans on Beth Israel Sinai Congregation in the city ofRacine, Wisconsin sometime between September 15 and 23, 2019.[36]
On 16 January 2020, three members of The Base were arrested by the FBI just before agun rights protest,2020 VCDL Lobby Day, was scheduled to be held at theVirginia State Capitol inRichmond.[37] The FBI had six members under surveillance for several months and had set up CCTV cameras inside the group's apartment to observe them and to prevent them from causing any harm.[38] According to FBI documents, three members were discussing "the planning of violence at a specific event in Virginia, scheduled for January 20, 2020."[39] On January 17, the trio were indicted for illicit activities.[40] The next day, three additional members were arrested for plotting to "derail trains" and poison water supplies.[41] FBI recordings released in November 2021 showed two of the men,Patrik Jordan Mathews and Brian Lemley, discussed mass murder of black persons to trigger a race war; they were both sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2021.[42]
On the night of December 11, 2019, two members – Justen Watkins and Alfred Gorman – appeared at a residential home in the town ofDexter, Michigan. There, they shined lights and took photographs on the front porch. Watkins and Gorman incorrectly believed the home belonged to an "antifa" podcaster, Daniel Harper ofI Don't Speak German, and the pair intended to threaten him. Unknown to them, it was the home of an unrelated family. Watkins and Gorman uploaded their photos to aTelegram channel used by The Base. On October 29, 2020, Watkins and Gorman were apprehended by the FBI, and charged with gang membership, unlawful posting of a message, and using computers to commit a crime.[43][44] According to Vice News, between the attempted intimidation incident and his arrest, leaked chat logs revealed Watkins was planning a "fortified compound" in theUpper Peninsula of Michigan. In the said logs, he was discussing plans to purchase homes and land (and subsequently fortify them) with members onWire, wanting to establish an enclave to house and train members.[45]
In the Netherlands, in October 2020, two 19-year-old men were arrested for their alleged membership of The Base. They were charged with right-wing extremist sedition and crimes with terrorist intent.[46]
In January 2021, a man fromAmsterdam and a man fromDordrecht were arrested for their participation in a messaging group linked to The Base. The Amsterdam man had threatened to assassinate Prime MinisterMark Rutte while he was out cycling, while the Dordrecht man had circulated messages encouraging racist and homophobic violence.[47] Both were sentenced in December 2021 to 24 months in prison, 18 of which were suspended.[48]
In April 2021, two men were indicted inFloyd County, Georgia, for alleged theft and ritual beheading of an animal. The assistant district attorney said a "dozen members of The Base" participated in the blood-drinking ritual.[49]
In November 2023, an anti-terrorist police operation coordinated byEuropol andEurojust was carried out in six European countries (Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania) against The Base. Five suspects were arrested and seven others questioned. Police seized weapons, Nazi material and computer data. In Belgium, two people were arrested inOstend andDiepenbeek, one of whom, described as a "leader", was charged with spreading terrorist messages and attempted recruitment.[50]
In September 2024, three men were arrested in the Netherlands on suspicion of belonging to The Base. The suspects were charged with incitement to terrorism via Internet discussions.[51]
The same month, the Italian police arrested an 18-year-old and placed under surveillance a 20-year-old of Romanian origin, both suspected of having links with The Base. They are also linked to the Russian accelerationist network Aast. The youngest, already known for threatening a classmate with a knife after praising Hitler, is also involved in child pornography and sextortion. The 20-year-old suspect is said to have actively disseminated neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic and pro-Russian propaganda, while encouraging the use of weapons and homemade explosives against those whom the Aast network considers "subhuman" - non-whites, Muslims and enemies of the neo-Nazi accelerationist cause.[52]
In February 2025, a 15-year-old British teenager was accused of planning a terrorist attack and belonging to The Base. He denied the charges and is due to appear in court on March 14, 2025.[53]
Rinaldo Nazzaro uses the pseudonyms Norman Spear and Roman Wolf.[14][54] Nazzaro used to work for theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an analyst and he also used to work as a contractor forThe Pentagon,[55] and he also claims to have served inIraq and Afghanistan.[56] Nazzaro owned a security contracting firm, Omega Solutions International LLC. He is a white supremacist and a supporter of theNorthwest Territorial Imperative, which proposes the creation of "a separatist ethnostate in the Pacific north-west".[54]
Nazzaro resides with his wife inSaint Petersburg,Russia, according toBBC News; an apartment in the city was purchased in his wife's name in July 2018, the same month in which The Base was founded.[57] A video posted online in May 2019 shows Nazzaro, apparently in Russia, wearing a t-shirt with an image of PresidentVladimir Putin and the words "Russia, absolute power".[57] The BBC also reported that in 2019, Nazzaro was listed as a guest at a Russian government security exhibition inMoscow.[57] In November 2020, a feature-length interview with Nazzaro was broadcast on Russian state television.[10] Some members of The Base suspected that Nazzaro is connected toRussian intelligence, which Nazzaro denies.[56]
In the wake of Trump taking office in January 2025, reports that The Base was ramping-up recruitment in the US following Trump's appointment ofKash Patel as the newDirector of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on February 21, 2025.[58] Shortly after, fresh allegations surfaced that Nazzaro is a Russian spy.[20][59]
Justen Michael Watkins was the leader of The Base from 2020 until 2021 when Rinaldo Nazzaro retook leadership of the group and reconfigured it in April 2021 to "protect it from infiltrators".[60][5] In October 2020, he was charged in connection to an incident in December 2019 in which he encouraged (via messages) other members of The Base to target a family's home. It was later discovered that he and two other members had entered two abandoned properties formerly operated by theMichigan Department of Corrections inCaro to host firearm drills. Regarding the activity in MDoC property, Justen Michael Watkins was charged with:
On April 11, 2022, he pled guilty to conspiracy to train for a civil disorder and felony firearm in a plea agreement stipulating that he will serve 32 months to 4 years of incarceration and a second consecutive sentence of two years. In his plea, Watkins admitted that he visited the MDoC facility to perform firearms training there with multiple others. He was then sentenced in accordance with the plea agreement.[61]
On March 29, 2024, theMichigan Supreme Court denied Watkins's appeal (he was 26 at that time). TheMichigan Court of Appeals reversed a decision earlier in May 2023 from theTuscola County Circuit Court that granted Watkins a resentencing.[61]
As of 2024[update], Watkins is serving his sentence atBellamy Creek Correctional Facility as a Level 4 inmate.[62]
Luke Austin Lane was a cell leader of The Base and anOrder of Nine Angles follower. His cell consisted of a few members in Georgia and was particularly militant. He practiced firearms training with his cell, videoing their activities and posting the film online for propaganda purposes. In January 2020, Lane and two accomplices, Jacob Oliver Kaderli and Michael John Helterbrand[63] were arrested for and later convicted of stockpiling weapons and plotting to kill a couple they thought wereanti-fascist and their young children. In preparation, Lane, along with dozen other people, engaged in paramilitary training, consumedpsychedelic drugs, sacrificed a ram, and drank its blood in an occult ritual on his property.[56][64]
Jason Lee Van Dyke, the former lawyer and one-time leader of theProud Boys, was alleged in 2020 to have tried to plot the assassination of a rival,[65] attempted to join the Base, but was denied membership for being a "huge liability".[66] In an effort to convince the group's leaders that he should be allowed to join the Base and would be a productive member, Van Dyke offered up his expertise in weapons training and his property inDecatur, Texas for a paramilitary camp.[66]
Acombat engineer master corporal, Patrik Jordan Mathews (a.k.a. Dave Arctorum or "coincidence detector") of theCanadian Armed Forces Reserve, was identified as one of the three arrested. Earlier, on 16 August 2019, Mathews had been outed as organizing aterrorist cell for The Base and Atomwaffen inManitoba via undercover reporting by theWinnipeg Free Press. He was also described as putting up posters to "intimidate and threaten local anti-fascist activists". Other posters in Manitoba, which began appearing in July, stated "Save your Race, Join The Base" and "The Base: Learn Train Fight".[17][28]Vice News also discovered he had participated in a training camp in the U.S. state ofGeorgia.[67] On August 19, theRCMP searched his home inBeausejour, Manitoba and seized guns.[68] The military had been alerted about Mathews in April and launched an investigation in July.[69] By August 24, he had gone missing and was reported as being voluntarily released from the Forces.[70][71]
Mathews' truck was found near the border inPiney, Manitoba,[72] and it was assumed he had entered the United States illegally.[73][67][74][75] It is possible Mathews was assisted by aMinnesota cell of The Base.[76] Arrested in January 2020, Mathews and Brian M. Lemley Jr., 33, pleaded guilty to weapons charges in Greenbelt, Maryland, and were sentenced in October 2021 to nine years in prison. William G. Bilbrough IV, 19, was sentenced to five years for illegally bringing the Canadian into the USA.[77]
Spear, who claims to be anIraq andAfghan War veteran, is a self-proclaimedwhite nationalist with a significant online following. His latest act involves bringingneo-Nazis together, regardless of affiliation andideology, into a militantfascist umbrella organization. His tool for doing this? Asocial network which he calls "The Base," which is already organizing across the US and abroad, specifically geared toward partaking interrorism. Advertisement
The Base, a neo-Nazi group which aims to provide military and survivalist training to fellow white supremacists, has been ramping up its activities including a massive recruitment campaign and a planned 'hate camp.'
Several Canadian military members have been accused of having ties to AWD, including Master Cpl. Patrik Matthews, a reservist who went missing in August after being relieved of his duties. It was suspected that Matthews was a recruiter for the neo-Nazi group.
Investigators say Richard Tobin, 18, of Brooklawn, used the neo-Nazi social network The Base to recruit the perpetrators who carried out the September attacks on synagogues in Michigan and Wisconsin.
According to Manitoba RCMP, a missing person report was filed for Patrik Mathews on Monday. In a statement they provided to Vice, Manitoba RCMP said that the 26-year-old 'was last seen by family members in Beausejour on the evening of August 24, 2019'.
A survivalist-themed paramilitary group, The Base has factions across the U.S. and Canada. The group reportedly hosted multiple 'hate camps' in northern U.S. states this year. Mathews claimed to have crossed the border multiple times to attend U.S.-based hate camps, the Free Press reported after an undercover investigation of the group. But he was reportedly turned away from the border during a trip to a hate camp this spring, prompting The Base to discourage international trips, while encouraging an increased presence in Canada.
A former Canadian soldier who is accused of participation in a neo-Nazi terror group is suspected by Minnesota police to have recently illegally entered the US by crossing into rural Minnesota, a state where an active cell of the group is believed to be present.
