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US Soldier Charged With Plotting Deadly Attack on Own Unit

Masood Farivar

   A U.S. Army soldier has been charged with plotting a mass attack on his
   unit by sending sensitive military information to an occult-based white
   supremacist group, the Justice Department announced Monday.

   Ethan Melzer, 22, allegedlysharedsensitive details about his unit,
   including information about its location, movements and security -- to
   members of the Order of Nine Angles, the Justice Departmentsaidin a
   [1]release.

   Melzer, whojoined theArmy in 2018 and the Order of Nine Anglesin
   2019,relayedthe information to members of thegroupand a related group
   called "RapeWaffenDivision"shortlyafter learning in April 2020 that his
   unit, based in Europe,was deployingto another foreign country,
   according toa 14-pageindictmentunsealed Monday.

   "Melzer and his co-conspirators planned what they referred to as
   a'jihadi attack'during the deployment, with the objective of causing
   a'mass casualty'event victimizing his fellow service members," the
   Justice Department said.

   The FBI and the U.S. Army thwarted Melzer's plot in late May.Melzer was
   arrestedin New York onJune 10.He faces six charges, including
   conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, which carries a maximum sentence
   of life in prison.

   According to the indictment, during a May 30 interview with
   investigators, Melzer confessed to his role in the conspiracy,
   admitting that "he intended for the attack to resultin the deaths of as
   many of his fell servicemen as possible..."

   The Order of Nine Angles, described by the Southern Poverty Law
   Center(SPLC)as "an enigmatic Satanic occult group," is based in Britain
   with affiliates around the world.

   The group's "most extreme adherents promote human sacrifice, Nazism and
   Fascism and Aryan myths, and have been reported to praise Adolf Hitler
   and Osama bin Laden," according to the SPLC.

   The group's spiritual leader, using the pseudonymAnton Long, is "a
   notorious British neo-Nazi leader with a violent criminal history,"
   according totheAnti-Defamation League.

   In recent years, researchers have linked O9A to a violent neo-Nazi
   group calledAtomwaffenDivision.

   According to ADL,Atomwaffen"draws some of its influences from satanic
   ideas and beliefs" and that Siege Culture, promotes Long's book.

   Thebook,"Hostia: Secret Teachings of the Order of Nine
   Angles,"encourages "satanic novices" toengineer"a personal
   transformation to achieve a more revolutionary mindset," according to
   ADL.

   "Suggestions include enlisting in a police force, championing heretical
   views, becoming a professional burglar and joining the armed forces (in
   wartime) to gain combat experience," the ADL said.

References

   1. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-army-soldier-charged-terrorism-offenses-planning-deadly-ambush-service-members-his-unit

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