Telegram Messages Reveal Details about Neo-Nazi Group Feuerkrieg Division

The messages also indicate a US service member arrested in September was a member of the Feuerkrieg Division.

A cropped version of an FKD propaganda image shared on Telegram, September 27.

On September 21, 2019, the FBI arrested Jarrett William Smith, a US service member who allegedly plotted to bomb a major news network and expressed interest in joining Azov Batallion, a far-right paramilitary group in Ukraine.

As VICE News reported, 24-year-old Smith was charged with one count of distributing information related to explosives and weapons of mass destruction.

According to the criminal complaint, Smith used the moniker Anti-Kosmik 2182 on Telegram, where he unknowingly gave an undercover agent “very specific” instructions for the construction of an explosive device.

A “tribute picture” of Jarrett Smith created by FKD after his arrest. On Telegram, FKD wrote, “As our comrade Antikosmik was arrested recently our propagandist has made a ‘tribute’ picture for him. The picture that was used for this edit is quite an old one so that’s why he has long hair.”

But what the complaint does not mention is Smith’s membership in the Feuerkrieg Division (FKD), an international neo-Nazi organization modeled after the larger, more prominent Atomwaffen Division.

Thanks to the excellent work of antifascists, I have in my possession a backup of messages sent in Slovak’s War Room, an extreme-right Telegram chat group that was frequented by FKD members, including Smith and FKD’s leader. (If you would like a backup of Slovak’s War Room, please message me on Twitter.)

The messages illustrate the panic that gripped the chat group after news of Smith’s arrest became public, as well as further our understanding of the Feuerkrieg Division, its members, and the group’s (often misunderstood) relationship with Atomwaffen.

Anti-Kosmik and FKD

In Slovak’s War Room, Smith AKA Anti-Kosmik 2182 once referred to himself as an FKD member. And on another occasion, he was identified as a member by the organization’s leader, a young Estonian fascist known as Commander.

On September 15, in response to a user mocking the (apparently small) size of FKD’s membership, Commander wrote: “We have a lot more than you think, buddy.”

Anti-Kosmik chipped in, writing: “We do have more than 3 people you numbskull. How many we actually have is of course OPSEC, but we’ll let you guess.”

A screenshot of the above exchange was posted by the antifascist Twitter account WANaziWatch on September 23, the day the public learned of Smith’s arrest (below on the left). On the right side of that image is a screenshot of those same messages, but from the Telegram backup I obtained.