Italian group added to US terrorist list: ‘They are behind the attack on the TAL pipeline’

Having stepped up the pressure on supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, announced sanctions against “several transnational far-left terrorist networks”, including Autistici/Inventati, an Italian technology collective “of the far left whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and around the world”.

“Far-left terrorism poses a serious threat to the United States and to the West in general,” Rubio wrote on X, “There will be no safe haven for violent extremists who wage war on our civilisation and plot to undermine public order, destroy critical infrastructure, attack political opponents or conspire to conceal their crimes from the authorities. We will use every tool and power at our disposal to combat terrorism and protect our way of life from terrorist coercion.”

The US State Department has justified the designation of Autistici/Inventati (A/I) as “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”, accusing the Italian collective of being “an extremist group based in Italia that builds and operates the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other far-left militants around the world”. According to Washington, hackers and developers linked to the collective provide encrypted chat and email services, website hosting, secure video conferencing and tools to ensure anonymity, ‘specifically designed to support the operations of far-left terrorist networks’ and enabling them to ‘organise, recruit, communicate, disseminate propaganda, share information on targets and tactics, and carry out violent attacks’ whilst remaining ‘anonymous, untraceable and beyond the reach of the law’. The Department further alleges that A/I manually selects users based on their ideological affinity and has become “a key hub in a transnational campaign waged by violent, far-left criminal networks to destabilise the United States and its partners”.

The most serious allegation coming from the US relates to a specific incident. The anarchist cell that played a part in the sabotage of the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL) last March (the attack disrupted the flow of oil northwards for several days, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic) is alleged to have utilised the technical advice and services of the A/I collective to disseminate statements and a manifesto calling for further attacks on other critical infrastructure. Furthermore, the same cell is said to have used the collective to access sabotage manuals and detailed maps. According to the State Department, these documents listing targets are available not only for European oil pipelines, but also for infrastructure located in North America.

Rubio’s move is certainly no coincidence. He is raising the stakes against the Antifa movement and is beginning to target the links between the far left and circles associated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Shia powers in the Middle East. He is clearly highlighting attempts at social destabilisation.