Revealed: 'Accelerationist' movement behind Baltimore blackout plot

The two people facing federal charges in connection with a plot to attack Baltimore’s electrical grid are adherents to a neo-Nazi “accelerationist” ideology that aims to promote a race war, the Baltimore Banner reports.

Sarah Beth Clendaniel, 34 of Catonsville, Maryland, and Brandon Clint Russell, 27 Orlando, Florida, were arrested Feb. 3 and subsequently indicted in a conspiracy to destroy an energy facility, according to the Department of Justice.

Clendaniel and Russell are part of an “accelerationist” movement that aims to trigger societal collapse by promoting an armed racial conflict through violence, the report said.

Revelations about the plot to attack the Baltimore power plant come in the aftermath of several substation attacks across the country.

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A Moore County, North Carolina substation attack in December left more than 40,000 residents without power for days, multiple Christmas Day attacks in Washington State left thousands without power and two Oregon substations were vandalized in November.

It is not known if any of these incidents are accelerationist-related, but white supremacist infrastructure attacks have increased in recent years, according to The Sun’s report.

The idea of fomenting chaos through critical infrastructure attacks was developed by neo-Nazi groups in the 1980s, the report said.

“The Turner Diaries” and James Mason’s SIEGE newsletter, both of which promote attacks on critical infrastructure are among the texts that have inspired the accelerationist movement, which aspires to establish a “white ethnostate,” the report said.

“The Turner Diaries” inspired Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who killed 168 in a 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

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Correction: The Baltimore Banner was the primary source for this report. A previous version of this article incorrectly reported it to be the Baltimore Sun.