Audio recordings obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveal how a neo-Nazi group is recruiting former members of the American military to serve as soldiers in what it believes will be a race war.
NBC News reports that the recordings show how The Base, a white nationalist group that believes a societal collapse is imminent, has been pushing military servicemembers to help it plan out military operations that will lead to the group's eventual takeover of the United States.
Rinaldo Nazzaro, the leader of The Base, was born in the United States but now runs the organization from Saint Petersburg, Russia, which intelligence analyst Mollie Saltskog says should "raise flags about the potential for foreign influence on these white supremacist organizations operating on American soil."
In the recordings, Nazzaro tells potential recruits that The Base is "a self-defense network" whose mission is "training and networking, preparing for collapse."
Many of the recruits recorded talking with Nazzaro made overtly racist statements in explaining their reasons for joining the group/
"Growing up in California, I was surrounded by mostly, like, Filipinos, Asians, Mexicans, Blacks and just watching how they behave... and watching, like, I don't know, occasionally, like, white women intermingle with them," said one. "It just disgusted me."