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JTA Jake Tapper, the CNN anchor, uses Twitter as a platform to joke, kibbitz with friends and colleagues, and, as he does on his show, The Lead, to call out deviations from what he sees as basic American values like tolerance and free speech.

One of his best-known encounters of the latter kind came last year, when he pressed candidate Donald Trump to disavow an endorsement by David Duke, the anti-Semite and racist. (Trump did, eventually.)

So it was odd to see Linda Sarsour, the feminist and Palestinian-American activist, say on Twitter on Tuesday that Tapper had joined the ranks of the alt-right.

It was part of a fraught exchange between a Muslim American well known for her friendship with some liberal Jews and for her clashes with the Jewish establishment she endorses the boycott Israel movement and a celebrity who makes no secret of his Jewishness. But it was one in which Jews never came up, at least explicitly.

So what started it all?

Tapper earlier on Wednesday criticized Sarsour and the Womens March which she helped found for celebrating the birthday of Assata Shakur, a black militant convicted in the 1973 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper. She was jailed in 1977 and escaped in 1979, eventually fleeing to Cuba, where she lives today. Tapper responded to Sarsours birthday greetings by tweeting, Shakur is a cop-killer fugitive in Cuba. This, ugly sentiments from @lsarsour & @dykemarchchi Any progressives out there condemning this? He linked to a Womens March tweet marking Shakurs birthday.

The Womens March, in an extensive thread, had said that it was feting Shakur because of her role in repudiating sexism in the black nationalist movement, and did not endorse her role in the murder of the trooper.

Sarsour rejoined on Twitter, first with her gibe about Tapper joining the alt-right and then asking him directly: Please share my ugly sentiments? Unapologetically Muslim? Unapologetically Palestinian? Pro-immigrant? Pro-justice? Shame.

Tapper, replying, referred to Sarsours attacks on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the onetime Muslim who is now an outspoken critic of Islam. Ali has at times said her focus is only on militant Islam, but at other times has targeted the faith more broadly, earning herself a reputation in some quarters as an Islamaphobe.

In a now deleted 2011 tweet, Sarsour, comparing Ali to anti-Islam activist Brigitte Gabriel, had said: Brigitte Gabriel=Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Shes asking 4 an a$$ whippin. I wish I could take their vaginas away they dont deserve to be women. (Asked about the tweet recently, she said, People say stupid shit sometimes.)

That, Tapper said, was pretty vile addressed to Ali, a survivor of female genital mutilation.

So, nothing in this fight is Jewish, right?

Yair Rosenberg, the Tablet blogger, noted on Twitter that Tapper a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy in suburban Philadelphia who frequently celebrates his Jewish upbringing came in seventh among Jews in an Anti-Defamation League tally of journalists abused by the alt-right.

Beyond that, there are some hints of a Jewish subtext that Tapper was coming at this from the perspective of Jewish experience, and that Sarsour understood this. Certainly, Sarsour seemed, by lumping Tapper in with the alt-right, to be seeking to wound him in the way that some folks belittle some black men by referring to them as Uncle Toms.

Activist Linda Sarsour speaks during a Women For Syria gathering at Union Square, April 13, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images via JTA)

And Tapper, in his initial tweet pointing out progressive excesses, called out the Chicago Dyke March, for also wishing Shakur a happy birthday. Chicago Dyke Marchs only known controversy of late was its ejection of three Jewish marchers for bearing flags marked with the Star of David.

(Sarsour did not reply to a request for comment, and CNN did not reply to a request to interview Tapper.)

On the other hand, Tappers overarching outrage at the happy birthday greeting would appear to stem not from any animus toward Sarsour or anti-Zionists, per se, but toward Shakur. As an ABC reporter in 2011 he aggressively pursued a story about how unhappy New Jersey cops were that then US president Barack Obama had invited the rapper Common to the White House; Common had recorded a paean to Shakur. As recently as last year Tapper urged fellow journalists travelling to Cuba to ask Shakur if she wanted an interview.

Added bonus irony? Tapper, now reviled by US President Donald Trump and many of his followers who consider CNN hopelessly biased, earned kudos in 2011 from conservatives for holding Obamas feet to the fire.

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Linda Sarsour calls Jake Tapper 'alt-right' - The Times of Israel

Jack Posobiec, a prominent alt-right activistand promoter of right-wingconspiracy theories, on Thursday posteda video attheAuschwitz-Birkenau Memorial in responseto a list the Anti-Defamation League compiled associating him withthe so-called alt-right movement.

It would be wise of the ADL to remember the history of what happened the last time people started going around making lists of undesirables, Posobiec said in the video posted on Twitter.

To make those accusations on the hallowed ground of Auschwitz is offensive and twisted and, unfortunately, proves the point about our research, an ADL spokesperson told TPM by email.

Posobiec, who describes himself on Twitter as a filmmaker, and recovering political operative and promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, took exception to the ADLs listassociating him with thefar-right movement.

The ADL described the so-called alt-right movement as a segment of the white supremacist movement consisting of a loose network of racists and anti-Semites who reject mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology.

It listed Posobiec as a member of the alt lite, a loosely-connected movement whose adherents generally shun white supremacist thinking, but who are in step with the alt right in their hatred of feminists and immigrants, among others.

Posobiec railed against the list on Twitter, where heaccused the ADL of targeting Trump supporters with hate lists and called the whos-who a death list.

Josh Mandel, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio, on Thursday accused the ADL of becoming a partisan witchhunt group by publishing the list and declared solidarity with Posobiec and Mike Cernovich, another Twitter troll included on the list.

Comparing those who disagree with him to Nazis is not a new tactic for Posobiec, who accused audience members ata New York production of Shakespeares Julius Caesar starring a figure resembling President Donald Trumpof making minister of propaganda for the Nazi regime Joseph Goebbels proud.

In May, Reuters reported that Posobiec received White House press credentials.

A Republican member of Congress apologized earlier in July for usingthe gas chambers at Auschwitz as a settingto promote the U.S. military.

This post has been updated.

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'Pizzagate' Promoter Responds To ADL's Alt-Right List With Video From Auschwitz - TPM

The so-called alt-right rose to such prominence during the course of the 2016 presidential election, and was being mentioned in the media so frequently, that the Associated Press felt it necessary to issue guidelines on how to use the term. Just a few weeks after Donald Trumpwith support from the alt-rightbeat Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, the AP said mention of the movement should always be accompanied by a definition, such as an offshoot of conservatism mixing racism, white nationalism and populism, or a white nationalist movement.

The movement has remained active and visible in the months since Trumps election and inauguration, but another group of right-wing activists has also emerged onto the scenethe alt-lite. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) released a whos who guide to right-wing activists on Tuesday to define and differentiate between the two groups, and to identify several key figures associated with each.

In the past year, members of the alt right and alt lite have been increasingly at odds with each other, even as they hold public rallies to promote their extreme views, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADLs CEO, said in a statement. We want people to understand who the key players are and what they truly represent.

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The ADL defines the alt-right (or alternative right) as a segment of the white supremacist movement that rejects mainstream conservatism and embraces racist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology. Its a loose network whose members tend to be relatively young and active on the Internet and social media. The alt-lite, which is sometimes also referred to as the New Right, refuses to publicly support the white supremacist aspects of its counterparts beliefs. But members of the alt-lite do hate feminists, immigrants, Muslims and anyone on the left. In other words, the main differentiator between the two groups is the explicit racial component of their nationalism.

While the alt right has been around for years, the current iteration is still figuring out what it isand isnt, Oren Segal, director of ADLs Center on Extremism, said in a statement. This is further complicated by the emergence of the alt lite, which operates in the orbit of the alt right, but has rejected public displays of white supremacy. Both movements hateful ideologies are still somewhat fluid, as are the lines that separate them.

Nevertheless, the ADL has begun a whos who guide to both branches of right-wing activists, featuring 36 key figures to start. Some have been in the spotlight in recent months, while others are less familiar.

The alt-right list includes figures such as Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, who was recently sued by a Jewish woman in Whitefish, Montana, accused of orchestrating a troll storm of harassment and threats against her and her family. It also features Richard Spencer, the white supremacist who is credited with coining the term alternative right. Less than two weeks after the election, Spencer gave a speech at a conference of the National Policy Institute, of which he is president, that was met with Nazi salutes.

Milo Yiannopoulos, the well-known provocateur whose book was dropped by Simon & Schusterafter a controversy about comments he apparently made about pedophilia, is classified as an alt-lite figure here. Hes joined by Gavin McInnes, Proud Boys leader and founder of theFraternal Order of the Alt-Knights and Vice magazine, which heleft in 2008. A video he posted in March titled 10 Things I Hate About Jews sparked such controversy that he later changed the title to 10 Things I Hate About Israel.

The ADL plans to update the guide as new activists and leaders surface in the fluid landscape of right-wing figures.

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'Alt-Right' or 'Alt-Lite'? New Guide From ADL Classifies Right-Wing ... - Newsweek

A European alt-right group is taking to the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to stop illegal migrants crossing from Libya a move NGOs fear could starta dangerous game of cat and mouse with humanitarian rescue teams.

The mission, known as Defend Europe, is the project of the Identitarians, a right-wing pan-European movement opposed to immigration particularly Muslim immigration on the continent. Founded in France in 2002, the youth-dominated Identitarians have developed a reputation as the hipsters of the far right, noted for their slick social media campaigns and attention-grabbing political stunts, such as occupying a French mosque.

For their latest campaign, the group has crowd-funded more than $100,000 to chartera 40-meter ship, the C-Star, to take direct action against humanitarian NGOs operating search-and-rescue missions for migrants in the Mediterranean.

The Identitarians blame the rescue boats for encouraging the rising numbers of illegal migrants arriving from Libya into Italy, which has overtaken Greece as the main arrival point into Europe. So far tis year more than85,000 illegal migrants, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa, have arrived on Italys shores 20 percent more than the same period in 2016.

About 40 percent of arrivals are brought to Italy through search-and-rescue missions run by humanitarian organizations. This has prompted accusations particularly in Italy, carrying the burden of the migration wave that the NGOs are creating a pull factor by effectively offering a ferry service to Europe once the smugglers boats founder.

Italian prosecutors have opened investigations into whether there is cooperation between NGOs and human traffickers, and Rome has just drafted a code of conduct for charities operating in the Mediterranean, banning them from contacting smugglers by phone or firing flares, which mightfunction as a signal to the smugglers.

Humanitarian organizations reject such allegations, insisting they are doing vital work to save lives on a stretch of sea that has become one of the worlds biggest unmarked graves. More than 5,000 people died attempting to cross the Mediterranean last year, and more than 2,150 have perished so far in 2017.

Defend Europe says its mission is to document the activities of the NGOs, expose any collusion with the traffickers, and intervene if they act illegally. Eleonora Cassella, a member of Defend Europe based at the missions headquarters in Catania, Italy, told VICE News that the crew would try to gather evidence to prove their suspicions that NGOs collude with the human traffickers.

The more people try to go, more boats from Europe come to take the people, so even more people try to get to sea because they know that even with small boats, theyll come to help them, she said.

During the groups fundraising efforts, Defend Europe pledged to block the rescue boats something they attempted during an earlier mission in May, when a group of flag-waving activists in a dinghy tried to harass a much larger rescue boat leaving Catania for Libya. But the group has now walked back its vow to block the boats, saying that although it would tail the vessels, it wont try to interfere with their activities.

For now, we want to understand how they do it, how they talk with human traffickers, how they react when they see human smugglers, said Cassella.

But humanitarian organizations operating in the Mediterranean remain concerned about their mission. Activities of far-right groups planning to disrupt search and rescue operations aimed at saving lives are deeply concerning, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, which has rescued nearly 4,000 people in the Mediterranean this year, told VICE News.

Without NGOs and other search and rescue actors, many more lives, like the men, women and children we have rescued, would be lost. These activists wish to disrupt efforts to bring these people to safety.

She said her organization was not a ferry service. We do not communicate with traffickers or people smugglers. We work under the coordination of the Italian Coast Guard and respond to distress calls only if instructed by them, she said. She also said it wasnt true that the activities of the NGOs created a pull factor. When you cut the rescue ships, the death toll spikes, but people keep coming.

Nick Lowles, chief executive of the British anti-racism group Hope Not Hate, said Defend Europe posed a serious risk to life on the high seas. The group represented an increasingly international threat, he explained, drawing support from far-right activists and networks around the world.

Although the mission comprises only a couple of dozen activists, Defend Europe has managed to generate a lot of attention and raise substantial funds through its social media campaigns. When its initial crowdfunding attempt on PayPal was thwarted after protests from NGOs, it simply relaunched the campaign on another platform and swiftly exceeded its goals.

The group has drawn international attention from conservative media, with Canadian alt-right blogger Lauren Southern and right-wing British journalist Katie Hopkins joining the mission in Catania. These rescue boats are as easy to hail as an Uber after a big night out in Birmingham, Hopkins tweeted Wednesday.

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A ferry service - VICE News

A group of self-describednational socialists in Nova Scotia has posted personalinformation about people who haveshown interest in protests calling for the removal of an Edward Cornwallis statue in Halifax, labelling them as "potentially dangerous."

Cornwalliswas a governor of Nova Scotia. In 1749, he issued a so-called scalping proclamationoffering a cash bounty to anyone who killed a Mi'kmaqperson.

On Saturday,a large crowdprotestedaround the statue and demandedthe likenessof Halifax's controversialfounder be removed from adowntown park.

Demonstatorshad earlier threatened onFacebookto remove the statue but relented when municipal crews covered the monument in black cloth for the duration of the event.

An anonymous Twitter user affiliated with Cape Breton Alt Right published a list online last Thursday, releasing the names, photos and other identifying detailsof 28 people interested in the removal of the statue in a process known on the internetas "doxing."

The list, latershared and discussed on Facebook, also includedcategories like:

The final "notes" column identifiessome people as being "mentally ill andunstable," "extremely militant and dangerous,"having histories of being "drunk and disorderly"and being on police watch lists.

The list included a 'notes' column, labelling some people as violent or mentally ill. (Twitter)

Adam Lemoine ofNorth Sydneywas doxed as having affiliations with Antifa, a far-left, anti-fascist organization. Hesaidhewas "blown away" when he found out, as he hasnever evenbeen to a protest.

"The only information they had correct was my name and my hometown," said Lemoine, who caught wind of the list after it was posted on Facebook.

"They have me playing an instrument I didn't play, in a band that no longer exists."

Lemoine saidhe clicked "interested" on a Facebook event for a protest last Saturday at the Cornwallis statue to get updates on what happened.

He believes the Twitter user who posted the list saw that, put his name into a search engine and listed whatthey found.

Activists protest at the base of the Edward Cornwallis statue last weekend after Halifax staff covered it with a black sheet. (Darren Calabrese/Canadian Press)

Lemoine said that when he asked the Cape Breton Alt Rightgroup to remove his name from the list, it responded by saying even if he could prove his details were wrong, the rest of the information would stay.

The group continues to maintain anonymity andrefused to be interviewed by the CBC over the phone or inperson on the grounds that it would be "inappropriate."

In anemailedstatement, however, the groupsaid ithasreceiveddeath threats almost daily since the list was posted.

The statement goes on to compare the actions of Cornwallis demonstrators to the destruction of historical sites in Palmyra by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,and indicates the list was compiled over the course of about two months "in the interest of public safety."

"The community at large has a right to know the identities of those around them who may pose a threat to their immediate safety and a threat to their property," saidthe two-page statement, signed onlyby "leadership."

Tanner Leudy, a student at Cape Breton University, sharedthe same event page for the Cornwallis protest on Facebook though he knew he couldn't attend.

Leudysaidhe hadnever even heard ofAntifabeforethe list linkedhim to the organizationand he's worried about how beingassociated with such a groupcould affect the futureofthose who've been doxed.

"I've never done anything to warrant [the inclusion]," said Leudy. "Being labelled as a dangerous protester, even if it's not true, isn't something that employers will want in their workplace."

Anthony Leudy says he shared a Facebook event and then was wrongfully labelled 'potentially dangerous' by an anonymous Twitter user. (Twitter)

The group maintainsall of theinformationwas gathered within the public domain, referencing social media and news interviews, but DavidFraser, an internet privacy lawyer in Halifax, saidit's thelanguage of the list's "notes" columnthat may push legal boundaries.

Information compiledfrom social media platforms is fair game when it comes to doxing, saidFraser.

However, he added that legal proceedings on doxing, as rare as they are,require that what hasbeen published is explored as much as whyit hasbeen published.

"To be defamatory, all something has to do is to harm your reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person,"saidFraser.

"It would seem to me that [the notes]at the end of the listwould be, on its face,defamatoryandthe onus would shift to the person who said themto justify them as being true."

FrasersaidtheHalifax Proud Boys provide a good example of doxing.

He saidtheywere "implicitlydoxed" by volunteering theirpersonal information when showing up at an Indigenous rallyon Canada DayinCornwallisPark.They were recordedand the videos eventually made it to their workplace, resulting in their reprimand.

But, Frasersaid, it's part of the "rough and tumble"of freely expressed politics.

CBC News reached out to the Cape Breton Regional Police, the Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP.They say no investigation is ongoing because no one has come forward with a complaint.

El Jones says the doxing proves the extremity of the racism surrounding the Edward Cornwallis statue issue. (Twitter)

El Jones, Halifax's former poet laureate and a well-known, outspoken activist,saidshe isnotsurprised sheended up on the list.

"You hope that this is just some form of extreme reaction that's perhaps just intended to intimidate people," said Jones.

"[But] you have totake seriously the intent behind it, which is an attempt to harm."

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Alt-right group posts names, photos of 'potentially dangerous' Cornwallis protesters - CBC.ca