They say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. It seems that terrorism makes for even stranger ones. Who would have thought that an American far-left radical terrorist group would make common cause with Islamic terror groups, when the two groups' agendas seem so misaligned? 

And yet, that seems to be what is happening. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to his official X account to warn the American people of a connection between Portland Antifa, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Hamas. But more to the point, SECSTATE is telling us that the American government is digging deeper, beyond the Antifa foot soldiers and Hamas goblins, to find the people behind the scenes who are enabling them. 

SECSTATE writes:

Far-left terrorism poses a profound threat to the United States and the broader West. Today, the United States sanctioned several transnational far-left terrorist networks, including Autistici/Inventati – a major far-left tech collective whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and across the world. There will be no refuge for violent extremists who wage war on our civilization and plot to undermine law and order, destroy critical infrastructure, assault political opponents, or conspire to conceal their crimes from authorities. We will use all the tools and authorities at our disposal to fight terrorism and protect our way of life from terrorist coercion.

A Fox News exclusive, also published Wednesday, has more details on the connections between a far-left tech group and the terrorists, foreign and domestic. These are interesting indeed:

A State Department memo reveals that an international technology collective, now under a U.S. global terrorism designation, provided services to overseas terrorist groups and violent far-left agitators causing chaos in American cities, according to a copy obtained by Fox News Digital.

"Far-left terrorism poses a profound threat to the United States and the broader West," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Today, the United States sanctioned Autistici/Inventati – a major far-left tech collective whose services are used by the most active and violent Antifa cells in the United States and across the world."

Autistici/Inventati, called the A/I Collective by the State Department, is an Italy-based group that builds highly sophisticated digital infrastructure used by violent left-wing organizations in the United States and Europe, along with Islamic terrorists, according to the State Department. The collective's services include encrypted chats and email, web hosting, secure video conferencing and streaming and anonymity shields, according to the memo.

This isn't an ordinary sanction. With this action, the United States of America is casting a very, very wide net. This is bigger than Antifa, the ground-level goblins who attack independent journalists like Andy Ngo and Nick Sortor. This is bigger than Hamas goblins, even after October 7th. This action is going against a shadowy international organization that enables those, and other far-left groups, Islamic terror groups, and who knows what else.

We might also note that Antifa isn't all about throwing bottles at cops. They have engaged in lawfare as well, and it's not inconceivable that the A/I Collective is providing some support there as well. One infamous example comes from an independent journalist, C.K. Bouferrache, known on X as @honeybadgermom, who was served papers for a legal action stemming from a pepper-spraying incident. The details read a lot like an attacker suing his victim because he bruised his knuckles on the victim's face. This sweeping sanction may well have the potential to change some of these legal calculations.

As someone once said, this is a big freaking deal.

A/I Collective has officially been deemed a Specially Designated Global Terrorist. The designation bars Americans and U.S. financial institutions from doing business with the group and freezes any assets it has under U.S. jurisdiction. Violators can face civil or criminal penalties.

The memo identifies Portland-based Rose City Antifa, known for its violent rioting and destruction, as one of the U.S. groups that relied on A/I Collective tools and services.

We should note that these kinds of actions don't happen overnight. Months of work go into an action of this size and scope. But what's great about this is that it's working up the chain. It's still important to bust the street-level goblins and break up terror cells, be they Antifa or Hamas. But this action goes to the root cause. More to the point, it hurts these terror enablers where it counts - in the wallet. Add to that the fact that it makes it this much easier to toss our home-grown leftist terrorists where they belong, namely, in the pokey.

I spent many years in my previous life as a corporate consultant teaching cause analysis to medical and biotech companies, many of which you would recognize. Cause analysis is tricky, and the key to a successful root cause analysis is drilling down far enough. Somebody, or more accurately some bodies, at the State Department, at the Treasury Department, and also very likely the Department of War and the Department of Homeland Security, have done their homework here. They have drilled down into this issue and have arrived at the common link binding all these disparate groups together. This enables them to take legal and financial actions against not only the A/I Collective, but also against any groups or individuals who are tracked down and who have been supported by the A/I Collective. 

This has been a very, very fine example of cause analysis, identification, and corrective action. Well done.

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/08/26/portland-antifa-connected-to-hamas-irans-irgc-in-new-action-n2206092