SAINTS AND SOLDIERS
Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege
BY RITA KATZ | PUBLISHED BY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
More than a decade ago, counterterrorism expert Rita Katz began browsing white supremacist and neo-Nazi forums. The hateful rhetoric and constant threats of violence immediately reminded her of the jihadist militants she spent her days monitoring, but law enforcement and policy makers barely paid attention to the Far Right. Now, years of attacks committed by extremists radicalized online—including mass murders at a synagogue in Pittsburgh and mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as the Capitol siege—have brought home the danger. How has the internet shaped today’s threats, and what do the online origins of these movements reveal about how to stop them?
In Saints and Soldiers, Katz reveals a new generation of terrorist movements that don’t just use the internet, but exist almost entirely on it. She provides a vivid view from the trenches, spanning edgy video game chat groups to what ISIS and Far-Right mass-shooters in El Paso, Orlando and elsewhere unwittingly reveal between the lines of their manifestos. Katz shows how the online cultures of these movements—far more than their ideologies and leaders—create today’s terrorists and shape how they commit “real world” violence. From ISIS to QAnon, Saints and Soldiers pinpoints the approaches needed for a new era in which arrests and military campaigns alone cannot stop these never-before-seen threats.
Saints and Soldiers has won the Grand Prize for the 2022 Nellie Bly Book Award, which is dedicated to "Journalistic Non-Fiction, Investigative Works, and In-depth Reports on Issues and Societal Topics."
"Saints and Soldiers, by skilled terrorist hunter Rita Katz, lays out in excruciating detail the ongoing process of extremist and terrorist groups ability to live on the internet in obscurity. Her investigating and reporting on real world organizations and events is detailed, impressive and portends a troublesome future for free societies around the world."
- General Doug Brown USA (ret) 7th Commander US Special Operations Command
"Saints and Soldiers is an immensely timely and important book that draws on the author's decades-long research, monitoring, and analysis of online terrorism and extremism. Utilizing a unique array of previously unpublished, primary sources, Rita Katz has produced a highly original, immensely authoritative, and absolutely compelling depiction of the violent Far-Right extremist movement today, its recent evolution, and likely future trajectory."
- Bruce Hoffman, author of Inside Terrorism
"Penned by one of the country’s most astute observers of extremist movements, Saints and Soldiers is both a warning and a call to action. Rita Katz reveals the surprising connections between Islamist militants and violent groups on the far right and explains why the latter now poses a far graver threat to Americans and to democracies around the world. Through case studies recounted in alarming detail, Katz shows how radical organizations are exploiting social media to extend their reach and amplify their power."
- Joby Warrick, author of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
"Rita Katz provides a detailed, compelling, and disturbing account of how online extremist cultures create terrorists and shape the violence they commit. Drawing on her remarkable expertise on terrorism online, Saints and Soldiers offers readers a deep dive into a wide range of terrorist and extremist groups, showing how their believers interact in the online ecosystem and why their hateful behavior reflects a global society in crisis."
- Daniel Byman, author of Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT SAINTS AND SOLDIERS
How ‘Screw Your Optics’ Became a Far-Right Rallying Cry
On Oct. 27, 2018, my husband and I went on a nature hike. We were on a weekend visit to the college where our daughter, the youngest of our four children, had just started as a freshman. I silenced my phone and tucked it away, hoping no urgent work-related matters would interrupt us.
My phone began buzzing in my pocket, but I ignored it. After the fifth buzz, I realized that something was wrong. I looked at my phone. My staff was feverishly sending news reports: “Emergency situation at US synagogue,” “gunman opens fire at US synagogue,” “Pittsburgh police confirms active shooter at synagogue, multiple victims reported.”
“We’ve got to go back right now,” I told my husband.
saints and soldiers IN THE MEDIA
January 6 was entirely predictable — it was planned in broad daylight
Everyone knows how the day unfolded: Trump's speech in which he urged "if you don't fight like Hell, you're not going to have a country anymore." Swarms of incensed rioters at the Capitol, police officers and rioters killed and injured, and so many other details of that day that will remain etched in the memory of those who lived through it. It was the ultimate, real-life manifestation of the Far Right 2.0's uninterrupted online activity, with each corner of the movement represented in some way or another as they converged in D.C. There were shirts, flags and hats with QAnon mantras like "Trust the Plan" and emblems of militia movements like the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers. There were Confederate flags and rope nooses. Inside the Capitol building, a man with a shirt reading "CAMP AUSCHWITZ…WORK BRINGS FREEDOM" stormed through the halls beside another individual in a TRUMP 2020 hat, helping hold up a broken piece of a nameplate reading, "SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI."
And with the United States still sifting through the rubble of that day, we watched the same maddeningly familiar script play out once more.
Many unanswered questions about the January 6 Capitol siege remain: Why were the Capitol Police so severely unprepared? Why was the National Guard so delayed in being deployed?
Adapted from "Saints and Soldiers: Inside Internet-Age Terrorism, From Syria to the Capitol Siege," published by the Columbia University Press on October 11, 2022.
“6 new books to read in October”, by Rachel King
“As brutally witnessed by the siege on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, modern terrorist groups don’t just use the Internet to communicate, but are born from online forums and chat rooms without ever having to meet in person before launching an attack. Rita Katz, founder and executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks and analyzes extremist online activity, examines how a new generation of terrorists, from ISIS to Neo-Nazis, are using the Internet to spread their manifestos, recruit members, and plan violent attacks in ways law enforcement agencies have never seen before.”
appearances
rita katz on Stand up! with Pete Dominick
rita katz on THE CHRIS VOSS SHOW
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, RITA KATZ
Rita Katz is the Executive Director and founder of the SITE Intelligence Group, the world’s leading non-governmental counterterrorism organization specializing in tracking and analyzing online activity of the global violent extremist community. Ms. Katz has tracked and analyzed global terrorist networks for over two decades, and is well-recognized as one of the most knowledgeable and reliable experts in the field. Ms. Katz is also the author of Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America (Harper Collins, 2003).