Rinaldo Nazzaro, the secretive leader of violent neo-Nazi group The Base, previously worked with U.S. Special Forces on fighting counterterrorism and was paid by the Pentagon as a contractor, according to VICE. Nazzaro was unmasked by The Guardian as the leader of The Base, which reportedly has a goal of inciting a race war. In 2014, he worked with Special Operations Command, one of the most private elements of the military, and was trained in combatting jihadist terrorism. At one point, he even had a top secret security clearance. He went on to lead the neo-Nazi organization. He’s among several prominent people who have “used skills from their military service or their association with the armed forces to either build extreme right groups and networks, or to commit acts of violence,” Joshua Fisher-Birch, a counter-terrorism researcher told VICE.
