An ex-Marine in jail for gun charges and reportedly discharged from the service for extremist activity is now accused of helping to write the manifesto of a white supremacist group called “Rapekrieg,” which combines the Nazi goal of murdering Jews with a philosophy that women can be controlled through rape, federal prosecutors claim.
Matthew Belanger is currently in jail after being arrested on June 10 for allegedly using an unnamed police officer as a strawman to purchase a PTR .308 assault rifle and a Luger pistol for him while he was serving in the Marine Corps, court records show.
Belanger’s alleged involvement with Rapekrieg was first reported by Rolling Stone. Belanger’s attorney could not be reached for comment by Task & Purpose on Wednesday.
“On October 20, 2020, pursuant to a Command Authorized Search approved by the USMC, USMC assisted by the FBI searched Belanger’s barracks and seized a laptop and two cell phones,” a June 8 affidavit filed by an FBI agent in support of a criminal complaint against Belanger says. “A digital evidence review was completed on all three devices belonging to Belanger revealing approximately 1,950 images, videos and documents related to white power groups, Nazi literature, brutality towards the Jewish community, brutality towards women, rape, mass murderers, firearms, body armor, instructional documents relating to building explosives and/or illegal firearms, violent uncensored executions and/or rape, and communications related to illegally obtained firearms.”
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A former lance corporal, Belanger joined the Marine Corps in August 2018, and he went on to serve as a motor vehicle operator until his service ended in May 2021, according to his service record. He never deployed and his last duty assignment was with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, Kaneohe Bay Hawaii.
The Marine Corps did not release what type of discharge Belanger received, but federal prosecutors noted in a July 14 court document that Belanger was discharged under “Other Than Honorable Conditions for Misconduct (Serious Offense), specifically for dissident/extremist activity.”
In that same document, prosecutors urged a federal judge to keep Belanger in jail until his trial, claiming that he allegedly planned to attack a synagogue on Long Island and that he also planned to carry out killings and rapes.
Court documents say the FBI first became aware of Belanger when a confidential source told investigators in December 2019 that Belanger was allegedly talking about his military service in a group chat with members of Rapekrieg, a group with beliefs shared by other Neo-Nazi organizations, including Atomwaffen Division and Rapewaffen. A subsequent investigation determined that Belanger was a member of the group, which seeks to create a white ethnostate by targeting Jews, women, and minorities, and using rape to attack the group’s supposed enemies as well as to “increase the production of white children,” according to court documents.
Members of Rapekrieg told the FBI that Belanger was one of the group’s leaders and that he may have written Rapekrieg’s entire manifesto, which was published in May 2020, while Belanger was still stationed in Hawaii, federal prosecutors claim.
In the Manifesto, Rapekrieg argues that sexual assault is “an extremely effective tool” to intimidate enemies and control women, according to excerpts included in the court document.
“While some may reject rape as a tool, victory must be achieved no matter the cost, as we may never get another chance to save our people,” one excerpt from the manifesto says.
The group also claims that white people are under constant attack and the “Rape ideology” allows group members to exact revenge against other ethnic groups while cultivating “an entire culture of fear around the white man for the rest of time.”
The manifesto also advocates killing, torturing, and otherwise harming so-called “enemies of the White race,” and the group explicitly calls for the extermination of all Jews.
An unnamed witness also showed the FBI screenshots from a social media conversation between accounts with the display names “Adolf Hitler” – which Belanger later admitted to the FBI belonged to him – and another person: “Goebbels” – a presumptive reference to the chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the court record says.
During the conversation about attacking members of the Jewish community, Belanger allegedly wrote, “That fucking synagogue is going to get it,” federal prosecutors argue.
Another unnamed witness told investigators that prior to Belanger joining the Marine Corps, he and other members of Rapekrieg initially discussed shooting at a synagogue, but they ultimately decided it would be better to burn it down with Molotov cocktails.
Without speaking about the Belanger case specifically, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Jim Stenger stressed that the Corps does not tolerate racial hatred or other forms of extremism and that Marines will be separated if they participate in any supremacist or extremist group.
The Pentagon in recent years has taken steps to investigate white supremacist and extremist groups in the military; the Southern Poverty Law Center has said groups with extremist beliefs have made an “active” effort to recruit veterans and active-duty service members. In April 2021, Task & Purpose compiled a list of at least 40 service members and veterans engaging in extremist activities, including 17 current and former Marines.
“When a command receives credible information that a service member may be involved in active participation with an extremist organization or engaging in extremist activity, the commander will initiate an investigation,” Stenger told Task & Purpose on Wednesday. “The commander will review the completed investigation and, after consulting with NCIS and the command Staff Judge Advocate, determine whether the evidence substantiates a violation of the PAC order. If a violation is substantiated, the commander will take appropriate administrative or punitive action.”
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