Malignancy Spreading

Malignacy Spreading

June 10th was a warm and very humid day in Washington, D.C. as storms built in from the West. The clouds weren’t the only things casting a pallor over the nation’s capitol, however. There was an even darker pother creeping toward one of the most revered of our country’s historical offerings – the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

James von Brunn, an 89-year-old racist and virulent anti-Semite, chose this day to pick up his rifle and turn his fantasy of ethnic cleansing into a reality. Unfortunately, Stephen Tyrone Johns lost his life while protecting others.

As the media has focused heavily on the writings and past transgressions of Brunn, I will not cover the well-trod territory of the press. A simple Google search of the man will suffice to give the unaware reader a synopsis of the evils that embodied this pitiful octogenarian. What I will, however, explore are the associations of Brunn and dangers that others of his ilk bring to our society.

It is with a very sobered soul that I find myself writing this missive as I was working diligently on something a good deal more lighthearted as the tragic events of the day unfolded.

For well-over a decade, Citizens Against Hate has been chronicling and tracking the actions of the racist movement. We have written thousands of articles and reports, given testimony, engaged in community awareness programs, etc., all in an effort to raise awareness and educate the public to the dangers that organized racism holds for our society. But, nothing has been more successful in raising that alert than the racists themselves.

James von Brunn was an angry and bitter old man. His ex-wife would tell you that his hatred “…ate him alive like a cancer.”

That “cancer” is alive and well in thousands throughout our country. It is malignant and it is pernicious. James von Brunn, at 89, is but one manifestation of that malignancy. When William Luther Pierce, founder of the National Alliance died in 2002, followed by Richard Butler, patriarch of the Aryan Nations, in 2004, many thought that with the “old-guard” out of the way, the white supremacist movement was finished. But, the real “old guard” hasn’t left the premises – yet.

Von Brunn was close to William Luther Pierce and had ties to Butler. But, he was even closer to another of their protégés – Willis Carto, a revisionist and Holocaust denier from the old school of hate.

Elder statesmen, such as Carto and Brunn are dying off, but their work and influence have far-reaching implications for mainstream America in the current political climate.

A recent example of that is the case of John de Nugent (aka John Nugent; aka Jack Nugent), a psychopath out of Pennsylvania who befriended a young Finnish nationalist by the name of Henrik Holappa who was recently removed from this country in chains.

De Nugent claims to have had ties to von Brunn and, in fact, seemed to have been in contact with him a short time before the shooting. This is not surprising since both he and Brunn were closely associated with Carto.

Holappa had fled Finland to avoid incarceration and ended up in Pennsylvania alongside de Nugent who introduced him to the American version of white nationalism and some of the reprobates who inhabit the movement. De Nugent has lamented the unfair treatment received by Henrik when his application for asylum was denied and he was deported back to Finland just a few days ago.

De Nugent’s threnody, however, was quite misplaced, as Holappa was, undoubtedly, considered a terrorist by the standards of Homeland Security. Many white nationalists have found themselves so branded of late.

The whole de Nugent/Holappa affair demonstrates the potential dangers that are inherent with the racist and anti-Semitic right.

Prior to his entry into this country, Holappa wrote several letters to the Iranian newspaper denouncing the United States and Israel. In part, he stated:

“Iran is the last fortress against the Zionism and USA. Europe has gone down in 1945 – year 1945 may never happen again. May the Allah protect the people of Iran and its leadership.

“That what happened in Afghanistan and Iraq can not happen in Iran, never. Dear people of Iran, I appeal on you: Stay as one NATION and destroy the enemy! You are in the frontline fighting against the Zionism and Americans.

“We have to tell about the crimes by the Zionism and USA in the world. They are striking as long time as they can and as long time that they have won. We can never let these cancers to win. In the end the free Nations will crush the Zionism.

Long live Iran!”

As stated earlier, it is the white supremacists themselves who make our case for dangers they present. Upon the broadcast of the events at the Musem, the racist right went into high-gear. A few denounced the actions of von Brunn, but many more were appreciative.

A few of the comments denote the true nature of the beast:

“Hot Damn! A man with balls… He shot a nigger in the kike museum…No great loss…Thanks for your service!”

“Excellent work, we salute your service!”

“Alex Linder: How to explain decorated World War II veteran James von Brunn’s actions?

“Simple.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”—John F. Kennedy

“The jews are driving America into the ground, and one man decided to fight back.”

“More people have now been killed in the Holocaust Memorial Museum than in the Holocaust.”

“Alex Linder: Collaborating with the jews might be a good short-term career choice, but long term there’s nothing but death and dishonor for those who appease the jews.”

“This might be the best news I have read in a while. These filthy jews need to know that they are not safe anywhere, even their Kwa homeland.

“My only regret is that Abe Foxman wasn’t shot.”

“History in the making.

“The first actual jew casualties of the holohoax.

“6,599,998 to go.”

“The jews’ demonization of White Nationalists is backfiring. They have driven racist Whites underground, leaving many with the lone wolf option only.

“Guess what, you fucking kikes? You never know when one of these lone wolf things is going to happen, or where!…”

While the rhetoric of the extreme racist shocks and even frightens the mainstream, it is the mindset that is the most disconcerting of all. To our credit, most people do not even think in the terms of the extremist yet the thought processes of those who would put into practice that very rhetoric must be closely examined. Interestingly, it is one of the more notorious among them who authenticates that premise as he leads his followers thusly:

I wasn’t talking about men with pitchforks or even AKs taking on ZOG.

Right now there are no consequences to white perfidy (the Fox hosts) nor to the jews running the country. They do whatever they want, and fear no repercussions.

What if a couple men kidnapped an ADL higher-up along with, say, a lanky blonde? What if they conducted an interview on camera? What if they proceeded to cut the two’s heads off and film it? What if they simultaneously posted the video on a number of online sites? What if this video made it absolutely clear that the jew was killed because he had tried to take White men’s guns and free speech, and the blonde was killed because she was a collaborator and an appeaser? What if it was clear that this was not a one-off, but the beginning of a campaign by forces unseen?

The American people aren’t following us in part because they see that we aren’t willing to die or, more important, kill for our beliefs. They aren’t all lemmings. They aren’t all stupid. They aren’t all cowards. They see a lot of the same problems we do. They’re just lazy and comfortable. Just as eating makes appetite, seeing that there are those out there actually willing to kill our enemies – that would have a significant effect.

When we talk in apolyptic terms, we eventually get declining returns. Either we mean it, or we don’t.

I don’t think we can rely on the System breaking down on its own. The trends are all bad and unless we reverse them will get worse. The System has shown time and time again it can ignore and mock us without consequences.

I think there need to be consequences. Until there are, we’re mainly entertainment, with some soft work – some education, some information dissemination, some curriculum.

I actually think a physical revolution is quite possible. Our army is mainly good at torturing people and bombing them from the air. It is not good at fighting forces that hit and run. Look at Eric Rudolph. The FBI had hundreds of people searching for him for two years and came up with squat.

The pressure is all one way right now. The jews do illegal, immoral things and we complain about double standards. Point out how unfair it is. But there’s never any redress. There is no White movement until jews and those who front for them start dying at our warriors’ hands. That’s why I don’t allow fantasy fags to sign up at VNNF.

A little something is ginning up. We’re working hard. There is more we can do. That we have not developed a K-12 curriculum for White homeschoolers is a prime example of our ineffectuality. That we still have no organization that speaks for Whites is further example.

They don’t respect us, they being the jews and, say, “Fox,” because our actions don’t back up our rhetoric. If our cause is worth dying for, how come we aren’t killing any enemies?

It’s not that hard. I think that the personalities on tv, the talking heads and the analysts, are soft targets, easy to get to. And if I were to make a prediction, I’d say that’s where the real revolution, the physical fighting back, is going to start.

This is but one example of how twisted the mindset is among the extremists. Those words were written by Alex Linder, the owner and founder of Vanguard News Network, an internet forum and blog inhabited by some of the most virulent racists and anti-Semitic individuals on the internet. He went on to say in a later post,

An assassination, a series of assassinations, carried out against comparatively soft (undefended) targets known to the public through their presence in the mass media, could have very positive consequences for the cause of liberating Whites from Jewish Tyranny.

Shocking? To most of us, yes. The world is truly a dangerous place. The extremists among us make it even more so.

Last October, William A. White a neo-Nazi in Roanoke, Va. whose website called for the establishment of a nation-state in which only whites have the right to citizenship and for the removal of all non-whites and Jews from the United States, was arrested for juror intimidation.

In April, Richard Poplawski, a member of Stormfront opened fire and killed three police officers in Pittsburgh. Poplawski’s anti-Semitism and anti-government views were were well-documented.

Last week, Scott Roeder, a militia member and far right-wing pro-lifer shot and killed Dr. George Tiller, a late-term abortion doctor, as he attended church.

Also last week, Harold Turner, an anti-Semitic racist talk-show host, was arrested for threats made to two Connecticut Congressmen.

Now, Stephen Tyrone Johns lays dead after reaching out and opening the door for James von Brunn. Why? Who wins? No one.

As those on the extreme right wrap themselves in the mantle of Free Speech and the Right To Bear Arms, the rest of us are expected to accept their actions as being righteous and in the best interest of the “white race.” Anything less than that acceptance will be met with a swastika and a jackboot.

The year is 2009, and the world is a very small place, growing ever smaller – and ever more violent. The threat that the right-wing extremists pose to this country and others is real and can no longer be ignored. Like any cancer – if left untreated it will spread.

Dreams Sometimes Do Come True

Hal Turner

Writing about Hal Turner comes almost as second nature since I have been doing just that for years now. However, writing about Hal Turner being arrested has only been a dream of mine – until now. I only wish that the charges would come from another source – but I’ll not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Several people on both sides of the ideological spectrum are asking the same question in the aftermath of yesterday’s arrest – “Why now when Hal has been doing much the same thing that he is charged with for years?”

Well, I am no legal expert in these matters, but here are my thoughts – all of which are racing right at the moment.

The charges brought are state felony charges much like those brought against Bill White several months back. Unlike the White case, there have been no federal charges – yet.

In reading the news accounts and the internet post that resulted in these charges, I was struck by a couple of pronouns that Turner used – these might have done him in. Example:

Thankfully, the Founding Fathers gave us the tools necessary to resolve tyranny: The Second Amendment..

TRN advocates Catholics in Connecticut take up arms and put down this tyranny by force. To that end, THIS WEDNESDAY NIGHT ON “THE HAL TURNER SHOW” we will be releasing the home addresses of the Senator and Assemblyman who introduced Bill 1098 as well as the home address of Thomas K. Jones from the OSE.

After all, if they are so proud of what they’re doing, they shouldn;t mind if everyone knows where they live.

It is our intent to foment direct action against these individuals personally. These beastly government officials should be made an example of as a warning to others in government: Obey the Constitution or die.

If any state attorney, police department or court thinks they’re going to get uppity with us about this; I suspect we have enough bullets to put them down too

Using the pronouns “us” and “we” along with words like “intent,” “direct action,” “personally,” and “put them down” pretty much implies that you and some one else intends to cause harm to your target.

Hal Turner has always been this shock-jock hate machine who vomits vitriolic threats all over the internet looking for some sort of attention. Prostituting himself for his own personal, self-serving gain has garnered him a few more than his 15 minutes of fame over the years. As others of the same persuasion have been arrested for much lesser offenses than those committed by Turner, it has been suggested that he has been more beneficial to law-enforcement running amok rather than behind bars. Considering the fact that just a couple of days ago, Turner posted a map to the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago highlighting the location of the built in anti-truck bomb barriers while targeting three circuit court judges, it will be interesting to see if other charges are brought against this reprobate.

As expected, there are those who are decrying the arrest as a direct affront to the First Amendment. Even some who have been severely critical of Turner in the past, fear this to be an omen of future abridgements. The question that this writer would ask is, perhaps, one that would incite the protecors of that freedom even more – when the First Amendment was written, what was the intent?

Was it intended that anyone could say anything at anytime? If that was the case, then are we to assume that it is okay for another to threaten harm to you and your family? Was it intended that your right to free speech be able to interfere with my right to live, love, and raise my family without fear of intimidation or threat? I don’t think the Founding Fathers intended any such thing.

There are many things happening in our country and, indeed, within the government that need our attention. We can criticize…we can protest…we can campaign…we can lobby…we can vote…we can use all sorts of peaceful means to effect change. Holding people hostage through intimidation and threats of violence is not, however, acceptable in this society – or under the Constitution.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Hal Turner. It will also be interesting to witness the reactions of those who support him regardless of the outcome.

The biggest question that seems to be looming, however, is still “why has an arrest not come before now?” Hal Turner has, certainly, pushed the envelope. In January of 2007, his violent outburst to a group of youngsters who had been harassing him sent shocks and shivers down the spines of the reader when he wrote:

The ONLY thing any of you are accomplishing is raising the level ofbrutality I intend to use when I take revenge.

Here is how I will mete out justice according to the action committed:

1) Some of you are going to get the shit beaten out of you.

2) Others are going to be beaten to death, and finally;

3) Others are going to have firebombs thrown through the windowsof their houses WHILE THEY ARE HOME and when they – and their familiescome out, their throats will be cut.

This is the price I will exact for :

1) Harassing my wife (who has nothing to do with my radio show)2) Recording the harassment of my wife and putting it on the net and3) Harassing my senior citizen mother.

I am so motivated to to physical violence to these people that Idon’t even care to state my intentions publicly. Neither cops, norProsecutors, nor Judges will be able to stop me.

Hal Turner

When the Anonymous group threatened to turn him in to the appropriate internet authorites, Hal did nothing but scoff and say:

The AOL Police? Big fucking deal.

THe U.S. Secret Service has been “monitoring” me since the year 2000because of the things I say about the President and VP

The U.S. Marshal Service has been watching me since 1997 when Istarted make life uncomforatble for federal judges.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has had me in their sights formore than three years as have the New Jersey State Police (Office ofCounter Terrorism).

Do you REALLY think I give a shit about AOL?

Think again.

Do you know why those law enforcement agencies watch me so closely? Because they KNOW I hurt people; they just can;t prove it.

THey KNOW homes and businesses have been fire bombed becuase of me;they just can;t prove it.

They KNOW a federal judges family was killed in Chicago because of me;they just can’t prove it.

So you and your pals just keep fucking around. YOU TOO can become just another part of a long string of people I have “dealt” with.

Hal Turner

Turner has been notorious for targeting judges and elected officials with his threats and promises of  violence.  One can only speculate as to why nothing has been done sooner.

The Devil Is Gay?

Every so often I run across something on the internet that just…well, leaves me almost speechless. Generally speaking, when that happens it usually comes from either the racist right or from the extreme religious right in our society. Today, it came from a Baptist minister. Now, I don’t usually count Baptists among my list of crazy, far out, fundamenalist nut-jobs. Maybe the Independent Baptists such as this Ron Hamman are different…I really couldn’t tell ya. Or, maybe it has something to do with Alaska? I mean, after all, they did elect Sarah Palin.

At any rate, I was surfing around, catching up on some things I had missed and wandered over to Ed Brayton’s Dispatches From the Culture Wars  where I find this:

<blockquote>The Wasila Frontiersman, Sarah Palin’s hometown newspaper, asks the question that I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves many times:

Will the Antichrist be a homosexual?

The article is written by Ron Hamman, pastor of the Independent Baptist Church of Wasila, which is a different brand of crazy from the pentecostal church that Palin favors. And Hamman wants you to know that this is a legitimate question:

In answering this question, it is important to assert the question does not originate with me, lest someone out there think that I am bringing some new doctrine out to bolster the political climate. But as the study of Bible prophecy includes verbiage as to the behavior of the one called “that Wicked” by Paul in II Thessalonians, it is not only a legitimate question to ask, but also one to answer.
Sure it is. Maybe when he gets done answering this legitimate question, he can tell us whether Lex Luthor has diabetes. Or whether the Grinch is lactose intolerant. Because it’s important to ask such questions about fictional characters.

Well, I was already cracking up at Brayton so I go over to read the actual article which is a study, in and of itself, and was quickly reminded of why I find such literal interpretations of the scriptures so difficult to swallow – but then that is grist for another mill.

After reading the article, I decided to read some of the comments on Bayton’s blog pertaining to all of this, and have been hysterical for the past half-hour. Here are just a couple – you can read the rest for yourselves:

Nah as I was going to say several hours ago -
The Antichrist will be a butt-ugly bull-duke with short spiky dark hair, wearing a rocket-studded leather choker

Posted by Raging Bee – If you believe in prophecy at all, then the coming of the Antichrist is inevitable, so there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent it.

Raging Bee, I think a lot of them ruminate over the whole ‘what will he look like? How will we know him?’ psuedodrama so that they can have the glory of being the first to identify him. (”I knew it! I’ve had Oprah marked as the antichrist since ‘The Color Purple’”)

Frankly I’d much rather they stay busy with apocalypse bingo if it keeps them from visiting their brand of insanity on the country at large.

Now, before some of you get your panties all in a bunch over my perceived irreverence, let me make the following statement to you. I believe in God – period. I simply don’t much care for organized religion and I certainly am no fan of bully pulpit theology. The God that I know is a loving, caring God and it is up to him to judge others – not some half-baked messenger who warns of hell-fire and damnation.

I find it absolutlely incredible that there could be so much hatred inside those who claim to be the men and women of God. I also find it incredible that there are so many who buy into that kind of bigotry.

Just A Little Circle of Friends…Part II

The entirety of the White Supremacy/Neo-Nazi Movement has a history of avarice, lewdness, and abject depravity despite its’ public claims of family and, sometimes Christian, values and morality. Additionally, the movement has been decimated time and again by its’ own hypocrisy.

 

Amid the many reports of David Duke’s sexual exploits with the ladies there were also rumors and accusations of homosexual activity. Tom Metzger, one of the most vocal and well recognized members of the extremist set spoke of Duke’s close relationship with the Reverend James Warner, a Christian Identity anti-Semite who ran the New Christian Crusade Church out of St. Bernard Parrish in Louisiana.

 

Metzger claimed, ” Duke ran with Warner and Warner took him on a tour of Hollywood gay bars in the 70’s. I personally think Duke is a closet Bi sexual for many reasons. So I am not shocked when I hear of a right winger being popped a some sex charge.”

 

Metzger isn’t the only one who has made such a claim against Duke. Warner was an active member of the American Nazi Party and has been shunned by many over the years for what some claim is his homosexual activities as well as being a transvestite.

 

This sort of thing is not unusual within the movement. Generally speaking, hundreds of people over the last few decades have been known homosexuals, pedophiles, or, for them even worse, Jews. Yet heads have been turned, evidence swept under the rug, and their stated believes compromised, at the very least. Only when it becomes public knowledge do they take the steps necessary to cast out or castigate the “unwanted” in their midst. Such is the way of the very needy hate-monger.

 

Among themselves they speculate and even laugh about what they know to be true of others sharing their table of hate. Matthais Koehl was well known among those in the NSWPP as a homosexual and speculation ran wild about the late Dr. William Luther Pierce.

 

The Dr. in front of William Luther Pierce was earned through a doctorate in physics conferred upon him in 1962. Upon this distinction, Pierce accepted and assistant professorship at Oregon State University and joined the John Birch Society which seems to have served as a conduit for many white supremacists and right-wing militants and extremists.

 

As the John Birch Society did not take up what Pierce believed most pressing – the question of the Jew – it quickly lost its’ appeal to the professor and he moved on and began communicating with George Lincoln Rockwell, the Commander of the American Nazi Party. This ideology was much more in line with Pierces’ Hitlerian belief system. After all, he had been raised by Southern Aristocracy in an era that ingrained racism and anti-Semitism into the souls of many people.

 

In 1965, Pierce and his wife moved to Connecticut where he spent a year as a senior research scientist. This wasn’t particularly satisfying and he finally quit. That would be the last real paying job that Pierce would ever have.

 

He took a non-paying position editing “The National Socialist World” for Rockwell’s group. Apparently, Dr. Pierce enjoyed being with his ideological peers and his academic prowess would soon lead him on a journey that would become his life’s work.

 

In 1967, George Lincoln Rockwell was assassinated by one of his own and William Luther Pierce moved up the ladder.

 

Matthais Koehl declared that Rockwell had named him as his hand-picked successor in the event of his death and he began referring to himself as “Deputy Commander Koehl,” a title that no one had ever heard prior to the highly controversial Rockwell assassination.

 

On the night of the murder it was rumored and later pretty much confirmed that Pierce and Robert Lloyd, the second in command broke into Rockwell’s safe and destroyed his political testament.

 

At this point, Pierce, Koehl, and Lloyd now shared equally in the total ownership of the NSWPP and the handwriting was on the wall. The ideological differences between Pierce and Koehl heralded the chasm that was soon to develop.

 

Koehl won the majority of the votes of those present in Arlington immediately following Rockwell’s death. However, just as members across the U.S. were shocked and outraged over the murder of their leader, many were stunned by Koehl’s ascent to the top. Koehl’s reputation preceded him.

 

Pierce was a quiet, seemingly reserved, and somewhat quirky individual who maintained social distance from most of the others. This often gained him the reputation of being aloof or “untouchable.” Such is often the case with those who roam the halls of academia.

 

While there were rumors about Pierce’s sexual proclivities, he was respected by many of the more erudite or learned within the party for his insight and writing skills. As was the case with most who worked toward the cause of white revolution, Pierce was always armed. He was well-known for being somewhat of a physical wimp so it can only be concluded that he compensated with his mental acuity and an equalizer.

 

It wasn’t long before Koehl began to shut Pierce out. He banned Pierce from the party and a tense stand-off of armed “friends” ensued as Lloyd and others chose their sides. Eventually, Pierce moved on taking Lloyd and other loyalists with him.

 

Dr. William Luther Pierce was not only smart but confident and cagey as well. He knew what it would take to build an organization that could impact American policy, politics, and power-brokers and to catapult his zest for racial revolution into the mainstream.

 

First it would take numbers – like-minded individuals who could be groomed and schooled to recruit large numbers of white youth into whatever organization he built.

 

It would require a massive program of education and indoctrination of American minds – which meant media – all kinds of media.

 

It would have to entail running political candidates and being successful in endorsing and placing more white nationalists in high offices around the country.

 

It would necessitate militancy and deception to create the revolution that he envisioned.

 

But, most importantly, it would take money – and lots of that.

 

In 1968, the country was in turmoil. Tensions were at an all-time high as frustrations over the Viet-Nam War boiled over and Civil Rights were being bitterly fought for. U.S. citizens were sharply divided over the issues. Everyone had a deep-rooted opinion and the chasm of right versus left became even more profound.

 

Racial segregationist and former Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, had thrown his hat into the ring of Presidential hopefuls and the lines of prejudice were etched permanently in the minds and hearts of generations to come.

 

Pierce, with an agenda, joined his friend, Willis Carto, who had just founded the Youth For Wallace group and who had a bankroll to boot.

 

For Carto, just a few years Pierces’ senior, race was destiny. Heavily influenced in his younger years by Francis Parker Yockey, a paranoid and fragmented fascist and Nazi sympathizer who demonized the Jews.

 

Willis Carto, always somewhat of a shadowy figure, also knew what it would take to influence public opinion. Like Pierce, he did a short stint in the John Birch Society where it is reported that he stole their membership list, (it must have been a fetish.)

 

As the battle over Civil Rights was being played out in this country, there were those still embroiled in the pseudoscience of eugenics, struggling to prove racial superiority and to further their beliefs in the production of the master race.

In August 1935, Wickliffe Preston Draper traveled to Berlin to attend the International Congress for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems. Draper was a strict segregationist and major supporter of eugenics. Accordingly, during his trip, as reported on Wikipedia,  “Presiding over the conference was Wilhelm Frick, the Reichminister of the Interior. (Frick was hanged in 1946 for his crimes against humanity.) At the conference, Draper’s travel companion Dr. Clarence Campbell delivered an oration that concluded with the words: “The difference between the Jew and the Aryan is as unsurmountable [sic] as that between black and white. … Germany has set a pattern which other nations must follow. … To that great leader, Adolf Hitler.” Three years later, when Draper paid to print and disseminate a book titled White America, a personal copy was delivered to Reichminister Frick.

“In 1937, Draper founded the Pioneer Fund, a foundation intended to give scholarships to descendants of White colonial-era families, and to support research into “race betterment” through eugenics. The scholarships were never given, but the first project of the Fund was to distribute two documentary films from Nazi Germany depicting their claimed success with eugenics (though years before the Holocaust and its eventual public disclosure, Germany’s eugenic policies were still very controversial for their far-reaching scope and often coercive public policies). The Pioneer Fund was headed by the controversial eugenicist Harry H. Laughlin, known especially for his role in the establishment of restrictive immigration laws and paving the way for national programs of compulsory sterilization of the mentally ill and mentally retarded.”

The Pioneer Fund has been a controversial foundation awarding grants and funds to a consortium of extremists for the last several decades. One of the reicpients of Draper’s early beneficence was none other than Willis Carto.

Many of Draper’s donations were successfully made under the radar and did not come to public light until decades later. During the 1960’s he made contributions to various groups advocating the repatriation of African-Americans as well as to the Mississippi State Soverignty Commission to support racial segreation.

The Youth for Wallace group attracted the attention of many prominent individuals just as the George Wallace campaign was becoming the breeding ground for future racist and extremists in our political system. William Pierce’s mother hadn’t raised any dummy and he knew that traveling in the circles of such notable individuals could do nothing but help him in his endeavors.

Willis Carto was already making himself well-known and ingratiating himself to some very heavy hitters. Recognizing that being a conservative is much more acceptable than being a Nazi or a racist or an anti-Semite, Carto tried to foist another of his groups, the Liberty Lobby, off on mainstream America as nothing more than a conservative political organization. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

In October of 1966, journalists, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, published a series of stories that reported the findings of a former employee, Jeremy Horne. “Horne said he had discovered a box of correspondence between Carto and numerous government officials establishing the Joint Council of Repatriation (JCR), a forerunner organization to the Liberty Lobby. The JCR stated that their fundamental purpose was to “repatriate” blacks “back to Africa”. Ex-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Tom Brady and various members of the White Citizens’ Councils who had worked to established the JCL, also contributed to the founding of the Liberty Lobby. Other correspondence referred to U.S. Congressional support for the emerging Liberty Lobby, such as from South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond Califfornia Congressman James Utt.”

The White Citizens Council was nothing more than a suit and tie rendition of the Ku Klux Klan wielding political and economical clout throughout the South. It later metamophosed into what is now known as the Council of Conservative Citizens of which we will have much more to say in the coming installments.

Willis Carto has gone on to become one of the most prominent figures in promoting anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the world today and is worthy of a complete expose on his life alone. This is something that will be undertaken in the near future.

Dr. William Luther Pierce knew that Carto was the vehicle through which to advance his own program – his own pathway to a white tomorrow. The contacts and the funds which came with being aligned with Carto were valuable, but the membership lists in Carto’s possession were pure gold and it wasn’t long before Pierce had precisely those in his hands.

Not only are there strange bedfellows in politics, but there are even stranger associations within the neo-Nazi subculture the relevenacy of which will not be lost on the reader in Part III. While the ideology is aberrant and the innerworkings often violent, the truth lies on the money trail.

To be continued…

 

 

 

 

 

Just A Little Circle of Friends…

Just A Little Circle of Friends…
(Forty Years of Deception Still Alive and Well)
By Nicole Nichols
March 25, 2009

Old adages such as “Birds of a feather flock together, ” or “You are judged by the company you keep” often have been proven to have exceptions, yet they still hold true in many situations and maybe more so in the White Supremacy Movement.

I have written countless articles chronicling the sleazy side of the neo-Nazi’s in the United States and have often noted what appears to be a disproportionate propensity toward domestic violence, child abuse or neglect, adultery, promiscuity, and pornography. Additionally, I have frequently pointed out the lack of loyalty to each other among members of this group.

A few years ago, I started asking questions and pointing out what I believed to be some rather interesting relationships among a certain group of people, all operating together, to further an agenda of hate, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and genocide. As the years have passed, those relationships have become even more suspect in the mind of this writer. As is evidenced and well chronicled, the White Supremacy Movement has largely been factionalized for the last forty years. Yet there are many commonalities between the factions. Indeed, the ties often cross ideological lines and move into the realms of religion, revisionism, and politics. Because these groups pose a danger to the very fabric of American society, it behooves us to know where their support base is and who really finances racism, anti-Semitism, and bigotry in the United States and abroad. It is also important that the hypocrisy and deception of those leading the movement be explored and exposed to all who hold an interest in knowing the truth. In order to bring this all into perspective, a little history of these people must be told. As we move through the tawdry and violent world of hate we will demonstrate the true nature of those leaders from the past as well as those attempting to weave their way into the mainstream today.

In 1974, twenty-four-year old David Duke formed the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and was running roughshod in Louisiana. Needing money for many of his white power endeavors, Duke published a book under the name of Dorothy Vanderbilt entitled “Finders Keepers.” It was a women’s self-help book giving advice on vaginal exercises, fellatio, and anal sex.

Also in 1974, he had married Chloe Hardin with whom he had two children. Chloe was active in Duke’s Klan group but after ten years together, Hardin divorced Duke and moved to Florida where she met and married one of David’s Klan buddies, Don Black who is now the Stormfront guru.

As a teen, Duke began communicating with Dr. William Luther Pierce, founder of the infamous National Alliance and author of the “Turner Diaries.” For many years the Alliance was considered the largest and most formidable hate group in America. It spawned numerous future leaders of racist and anti-Semitic groups nationwide.

David Duke was somewhat of an anomaly within the movement at that time. With his proclamation that he was going to change the face of the Klan, he was able to recruit others such as Louis Beam, Don Black, and Tom Metzger into this radicalization from sheets to suits.

While Duke believed in the rhetoric he was spewing, he was unable to control his own ego and appetites. He had found a way to appease his own need for recognition and his penchant for a lavish lifestyle – he became a professional racist – a con man.

Membership lists are the lifeblood of white supremacist organizations. These rosters are necessary to building, maintaining and financing their groups and their activities. Because of the unsavory nature of the beliefs and the endeavors of such groups, members generally prefer to remain anonymous and they rely upon the leaders to maintain their privacy.

Duke knew the importance of these lists and he set out to build his own database of like-minded people and potential contributors – by any means necessary.

Now, Duke wasn’t above unscrupulous behaviors. After all, he had expenses to meet and an agenda. In 1972, he was arrested for pocketing $500 in contributions that were meant for the campaign coffers of George Wallace so stealing and selling membership lists was no big deal. Stealing the membership from the National Alliance was easy.

By the latter half of the 1970’s, his womanizing had become legendary. The Rev. Johnny Lee Clary, former Kluxer and bodyguard to Duke turned anti-racist, related to one reporter how Duke would wave the Bible around preaching Christian values and then take a members’ wife to bed.

Never mind that Duke was the married father of two, Tom Metzger, a long-time racist leader, spoke of how Duke would arrive at various events and begin hitting on women. “We used to tell people, ‘When Duke comes to town make sure your wife is safely locked up and don’t let him near your daughter,’” said Metzger.

John Maginnis, author of “Cross to Bear,” a profile of David Duke, recounted the story of a legislative aide who had lunch with Duke. “He started explaining to me that blonde, blue-eyed, Scandinavian looking people were God’s chosen people, that they were made in his image. He said that God didn’t want to dilute this perfection so we should only mate with others of our kind. He then asked me if I wanted to mate with him. It was the weirdest come-on line I’ve ever heard.”

One of Duke’s former girlfriends, Lori Eden, a swimsuit and lingerie model who owned and operated her own adult website, claimed that at one point in their relationship she believed herself to be pregnant. Duke, who is a strong pro-life advocate, offered to take her to Paris where they could get the “abortion pill” which was not legal in this country. According to Eden, Duke said he had been through this kind of thing before and feared that the publicity would ruin him politically.

David Duke didn’t work. He ran his political campaigns, the proceeds of which he lived off of. He duped his supporters into believing that their contributions were helping him save the white race. And he lived large – nose job, chin implant, houses, babe on each arm, limos to the casinos and money to burn – other people’s money. According to those close enough to know, a typical day for Duke would find him sleeping late, checking the mail for money, playing golf, going to the gym, and then heading for the casino at night.

Eventually, it all caught up with him, however. In 2003, Duke was sentenced to a short stint in federal prison for raising funds under false pretenses (mail fraud) and lying on his tax forms.

Vince Breeding – real name, Bruce Alan Breeding – was Duke’s right hand man for a number of years. To those who knew of his background this should have seemed like a strange union – at least on the surface. While Duke favored the clean-cut image with impeccable dress and spouted Christian values, Breeding was playing guitar in a black metal band called Acheron that was Satanic to the core. The leader of the group was Vincent Crowley, reported an ordained “priest” in Anton LaVey’s Church of Satan. He moonlighted in a striptease club in the Tampa Bay area.

In 1994, Breeding joined Dr. Pierce’s National Alliance and became very active in promulgating their message of racism and anti-Semitism. He produced an underground radio show out of Tampa on which he broadcast Dr. Pierce’s American Dissident Voices 24/7. When his radio signal began to interfere with the broadcasts of other local radio stations, citizens in the area started to complain to which he often responded with threats of violence and promises to never cease. Eventually, he was shut down.

Vince Breeding was certainly no Mr. Nice Guy. His associations alone were cause for many to raise their eyebrows and keep him at arms length. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that during 1997, while Breeding was organizing events featuring Holocaust denier David Irving and the chameleonic David Duke he was sharing an apartment with Todd Vanbiber, another member of Pierce’s National Alliance.

In January of 1996, Vanbiber and friend, Brian Pickett, robbed the Barnett Bank in Tampa. A month later they robbed the New Milford Savings and Loan in Danbury, Conn. After the Danbury robbery they paid Dr. Pierce a visit where they donated $1000.00 of their booty to the cause and purchased $700.00 in books from the Alliance.

In April of 1997, as he was assembling an 8-inch pipe bomb, capped at both ends, it blew up in Vanbiber’s face causing serious injury. When the ATF searched his storage unit, they found several weapons, ammunition, and munitions manufacturing guides.

According to the authorities, “fourteen bombs were to be placed along two major routes in the Florida tourist capital: Interstate 4, the major access highway to Walt Disney World, and U.S. Highway 441.”

Several of the bombs had already been fully assembled. Some had been prepared with timing devices, batteries, timers, and clocks. They had initially planned the bombing for April 19, the second anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing before a change in plans.

While Breeding was not officially implicated in his roommate’s bombing escapade, he was busily setting up websites to further the National Alliance’s bid for new recruits.

As Breeding maintained his membership in the National Alliance and worked dilligently to bolster their rank and file, his relationship with David Duke began to blossom. In 1999, Breeding launched the Nationalist News Service which operated out of Don Black’s internet group, Stormfront.

The National Alliance was big and becoming bigger. Their Resistance Records enterprise was becoming a cash cow for the N.A. and Dr. Pierce, and the envy of other hate groups around the world. When Vince Breeding stole the mailing list of the white power music organization, his relationship with Dr. Pierce was severed instantly. We can only speculate as to who enticed Breeding into such an act.

Once he had burned that bridge he and the membership list traveled to Louisiana where he moved in with Duke and became his lackey. Actually, they suited each other quite well. Both had a penchant for money and life in the fast lane. Both were unprincipled. And both had honed their ability to con and scam their way through life.

After numerous name changes, Duke’s organization settled on being known as the European American Unity and Rights Organization or EURO. Breeding, using the name of Vince Edwards, ran Duke’s website and enhanced Duke’s presence on the web. Both maintained their ties with Duke’s other acolyte, Don Black, who had already built an amazing white power base on the internet.

Shortly after Duke was sentenced to 15 months in prison, in 2003, a bombshell was dropped on the white nationalist community when it was revealed that Vince Breeding, a.k.a. Vince Edwards, a.k.a. Bruce Allen Breeding, was also “Vince the Munkay” who was anything but a white supremacist.

Vince the “Munkay” traipsed around at a party in sunglasses and a furry, floor length coat proclaiming, “You will learn to respect the dark powers of the Munkay,” while promoting his “Xsite” magazine and website.

Both the rag and the site advertised “Ebony Escorts” as well as mother-daughter sex acts, and gay, lesbian and bisexual dating services.

As Breeding’s alter-ego, “The Munkay” came to light one could only wonder how much about all of this was known to Pierce, Duke, Black, et.al. They knew. To think otherwise is inconceivable denial.

During Duke’s incarceration, Don Black managed to keep him at the forefront with his Stormfront website. Periodic updates were always available as well as nauseating lamentations about the unjust system that kept him from his followers.

Black grew up during a time of civil unrest and turmoil in this country and he chose to become a movement in his own right. During his high school years he decided that his high school was the perfect place to recruit others into his efforts to save the white race from what was surely to be its extinction. He began by handing out flyers and newspapers containing information on the dire straits of his people. Of course, school administrators determined that this was unacceptable and banned all political propaganda from school grounds.

This was a challenge to Black. He knew he had to get creative so he garnered a mailing list of students and began sending his message through the mail. By the time he was a Junior, he had set his eye on the political machine. He knew where he was going. Politics – that’s where he could do the most good to keep his beloved South and his country to stay segregated along racial lines.

J.D. Stoner, a staunch segregationist and leader of the National States’ Rights Party was running for Governor of Georgia and Don Black decided to help in his campaign.

Now, Black was in training in the National Socialist Youth Movement which was a branch of the National Socialist White People’s Party. For those unfamiliar, the NSWPP had been formerly called the American Nazi Party until George Lincoln Rockwell changed the name shortly before his assassination.

Robert Lloyd was the second in command of the NSWPP and, by many accounts, he had been Rockwell’s pick as his successor over the current leader at the time, Matt Koehl. (Koehl now heads up a neo-Nazi outfit known as “The New Order.” He was also a member of Stoner’s National States’ Rights Party). It’s important to note that Robert Lloyd and William Luther Pierce were tight and rumor has it that Lloyd and Pierce broke into the safe of Rockwell and destroyed his political testament.

Knowing that they had a young, eager-beaver in the Stoner campaign, Robert Lloyd instructed Don Black to steal the membership list of the National States’ Rights Party from Stoners’ office, no doubt assuring him that such a deed would ingratiate him to the powers that be. Black was only too happy to accommodate.

What the 16-year-old didn’t plan on was the vehemence with which Stoners’ followers protected his files. As Don was lifting the roster out of the office, he was met with a .38- caliber hollow point to the chest. The gun was fired by Jerry Ray, brother of James Earl Ray. Jerry Ray beat the charges by claiming that he believed Black to be reaching for a weapon and fired in self-defense. Of course, it didn’t help that Black was is in the process of committing a serious crime.

After college, Don Black hooked up with David Duke and began helping in the recruitment process as well as in Duke’s political campaigns. The charlatanistic Duke schooled the young man in his beliefs that supremacy should be promoted as nationalism and that sheets should be traded for suits. The public persona was, of course, to always be quite different than the private.

In 1981, Don Black, along with nine other white supremacists tried their hands at becoming mercenaries. They were caught in the middle of trying to execute a planned coup that they dubbed “Operation Red Dog.” The men were to leave out of a New Orleans marina and stage an offensive take-over of the small island of Dominica. They would do this with eight machine guns, ten shotguns, five rifles, ten handguns, ten pounds of dynamite, 5,496 rounds of ammunition, and a large Nazi flag.

When arrested, they were charged with “seeking to create a drug, gambling, and offshore banking empire on the island republic.” Black made the following statement before being sentenced to three years in prison for violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act:

“What we were doing was in the best interest of the United States and its security in the hemisphere and we feel betrayed by our government.”

Our federal prisons’ rehabilitation services were made available to Mr. Black during his time there and he certainly put them to use. In some ways, you could say that that those services created a monster. Black immersed himself in computer programming classes and upon his release he knew he had a future.

First, he ran for a U.S. Senate seat – quite unsuccessfully. He also married the former Chole Duke – David Duke’s ex-wife.

Black started experimenting with the internet. He quickly realized the potential the World Wide Web held for recruiting and networking with like-minded people the world over. The sheer anonymity that the net offered was compelling. His experimentation led to his creation of Stormfront in 1995. Stormfront has served as an umbrella and clearing house under which people from various hate groups and supremacy persuasions have been able to congregate, share information, and publish ideas for the last fourteen years. It has also served as a money-making enterprise for Don Black.

While Black left the Klan, he did not leave Duke or his organization. Quite the contrary. Through Stormfront, Black has provided a venue and a forum from which Duke can mentor and influence others in his endeavors.

It is important for the reader that we pause at this juncture and reflect upon a few pertinent truisms that might not be evident at this point. The three individuals profiled so far have some obvious commonalities.

All three have been extremely influential in the movement for decades. All three became involved in racist and anti-Semitic activities at a very young age. All three have made their livelihoods from the movement and illicit exploits. All three possess many of the same character flaws – amorality, criminal minds, and disloyalty. What may not be as evident is their recruitment and the influence of others sharing membership in certain groups.

Throughout the discussion thus far one name emerges time and time again – that of Dr. William Luther Pierce and his organization, the National Alliance. Accordingly, as is still the case today, cross-participation in various groups was not unheard of. As we progress through this look at our little circle of friends the reader is asked to keep in mind the names of certain individuals and organizations so as to be able to make the connections between them.

While names and acronyms such as the National Socialist White People’s Party (NSWPP) or the National States’ Rights Party (NSRP) may be confusing or even alien to the reader, it is important to grasp the scope of the ties that one has to the other.

Regardless of how baseless or unfounded the beliefs of the racist right seem to mainstream Americans, the truth is that many of the followers deeply buy into the rhetoric spewed by the leaders of these organizations. As you have seen, so far, membership lists are among the coveted assets of these groups largely because of the financial benefits. But, hate, to people like Pierce and Duke and Black is also a business. It is their job – their way of making a living.

Book sales, white-power music sales, speaking engagements, and member donations all help them to line the pockets of their organizations and themselves. But, there’s more…much more. Political ties and palm-greasings are important and very necessary as well as friends in very high places.

As we move on to a few other note-worthy individuals, please note the not-so-complex web of companions that has suckered in the unsuspecting and the implications for the future that such pernicious bedfellows holds for all of us.

To Be Continued…

Racist Groups Target Our Youth Again

Cinnaminson, New Jersey is a small town of about 15,000 people bordering the Delaware River and just outside of Philadelphia. Ninety-one percent white, Cinnaminson derives its’ name from the Native American Lenni Lenape tribe which loosely translated meand “sweet water.” The township itself is just 8 miles sqaure and claims the following, “The Township of Cinnaminson is a community of families, neighbors and businesses. Taking our name from the Lenni-Lenape Tribe, we are the place where fresh waters and fresh ideas flow. We pride ourselves on an effective education system, on neighbors who care about our homes and one another and a well-run local government dedicated to serving citizens fairly and economically.” But there is trouble brewing in Cinnaminson these days and we hope they can get a handle on it.

 

Last week, two teenagers were arrested in Cinnaminson after it was discovered that they had tortured, shot, and buried a beautiful black Labrador. Upon investigation, the police found hate literature and the boys claimed to be members of the Aryan Nations. Charges brought against the young men include animal cruelty, weapons possession in connection with the killing, committing a crime on behalf of a criminal street gang and solicitation of another to join a criminal street gang.

 

According to the news report, there are other juveniles who are believed to be part of this gang and the police will be working with the local school district to identify and curtail their activities in that area.

 

Considering the fact that both New Jersey and Pennsylvania have become hotbeds for skinheads and other racist groups, it probably should not come as any big surprise that there are groups such as these operating in the suburbs of major cities. It is troubling, however, that these groups are recruiting children so young and gaining footholds with our schools.

 

Due to the many arrests and convictions of  leaders within the White Supremacy Movement over the last few years, paranoia has caused many adherents to build small cell groups or engage in lone wolf type activities.  Targeting our young people has always been at the top of their list. This is what makes it so necessary for educators, law-enforcement and parents to educate themselves on the signs to watch for and any effective tactics to use to prevent the hate-filled message of these groups from tainting the innocence of our children.

 

It’s Spring, folks – and the activity of hate-groups promises to be heating up.

 

 

WHITE PRIVILEGE IS WHEN…

Mr. Wise really nailed this one!

BY Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.

White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words “under God” in the pledge of allegiance because “if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it’s good enough for me,” and not be immediately disqualified from holding office–since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the “under God” part wasn’t added until the 1950s–while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you.

White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was “Alaska first,” and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you’re black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she’s being disrespectful.

White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do–like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor–and people think you’re being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college–you’re somehow being mean, or even sexist.

White privilege is being able to convince white women who don’t even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a “second look.”

White privilege is being able to fire people who didn’t support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.

White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God’s punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you’re just a good church-going Christian, but if you’re black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and its effect on black people, you’re an extremist who probably hates America.

White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a “trick question,” while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O’Reilly means you’re dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.

White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a “light” burden.

And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren’t sure about that whole “change” thing. Ya know, it’s just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.

White privilege is, in short, the problem.

COLD SHOT RETURNS

After a bit of a break Nikki Nichols and Cold Shot will air Monday night at 8:00 Eastern time.

Join Nicole Nichols as she discusses gangs in the military; the extreme right groups – League of the South and Council of Conservative Citizens; the anti-immigration movement; and the discussion of race in America.

TO THE SHOW

DEMOCRACY GONE WILD

Freedom of Speech is cherished – I understand that. But…has the internet provided a forum for speech that shouldn’t be free? Is there a point where government must draw the line?
<a href=”http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/democracy_gone_wild/6057/”>TO THE ORIGINAL SOURCE</a>

‘Democracy gone wild’
Hate speech infests online versions of local daily newspapers
06/12/2008

For the person behind the moniker “Viking Knight,” the Internet is a virtual playground for hate.
“Mexican’ts are a b…stard race and will come to nothing in the end. WHITE POWER FOREVER,” Viking Knight wrote in response to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy. “Somebody saved the LAPD the trouble of icing this ‘vato.’ … He is one less Mexie on the planet, not that it counts for much.”

On the beating of an Orthodox Jew by skinheads in North Hollywood: “We should offer a reward to the guy who off’d this Christ-killer. … Jew$ are a disease.”

On the death of an Armenian girl who was denied a liver transplant by her health insurance company: “God got rid of one the Turks missed. Too bad He doesn’t get rid of all of them.”

A person might expect to find these and other vile comments by Viking Knight — including slurs against gays and Asians — posted on a white supremacist or neo-Nazi Web site.

But the banner on the top of the page belongs to the Daily News of Los Angeles, and in other cases to its MediaNews Group sister paper, the Pasadena Star-News.

Like dozens of other people who post comments through these and other newspaper Web sites, Viking Knight can remain as anonymous as he or she wishes to be. And due to the anonymity and instant access to an audience that poorly monitored newspaper and social networking sites provide, Internet hate speech is a growing national phenomenon.

“It’s democracy gone wild,” said Deborah Lauter, director of the national civil rights division of the Anti-Defamation League. She’s hoping the Daily News and the Star-News will remove racist diatribes from the Web and be more vigilant about hate speech in the future. 

“Unfortunately, we believe now that many more papers are offering this kind of [comment] service we are going to see an increase in that kind of hate rhetoric. While it is protected speech, we believe it is incumbent on a newspaper or a social networking site to step up and be a responsible corporation, and be more active in moderating [its Web site] and taking down what is clearly hate speech,” said Lauter. “Once they decide to create that forum, then they have to act responsibly and monitor it.”

The Daily News and Star-News Web sites allow any reader to post his or her views through a service called Topix, which allows discussion forums to be built around news articles and other subjects.
“It is impossible for any paper our size to read all the comments every day, so this is an issue often discussed [among the 57 MediaNews Group daily newspapers, many of which use Topix],” said Ryan Garfat, online editor of the Daily News.

Garfat said the paper typically relies on Web users to flag hate speech and other abusive posts through Topix, which forwards those complaints to editors. He said Tuesday that he plans to remove hate speech identified by this newspaper, but is already dealing with dozens of reader complaints about other posts — some of which aren’t hate speech at all.

Garfat also said that there were no plans to change how the Web site is monitored.

“The unfortunate effects of having an open forum are that these things are going to happen, and we feel they reflect poorly on the identity of the newspaper. But if we take the alternate route of eliminating comments, then I think we are not fulfilling our goal of allowing legitimate discussion within our community and would be disserving our community by doing that.”

The Star-News has had far fewer problems with online hate speech than the Daily News — the source of the three comments quoted above — and removed posts that contained hate speech following conversations with the Pasadena Weekly.

“Our policy for the comments is that we do not moderate or edit the comments before they’re posted online. However, we will remove comments that are deemed to be offensive or inappropriate,” said San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group Senior Editor Frank Pine, who supervises the Star-News, Whittier Daily News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

Pine said he was not aware of Viking Knight’s hateful posts until hearing from this newspaper, and that the only complaints about comments made over the Internet had been from sources in news stories who felt they were being characterized unfairly.

Although Topix terms of service prohibit content that is “hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable,” it also warns that users “may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or objectionable.”

Topix is a Palo Alto-based limited liability corporation owned largely by publishing giants the Gannett Co., The McClatchy Co. and the Tribune Co., according to its Web site.  The Web site for the Los Angeles Times does not use Topix, and reader comments appear to be monitored to exclude hate speech.

At the Star-News site, Viking Knight makes it clear in one anti-affirmative action rant that he’s no fan of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, and in a separate post appears to advocate that Obama be assassinated.

“Robert Kennedy sold our courageous men in uniform out when he became a peacenik. He sold White people out when he started kissing up to the likes of Chavez, Dr. King, the mestizo farmworkers, etc. Sirhan may not be a prize, but he was just what America needed, just when we needed him,” wrote Viking Knight in response to a column by Star-News Public Editor Larry Wilson about Kennedy’s Pasadena-bred assassin. “As we approach the November elections, we could use a man like Sirhan again.”

“That post is clearly over the line,” Pine said Monday. On Tuesday it had been removed from the site, along with other posts disparaging Latino youth.

“As shocking as these kinds of things are, they are increasingly common on perfectly mainstream Web sites. Usually the paper will step in and scrub their sites of this kind of material, because if they didn’t they would become absolute nesting grounds for white supremacists. These guys are looking for a place to safely transmit their ideology and bring more people into the movement,” said Mark Potok, editor of Intelligence Report, a magazine that monitors hate groups and is produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Potok said that he’s been forced to keep a close eye on his magazine’s blog (www.splcenter.org/blog) to prevent hateful comments from being posted. People have even tried to post racially motivated threats to assassinate Obama, which he has reported to the Department of Homeland Security.
In the United States, constitutional free speech protections typically prevent legal action on hate speech unless someone is threatening or urging others to physically harm a person or racial group, said Potok, who recently testified before the Helsinki Commission (also known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) about threats posed by Internet hate speech.

Potok was testifying not only as an expert, but also as a victim: A neo-Nazi group once identified him on a Web site as an enemy of their cause and posted his home address. But because the group did not specifically order its readers to do Potok harm, they didn’t break the law.

In Europe and most other Western nations, hate speech — in Germany, denying or trivializing the Holocaust — can be prosecuted as a crime. As a result, said Potok, the majority of foreign-language white supremacist Web sites are hosted through computer servers in the United States.

Viking Knight also took aim through the Star-News at the social services organization El Centro de Acción Social, which he or she wrote on May 31 “is nothing but a Reconquista terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of America.”

The next day, in response to another reader’s concern about the achievement levels of some students receiving scholarships from the organization, Viking Knight wrote: “They’re Mexican’ts, What did you expect? Their grades suck because in most high schools, you can’t major in Lowriding 101.”

El Centro Executive Director Randy Jurado Ertll said he thinks the Star-News should prevent racist comments like these — which were pulled from the site after Pine spoke with the Weekly — from reaching readers.

“Responsibility comes with freedom of expression,” said Ertll. “I was just disgusted by this. We need to be vigilant of people who use hate language. Just as we denounce hate crimes, we have to denounce hate language. Words impact people’s actions and influence others to promote more hate.”

But it doesn’t end there. One conversation chain from the Daily News involving Viking Knight and others was so rife with prejudice against a Latino teen shot to death at a party — “like all the rest of the scum too hell he went too face satan,” wrote catwomomen4u69 —  that someone claiming to be the victim’s ex-girlfriend was actually pleading with people to stop.

“Certainly we could do a better job of moderating comments,” said Garfat, who acknowledged that recent staffing cuts have affected the paper’s ability to monitor the Web site. “But, I still maintain the need to allow people to have conversations supersedes the vile comments that sometimes permeate our boards. We work with what we’ve got.”

In another conversation that devolved into slurs against “Mexicans and blacks,” someone wrote: “It’s time for a good old fashion clan meeting … come on my arean [sic] brothers … lets get out our rebel flags and let the lynching begin.”

Such vitriol targeting Latinos in general or people perceived to be illegal aliens is, sadly, “very much par for the course,” in terms of hate speech to be found on mainstream Web sites, said Potok.

“We’re in a whole new age,” said the ADL’s Lauter. “The anonymity of the Internet provides a forum so the people who wouldn’t have the proclivity to say it in public can hide behind screens. We used to say the Klan hid behind their white hoods; these [people] hide behind their screens.”

And in many ways, newspapers are behind the times in figuring out how to respond.

“There’s a larger issue in this story,” said Pine, “that is, to what degree should newspaper Web sites allow people to comment anonymously. It’s something that warrants further scrutiny. Certainly it’s a conversation we’ve been having in the newsroom and will continue to have.”

Pine and Garfat said they are reluctant to restrict comments until they are screened or increase registration requirements, as that would hinder access to the service. “We want to facilitate the free exchange of ideas and have people feeling comfortable speaking their minds, but on the other hand you don’t want people to hide behind anonymity and use it to promote hatred and say things that have no place in civilized public discourse,” he said.

That such vicious comments sat for more than a week on the Web sites of local daily newspapers angers Nat Nehdar, a friend of the Pasadena Human Relations Commission and its former chair, who dedicates much of his time to activities combating prejudice, hate and violence.

“I feel strongly that newspapers should more carefully monitor their Web sites and eliminate such trash, which in some ways can reflect on the newspaper itself. If you allow it you are not condemning it, so it seems like you are condoning this type of hate speech,” he said.

ONCE A NAZI-NOT ALWAYS A NAZI

TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE AND MORE PICTURES

Christer Mattson, Swedish Holocaust educator, is seen during a visit to the Yad Vashem holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, Monday, June 2, 2008. They used to paint swastika graffiti, get into street fights with immigrants, distribute anti-Semitic propaganda. But after studying the cases of a few of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, some former Swedish neo-Nazi teenagers came to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial to underline their new attitudes. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Former neo-Nazis become Holocaust commemorators
By ARON HELLER – 2 days ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — They used to paint swastika graffiti, get into street fights with immigrants and distribute anti-Semitic propaganda.

But after studying the cases of a few of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, some former Swedish neo-Nazi teenagers came to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial with new attitudes.

The teens, some of whom were active members of neo-Nazi groups, visited the memorial Monday to present the findings of their research into the stories of 16 Holocaust victims from their hometown of Karlstad, and add pages of testimony for the previously unknown dead.

The project is the initiative of Swedish Holocaust educator Christer Mattsson. The concept is to take troubled youths off the street, confront their prejudices and ignorance and slowly convert them into Holocaust educators themselves.

“The first time I took a neo-Nazi to Auschwitz, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “But after seeing it, after seeing where Jews used to live, he said: ‘I can no longer deny it happened, or salute what happened.’”

The journey has been an arduous one. Of the 100 teenagers in his program, Mattsson said about five to eight are “hard-core neo-Nazis” — some completely reformed, others not. Those, some sporting Nazi tattoos, did not make the trip to Israel, either for fear of offending survivors or to remain anonymous for their own safety.

The only former active member who arrived, 17-year-old Joar, refused to be photographed and would be identified only by his first name for fear of retribution from his former friends.

The shy, blond Joar hid behind a baseball cap and a large pair of sunglasses. He would only say that he used to have “different opinions.”

“I didn’t know so much. I’ve learned a lot about the Holocaust,” he said, through a translator. “I have a different perspective on life now.”

Sweden remained neutral during World War II. It had a very small Jewish population and closed its gates to refugees. That policy began to change as the horrors of the Holocaust became apparent and Sweden began to lean toward the allies.

In 1944, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg began handing out papers to save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi death camps. After the war, some 27,000 survivors arrived in Sweden.

In Karlstad, 16 Jewish women died shortly afterward, most from illness, and were buried in a Jewish cemetery. Mattsson took his students there to ask them if they still believed the Holocaust to be a myth. They, in turn, decided to investigate the women’s stories. The result is a 100-page book that details their stories.

On Monday, they presented their findings to Israel’s official Holocaust museum and memorial.

Yad Vashem spokeswoman Estee Yaari said it probably marked the first time it had ever dealt directly with neo-Nazis.

The teenagers toured the museum and met with Mirjam Akavia, a Holocaust survivor who fled to Sweden after the war.

She vividly described her childhood and how she was yanked out of school and sent to the camps, where only she and sister emerged while the rest of her family perished.

“When I was 12, it was the end of my beautiful childhood. It was the end of everything,” she said.

The Swedish teenagers were not much older when they encountered their own local brand of anti-Semitism.

“The headmaster of my former school, who is here today, was beaten up by people I knew three years ago,” said 17-year-old Jennifer Lindstrom, who said she joined Mattsson’s group so she could have the tools to battle her classmates’ rhetoric and actions.

“Maybe because I have been studying about the Holocaust and Nazism, maybe because I have been to Auschwitz and the empty shtetels (Jewish villages) in Poland or maybe because I got sick and fed up with racism and neo-Nazis — I could not remain silent.”

Lindstrom’s principal was assaulted because he tried to keep the neo-Nazi students out of his school. The two other teenagers in the group were Johanna Karlsson and Deken Izat, a Kurdish immigrant to Sweden who used to belong to a rival gang that battled with Joar’s.

Lindstrom said that finding out what happened in her own backyard proved to be the best way for her and her new friends to counter racism.

“It is slightly unreal to be here today and handing over material that we have worked with for so long, knowing that it will be here at Yad Vashem for always,” Lindstrom said.