Known Hate Groups
Exploring the Known Groups & Organizations of Hate
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National Alliance: Founder/Leader: William Pierce Headquarters: Mill Point, near Hillsboro, West Virginia Founded: 1974 Publications: Resistance, National Vanguard, National Alliance Bulletin, New World Order Comix #1: The Saga of�White Will!! (comic book), Free Speech (newsletter) Businesses: Resistance Records, Cymophane Records, National Vanguard Books Works by William Pierce: The Turner Diaries, Hunter (both written under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald) The National Alliance is the largest and most active neo-Nazi organization in the United States. Led by William Pierce, formerly associated with the American Nazi Party, the stated aim of the group is "to build a better world and a better race" and to create "a new government...answerable to White people only." In the last decade, the NA has experienced significant growth and has recently focused most of its attention on recruiting young racists through the purchase of white power music companies. At the same time, the NA has continued its efforts to attract middle-class professionals as part of a dedicated "cadre" willing to carry out the group's goals. Over the last several years, dozens of violent crimes, including murders, bombings and robberies, have been traced to NA members or appear to have been inspired by the group's propaganda. History of the National Alliance The National Alliance has its roots in the Youth for Wallace campaign, established by Willis Carto, the anti-Semitic founder of Liberty Lobby, in support of the 1968 presidential bid of Alabama Governor George Wallace. After Wallace's defeat, Carto renamed his organization the National Youth Alliance and attempted to recruit college students to his increasingly radical cause. In 1970, William Pierce, who had been an associate of George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party, left the National Socialist White People's Party, the successor to the ANP, to join the National Youth Alliance. In addition to Pierce, the National Youth Alliance attracted several former ANP activists, and they ultimately led the organization away from Carto's influence. By 1974, the organization had split into separate factions, and Pierce's wing became known as the National Alliance. Since then, Pierce has run the group and edited its magazine, National Vanguard (originally titled Attack!), as well as an internal newsletter, National Alliance Bulletin (formerly called Action). He is also in charge of the group's "American Dissident Voices" weekly radio address, and controls other businesses associated with the NA: National Vanguard Books, Resistance Records and Cymophane Records. Forming the Cosmotheist Church In the early years of the National Alliance, Pierce held weekly meetings near Washington, D.C., in an effort to attract people to the organization. At the same time, Pierce was formulating a philosophy that became the basis of what he called "Cosmotheism," a racist religion that stresses the superiority of the white race and the unity of the white race with nature. In 1985, Pierce relocated the National Alliance from Arlington, Virginia, to a 346-acre farm in Mill Point, West Virginia, which he bought for $95,000 in cash; he called his new compound the Cosmotheist Community Church. (There has been some speculation over the years that at least some of the money used for the purchase came from the proceeds of bank and armored-car robberies committed by The Order, a white supremacist terrorist gang that included National Alliance members and whose aims were drawn from Pierce's novel, The Turner Diaries.) Pierce's formation of the church may have been a last-ditch effort on his part to avoid paying taxes; he had tried, years earlier, to acquire tax-exempt status for the National Alliance itself by claiming that the organization was educational. The Internal Revenue Service denied the application in 1978; he appealed, but an appellate court upheld the I.R.S.'s decision. As it happened, the Cosmotheist Church did receive federal, state and local tax-exempt status, although it lost its state exemptions in 1986 for all but 60 acres and any buildings used exclusively for "religious purposes." Membership and Methodology Since 1998, the National Alliance has grown from about 1,000 members to over 1,500 members. NA members may join official local "units," headed by "unit coordinators"; become part of smaller "proto-units"; or remain independent. As of December 2001, the NA had more than 35 cells from coast to coast, and there has been evidence of NA activity in about 30 states across the country. Members of NA cells generally meet privately each month to discuss the group's ideology, upcoming events, NA literature distribution and other activities that will create publicity and attract more members to the group. Twice each year, Pierce selects about 50 NA members with "leadership potential" to attend a national leadership conference at the organization's rural headquarters. While other extremist hate groups appeal to a narrower range of followers, the NA's membership varies widely in terms of class and age. Some of the group's followers are young racist skinheads, while others are middle-aged, upper-middle-class men or couples. Moreover, Pierce has boasted that there are several judges and professors within the organization's ranks. National Alliance leaders are known for their energetic recruiting and are continually in search of innovative ways to advance their white supremacist message. To attract new followers, NA leaders and members have used billboards, hung organizational banners in prominent locations, rented booths at gun shows, posted their propaganda materials on public property and distributed NA literature in suburban neighborhoods and on college campuses. (A popular item distributed by the NA on high school and college campuses has been The Saga of ...White Will!!, a racist, anti-Semitic comic book that encourages students to join the fight for "nationalism and racial and ethnic self-determination everywhere.") In North Carolina, one NA member even runs a stock car bearing the NA Web site address during races every week. William Pierce tightly controls the NA's message by requiring adherents to obtain his permission before they speak publicly or create new propaganda materials. Pierce's strict enforcement of these rules has helped the National Alliance conduct its activities with little of the internal politics and strife that have sapped the strength of other hate organizations. His leadership abilities, commitment and intelligence are the primary source of the group's current strength and influence. Under his guidance, it has developed one of the strongest "brands" in the extremist world. The National Alliance's Ideology Fundamental to the National Alliance's doctrine is the belief that "our world is hierarchical" and that the Aryan race is endowed by nature with superior qualities. The group laments that "nature" is currently unable to take its course, because "the sickness of 'multiculturalism'...is destroying America, Britain and every other Aryan nation in which it is being promoted." The group's racist vision extends to its views on government. It decries "the growth of mass democracy," including "the enfranchisement of women and of non-whites," and favors a government that will "reverse the racially devolutionary course of the last few millennia and keep it reversed." NA activists are also eager to erase the social progress made by women in the last century and believe that "feminism is a threat to our race." As opposed to some extremist groups that try to work within the political realm to achieve their goals, the NA generally foregoes participation in the political process (an exception being some NA members who became involved with the Reform Party during the 2000 presidential race.) Essential to the group's vision of the future is the creation of "White Living Space," an area that incorporates all of Europe, "the temperate zones of the Americas," Australia, and the southern tip of Africa, which is to be purged of all nonwhites. The group also calls for the creation of a "strong, centralized government" that is "wholly committed to the service of [the white] race and subject to no non-Aryan influence." These ideals of authoritarianism and lebensraum reflect the degree to which the NA's ideology has incorporated National Socialism, as does the group's adherence to biological determinism, hierarchical organization, rhetoric that emphasizes will and sacrifice, and support for "a long-term eugenics program involving at least the entire populations of Europe and America." NA members believe that people can control their destiny within the laws of nature, and they spurn religious doctrine involving divine transcendence � including Christianity, in whose churches most of its members were raised. "We are obliged...to oppose the Christian churches and to speak out against their doctrines," the group's handbook states. "It is not an Aryan religion...like the other Semitic religions [it] is irredeemably primitive." While Pierce and other NA figures dehumanize both blacks and Jews, depicting them as threats to "Aryan culture" and "racial purity," Jews are considered a far greater and more urgent menace to white survival. In his essay "Who Rules America?" Pierce writes, "The Jewish control of the American mass media is the single most important fact of life, not just in America, but in the world today. There is nothing--plague, famine, economic collapse, even nuclear war--more dangerous to the future of our people."
EAGLE FORUM Alton Illinois & Washington DC Leader-Phyllis Schlafly.In addition to her strident anti-abortion campaigning, Phyllis Schlaflyhas been a vocal opponent of government-supported arts programs; lastMarch, at a regional National Endowment for the Arts hearing inCalifornia, she called for a total cutoff in all funds to the NEA. Working with sympathetic congressmen, her group helps developlegislation attempting to restrict all government arts programs to non-offensive art, threatening those who do not support these efforts withthe statement, "We will alert our members that you are on record assupporting tax-sponsored pornography." While Eagle Forum is active on the same issues as CWA, it does not havean elaborate political organization; rather, with a budget of around$1.5 million, and 80,000 members, it functions more like an elaboratesupport group for relaying Schlafly opinions. Schlafly, like CWA, divides her operation into two parts: Eagle Forum, which is a501(c)(3); and Eagle Forum and Legal Defense Fund, which operates as alobbying organization under the protections of 501(c)(4). Thedistinction is hardly significant, since, according to 990 formsrecently obtained from the IRS, both outfits operate out of the sameoffice, and share Schlafly as President. Eagle Forum itself continuesto be particularly active on issues related to the NEA, which it hasdubbed the U.S. Ministry of Culture. One fund-raising mailer thatwent out last year included a mock IRS tax form with checkoff boxes for"Sexually explicit and perverted" art, including funds forperformances by Annie Sprinkle and her "Sluts and Goddesses ofTransformation Salon and funds for Holly Hughes' performances aboutlesbian desire," and for, "Blasphemous art including Queer City, whichincludes an association of Jesus Christ with unmentionable acts." FOCUS ON THE FAMILY-Colorado Springs, Colorado Leader-Dr. James DobsonFocus on the Family is one of the largest, and most sophisticated, ofthe Religious Right groups, with over 1,000 employees working at itsnew, $24 million, 47-acre, compound in the outskirts of ColoradoSprings (funded with a seed grant of $4 million from the El PomarFoundation to support its move from Southern California). The grouphas emerged as a kind of mother hen, and ideological center for'family-based' policies, to the 45 other Christian fundamentalistgroups that have established their headquarters in Colorado Springsover the past five years�making this town a sort of ground zero for themovement. An extremely well-developed direct mail operation nets the group anestimated $75 million a year. Much of these funds come from sales of books by Dobson on everything from keeping a Christian family together,to discipline, to how to treat your child's drug problem�several ofthese books have sold as many as six million copies. They also publishhalf a dozen magazines with a total circulation of 2.8 million,covering the range of demographic groups�teenage girls and boys,mothers, fathers, physicians, teachers and conservative politicalactivists. In addition, FOF has a children's video production staff,develops Christian-based school curriculum, and is now active inproposing family-oriented tax and employment policies to corporationsand the government. The sense one has walking through the group'sheadquarters is of a smoothly functioning business operation. Officials claim that they eschew the fanatical rhetoric associated withChristian Right leaders in favor of what they present as more scholarlyreports and analysis. The group's actions, however, often belie thissober tone. The controversy over 2 Live Crew, for example, was bornhere, when Focus workers sent out a mass mailing alerting "pro-family activists" nationwide to the band's "obscene lyrics." After a pressurecampaign, the letter reached the desk of the Dade County Sheriff, who arrested the two band members and a record-store owner on obscenitycharges. The group's primary voice is Dr. Dobson, trained as a childpsychologist, who is heard on a half-hour daily radio broadcast onnearly 3,000 Christian radio stations worldwide (including Central andSouth America and territories of the former Soviet Union). The radioshow, as well as an operation that drops approximately a million piecesof mail a month, generates 8,000 letters and 2,000 phone calls a day tothe Colorado Springs headquarters often in the form of what the stafflike to call "pain mail," expressing an individual's anguish with acertain problem, and asking for guidance. An entire floor is devotedto nothing but telephone operators, who respond to requests forinformation on the 1-800-1-FAMILY line, and lodge each new name andaddress into the computer. Every person on the list then receives acustomized 'pastoral' letter from Dr. Dobson each month, at the end ofwhich is a low-key fundraising pitch. An example of how Focus services its many constituents was providedduring a recent visit I made to the headquarters of the group whosestaff of researchers, writers and counselors provide a good deal of thephilosophical underpinning for the movement advocating greater 'familyvalues' in public life. On a vast floor filled with tiny cubicles, Ispoke with one of the numerous "senior correspondents" assigned to donothing but answer the mail that floods in each day. In this case, hespoke of the last letter he worked on: a request by a candidate for a local school board in Nebraska asking for assistance in defining herproper platform on such questions as sex education, drug education,AIDS, etc. Each 'correspondent' at Focus on the Family is armed with abook two feet thick with statements by the head of the group, Dr. Dobson, on a range of issues from drugs to negligent fathers toAIDS�and the responses to all letters are drawn from this body of work. Thus, he responded: sex education should be limited as much as possibleto abstinence education; no condoms in the schools; opposition to such curricula as 'Children of the Rainbow', which advocate 'un-Christian'points of view. Though members of the group resist being grouped inwith the rest of the Religious Right, they have a well-developedpolitical program, known as Community Impact Seminars, that helps localgroups develop strategies for political organizing. Traveling aroundthe country, FOF organizers draw together church groups, anti-abortionactivists and other local political figures for "seminars," in whichthey lay out strategies for organizing churches into politicalentities. They give advice on how to influence school boards, how toget Christian-oriented candidates into local races, how to getsupporters into precinct caucuses. At a meeting last winter in Colorado Springs, 600 residents attendedthe session where the ground was laid for a slate of Christiancandidates for the next local elections. A strong message from thesession was that a popular majority rarely exists for a full-blownreligious candidate, and therefore to downplay church or ReligiousRight connections during the campaign. Candidates were advised not touse religious rationales for their positions, but rather to frame theirpositions in a more public-policy vocabulary: i.e., not to denounce sexeducation in the schools because the Bible opposes pre- marital sex, but because it could lead to AIDS or other sexually-transmitteddiseases. When organizing a group around a single issue�whether thearts, or school curricula or whatever the hot-button issue of themoment�attendees were advised to describe it as "...500 outraged andconcerned citizens, not 500 church congregants." Another political arm of the group is a network of Family PolicyCouncils, which now exist in thirty states. These Councils, started by Focus but financially independent to avoid IRS regulations against non-profit politicking, are intended to help like-minded groups around thecountry to work together, rather than at cross-purposes, as can oftenbe the case on such highly charged issues as abortion. As the chiefstrategist for these Councils explained in Colorado Springs, "Let's sayfive or six groups in a state are fighting abortion. They differ overfive percent of the argument: should there be exceptions, for example,in the case of rape? These are slight variations they will die for. What we do is get them to stop fighting, shooting ourselves in the foot, and get them to work together." The FOF consultants to the locally-based Councils also give advice on such questions as how toorganize a Voter Guide; getting acquainted with the legal issuessurrounding the closure of abortion clinics; and how to follow family-related issues in a state. Focus on the Family threw the full weight of its multi-media empireinto the NEA battle of l989. Though the focus of debate has changed,their influence on related issues can still be far-flung: in Newport,Oregon last year, FOF material was used to protest a performance by anAfrican storyteller and dancer in the local schools. People for theAmerican Way identifies Focus as a key group, along with the AmericanFamily Association, leading the attack on school reading materials�including such classics as Huckleberry Finn, Lord of theFlies, The Catcher in the Rye and The Grapes of Wrath�on the grounds ofbeing "un-Christian." In a recent pastoral letter to his membership,Dobson predicted the next round of fights with the incoming Clintonadministration: new legislation preventing discrimination againstgays; condom distribution in the schools; and a new Chairman of the NEAwho will approve a flood of obscene and sacrilegious books and art. When the right issue arises, the political structure is clearly inplace to sustain a fight on these and other issues. Often, the firstsign of an impending struggle is signaled in the group's newsletter, Citizen, which covers federal and state politics, and is capable ofsetting off alarm bells to the highly motivated core of member-activists. The public policy division of Focus spends from $1-$5million a year on lobbying and "educating" voters. Allied, but no longer directly affiliated with Focus, is the FamilyResearch Council�run by former Reagan domestic policy adviser GaryBauer. Dobson took over the Council in 1988 to act as a Washington voice for Focus' pro-family agenda. In 1992, the two organizationssevered their relations to permit the FRC to lobby without imperilingFocus' non-profit status. Dobson continues to serve on the Council'sBoard of Directors, however, and there is a great deal of cross-fertilization between the two groups. FRC has emerged as one of theleading 'pro-family' lobbying groups in DC, advocating the gamut ofissues, from tax breaks for families to defunding of the NEA. COLORADO SPRINGS: 'GROUND ZERO' OF THE RELIGIOUS RIGHTThe great irony of Colorado Springs' new status as 'ground zero for thereligious movement is that the transformation began as a purelyeconomic move: in 1987, the city's Economic Development Corporationissued a study proposing new strategies to wean the city off what wasan already faltering reliance on defense contracts. Its solution: tostimulate the economy by offering inducements�the picturesque locale,tax abatements, low wage rates�to non- profit groups to use the city asheadquarters. As it happened, the Executive Vice President of theDevelopment Corporation was an evangelical Christian; the groups shesuccessfully sought out have been overwhelmingly Christian. Thirtyevangelical groups have shifted their headquarters to Colorado Springsover the past five years. Now, the city of 280,000, nestled in the foothills of the RockyMountains, has the greatest per capita concentration of evangelical andfundamentalist Christian groups and ministries in the country. Thecity supports six Christian radio stations (by comparison, Denver, fivetimes the size, has two). Their contribution to the local economy issubstantial: the local ministries employ 2,200 people (though manymoved here from outside), and pump an estimated $300 million a yearinto the local economy. Among the national groups listed in thisreport, the Eagle Forum, Concerned Women for America and the ChristianCoalition have established chapters in the city; and the TraditionalValues Coalition works closely with Colorado For Family Values via awoman who serves on the board of both organizations. The profusion of religious groups in the city has made it a hotbed of religiously-based activism. They have had a tangible effect on thecity's political culture�both literally, as it relates to efforts tochallenge the Republican establishment (various Religious Right figuresedged out more establishment party candidates during the primary seasonlast year), and as it relates to freedom of expression. In the pasttwo years, for example, there has been a measurable increase in theintrusion of religious challenges to curricula in the schools: twoelementary schools have cancelled the use of the textbook Pumsy aftercomplaints by local chapters of the Eagle Forum and Citizens for Excellence in Education. At a local high school, administratorsresponded to local pressures from Christian parents to forbid biologyteachers from discussing sex. At another elementary school, a teacherwas pressured into not using songs about witches or blackcats�considered superstitious and paganistic�during Halloween. Asteachers, administrators and local officials attempt to preempt criticisms, self-censorship begins to appear around such seeminglyinnocuous questions as Halloween: that most American (via Mexico) ofholidays was redubbed a "Harvest Festival" at many of the city'sschools due to fears by administrators that it could be criticized as a'paganistic' celebration. Commercial vendors have also felt the new Christian presence in thecity, as, according to the Citizens Project monitoring group, there hasbeen a dramatic increase in reported incidents of telephoned harassmentfrom callers identifying themselves with various of the differentChristian organizations. The head of the Rocky Mountain Men's Centerreceived veiled threats over the phone after being accused of doing"the devil's work;" he has since relocated outside of the city. Awomen clothing store owner was harassed by men offended by what shesells, how she dresses, what she displays in the window. The group Colorado for Family Values (based in Colorado Springs and sponsor ofAmendment 2) has launched boycotts against businesses that offersensitivity training for their employees on how to deal withhomosexuality in the workplace, deeming them unfair harassment ofemployees who disapprove of gays and lesbians. The city, according to leading Republican and former City Councilwoman,Mary McNally, is "becoming increasingly polarized" from influence ofthe ministries. In an attempt to takeover the local power structure,they have begun, characteristically, at the grass-roots: openings onvarious boards and commissions are routinely announced on the Christianradio stations. Focus on the Family, for example, has a representativeon the Colorado Springs Human Relations Commission, and members ofColorado for Family Values serve on several school district boards. Several Christian-backed candidates made strong runs against localRepublican-establishment figures in the last election, spurring manylocal party members to make a call for "greater tolerance" in the city's public life. The question of diversity and tolerance has become a major issue inmunicipal politics�from Democrats and Republicans alike. In an effortto rehabilitate the city's image and heal some of the wideningdivisions, the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce has sponsored aseries of "Diversity" panels featuring speakers from all points of viewon questions pertaining to gay rights, school curricula and the verypresence of the evangelical groups in the city. A group of concernedcitizens have established the Citizens Project, which publishes anewsletter, Freedom Watch, monitoring the local activities of theReligious Right, and attempting to draw together the diverse populationof the city to block the forces of intolerance. The Citizens Project,which now has a membership of 5,000, has been particularly effective in recruiting elements of the business community and religious figures whodisagree with the evangelical approach to work in concert with moretraditionally 'liberal' residents to promote a more diverse vision ofthe city. Focus on the Family attempts to position itself above the powerstruggle. "To turn this into a 'Christian' county would be adisaster," says Paul Hetrick from Focus' Public Policy division. "Butto hold up Christian ideals is what we're talking about." The group'sactions belie this supposed distance from the political fray. Focussupplied over $8,000 in 'in-kind' contributions to the Amendment 2campaign; their religious curricula surfaces in many of the schools where secular parents have complained of Biblical intrusions into theclassroom; and they took pride in helping to orchestrate the localcampaign against the city's libraries purchasing a copy of Madonna'sbook Sex. Overall, say many longtime Colorado Springs residents, the arrival inforce of so many fiercely committed evangelicals to their city�whichhas long had a reputation of mixing political conservatism (with astrong military contingent) with social tolerance�has divided it asnever before. In the end, Colorado Springs provides a glimpse intowhat are considered 'acceptable' forms of expression in a city wherethe Religious Right obtains economic and political power�a goal that is enunciated, in one form or another, by all the groups discussed here.
Aryan Nations Headquartered near Hayden Lake, Idaho, Aryan Nations is a paramilitary hate group founded in the mid-1970s by Rev. Richard Girnt Butler, now 77 years old. It was formed around Butler's Church of Jesus Christ Christian, one of the several hundred churches affiliated with "Identity," a pseudo-theological hate movement. Identity doctrine maintains that Anglo-Saxons, not Jews, are the Biblical "chosen people," that non-whites are "mud people" on the level of animals, and that Jews are "children of Satan." Aryan Nations militantly advocates anti-Semitism and the establishment of a white racist state. Although primarily an Identity group, Butler's Aryan Nations reflects a Nazi-like philosophy; Butler himself has praised Hitler. During the 1980s, several of Butler's followers joined members of the neo-Nazi National Alliance and some KKK splinter groups to form a secret organization known as The Order, which planned to overthrow the U.S. government. To raise money for their planned revolution, The Order engaged in a crime spree involving murder, counterfeiting, bank robberies and armored car hold-ups. The group's activities ended with the death of its founder and leader, Robert J. Mathews, in a shootout with Federal agents in December 1984, and the incarceration of many of its members. As noted, anti-Semitism is a basic tenet of the Aryan Nations ideology. For example, Dennis Hilligoss, the group's state coordinator in Oregon, recently said that "The Jew is like a destroying virus that attacks our racial body to destroy our Aryan culture and purity of our race." To aid in recruitment efforts, Aryan Nations hosts many racist activits during its summer festivals of hate at Hayden Lake, called the "World Congress of Aryan Nations." At these conferences, Butler's organization has offered courses in urban terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Numerous extremists have addressed Aryan Nations gatherings. John Trochmann, a featured speaker at the 1990 congress, later became a founder and leader of the Militia of Montana. Since 1979, Aryan Nations has been engaged in prison outreach. This is an important aspect of the Aryan Nations' agenda, given that so many members of The Order and Aryan Nations are now serving long prison sentences. Aryan Nations corresponds on an ongoing basis with prison inmates through letters and the forwarding of its periodicals. In 1987, Aryan Nations began publishing a "prison outreach newsletter" called The Way, which has facilitated recruitment and connections between Aryan Nations and its offspring, Aryan Brotherhood, a network of prison gang members. Butler has called Hayden Lake - an otherwise peaceful community - the "international headquarters of the White race." Recently, though, Butler's organization has suffered from internal difficulties, with several of its members leaving to form new groups. Carl Franklin, chief of staff for Aryan Nations, resigned in July of 1993 as a result of disagreements with Butler, who had previously named him his successor. Wayne Jones was security chief at the Aryan compound since the late 1980s and departed along with Franklin. They and two other members moved to Western Montana to form their own white supremacist group called the "Church of Jesus Christ Christian of Montana." Following these departures, two more key members, Charles and Betty Tate, left to join Kirk Lyons, their son-in-law, a North Carolina-based lawyer who has defended right-wing extremists and has called himself an "active sympathizer" with their causes. In addition, a one-time Aryan Nations official named Floyd Cochran has quit the group and renounced anti-Semitism and racism. Despite the recent defections, Aryan Nations seems to be showing signs of rejuvenation. Several new "state offices," often consisting of a mail drop, have opened in the last year. Additionally, Staff Director Tim Bishop, the former Kansas state leader for Thom Robb's Arkansas-based KKK and a member of the Aryan Nations since 1984, manages the day-to-day operations with enthusiasm. Aryan Nations has been mentioned prominently in connection with one of the incidents that militia groups cite as evidence of a government conspiracy against the citizenry - the 1992 Randy Weaver confrontation in northern Idaho. Weaver, a white supremacist who had reportedly visited the Aryan Nations compound in the past, resisted an effort by Federal agents to arrest him at his remote cabin for alleged weapons violations. Weaver's wife and son were killed during the stand-off, along with a deputy U.S. marshall. During the seige, groups of Aryan Nations supporters, in addition to Skinheads and other neo-Nazis, rallied in support of Weaver near his cabin. The post of successor to Butler remains vacant. It is believed, however, that Louis Beam, who has been touted in the past as Butler's heir apparent, may step in to fill that void. Beam, who was David Duke's Texas KKK Grand Dragon in the 1970s, has served as the Aryan Nations Ambassador-at-Large. He recently purchased property in the northern Idaho panhandle not far from the Aryan Nations headquarters at Hayden Lake. He recently attended a gun rights rally whose sponsoring group, reports the Spokane Spokesman-Review, includes militia members and sympathizers, and was at the most recent Aryan Nations congress. Further, he has lately written in support of "leaderless resistance" - strategy that calls for the formation of autonomous cells organized around ideology, not leaders, so as to be better able to carry out actions against their enemies with reduced risk of infiltration. (Anti-Defamation League, 9-10)
Hammerskin Nation: Founded: First Hammerskin group formed in Dallas in the late 1980s Publication: Hammerskin Press (defunct) Other media: Hate rock concerts, online bulletin boards, e-mail mailing list Composition: Almost exclusively young white males inclined to violence Ideology: White supremacy Criminal activities: Murder, beatings, vandalism Significance: Most respected and feared racist skinhead group Connections: Panzerfaust Records; the Hammerskin Nation Web site listed chapters in several other countries, including Canada, England, France, the Netherlands and Germany. The Hammerskin Nation is the most violent and best-organized neo-Nazi skinhead group in the United States. A number of its members have been convicted of harassing, beating or murdering minorities. Many popular racist rock bands are affiliated with the Hammerskin Nation, and the group regularly sponsors concerts. Though internal dissension and a civil lawsuit currently threaten its continued strength, the Hammerskin Nation remains active and dangerous. Emergence The name and symbol of the Hammerskin Nation came from The Wall, a 1979 album by the rock group Pink Floyd that was made into a film in 1982. The Wall tells the story of Pink, a rock singer who becomes a drug addict, loses his grip on reality and turns to fascism. Pink performs a song in which he expresses a desire to line all of the "queers," "Jews," and "coons" in his audience "up against the wall" and shoot them. In obvious references to the Holocaust, he sings of the "final solution" and "waiting to turn on the showers and fire the ovens." The swastika is replaced by Pink's symbol: two crossed hammers, which he boasts will "batter down" the doors behind which frightened minorities hide from his fascist supporters. Though Pink Floyd does not support fascism, the Hammerskin Nation has made real the gruesome fantasy depicted in the band's film: racist rock music and racially motivated violence under a banner bearing two red, white and black crossed hammers. The first Hammerskin group, the Confederate Hammerskins, formed in Dallas, Texas, in the late 1980s. Since then, dozens of local and regional Hammerskin groups have appeared, including the Eastern Hammerskins, the Northern Hammerskins and the Arizona Hammerskins. These groups have been united under the umbrella of the Hammerskin Nation for more than a decade. As of May 1, 2000, the Hammerskin Nation Web site listed 19 chapters across America, down from 21 a year before (the group has not subsequently updated this information). The site lists ten chapters outside of the United States: one each in Canada, England, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand as well as two in Germany; given the multinational nature of the skinhead movement, such widespread foreign participation is not surprising. According to imprisoned Hammerskin Jimmy Matchette, international unity is an important Hammerskin goal: "Our mission has drawn all of us from the four corners of the earth. The winds of destiny have drawn us and have carried us across geographical boundaries and from various ethnic branches of the White Aryan race to graft us into one Nation." One of the major elements binding skinheads from different cultures or geographical areas together is white power music. The Hammerskin Nation is no exception. In fact, in four domestic locations, Hammerskin Nation contact points are maintained by hate rock bands: The Brawlers in Wichita, Kansas; Max Resist in Rochester, Michigan; Intimidation One in Clackamas, Oregon; and Dying Breed (now known as H8Machine) in Harrison, New Jersey. One popular hate rock band, Bound for Glory, is led by Ed Wolbank, past director of the Northern Hammerskins in St. Paul, Minnesota. According to Wolbank, "Music is number 1. It's the best way to reach people. Through music people can start getting into the scene, then you can start educating them. Politics through music." Indeed, hate rock has been both a powerful inspirational force and an effective recruiting tool for racist skinhead groups like the Hammerskins. Some racist bands have even written songs promoting the Hammerskins, such as "H.S.N."by the Brawlers and "Hammerskins" by the Bully Boys. Recruiting The Hammerskin Nation does not try to hide the fact that it wants to recruit disillusioned young people. "Everyday we get a letter from some kid who is fed up with his multi-culturist surroundings," boasts an editorial in the Hammerskin magazine, Hammerskin Press. "They are looking for answers and a way out....Kids grow up without any form of self-identity. They are given two choices, either go with the 'norm' of multi-culturalism and race mixing or be deemed an outcast, a minority. Let's take hold of the Racist minority and welcome them into the movement." Though the Hammerskins seem eager for recruits, they are selective about whom they accept into their ranks. Most white supremacist organizations allow prospective recruits to join by doing nothing more than filling out an application and paying annual dues. In contrast, the Hammerskin Nation, like a college fraternity, asks prospective members to prove themselves before they are allowed to join. Imprisoned Hammerskin Louis Oddo tells those who want to join to "hook up with a close Hammerskin crew" and "learn what they are about." "If everybody likes what they see, I'm sure you'll be given a chance," Oddo explains. "I know of people that were on probation for up to 2 years, so be patient." Forrest Hyde, another Hammerskin who has served time, points out that because "a movement is only as strong" as its "weakest link," the Hammerskins value "quality over quantity" when it comes to membership. Hammerskin Crime Violence is an integral part of the skinhead subculture, among racist and nonracist skinheads alike. Racist skinheads have committed a large number of violent hate crimes across the United States during the past two decades, ranging from brutal beatings to outright murder. As one of the most prominent white power skinhead groups in the country, the Hammerskins have frequently shocked the communities in which they are active with the violence of some of their activities. The Confederate Hammerskins of Dallas were both the first Hammerskin group and the first to come to public attention. In the summer of 1988, group members Sean Tarrant, Jon Jordan, Michael Lawrence, Christopher Greer and Daniel Wood chased and beat blacks and Hispanics in an effort to keep them out of Robert E. Lee Park in Dallas. During that summer and into the fall, the Hammerskins vandalized a synagogue and a Jewish community center by shooting out windows, smashing doors and spray painting anti-Semitic slogans and swastikas. Michael Lawrence also committed violent crimes with skinheads Christopher Jones, Daniel Roush and Forrest Hyde in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the following year. The Tulsa group firebombed a minority-owned nightclub and assaulted its nonwhite patrons. In June 1991, Arlington, Texas, was the site of further violence by Hammerskins. Three 16-year-old members of the Confederate Hammerskins murdered an African American, Donald Thomas, while he sat on the back of a truck with two white friends. Joshua Hendry claimed that after he, William Roberts and Christopher Brosky drank about two cases of beer, Roberts said that he wanted to "do a drive-by" and "shoot a black person." According to Hendry, after he and Brosky agreed, Roberts readied a sawed-off shotgun. Hendry later testified that when the three passed Thomas, Brosky yelled "shoot him!" and Roberts pulled the trigger. Also in 1991, Jimmy "Soda Pop" Miller, an Arizona Hammerskin, firebombed a residence he mistakenly thought was occupied by rival skinheads. Miller also defaced a synagogue. Though he was sentenced to more than five years for these crimes, he was released after serving only two years in prison.That same year, in Birmingham, Alabama, Hammerskin Louis Oddo and his colleague Adam Galleon murdered a 50-year-old black homeless man on Christmas Eve. Oddo and Galleon killed the man, Douglas Garrett, by hitting him with a baseball bat and kicking him with their heavy boots. Oddo and Galleon were subsequently convicted of murder. Less than two years later, in the summer and fall of 1993, members of the New Dawn Hammerskins defaced two synagogues, harassed black patrons of a local bookstore and assaulted two black girls in Brockton and Randolph, Massachusetts. In July 1994, these Hammerskins were charged with conspiring to intimidate and interfere with the rights of black and Jewish citizens. The leader of the group, Brian Joseph Clayton, was also the only adult among the defendants. He pled guilty to the charges and received 46 months in prison. The next major incident of Hammerskin-related violence took place on March 17, 1999, in an open field near Temecula, California. Six Western Hammerskins (Travis Miskam, Daniel Butler, Alan Yantis, Gregory McDaniel, Jesse Douglas and Jason McCully) allegedly attacked a 23-year-old African American, Randy Bowen. They apparently chose to attack him simply because he was black, approaching him without provocation at an unplanned youth gathering. Miskam reportedly hit Bowen over the head with a beer bottle, and when Bowen asked him why, Miskam allegedly replied, "We don't like niggers here; I don't like niggers." According to legal documents, as Bowen tried to flee, the Hammerskins chased him, shouting "Die, nigger," "Get that nigger," "Kill that nigger," and "We're going to get you, nigger." Between them, the Hammerskins carried a bottle, a screwdriver, a folding knife and a razor knife. They cut and stabbed Bowen on his head and back before he escaped to a stranger's home. Witnesses indicated that after attacking Bowen, the Hammerskins started goose-stepping, giving Nazi salutes and singing German songs.
Heritage Front: Heritage is battling hate as civil war engulfs the 'non-political' Sons of Confederate Veterans In late December, Gilbert Jones, a long-time member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), announced his candidacy for lieutenant commander of the North Carolina division of the nation's largest, wealthiest and most influential Confederate heritage group. �The SCV has come to a decisive fork in the road,� Jones wrote. �The elections of 2002 will decide the fate of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. � I think we ought to take the neo-Nazis, the white supremacists, and the skinheads and show them to the door.� As Jones understands, that may be easier said than done. Although the 31,400-member SCV has always billed itself as a �non-political� and �non-racial� heritage organization devoted merely to preserving the legacy of Confederate soldiers, SCV leaders have long been tied to segregation and white supremacy. Beginning in the mid-1980s, the SCV did make a decade-long push to rid itself of open racism and bigotry. But by 1996, after a prominent neo-secessionist resigned from the SCV's ruling executive board in protest of this new moderation, the door to extremism had been pushed open once again. �There is a struggle underway,� as one �pro-South� white supremacist group put it at the time, �for the heart and soul of the SCV.� Since then, spurred on by battles in several states over the display of the Confederate battle flag on public buildings, the white supremacist faction within SCV has grown both more powerful and more visible. Far from being apolitical, scores of SCV members have taken increasingly public and controversial stands on an array of racially charged issues, reflecting an unprecedented level of activism within the 106-year-old organization. In what may be the clearest sign yet of this extremist drift, an analysis by the Intelligence Report finds that a significant number of SCV officials (see listing below) - including at least 10 men who hold key national leadership positions - are also active or recent members of hate groups, principally two neo-Confederate groups (see story below), the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and the League of the South. Together, the CCC (see �Sharks in the Mainstream,� Winter 1999 issue, Intelligence Report) and the League (see �A League of Their Own,� Summer 2000 issue, Intelligence Report) boast more than 25,000 members. For activists in these racist groups, the even larger SCV - an organization that counts at least two influential U.S. senators among its members - makes a tempting prize. The Heritage Coalition Strategy The grainy video frames, now almost two years old, are somewhat cryptic. At length, the speaker describes �heritage coalitions� as a new way for SCV members to cooperate with other neo-Confederate groups in fighting so-called �heritage violations� - acts like taking down the Confederate battle flag. �Theoretically, it's a citizen's coalition, anybody can join,� the speaker explains to a room full of listeners in this April 2000 videotape. For those on the outside, such coalitions may seem like harmless anomalies. But the speaker was none other than white supremacist attorney Kirk Lyons, one-time member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance and current darling of neo-Confederate extremists (see profile, �In the Lyons Den,� Summer 2000 issue, Intelligence Report). Standing next to David Duke, Lyons was addressing a gathering of the neofascist American Friends of the British National Party that included many of America's leading far-right activists. His point was a lawyerly one. Members of the SCV are constitutionally prohibited from working with hate groups, but only in their capacity as SCV members. In their personal lives - or, as Lyons put it, as mere �John Q. Publics� working within the autonomous heritage coalitions - they can do as they like. These coalitions, which function today in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas, offered a loophole that was already being used by hundreds of SCV members to work with racist activists from hate groups including the League of the South, the CCC and several others. Lyons described the ongoing battle within the SCV, saying he had spent most of his 22 years of membership �cursing the organization � for [its] spinelessness and cowardice.� He mocked the �granny� faction that �hide[s] in their shirts at the mention of the R-word [racism].� He talked about how a group of �unreconstructed Southerners� or �white trash,� including himself, had helped to move the SCV increasingly toward a white �nationalist perspective.� And he alluded to a January 2000 pro-Confederate flag rally in Columbia, S.C., where SCV officials worked openly with CCC and League members. �The civil rights movement I am trying to form seeks a revolution,� Lyons told his extremist colleagues that day. �We seek a return to a godly society with no Northernisms attached to it - a majority European-derived society.� Four months after the video was shot, Kirk Lyons, a man who was married by a neo-Nazi �reverend� on the grounds of the nation's most infamous hate group compound, was elected to the SCV's executive council. The civil war was under way.
Greater Ministries: Founded: Circa 1993 Headquarters: Tampa, Florida Leader: Gerald Payne Background: Greater Ministries has run a nearly half-billion dollar pyramid scheme Outreach: Seminars, mail and web-based solicitations Ideology: Anti-government, conservative Christian, some white supremacist elements Number swindled: Around 18,000 Greater Ministries International (GMI) is a Central Florida-based �church� run by antigovernment extremists who, for much of the 1990s, ran a massive pyramid investment scheme, cloaked in Christian rhetoric, that took in hundreds of millions of dollars from thousands of na�ve and/or greedy investors. In 2001 its main leaders were convicted on numerous charges, and received prison sentences ranging from 13 to 27 years. The Birth: Pennies from Heaven If asked to describe extremist criminals, most people would picture camouflaged haters wielding automatic rifles and pipe bombs. In fact, many extremists have perfected an entirely different sort of crime: the big scam that targets people's life savings rather than their lives. Although numerous extremist frauds emerged in the 1990s, none were larger, more colorful or more damaging than the massive pyramid investment scheme concocted by a Tampa, Florida-based organization called Greater Ministries International. For years, GMI raked in millions while defiantly thumbing its nose at regulators who tried to shut it down. Its criminal activities may finally have been halted, but most victims will never see their money again. Gerald Payne GMI was the brainchild of Gerald Payne, a Florida contractor who found religion in the 1980s and became a minister. But Payne, who spent some time in prison in 1979 for lying to a grand jury, discovered that the material rewards of preaching did not match the spiritual uplift. With his typical energy, he attempted to remedy the imbalance. With James Maher (formerly on probation for running a pyramid scheme), he incorporated a financial planning firm in the early 1990s that offered a gold coin-investment program. Shortly thereafter, with the help of Haywood "Don" Hall, Payne created a religiously couched investment plan that would ostensibly double the "blessings" that people invested. In 1993, they named their operation Greater Ministries International. Payne and Hall knew they had found a winning ticket. To the outside world, GMI seemed to be a well-meaning, if somewhat unorthodox, church that helped the homeless and addicted with programs providing housing and work -- in fact, the church could even boast of public officials who had commended its work for the unfortunate. But, inside, GMI was like no other church. Its headquarters in Tampa had 14 safes and two vaults as well as a money-counting room. And the people who ran the church were like few other church leaders. Gerald Payne was a preacher who kept one gun in his boots and another in his glove compartment. In 1997, upon his return from one of many trips abroad, customs agents in Atlanta found 26 videotapes in Payne's luggage depicting bestiality. Hall, Payne's associate, was held without bond for two months in the mid-1990s for aggravated stalking and violating a domestic-violence injunction. Over the years, Payne and Hall had gravitated towards the extreme anti-government ideology of the so-called "Patriot" movement. The people with whom they surrounded themselves with ranged from members of the sovereign citizen movement to rabid white supremacists; their key associates included Patrick Henry Talbert, a sovereign citizen and self-declared "Ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven,"1 and Charles Eidson, formerly head of the virulently white supremacist Church of the Avenger, who moved into GMI's headquarters and helped Payne with legal filings (until their eventual split and Eidson's jailing on unrelated charges). GMI also hosted seminars by Patriot figures like Eugene Schroeder and David Wynn Miller and involved itself in the activities of nearby extremists, including common law court activist Emilio Ippolito. In fact, when Ippolito and numerous followers were indicted on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in 1997, seven of GMI's top officials were named as unindicted co-conspirators. The Pitch: Giving Until It Hurts Some of the people who coalesced around GMI were attracted by ideology, others by greed � and there were many attractions for the greedy. Payne and other GMI leaders worked tirelessly to market their investment schemes around the country. Their flagship program, the "Double Your Money Gift Exchange," promised to double contributions thanks to GMI's (nonexistent) investments in precious metals. GMI marketed the program to ultraconservative political and religious groups as well as to other communities outside the mainstream, especially the Amish and Mennonite sects. The program, stated Payne, was based on Luke 6:38:"Give, and it shall be given unto you." Claiming to accept money only from active Christians, Payne said that God had modernized the multiplication of the loaves and fishes and asked him to share the secret. Payne and the "elders" of GMI had few scruples in soliciting investments. They urged people to empty bank accounts, to cash in IRAs, to max out credit cards � even to sell their businesses and equipment. They declared that it was the op-portunity of a lifetime, an opportunity to double, triple, even quadruple one's initial investment. Those who were convinced donated thousands or tens of thousands of dollars (the highest single investment appears to have been several million dollars); some liquidated their entire life savings. GMI seminars were standing room only; 700 people crowded into a hotel conference room at one meeting in Pennsylvania that raised half-a-million dollars. But this was nothing compared to the sums that Payne claimed GMI doled out. In seven years, Payne said, GMI had returned $500 million. His operation was so big, he asserted, it had outgrown banks. And in fact, because the initial investors were being paid off with funds pouring in from subsequent investors, there were at first many happy customers to spread the word further. Because the audiences that Payne and his followers targeted were insular and far from the mainstream, GMI was able to operate for some time with almost complete impunity. But by 1995, local and state officials in Florida had heard enough about GMI to suspect that Payne was operating a pyramid scheme. In late September, a state agency issued an emergency cease-and-desist order; in response, Payne merely changed the name of the program to "Faith Promises." Pennsylvania also banned the group from selling securities, yet GMI continued to solicit money, especially from the Amish and Mennonite communities. In all, GMI attracted well over 4,000 investors from Pennsylvania, about half of whom came from Lancaster County. The group had money to burn. In 1997, it bought Western Kentucky's largest hotel and convention center. At its Tampa headquarters, it started an "herbal research center" led by Joel Arcilla, a doctor whose license was suspended in Pennsylvania for practicing without malpractice insurance. Eventually Payne began looking overseas; in partnership with Niko Shefer, a South African who had served six years in prison for bank fraud, Payne began pouring money into Liberia--eventually millions of dollars--in order to secure mining rights and set up gold and diamond mines and a bank in that war-torn country. Despite this investment, GMI never dug up a single nugget of gold.
5%er's or The Nation of Gods and Earths Scope: Five Percenters were founded in 1964 by a disgruntled member of the Nation of Islem(NOI), Temple #7 in Harlem. Gender Make-up: Male and Female Racial Make-up: Exclusively African-American Organization: Very organized Gang Colors: No formal colors. but black,gold and green have been seen in their logo Alliances: Black Panthers; Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI) movement Rivals: All white people, they believe the White Man is the "devil" and not to be trusted Propensity for Violence: Some 5% members are known for drive by shootings involved in disputes over drug turf. Members are known for ritualized killings of members who "rip off" profits on drugs. The killing ritual usually involves the shooting of the individual five times; four to the chest and one to the head. Members have little regard for public safety or human life and can be directed at anyone they feel has crossed them or is in their way especially Non African-Americans. Within the various State Departments of Correction, violence by the 5%ers has been increasing. The probable reason is the larger numbers of members being incarcerated within our systems. However, members are known to show a lack of respect for law enforcement and correction's personnel. Staff should use caution when dealing with 5% members. Members are usually well informed with the laws and rights of individuals and have been known to affect 1st Amement rights of speech and religion. Members have proven that they will take whatever steps necessary to avoid arrest, commit violent acts while in custody, murder witnesses, and effect an escape by any means possible. Identification: Within the prison facilities it is hard to distinguish members of this group from Nation of Islam members because many of their initial teachings or "lessons" are the same. One of the best ways to identify 5%er's is by their AKA or nick-name. Many have legally changed their names to reflect their chosen attribute. Examples of these names are; Infinite Allah , Be God, Justice Born Allah SPECIAL NOTE: The following is a response to E-Mail received from Divine Ruler Equality Allah and his representative Jahzid Allah, allah@sunsite.unc.edu We were pleased to receive your comments and concerns about our web site page on the Nation of Gods and Earths; 5% Nation http://www.ctol.net/~segag/5er.html and its portrayal of your membership. As we have stated before there is a small group of young African-Americans, in our communities and in our prisons, who are stating that they are members of your group. Unfortunately these young people have been involved in violent criminal activity in the tri-state area and as a result, we felt the need to place this page for informational interest to our communities and law enforcement agencies. At the time, we were unaware of your site and your tenets. When you first commented on our site, in our guest book we made some modest changes by moving this page out of the Gang information area. We have read your site with great interest and understanding and as a result of this we are adding a special Statement Note and link to your site as you recommended. We, like you, hope that those who read your site will gain a more positive understanding of the Nation of Gods and Earths. I hope to to have this placed in the 5% page later in the day. Tom Williamson, segag@segag.org Therefore, in fairness to him and his people, we are providing a link, click on logo below, to the Nation of Gods and Earths web site. We ask of all, who view this link to do so with an open mind; if you choose to begin open communications, please keep an open mine and do so without bigotry or malice.
Nazi Low Riders: Origins: First organized as a gang in the early to mid-1970s among inmates housed by the California Youth Authority, the state agency responsible for the incarceration and parole supervision of juvenile and young adult offenders. Ideology: White supremacy Location: Primarily Southern California, also scattered among other states, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois Criminal activity : Narcotics trafficking, murder, assault Affiliation: Aryan Brotherhood, various California-based skinhead gangs Tattoos: Swastikas, SS lighting bolts, "NLR" Since their beginnings as a skinhead gang in the California Youth Authority, the Nazi Low Riders have developed into a racist, violently criminal organization active both on the streets and in prison. Much of the group's rise to power can be attributed to its alliance with another, older prison gang, the Aryan Brotherhood. This alliance -- in which NLR members acted as middlemen for AB's various criminal enterprises -- helped build NLR's brutal and ambitious reputation and created new criminal opportunities unrelated to AB. NLR champions its whiteness especially when recruiting members from skinhead gangs and among new inmates, but it is primarily driven by criminal profit, whether from narcotics trafficking, extortion or armed robbery. At the same time, NLR members have been responsible for a number of fierce racist attacks during the past decade. New Kids in the Block While the gang's precise beginnings are uncertain, one fact is clear: the Nazi Low Riders trace their roots to the Aryan Brotherhood, a notoriously violent prison gang founded in the 1960s. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, needing middlemen to help with criminal operations, AB leader John Stinson started to recruit young skinheads incarcerated by the California Youth Authority at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility, in Ione, and at the Youth Training School, in Chino. NLR had just begun to establish itself as a gang for young white inmates, while AB was the leading white gang in the California system. In an act of one-upsmanship, the group took its name from a phrase, "low riders," associated with Hispanic gangs.1 With a limited membership, NLR led a relatively uneventful existence for several years, operating under the radar of law enforcement until the early 1990s. By then, the California Department of Corrections had successfully disrupted and virtually suppressed AB's activities. NLR's role as middleman for its predecessors' criminal operations put it in position to take the older organization's place in the prison gang hierarchy, and it became the principal white gang in California's penitentiary system. A Growing Menace Although NLR originated in the California prison system and still derives much of its power from inside correctional facilities, it is also a significant street gang. After first coming to the attention of authorities in Costa Mesa, California, other units appeared throughout Southern California and eventually in Central and Northern California. These "affiliates" grew quickly and developed strong links within their own ranks and with other white power gangs. During the past several years, NLR's well-run and often extremely violent criminal operations have established it as a major player in the West Coast criminal world and among white supremacist skinhead gangs. Recently, NLR members, who are mostly in their teens and early 20s, have moved east when paroled, often in an attempt to extend the gang's criminal network. In 1996, there were only 28 confirmed NLR members. (Several criteria are used to establish gang membership, including tattoos, self-identification as a gang member and possession of gang-related materials. Once an inmate has been classified as a member, he may be housed apart from other prisoners and subject to more severe disciplinary restrictions and punishment.) By 2000, the F.B.I. estimated that there were up to 1500 NLR members in prison in California and as many as 400 in San Bernardino alone. A year earlier, in 1999, Nevada law enforcement authorities identified over 100 NLR members, while Colorado and New Mexico authorities also began to notice the gang's presence. Gang members have recently been identified in Florida and Illinois as well. In Indiana, in August 2001, Trevor David Thompson, an alleged member of NLR from Pleasant, California, was accused of attempted murder stemming from the drive-by shooting of Ashley McNeil, a 14-year old African-American girl; police believe she was targeted because of her race. California's San Quentin State Prison, birthplace of the Aryan Brotherhood. Role of Racist Ideology Although NLR's organized activity has been driven more by profit than ideology, both are fundamental to the gang's identity. The two essential requirements for membership are proven criminality and loyalty to the white race, and the gang's white power beliefs have prompted several violent acts. In April 1996, for example, in Lancaster, California, NLR members Danny Williams and Eric Dillard used a baseball bat to beat a black teenager. The Los Angeles Times reported that Williams was apparently on a mission to "rid the streets of Lancaster of African Americans." In July of the same year, Williams and Dillard attacked two African-American men, stabbing one of them several times in the back. In 1998, Williams and Dillard received prison sentences for the two attacks. In March 1999, again in Lancaster, NLR members Shaun Broderick and Christopher Crawford attacked a black Wal-Mart employee with a hammer. The two were charged with attempted murder and two counts of assault. Also in 1999, NLR member Ritch Bryant was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the stabbing death of Milton Walker Jr., a homeless black man. Bryant, who said that Walker "got what he deserved," hoped to gain status within the gang by committing the murder. Status-seeking violence by gang members has occurred in prison as well. In September of 1999, while they were handcuffed in a holding cell, NLR member William Richie, using a handcuff key he had stolen, slashed the face and neck of black inmate Cedric Parker while another NLR member, David Rolph, acted as a lookout (Parker survived the attack.) An indictment later stated that the two men assaulted Parker "for the purpose of maintaining and increasing their positions in the NLR." As these examples indicate, NLR members have generally focused their anger on blacks. So-called "race traitors" -- those in interracial relationships or who demonstrate an affinity for what members consider to be black culture -- have also been targeted, as have Jews, Asians and other minorities. The group has made a limited exception for Hispanics -- a few NLR members have Hispanic surnames, and members who have Hispanic girlfriends or wives are readily accepted -- probably due to the hatred of blacks shared by white and Hispanic prison gangs. (There is enmity between NLR and Northern California Hispanics, probably because of the demographics of established criminal gang rivalries.) Other nonwhites are not tolerated. One former NLR member explained, "You must have at least half white blood but no black blood." NLR's Role in Prison Violence Law enforcement authorities consider NLR particularly dangerous and difficult to police because of its tightly knit organization and ingenious communication methods (for example, incarcerated members and their counterparts on the outside often exchange "kites" -- prison slang for letters -- in nearly indecipherable runic alphabets). By 1999, the group was responsible for a large part of the violence in California prisons; prison officials classified NLR as a "disruptive gang," authorizing more restrictive treatment. By taking members out of the general population and housing them separately, authorities were successful in impeding NLR's ability to conduct narcotics sales, extortion and other criminal activities. NLR responded by allying with Public Enemy Number One Skins (PENIskins), who have acted as middlemen in NLR operations. The alliance recalls the initial interactions between Aryan Brotherhood and NLR; PENIskins, like NLR before it, may be able to parley the power and reputation of the more established gang into greater stature in the prison system (as well as on the streets).2 Life as a Nazi Low Rider NLR Prison Hierarchy NLR membership in prison is based on a three-tier hierarchy consisting of "seniors," "juniors" and "kids." The typical NLR unit is led by seniors, some of whom have been connected to the gang since its early days in the California Youth Authority. To attain senior status, NLR members must have been active for at least five years and must be elected by three other senior members. In the NLR hierarchy, juniors, who are just below seniors, cannot induct new members (only a senior can confer membership), but they recruit potential members. The senior who inducts a kid becomes his mentor and disciplinarian. Kids usually come from smaller white power gangs like the PENIskins and Insane White Boys. The Look As in most gangs, NLR members have created a subculture of graffiti, hand signals, tattoos, attire and language. However, while much of it has been based on Nazi symbolism and icons, usage has varied from place to place. Unlike other skinheads, Nazi Low Riders have not adhered to specific rules regarding appearance, making immediate identification of gang members more difficult for law enforcement. NLR members are not required to wear any particular tattoo, for instance, though symbols like the swastika, SS lightning bolts and other Nazi-related images, including pictures of Hitler, frequently adorn members. Others prefer eagles, skulls and demons, while tattoos or patches with "WP" (White Power) or the number "88" (the eighth letter of the alphabet is H, hence HH or Heil Hitler) are also popular. Abbreviations of less obvious white supremacist phrases like "WSU" (White Student Union) and "AYM" (Aryan Youth Movement) are common as well. The group's "business card" -- a tattoo of the letters "NLR" -- commonly appears, often on the stomach, back or neck or in small letters above the eyebrows and on the knuckles. Some prefer the full words "Nazi Low Riders," frequently written in Old English script. The runic alphabet (any of several alphabets used by Germanic peoples from about the third to the 13th centuries) is also becoming a popular way of designating white power gang affiliation. Recently, to confound law enforcement and avoid being classified as gang members, NLR initiates have become more reticent about admitting their allegiance; some claim that the letters inscribed on their bodies signify "never lose respect" or "no longer racist." And while most members tend to wear their tattoos proudly in visible places, it has become more common to opt for smaller, less conspicuous images in less visible spots. With regard to clothing, NLR cohorts frequently wear shirts or jackets with white supremacist or Nazi emblems, or T-shirts printed with white power band logos. Here, too, however, gang members both in and out of prison increasingly wear less recognizable logos or symbols. On the Streets NLR members tend to congregate in pool halls, bars, fast-food joints, video arcades and high schools, where they try to recruit new members. These sites have sometimes been the scenes of attacks, as when, in 1996, five teenagers beat a 12-year-old Hispanic boy at a video arcade in Costa Mesa, California, in what was reportedly an attempt to gain membership in the gang through random violence. In some communities, NLR members live together in the same apartment buildings. These NLR clusters often serve as family-like units for alienated and uprooted young men. Although NLR does not fight other gangs over turf, it does tend to dominate the areas where members live. When NLR members move into a residential complex, they often establish themselves by harassing or threatening other residents. In contrast to the gang's well-defined hierarchy behind bars, however, NLR's street leadership structure is unclear. Members organize locally only with the approval of established leaders -- those who try to set up independently risk retribution. Recruits are usually culled from smaller white gangs like Insane White Boys, La Mirada Punks, Independent Skins and Orange County Skins, all of whom acknowledge and submit to NLR's authority on the street. Some law enforcement officials believe that NLR hopes to unite all white gangs under its umbrella and, much like ethnic organized crime rings, tax the proceeds from their criminal operations -- with the collections sent to incarcerated NLR members. Currently, various white gangs maintain a frail alliance known as the Southern California Skinhead Alliance or SoCal Skins. Public Enemy Number One Skins leads the coalition, in alliance with NLR. Drug Trafficking NLR has been particularly successful in the trade and production of methamphetamine (also called "meth" or "speed"). Speed is relatively easy to produce and is both in high demand and very profitable. Members jury-rig "meth labs" wherever they can, from million-dollar homes to motel rooms. The gang has created several labs in San Bernardino; in Orange County, the Antelope Valley and Riverside, NLR has become a major distributor of the drug. It is also likely that NLR works with motorcycle gangs in methamphetamine production and distribution. And while the fact that NLR members are often addicted to speed increases their proclivity toward violence, it also may keep them from organizing more effectively. Role of Female NLR Members Like other gangs, NLR depends on women not only to provide personal and financial support, but also to oversee business operations when male members are incarcerated. Often family members or girlfriends of NLR members, they have sometimes become directly involved in the violent activities of the gang. In March 2001, for example, NLR member and ex-con Todd "Stomper" Givens and his wife Lacey murdered Scott Holston, also an ex-con, and his sister Patreace, allegedly because of a dispute between the two men. After shooting and stabbing the Holstons, Givens and his wife, with the help of Givens's mother, placed the bodies in the trunk of a car, set it on fire and fled to Las Vegas, Nevada. More commonly, according to an Upland, California, law enforcement report, female members act as liaisons to speed users unaffiliated with the NLR, supplying addicts with drugs and sexual favors. Eventually, NLR members coerce these users, through force and intimidation, to commit crimes for the gang. In addition, the addicts are themselves targets of robberies by gang members. Because of their own crimes, they usually do not bring charges. Anger and Money NLR's ability to attract racist skinheads with its mix of white pride and criminality has become a significant problem -- both in and out of prison. The gang's illegal operations continue to prosper, and members continue to attack racial minorities -- as on March 15, 2001, in Merced, California, when a black man named Arman Braxton was stabbed 23 times by NLR member Gregory Lee Claunch. New gang members have been identified in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and, should they continue their eastward migration, could evolve into a national problem over the next few years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1Though the gang calls itself "Nazi," anti-Semitism has not figured significantly in its actions. NLR uses the term to flaunt its whiteness rather than its hostility to Jews. Back to related Text 2While NLR members generally appear to believe that all other white prison gangs are subordinate to them, they maintain a strong link with, and deference to, Aryan Brotherhood. Indeed, members who have advocated breaking ties with the older group have been kicked out. A growing number of NLR partisans, though still a small minority, oppose this traditional alliance, however, seeking complete independence or believing that older AB members are out of touch with the current scene.
BLACK HEBREW ISRAELITES As the millennium approaches, radical fringe members of the Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI) movement may pose a challenge for law enforcement. As with the adherents of most apocalyptic philosophies, certain segments of the BHI movement have the potential to engage in violence at the turn of the century. This movement has been associated with extreme acts of violence in the recent past, and current intelligence from a variety of sources indicates that extreme factions of BHI groups are preparing for a race war to close the millennium. Violent BHI followers can generally be described as proponents of an extreme form of black supremacy. Drawing upon the teachings of earlier BHI adherents, such groups hold that blacks represent Gods true chosen people, while condemning whites as incarnate manifestations of evil. As Gods authentic Jews, BHI adherents believe that mainstream Jews are actually imposters. Such beliefs bear a striking resemblance to the Christian Identity theology practiced by many white supremacists. In fact, Tom Metzger, renowned white supremacist, once remarked, Theyre the black counterpart of us.28 Like their Christian Identity counterparts, militant BHI followers tend to see themselves as divinely endowed by God with superior status. As a result, some followers of this belief system hold that violence, including murder, is justifiable in the eyes of God, provided that it helps to rid the world of evil. Violent BHI groups are of particular concern as the millennium approaches because they believe in the inevitability of a race war between blacks and whites. The extreme elements of the BHI movement are prone to engage in violent activity. As seen in previous convictions of BHI followers, adherents of this philosophy have a proven history of violence, and several indications point toward a continuation of this trend. Some BHI followers have been observed in public donning primarily black clothing, with emblems and/or patches bearing the Star of David symbol. Some BHI members practice paramilitary operations and wear web belts and shoulder holsters. Some adherents have extensive criminal records for a variety of violations, including weapons charges, assault, drug trafficking, and fraud. In law enforcement circles, BHI groups are typically associated with violence and criminal activity, largely as a result of the movements popularization by Yahweh Ben Yahweh, formerly known as Hulon Mitchell, Jr., and the Miami-based Nation of Yahweh (NOY). In reality, the origins of the BHI movement are non-violent. While the BHI belief system may have roots in the United States as far back as the Civil War era, the movement became more recognized as a result of the teachings of an individual known as Ben Ami Ben Israel, a.k.a Ben Carter, from the south side of Chicago. Ben Israel claims to have had a vision at the age of 27, hearing a voice tell me that the time had come for Africans in America, the descendants of the Biblical Israelites, to return to the land of our forefathers.29 Ben Israel persuaded a group of African-Americans to accompany him to Israel in 1967, teaching that African-Americans descended from the biblical tribe of Judah and, therefore, that Israel is the land of their birthright. Ben Israel and his followers initially settled in Liberia for the purposes of cleansing themselves of bad habits. In 1969, a small group of BHI followers left Liberia for Israel, with Ben Israel and the remaining original migrants arriving in Israel the following year. Public source estimates of the BHI community in Israel number between 1500 and 3000. 30 Despite promoting non-violence, members of Ben Israel's movement have shown a willingness to engage in criminal activity. For example, in 1986, Ben Israel and his top aide, Prince Asiel Ben Israel, were convicted of trafficking stolen passports and securities and forging checks and savings bonds.31 BHI in Israel are generally peaceful, if somewhat controversial. The FBI has no information to indicate that Ben Israels BHI community in Israel is planning any activity - terrorist, criminal, or otherwise - inspired by the coming millennium. Ben Israels claims to legitimate Judaism have at times caused consternation to the Israeli government. BHI adherents in Israel have apparently espoused anti-Semitic remarks, labeling Israeli Jews as imposters.32 Neither the Israeli government nor the Orthodox rabbinate recognize the legitimacy of BHI claims to Judaism. According to Jewish law, an individual can be recognized as Jewish if he/she was born to a Jewish mother or if the individual agrees to convert to Judaism.33 At present, BHI in Israel have legal status as temporary residents, which gives them the right to work and live in Israel, but not to vote. They are not considered to be Israeli citizens. While BHI claims to Judaism are disregarded by Israeli officials and religious leaders, the BHI community is tolerated and appears to be peaceful.34 While the BHI community in Israel is peaceful, BHI adherents in the United States became associated with violence thanks to the rise of the NOY, which reached the height of its popularity in the 1980s. The NOY was founded in 1979 and led by Yahweh Ben Yahweh. Ben Yahwehs followers viewed him as the Messiah, and therefore demonstrated unrequited and unquestioned obedience. Members of the organization engaged in numerous acts of violence in the 1980s, including several homicides, following direct orders from Ben Yahweh. Seventeen NOY members were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in 1990-91 on charges of RICO, RICO conspiracy, and various racketeering acts. Various members were convicted on RICO conspiracy charges and remain imprisoned. While the overwhelming majority of BHI followers are unlikely to engage in violence, there are elements of this movement with both the motivation and the capability to engage in millennial violence. Some radical BHI adherents are clearly motivated by the conviction that the approach of the year 2000 brings society ever closer to a violent confrontation between blacks and whites. While the rhetoric professed by various BHI groups is fiery and threatening, there are no indications of explicitly identified targets for violence, beyond a general condemnation and demonization of whites and imposter Jews. Militant BHI groups tend to distrust the United States government; however, there are no specific indications of imminent violence toward the government.
The American Nazi Party is a Political-Educational Association, dedicated to the 14 WORDS. We are committed to bringing American National Socialism, first created and embodied by our late Commander George Lincoln Rockwell, out of the past Phase One activities which at the time served their purpose well, and into the 21st Century. Although National Socialism encompasses many various issues of concern to Aryan Americans, including a healthy environment, children's welfare, and freedom of belief without fear of System persecution...the two main tenants of National Socialism embodies the Struggle for Aryan Racial survival, and Social Justice for White Working Class people throughout our land. As Aryan Revolutionaries, we recognize the fact that behaving in the manner of past activities, little progress has been achieved for our Cause. That is why we have taken a new direction. In the American Nazi Party, you will find no uniforms or ranks, we do not engage in publicly exposing our Comrades to undo publicity through pointless and dangerous Rallies or Marches. We instead stress Small Cell, and Individual Activism as the path for which to build our Movement, as securely and in a responsible manner as possible. We are looking for Men and Women, who are willing to sacrifice for the Good of the Folk, not people who are looking for aggrandizement, titillation, or simply causing undirected and useless mayhem. This is not a game or a gang. It is a very serious Struggle that we are involved in for the very existence of our White Nation of people. Those who are simply intent on pranks or causing trouble should perhaps look elsewhere for stimulation. If you are interested in learning more about the American Nazi Party, we suggest writing to our National Headquarters and requesting an Info Pack. Please enclose a $5 donation to cover costs. This information will be relayed to you as quickly as possible. Each of us must decide just how far we will let the situation in America deteriorate, before we decide to take action to correct it. If you have had enough, and are willing to join the ranks of your ancestors who forged this land from a wilderness teeming with savages, and to keep it from returning to that state, we urge you to become involved. For your children's sake, if not for your own. for White WORKER Power! Rocky J. Suhayda - Chairman, American Nazi Party Jeff Krause - President, American Nazi Pary
Council Of Conservative Citizens: Founded: 1985 Headquarters: St. Louis Leader: Gordon Lee Baum Publication: The Citizens Informer (circulation of 20,000) Background: Established by former activists in the segregationist White Citizens' Councils Ideology: White supremacy, white separatism Outreach: Mass mailings, prison newsletter Ideology: Christian Identity, white supremacy, neo-Nazi, paramilitary Approach: Advances its ideology by inflaming fears and resentments, among Southern whites particularly, with regard to black-on-white crime, non-white immigration, attacks on the public display of the Confederate flag, and other issues related to "traditional" Southern culture. Connections: Several mainstream figures have spoken at or attended CCC meetings, including Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Senator Jesse Helms, and former governors Guy Hunt of Alabama and Kirk Fordice of Mississippi. Extremist associations: David Duke, Mark Cotterill, Chris Temple The St. Louis-based Council of Conservative Citizens traces its roots directly to the racist, anti-integrationist White Citizens' Councils of the 1950s and 1960s. CCC's online "wanted" poster of Abraham Lincoln Its current leader, attorney Gordon Lee Baum, was an organizer for the WCC and built the Council of Conservative Citizens in part from the old group's mailing lists. The CCC drew national attention in 1998 when it was revealed that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was a frequent speaker at its events; subsequent news accounts reported that several other elected officials in the South had appeared at the group's gatherings. Like its predecessor, the CCC inflames fears and resentments, particularly among Southern whites, with regard to black-on-white crime, nonwhite immigration, attacks on the Confederate flag and other issues related to "traditional" Southern culture. Although its leadership claims that the group is not racist, its publications, Web sites and actions all promote the purportedly innate superiority of white people and bias against nonwhites. Bigotry as Politics Considerably more polished than traditional extremist groups, the Council of Conservative Citizens propounds its bigotry in the guise of hot-button conservative advocacy. Striking hard-right positions on such contentious issues as immigration, gun control and affirmative action, the organization has insinuated itself into the mainstream successfully enough to attract a number of prominent conservative politicians to its gatherings. However, an examination of the origins, membership and publications of the CCC suggests that it remains, despite its assertions to the contrary, squarely within Southern racist traditions. While not every CCC chapter may be equally extreme, all are founded on anti-minority bigotry. Roots in Jim Crow The roots of the CCC rest in white opposition to integration during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The group is a successor to the Citizens' Councils of America (originally configured as the White Citizens' Councils), an overtly racist organization formed in the 1950s in reaction to the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation. Trumpeting the "Southern way of life," the CCA used a traditionalist rhetoric that appealed to better-mannered, more discreet racists; while the Klan burned crosses, the CCA relied on political and economic pressure. The first Citizens Council was founded on July 11, 1954, in Indianola, Mississippi, by Robert B. Patterson (a current member of the CCC and former editor of its publication, The Citizens Informer). It formed committees that screened local political candidates to ensure they viewed "the negro vote" with appropriate disapproval, promoted "the advantages of segregation and the dangers of integration" and coordinated the application of economic pressure. The organization grew quickly, attracting members from across the South and beyond; by August 1955, Patterson's membership list exceeded 60,000 people and included 253 Councils. In August 1956, Citizens' Councils in 30 states came together to form the Citizens' Councils of America. Its goals were to preserve the "natural rights" of racial separation and "the maintenance of our States' Rights to regulate public health, morals, marriage, education, peace and good order in the States, under the Constitution of the United States." The CCA tried to recruit public and civic leaders for membership. Organizers wanted to demonstrate that their views represented those of the modern and mainstream white South, not those of a rural, uneducated fringe. For the most part, its publicists avoided the coarser formulations of race-hatred associated with such groups as the Klan, but the white supremacy of the Council movement was nonetheless unmistakable and unapologetic. In the widely popular tract Black Monday, for instance, Mississippi State Supreme Court Justice Thomas P. Brady wrote, "Whenever and wherever the white man has drunk the cup of black hemlock, whenever and wherever his blood has been infused with the blood of the negro, the white man, his intellect and culture have died." Many of Brady's readers were state representatives, attorneys, local bank presidents and prominent farmers, leading historian Robert Hart to observe that "most membership lists read like a Chamber of Commerce." While its membership reflected Main Street, the movement was not notably infused with civic spirit. It intimidated and harassed blacks involved in the civil rights movement and printed and distributed pamphlets containing inflammatory racist speeches by segregationists. A typical CCA pamphlet like "Segregation and the South" described African Americans as having "an inherent deficiency in mental ability" and "a natural indolence." Another pamphlet, "The Ugly Truth About the NAACP," spread the accusation, common at the time among opponents of integration, that this organization was controlled by Communists intent on destroying America. As African Americans began to win greater civil rights during the 1960s and into the 1970s, however, and became more politically active and influential, Southern states and their elected officials gradually liberalized. Losing its cultural struggle, the movement sharply declined, becoming moribund by the late 1970s. Still, it is likely that many members of the CCA retained their racist views after the organization's decline -- a circumstance that would eventually allow for its rebirth. The Song Remains the Same In 1985, 30 men met in Atlanta, Georgia, among them Robert Patterson; St. Louis attorney and former CCA Midwest field organizer Gordon Lee Baum; and William Lord, another former CCA organizer. Brought together by their frustration with government "giveaway programs, special preferences and quotas, crack-related crime and single mothers and third generation welfare mothers dependent on government checks and food stamps," they saw the opportunity to renovate the Council movement. Using old Citizens' Council mailing lists, they established a new organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens, and named Baum as chief executive. The group rapidly gained adherents -- including many former CCA members -- and by 1999, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, numbered 15,000 members in more than 20 states; it has been particularly active in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The beliefs of the CCC fall within the racially charged tradition of its predecessor but reflect the contemporary fears of its constituency. Instead of segregation, CCC members focus on issues like interracial marriage, which the group calls "mongrelization of the races"; black-on-white violence; and the demise of white Southern pride and culture, best exemplified in the debate about the Confederate flag. Additionally, in its heightened rhetoric about the expropriation of states' rights by the federal government and by an impending "New World Order," the CCC shares some of the conspiratorial fears of modern militia groups and other right-wing conspiracy theorists. CCC activists have used the White Citizens' Councils' tactic of economic pressure, as well. The group's North Carolina chapter, for instance, inflamed anxieties about Hispanic immigration by organizing protests in September and December of 1999 in Wilkesboro because the local Tyson Foods plant allegedly hired illegal immigrants. CCC Eastern Regional Director A.J. Barker organized the protests, according to the local newspaper, both of which were held in front of the town's Federal Building and attracted about 40 protesters each. CCC later claimed that because of the group's efforts Tyson fired several illegal workers (this claim is not verifiable), and that the publicity elicited by the protests had drawn new members to the chapter. Both on its national and chapter Web sites and in its primary publication, The Citizens Informer, CCC's belief in white superiority and its derision of nonwhites, particularly African Americans, are delineated without apology. The Web site of the Arkansas chapter, for instance, elaborates on the toll that interracial marriage ostensibly takes on "European-American culture": it is totally unacceptable, the site states, "to think that we should voluntarily commit cultural and racial abdication." On the group's California site, contributor Peter Anthony states, "...just as breeds of dogs are different, races of people are different as well. And just as no two cultures created by different Races are even remotely alike, no two races have the same destiny in the eyes of God." Anthony also waxes nostalgic for the bygone era "when the Klan could 'march on Washington' to the cheers of an adoring public, when race-mixing and homosexuality were taboo, when racial separation was the norm." In the same vein, the national Web site has posted photos of African Americans during the March 2001 Mardi Gras riots in Seattle over captions that referred to "wild blacks" and "animal control" (a picture of two white people apparently using pepper spray: "Keeping the wildlife at bay until animal control arrives"). A photograph of an African American apparently attempting to kick a white person was captioned, "Dancing with the Dark." Nearby links had titles like "Beautiful white girl bludgeoned to death by black soldier." Capture the Flag The Confederate flag's deeply rooted connection to white Southern pride and identity -- shared throughout the South -- has made it a powerful rallying point for the CCC since the early 1990s, and the controversy over its display has been a useful recruiting tool, attracting both conservatives and extremists to the organization. The main CCC Web site frames the issue as one of protecting and defending "Southern Heritage" and includes announcements for all upcoming protests as well as links to articles addressing the various debates across the South about the flag's display. A November 1999 article in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle noted that the CCC had protested at the state capitol 15 times, and while unsuccessful there, its aims were recently realized in Mississippi, where more than 60% of voters chose to retain the Confederate symbol in their state flag. When the N.A.A.C.P. urged African Americans in particular not to vacation in South Carolina until the Confederate flag was removed from the Statehouse, the CCC encouraged its constituents to take advantage of the absence of African American tourists; it posted a flier pronouncing that "now that the African Americans are boycotting South Carolina over the Confederate Flag, Whites can enjoy a civil liberty that has been denied to them for many years at hotels, restaurants and beaches: the freedom to associate with just one's own people." But the views of some CCC members go beyond wistfulness for lost white privilege and disfavor toward encroaching minorities and multicultural change. In an article posted on the Arkansas Web site, for instance, Dr. James Owens, a former Dean of the American University School of Business, hypothesizes that a second civil war is imminent and suggests that Southern states secede from "the Union" in hope of creating segregated living spaces for the country's different races. In his scenario, the "silent, white majority" will become shocked into taking action by the catastrophic genetic effects of interracial marriage and by the inevitable rise of an accompanying police state; a white rights movement will be forged across the political continuum, "ranging from moderate political activists...to the overt hostility of white supremacists and militias." Individual differences with regard to tactics will be suppressed, and the "white preservation party" will succeed in elevating and arousing "white consciousness to action" and restoring the country to "its original Euro-white dominance." There are other suggestions that many CCC members may be more radical than the organization's public face indicates. Openly white-supremacist organizations advertise in The Citizens Informer, including the TC Allen Company, which sells pamphlets arguing that integration leads to genocide and that the biblical Adam was father only of the white race; the Ohio-based Heritage Lost Ministries, a racist and Third Position organization known also to distribute National Socialist Movement literature; and The Resister, the racist and anti-Semitic "political warfare journal of the Special Forces Underground." Well-Informed Citizens The Citizens Informer contains far more than advertisements, however. Named after a publication of the original Citizens Councils, the bimonthly articulates the views that form the core of the CCC's belief system. It is edited by Sam Francis, formerly a controversial Washington Times columnist who was eventually dismissed for defending slavery. Francis has become more forthright in denigrating nonwhites and is frequently a guest at conferences of American Renaissance, a group that champions the genetic inferiority of African Americans; he stated at a 1998 gathering that "White Americans have a short time to stop the universalism and egalitarianism that threaten to destroy their race." Chris Temple, The Citizens Informer's managing editor, has been a fixture on the white-supremacist scene for years (he calls himself a "very close personal friend" of Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler) and has written for Identity and anti-Semitic publications such as The Jubilee and The Spotlight. The ideology of The Citizens Informer's editors is echoed in the publication's pages, although in a somewhat muted form. Many articles consist of either tributes to the superiority of the white race or diatribes about black violence or Hispanic immigration. As Robert Patterson, the publication's past editor, has written in a column, "...any effort to destroy the race by a mixture of black blood is an effort to destroy Western civilization itself." Columnist H. Millard has offered a similar observation and a morek visceral anxiety about intermarriage when he argued that minorities are turning the United States population into a "slimy brown mass of glop." Other essays in the publication lament the victimization of whites at the hands of minorities and the liberal "elite." Other contributing writers to The Citizens Informer have included Jared Taylor, publisher of American Renaissance, which argues that African Americans are genetically inferior; Indianapolis Baptist Temple Pastor Greg Dixon, who believes that churches are not bound by human laws or regulations; and psychology professor Glayde Whitney, who wrote the preface to David Duke's racist and anti-Semitic "autobiographical thesis" My Awakening ("Completely separately from David Duke," Whitney wrote, "my inquiries led to essentially the same places and some of the same conclusions that he spells out in this book.") Afloat in the Mainstream The CCC has distinguished itself from other racist organizations--and gained considerable notoriety � in attracting the attention and support of seemingly mainstream conservative leaders. The group was catapulted to national prominence in December 1998, when a Washington Post reporter revealed that, earlier in the year, Georgia Congressman Bob Barr had spoken before its national board in Charleston, South Carolina. Barr denied being aware of the CCC's racist views, claiming that the information packet he had received from the organization had not revealed these positions. Moreover, he stated that he found such views abhorrent. However, the ante was upped a few days later when Post reporter Thomas Edsall revealed that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott had appeared as the keynote speaker at a 1992 meeting of the CCC in Greenwood, Mississippi. In the article, Edsall cited an issue of The Citizens Informer that featured a large photograph of Senator Lott at a CCC conference and quoted him as telling attendees that "we need more meetings like this." According to the Informer, Lott asserted that "the people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction and our children will be the beneficiaries." Lott's involvement was more complicated than Barr's, because Lott originally denied firsthand knowledge of the CCC (later having to backtrack on this statement) and because, as opposed to Barr, there was evidence of an ongoing relationship. CCC leaders revealed that Lott had spoken to them on more than one occasion; that his syndicated column regularly ran in The Citizens Informer, and that his uncle, a member of the Council's Executive Board, called him an "honorary member." Lott later criticized the CCC's use of his name in their publications, denied membership and claimed ignorance as to the racist nature of the group's rhetoric. Unlike Barr, however, he never condemned the group's racist ideology explicitly and unequivocally. Edsall's reporting revealed that Lott and Barr were only the most prominent of a number of conservative politicians who had developed ties of varying intimacy with the CCC, most notably former Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, who not only attended CCC meetings but was quick to defend the CCC to the press as well. Additionally, a Mississippi CCC leader boasted that 34 members of the Mississippi legislature counted themselves among the ranks of the 5,000 individuals claiming membership in the state. In fact, the CCC has enjoyed connections with public officials at every level. In Mississippi, all five members of the Lamar County Supervisors Board attended a 2001 meeting of the group's Piney Woods Chapter that addressed county zoning and its potential infringement on the rights of property owners and on the "ongoing battle to save our beloved state flag." Other prominent mainstream political figures have attended meetings or addressed the group, including past Alabama Governor Guy Hunt, United States Senator Jesse Helms, United States Representative Mel Hancock, Alabama Public Service Commissioner George C. Wallace, Jr., Tennessee G.O.P. National Committeewoman Alice Algood, South Carolina G.O.P. National Committeeman Buddy Witherspoon, former Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, as well as media figures like editorial cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez, Accuracy In Media head Reed Irvine, and Joseph Sobran, a syndicated columnist and former senior editor for the National Review whose anti-Jewish bias contributed to his firing by that magazine. Above all, however, the appearances of Barr and especially Lott elicited widespread media coverage. In response to the revelations, Representatives Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, and Michael Forbes, a New York Republican, introduced to Congress in January 1999 a resolution that condemned the racism and bigotry espoused by the Council of Conservative Citizens. The resolution, modeled after a 1994 House resolution criticizing former Nation of Islam member Khalid Muhammad for racist and anti-Semitic remarks, also condemned manifestations and expressions of racial and religious intolerance wherever they occurred. But whereas the resolution against Muhammad passed through both houses of Congress in 20 days, the criticism of the CCC never even made it to the floor, due largely to the reluctance of Republicans to accept what amounted to an indi-rect censure of their leadership. Instead, Representative J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, the only African American Republican in the House, introduced a resolution that condemned racism in general. Unlike the Wexler-Forbes resolu-tion, which had 148 cosponsors (13 of whom were Republicans), the Watts bill had none. When it was put to a vote, Democrats urged their colleagues not to vote for a bill that was, in the words of Michigan Democrat John Conyers, "just a joke" and a cover for those politi-cians who had "cloaked themselves in mainstream conservatism... masking an underlying racist agenda." Watts' resolution failed, ending the CCC episode in Congress. Conclusion By appealing to widespread resentments and successfully attracting prominent conservatives, the Council of Conservative Citizens has been able to recruit numbers of relatively moderate individuals into an organization that maintains strong connections with extremists. Its record demonstrates that CCC has not tried to break away from its racist antecedents. Instead, it has adopted not only its predecessor's racial attitudes but also its strategies, deriving from them the tools to advance a racist agenda from the grassroots to the senior levels of American government
The Nation of Aztlan (NOA), first organized in the early 1990s, is a California-based Hispanic nationalist organization that claims to represent the desires and aspirations of the Hispanic community. The organization calls for the United States to return "Aztlan" territory - Aztlan being the mythic homeland of the Mexican people, or Aztecs, which according to legend is found in the American Southwest or Northern Mexico. The group's nationalist message is blurred by frequent appeals anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, homophobia and other expressions of hatred. Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism The NOA has posted numerous anti-Semitic articles and editorials on its Web site, La Voz de Aztlan. Many of these articles allege Jewish control of the U.S. government (one described the Monica Lewinsky affair as a plot involving the Mossad and, by extension, Israel.) The NOA has exploited the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to further extend its anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories. On September 13, 2001, Hector Carreon, NOA founder and editor of La Voz de Aztlan, which the NOA describes as an online news service, wrote: "There is no doubt that our foreign policy in the Middle East has contributed to the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Is not our support of Zionism too high a price to pay? Why are we supporting an Israeli apartheid policy that has made all of Islam our mortal enemy?" Carreon published an essay on Oct. 9, 2001 titled "Anthrax Terrorists May Be Zionists," in which he claimed that the anthrax outbreak in Florida may have been the work of Jews. Carreon claimed that in July 2001 he received an anonymous letter containing a "small amount of a yellowish white substance" and text claiming that "Jews had an illustrious history in biological research." Carreon claimed he developed "flu like symptoms" after receiving that letter. This made him suspicious of the Boca Raton anthrax case; Carreon claims that "the laboratory engineered Anthrax spores came in the mail in an envelope that included a 'Star of David' charm." Carreon wrote, "We believe that the terrorists are actually Zionists." Everyone assumes that "the dangers we face" come from Islamic terrorists, stated Carreon, "but our experience has been different. We fear Zionist terrorists more. They have been trying to take away our constitutional right of freedom of political expression through acts of terrorism." The Syria Times Daily Politic News Online (Oct. 16, 2001) reprinted the article under its original headline, "Anthrax Terrorists May Be Zionists." Another essay in La Voz de Aztlan titled "Anthrax Letter Messages Seem Contrived" suggested that anthrax-laced letters addressed to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle were possibly sent by "Zionists." According to the essay, "Zionists have been worried because they perceive that the American public is wavering in their support of Zionist racist polices against the Palestinians. They are desperate and will do anything to manipulate U.S. public opinion. This is one of their favorite tactics." Ernesto Cienfuegos, La Voz de Aztlan staff writer, suggested that Zionists were responsible for the October 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, claiming that Israelis were attempting to "frame" the terrorist group that immediately accepted responsibility for the killing, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. According to Cienfuegos, "The Zionists needed to create a situation in order to relieve the great pressure and to find a new excuse to attack the Palestinians. This has now happened." The NOA is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, often likening the Palestinians� goals with their own: "La Raza's struggle for the land and for political and economic self-determination is not different from the struggle of the Palestinian people in Zionist Israel. We live in Aztlan under Anglo domination as the Palestinians live under Jewish domination." "La Raza," meaning "the nation" or "the race," is a term used by some mainstream Hispanic organizations like the National Council of La Raza, which the NOA is not affiliated with and does not represent. Current Leadership Hector Carreon is the head of the NOA and founder/editor of La Voz de Aztlan ("The Voice of Aztlan"), an Internet "news service" which debuted in January 2000. According to the La Voz de Aztlan, "Hector is a graduate in Civil Engineering from California State University at Long Beach where he was a founding member of the Society of Mexican-American Engineers and Scientists (MAES). He served honorably for two year [sic] as a Vietnam-era soldier in the U.S Army's 2nd Armored Division and is a graduate of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund's Advanced Leadership Program." Carreon may have been introduced to Hispanic nationalism during his time with the Brown Berets, a group that came into existence in 1967 in Los Angeles soon after the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California. Similar to the Panthers in organization and ideology, the Brown Berets focused on the mobilization and unification of "Chicanos for Self Defense" against police brutality, with a strong emphasis on youth in the "Barrios" and on education. La Voz de Aztlan and the group�s e-mail service are published from Los Angeles; staff writers include Miroslava Flores and Ernesto Cienfuegos. In fall 2001, the group described plans to improve its Web site: "Shortly we will be implementing more advanced Internet technologies that will enable us to reach more people in a more efficient way. We also plan to add more sophisticated audio and video capabilities to the website." In addition to the anti-Semitic nature of NOA, the group has posted several virulently homophobic articles editorials and articles on its Web site. Recent Activity and Background Prior to the September 11 attacks, the NOA announced that it created a "La Raza Education Project on Palestine" and that it was forming an alliance with the "international community that is seeking peace and justice in Palestine." Despite such pronouncements, the level of the NOA�s non-Internet based activity remains unclear. In 1998, a group of ten people wearing masks, including Juan "Ralphy" Avitia, a spokesman for the Nation of Aztlan at the time, burned a U.S. flag in front of city hall in Fresno, California. In 1999 Carreon�s Imapcto2000, which calls itself "a web site dedicated to the political and economic empowerment of La Raza through the effective use of the World Wide Web," sent an anti-Semitic e-mail to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Hispanic rights activists revived the story of Aztlan in the 1960s. Beyond a mere physical site, Aztlan has become a metaphor for the geographic, historical and spiritual home of many indigenous people in the Southwest. The NOA seeks to create a separate nation in the area now "occupied" roughly by California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Common Ground With Extremists Some white supremacist movements have provided a degree of aid and comfort to the NOA by endorsing its material and publishing statements seemingly sympathetic to its positions. Several white supremacist Web sites include links to the NOA. White Aryan Resistance (WAR), led by white supremacist Tom Metzger, posted articles by the NOA on its e-mail list service. The anti-Semitic and racist hate group World Church of the Creator has showcased NOA anti-Jewish articles on Chandra Levy and the Mossad on its e-mail list. The neo-Nazi National Alliance says that the NOA "publish a lot of truth about our common E. [enemy]." Another National Alliance message says, "Everyone should check out this site. There are several articles which speak truthfully about the Jews. Yes, Aztlan would kill or deport all Europeans, but they would kill or deport all Jews, too." The white supremacist site vanguardnewsnetwork and the Nation of Islam Student Association feature links to the NOA Web site. Meanwhile, anti-immigration groups such as American Patrol have pilloried the NOA with equally charged rhetoric, claiming the group is part of a Hispanic plot to "invade" or "conquer" the Southwestern U.S.
Neo Nazi (Comming Soon)
The Klu Klux Klan(comming soon)
World Church ofThe Creator (comming Soon)
