Justin Boyer, 24, the former boy wonder and Washington State Unit commander of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement (NSM), has announced that he’s forming a new militia-style paramilitary group called the United Globalist Movement. It’s apparently not the kind of militia group most of us remember from the 1990s.

Boyer, identifying himself as the “Commanding General of the Land Forces,” wrote in his April 23 post that “[p]arty members will have ranks and uniforms. … Party members will be trained like a political and Military machine in all walks of life.” Although Boyer claimed his new organization is a “peaceful movement,” he added that “I am a believer in training for everything and that includes war.” “Most of our members have Military back rounds [sic] and other things I cant [sic] go into right now,” Boyer concluded.

Boyer, who told a reporter earlier this year that he first read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf when he was 10 years old, claimed to have renounced racism earlier this year after listening to Barack Obama’s Election Night victory speech.

“It was like something just went off in my mind. It was like, ‘Man, this guy’s right, you know.’ Time for a change,” Boyer was quoted in February as saying in the Wilmington News Journal. (By that time, Boyer had quit the NSM to become the Ohio state leader of another neo-Nazi group, the American National Socialist Workers Party, a post he also is said to have resigned).

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The swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the frightening possibility of it becoming a global pandemic have provided a little something for just about everyone on the U.S. radical right.

Most predictable are the panic-stricken calls for the military to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border entirely. They’re coming from nativist extremist groups including the San Diego Minutemen and the California Coalition for Immigration Reform (CCIR). CCIR head Barbara Coe, however, kicked the insanity up a notch by openly suggesting that God infect Barack Obama, members of his staff and their families with the deadly virus in retribution for Obama’s support of immigration reform.

“As many Christians have often spoken, ‘The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways,’” Coe began a mass E-mail to CCIR members. “Wouldn’t it be even MORE interesting if some of the anti-American-pro-illegal alien AMNESTY traitors (posing as U.S. elected officials) who just visited Mexico, also contracted this disease and shared it with THEIR loved ones? We wonder if they would still vote for ‘Open Borders’?”

William Gheen, head of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, a nativist group commonly known as ALI-PAC, slammed President Obama, too. “The Obama administration’s failure to secure our borders against a possible pandemic is putting American lives at risk at a time when days and hours matter,” he said. (On the ALI-PAC website, Gheen is less subtle about linking Mexican immigrants with infectious disease. “Call me old fashioned, but people should be able to shop at Wal-Mart without worrying about catching tuberculosis,” he wrote.)

As Media Matters reports, nationally syndicated right-wing talk radio blowhard Michael Savage floated the theory that Al Qaeda is using Mexican immigrants as carrier “mules” to bring the virus into the U.S.: “[C]ould this be a terrorist attack through Mexico? Could our dear friends in the radical Islamic countries have concocted this virus and planted it in Mexico knowing that you, [Homeland Security Secretary] Janet Napolitano, would do nothing to stop the flow of human traffic from Mexico?”

Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin got in on the action with a column last Saturday, announcing at the outset that she’d “blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration.” “We’ve heard for years from reckless open-borders ideologues who continue to insist there’s nothing to worry about,” Malkin wrote. “And we’ve heard for years that calling any attention to the dangers of allowing untold numbers of people to pass across our borders and through our other ports of entry without proper medical screening … is RAAAACIST.” ( continue to full post… )

White supremacist leader David Duke was expelled from the Czech Republic less than 24 hours after Czech Republic police arrested him on charges of denying the Holocaust and promoting neo-Nazi ideology, his lawyer said.

A special operations police squad nabbed Duke last Friday shortly after he arrived in the Czech Republic at the invitation of Czech neo-Nazis. Duke was scheduled to give lectures in Prague and Brno.

A police spokesman told a Czech news agency that no charges would be brought against Duke, a former Klan leader and neo-Nazi. Denying the holocaust and promoting white supremacist ideology are crimes punishable by up to three years in prison in the Czech Republic.

Czech media reported that hundreds of right-wing extremists demonstrated in support of Duke in a northern Czech town last Saturday.

By that time, however, Duke was already out of the country, according to a post to his personal website, in which he denied that he’d traveled to the Czech Republic to deny the Holocaust or to promote neo-Nazism.

“I was going to lecture about the Israeli influence over American and European foreign policy and the International Zionist Banking firms that are leading America and the world to financial oblivion, globalist hegemony and unending war,” he wrote.

Despite the fact that he’s not actually facing criminal charges, Duke issued an urgent fundraising plea for his “legal defense fund.” In 2002, Duke pleaded guilty to felony mail and tax fraud charges for raising money for similar political purposes and using it for home improvement and gambling, among other things. He served 15 months in a federal prison and was fined $10,000.

A reported member of the Florida National Guard who allegedly killed two Okaloosa County, Fla., sheriff’s deputies in a shootout at a gun club last Saturday believed the U.S. government was conspiring against him and was “severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected president,” his wife told investigators.

The dead lawmen, Warren “Skip” York and Burt Lopez, both 45-year-old fathers, were gunned down by Joshua Cartwright (photo at right, from earlier arrest), 28, after they attempted to arrest Cartwright on domestic violence charges at the Shoal River Gun Club, officials said.

Cartwright fled the scene in his pickup. A short time later, he was himself shot to death during what witnesses described as “an intense firefight” that occurred after pursuing deputies rammed and overturned his truck during a high-speed chase. Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson later said 50 or 60 rounds were fired in the ensuing gun battle.

Okaloosa County Sheriff Edward Spooner said that Cartwright was interested in militia groups and training, and that investigators were looking into any weapons training he may have had.

Records show Cartwright was arrested in November 2008 on a previous domestic battery charge.

The murders of Deputies York and Lopez occurred less than a month after three Pittsburgh police officers were shot to death by right-wing extremist Richard Poplawski, who had posted numerous racist and conspiracy-theory messages to white supremacist websites.

In the 14 years since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, at least 25 law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty by white supremacists and anti-government extremists.

“We did lose two very fine men today,” interim Sheriff Ed Spooner told the Northwest Florida Daily News. “I don’t think anybody anticipated this would get to the level it did as quickly as it did.”

Czech Republic media outlets are reporting that infamous U.S. white supremacist leader David Duke was arrested in Prague earlier today on suspicion of denying the Holocaust and promoting the neo-Nazi movement, crimes punishable by up to three years in prison in the Czech Republic.

According to a Prague newspaper, Duke was taken into custody at the Black Eagle, a Prague restaurant, shortly after arriving in the country at the invitation of Czech neo-Nazis. The newspaper reported that 30 law enforcement officers wearing ski masks surrounded Duke, who was scheduled to deliver lectures in Prague and Brno. A third lecture scheduled at Prague’s Charles University was called off earlier this week because the university banned it.

According to an Internet post by the Czech Republic neo-Nazi group National Resistance, Duke was in Czech Republic to promote his book My Awakening.

“Mr. Duke was arrested after previous approval [from the] state deputy for suspicion for committing the crime of supporting and promoting movements which are trying to suppress human rights and freedoms,” read a translated statement from Prague police spokesperson Jan Mikulovsky.

News of Duke’s reported arrest spread rapidly throughout the right-wing extremist online community. A “Free David Duke” discussion thread on Stormfront, a major white nationalist discussion forum, was fast-approaching 300 posts at 5 p.m. EST.

Discussion at Vanguard News Network was equally intense. “Though in the past I have disagreed with David Duke as being too moderate, I must say that this arrest is outrageous and must be protested, vigorously,” wrote EireanGoddess. “Damn the jews.”

The self-identified leader of the Ohio Militia, a conspiracy-minded “Patriot” group, released a video earlier this week calling for 1 million heavily armed antigovernment demonstrators to march on Washington, D.C., this coming July 4.

“We need to do something,” he said. “We need to make a dent.”

Identifying himself as “Pale Horse,” apparently a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and speaking through a creepy voice distorter, the Ohio militiaman detailed his brazen vision: “A peaceful demonstration of at least a million — hey, if we can get 10 million, even better — but at least one million armed militia men marching on Washington. A peaceful demonstration. No shooting, no one gets hurt. Just a demonstration. The only difference from any typical demonstration is we will all be armed.”

The Ohio Militia website contains apocalyptic language and imagery, along with references to various 9/11 and “North American Union” conspiracy theories. Videos show men said to be Ohio Militia members engaged in small-unit, live-fire combat training. One video is titled “America’s Wake Up Call: Buy Guns.” A different video slideshow depicts assault weapons, mushroom clouds, George Bush, Satan, Osama bin Laden and lots of men in camouflage on maneuvers. It’s set to “Goofy’s Concern,” a song by Butthole Surfers, a psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas, that includes these lyrics: “I don’t give a fuck about the FBI! I don’t give a fuck about the CIA! I don’t give a fuck about LSD! I don’t give a fuck about anything!”

That video concludes with a message to the Michigan Militia, one of the largest and oldest militia groups in the country: “Thanks for letting us train at Camp Stasa with you guys.”

It isn’t clear that the Ohio Militia is capable of bringing a busload of protesters to Washington, let alone a million or more. But Pale Horse’s call for a gathering of gun-toting militia forces in the nation’s capital brings to mind a similar infamous call to arms issued in 1994 by Patriot movement attorney, filmmaker and conspiracy theorist Linda Thompson. Thompson — who once told the editor of this blog about being personally and repeatedly followed by black helicopters, shot at by mysterious attackers, and having a beloved dog zapped by a secret government ray gun — was probably best known for producing the pseudo-documentary “Waco: The Big Lie,” which alleged a government mass murder in the 1993 standoff in Texas. Although the video was widely circulated, its claims were soon debunked. ( continue to full post… )

Sporting their spiffy new black BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) duds, which have replaced their brown shirts of old, about 100 members of the National Socialist Movement, the largest neo-Nazi organization in the country, marched in St. Louis before holding a rally beneath the city’s landmark Gateway Arch last Saturday.

It was a strong outing for the NSM, which in recent years has suffered from dueling egos and Satan-worshipping scandals that threatened the organization’s top-dog status on the neo-Nazi scene following the implosion of three other neo-Nazi groups — the National Alliance, Aryan Nations and the World Church of the Creator. A few years ago, NSM developed a reputation for its in-your-face style of confrontation, but it has been less active recently as internal disputes wracked the organization.

NSM commander Jeff Schoep even managed to string together a few coherent sound bites.

“If we were given control of the system we’d lock down the borders, we’d institute an America First policy, we’d cut off foreign aid and spending, we’d bring the troops home,” he told one television reporter. “We’d do all kinds of things that I think the American public is for, even some of the non-whites who may not necessarily like everything we stand for.”

You know, little things like mass deportation regardless of citizenship.

The rally at the arch was the highlight of a weekend of NSM festivities marking the 35th anniversary of the group’s founding. According to an “After Action Report” posted to the group’s website, other events included: “A class held for the NSM’s Viking Youth Division by it’s Director M. Sgt. Christina Drake,” the presentation of a documentary video that “featured what NSM California troops have been doing defending America’s Border, and several speeches by various members from the CA Division that were patrolling the California Border while the meeting was in progress in Missouri.” ( continue to full post… )

Here’s a new one, even by Hatewatch’s jaded standards: According to newspaper and television news accounts of this week’s Southern California law enforcement dragnet of the Inland Empire Skinheads, two female gang members were placed under arrest in hospital maternity wards. They were having labor induced to ensure their babies were born on April 20 — the 120th birthday of Adolf Hitler.

Nice parenting. Right from the get go.

Less shocking is the news of yet another major bust of a violent racist skinhead gang in the Inland Empire region, which the Intelligence Report first identified as a hotbed of white-power gangs activity in fall of 2005. As we reported then:

The Inland Empire used to be a sparsely populated, rural area of ranches, vineyards and farms, where whites were the clear and dominant majority.

All that has changed.

Driven from Los Angeles and San Diego by soaring housing prices, middle- and working-class black, Hispanic and Asian families have migrated to the Inland Empire in massive numbers, drawn by a surplus of comparatively affordable, big homes in sprawling, suburban-style developments. … Whites are now a minority in the Inland Empire.

These seismic changes in the region’s racial make-up have corresponded with a steady rise in hate crimes, including a particularly vicious spike in racially motivated violence and harassment…

According to law enforcement authorities, the Inland Empire Skinheads are responsible for murders, drug trafficking, witness intimidation, home invasion robberies and random, racially motivated assaults committed by prospective members. First documented by Riverside, Calif., police in 2002, investigators now estimate the gang has 30 members and roughly 70 associates, including many high school students. ( continue to full post… )

From implying that undocumented immigrants were responsible for the mortgage crisis to promoting falsehoods about a brutal murder in Tennessee, syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin has never let the facts get in the way of her rants.

Now, in a column this week criticizing a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism, Malkin has made another utterly erroneous assertion: “The SPLC,” she wrote, “has designated the venerable American Legion a ‘hate group’ for its stance on immigration enforcement.” The claim rapidly spread to right-wing sites on the Internet and elsewhere.

In fact, the SPLC has never listed the legion as a “hate group” nor put it on any other kind of list. Intelligence Project Director Mark Potok on Thursday wrote Malkin and her syndicate to demand a retraction of the libelous statement. “Your assertion … amounts to reckless disregard of the truth,” he stated in an E-mail sent early Thursday. As of Friday afternoon, however, the SPLC had received no response. Malkin’s columns appear in major newspapers nationwide and are also published online.

In addition to including the misinformation in her April 15 column titled “You Might Be a Radicalized Right-Wing Conservative if…,” Malkin also proclaims the same falsehood in an item she posted the previous day on her blog. In it, she links to another blog called “This ain’t hell,” which she appears to have relied on for her “facts” — never mind that the blog doesn’t even get the SPLC’s name right. “This ain’t hell,” in turn, links to an SPLC blog post that doesn’t come close to asserting that the legion is a hate group. Instead, the story points out numerous misstatements and myths in a legion report on immigration enforcement. The legion later issued an updated report from which the most egregious mistakes had been removed.

Malkin and other right-wing media pundits are in a tizzy about the DHS memo, which they say defames veterans and conservatives generally as potential terrorists. In fact, the report — which identifies several economic and political factors contributing to a surge in rightwing extremism — does no such thing. It merely states that the department “assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.” The SPLC separately investigated the issue and found that a significant number of white supremacists were joining the military to gain access to weapons and combat training. ( continue to full post… )

Today is the 13th annual “Day of Silence,” an event organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to call attention to the bullying of sexual minorities in schools. And the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) is mad.

So mad, in fact, that it put up a ham-handed propaganda video on its website Wednesday, complete with a wicked teacher (who it suggests is a member of the National Education Association union) tossing a Bible in the trash, miserable kids with taped-over mouths forced to participate in the “Day of Silence,” and references to how school calendars have replaced Patriot’s Day and Easter vacation with “Earth Day and spring break” (“a day honoring the bravery of our forefathers and a time marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ supplanted by political correctness and radical environmentalism”). It goes on to describe how homosexuals have worked to be seen as “victims” even as they insidiously promote “tolerance“ and suggests that all is not what it seems.

“Hiding beneath this glossy veneer is the truth that in nearly every study, it is the homosexual who is more likely to abuse alcohol and drugs, to accept abusive relationships, to acquire and spread sexually transmitted disease, to suffer in depression and doubt, even to view suicide as a solution. The median age of death of the homosexual man is 42. Only 9% live past age 65,” the narrator says.

Make that said.

Within hours of putting up the attack video, the IFI had snatched it down. First off, it had suggested the video was produced by a Baptist church in Arizona, but that church notified IFI that it was not the author and publicly denied being in any way involved.  IFI fixed that up pretty quickly, attributing the video to another church, this one in Illinois, when it put back up the revamped video a few hours later. But there was one other little-noticed change, too.

When the video reappeared on the IFI website, two lines of narration had been mysteriously edited out: “The median age of death of the homosexual man is 42. Only 9% live past age 65.” What’s up with that? ( continue to full post… )