A federal judge in Seattle had a short, simple message for a 70-year-old “sovereign citizen” accountant who persuaded other antigovernment activists to file fraudulent tax returns that called for refunds equal to their personal debts.

The tax fraud cost the government $700,000 in erroneous payments. For his work, Bell received a 10 percent cut of the refunds paid to others and a flat fee for each bogus return he filed. He also received a fraudulent refund on his own taxes of approximately $35,000.

“Your scheme … is fraud at its core,” U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton told Raymond Leo Jarlik Bell. “You are hurting people intentionally, regardless of your adherence to [your beliefs].” ( continue to full post… )

We live in frightening times. In Boston, a college student who appears to have been radicalized online may face lethal injection for his alleged role in a terrorist attack that left four people dead and more than 260 wounded. Just a few months ago, in Connecticut, a young man killed 20 young children and six adults before shooting himself with one of numerous guns borrowed from his mother’s arsenal.

While America is searches its soul, attempting to make sense of these and other horrific attacks that have rocked the nation with disturbing regularity over the last several years, gun rights absolutists have flooded the Internet and airwaves with wild-eyed talk of sinister government plans to undermine the Second Amendment and disarm harmless American patriots.

At the bottom of the barrel are those who seek to profit off these national tragedies. That’s where you’ll find Caleb Lee, a veteran huckster who has partnered with WorldNetDaily, Glenn Beck and others to offer anyone with $27 information on how to built a completely untraceable AR-15 assault rifle in the comfort of their own garage. ( continue to full post… )

With W-2s and 1040s in the mail, tax season is getting into full swing. And even white nationalists have to pay their taxes if they’re not living off the grid. But where does a proud Aryan go to find a tax preparer who understands the special needs of white people?

They needn’t look any farther than the classifieds at Stormfront.org, the massive Web forum run by a former Alabama Klan leader in West Palm Beach, Fla. Under “Tax Preparation” is this ad: “Please stop using main Jew owned tax services from H&R Block and use one of your own! Please share and pass along.” ( continue to full post… )

Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition! When it comes to finding bargains for its subscribers, the team at WorldNetDaily, Joseph Farah’s conspiracy-mongering online publication, is never at a loss. Yesterday, in an E-mail titled “Gun Control Imminent – Stock Up Now!” they offered up a real sweetheart: “Burnin Hot Deals” from USA Ammo (motto: “Ammunition with Attitude”), which is offering a free Hat, T-Shirt, & DVD with every gift card purchase.

The ammo supplier has some useful information for those who’ve been putting off their gun purchases.

“USAAmmo.com believes tyranny is knocking down the doors of American cities daily,” the ad confides. “The recent Occupy Wall Street protests and liberal attempts at gun control are eerily reminiscent to [sic] the rise of Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin. Barack Obama and Erick [sic] Holder, gun control advocates, are secretly conspiring to strip American Citizens of the right to bear arms.” ( continue to full post… )

Federal fugitive David Earl Burgert would likely find a survivalist, government-bashing event set for this weekend much to his liking. What’s more, it would probably be convenient — after all, it’s just down the road from a shootout he allegedly had last Sunday with deputies in western Montana.

On Saturday, a group of self-described constitutionalists and “Patriots” called the Flathead Liberty Bell will host a “Preparedness Expo” at Valley Victory Christian Church in Kalispell. That’s the same community where Burgert lived in 2002, when he headed a secret militia group called “Project 7” whose activities sent him to federal prison on weapons charges for eight years.

Those scheduled to speak at the survivalist gathering include antigovernment headliners Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, a group of law enforcement officers, members of the military and veterans with a conspiratorial bent; Chuck Baldwin, a former presidential candidate of the far-right Constitution Party; former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, a hero to many Patriots for challenging a 1990s gun control law; and “special guest” Randy Weaver, a white supremacist who engaged in a famous standoff on Ruby Ridge with federal authorities in 1992. ( continue to full post… )

UPDATE: The manufacturer of Silver Bullet Gun Oil, who goes by the name Midnite Rider, contacted Hatewatch late last night in response to an interview request. In the brief E-mail exchange that followed, he continued his attack on Islam and refused to reveal his identity. “I don’t have 24 hour full security detail like our president,” he wrote. In response to concerns the story raised, his only reply was that he hoped his gun oil would offend Muslims. “It is designed as an affront to an entire belief structure,” he wrote. “You have seen what the people this oil is designed for did to folks who draw simple cartoons or burn certain pieces of paper, right? Benefiting mankind does not exempt one from the wrath of the insane.”

A mysterious company called Silver Bullet Gun Oil has begun selling a line of products for automatic weapons that allegedly contains 13% liquefied pig fat for the expressed purpose of killing Muslims and denying them “a place in paradise,” Hatewatch has learned.

“No longer is paradise guaranteed to the so-called ‘Martyrs’ who die for Allah,” one YouTube video advertisement proclaims in text. “You are fools, on a fool’s mission. Lied to and led by False Prophets and Cowards. … You cannot win, and Will be consigned to Allah’s Hell for eternity if you die from a weapon using Silver Bullet Gun Oil!” ( continue to full post… )

The U.S. government wants ownership of $7 million worth of coins manufactured and sold by Bernard von NotHaus, a 67-year-old antigovernment icon who became a “high priest” in his own marijuana-smoking church.

A federal jury in Statesville, N.C., decided on March 18 that the “Liberty Dollars” and other silver, gold and copper coins manufactured in North Idaho and sold throughout the United States by von NotHaus and his sales team violated federal laws. Von NotHaus, the founder of the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act (NORFED), was convicted on charges of conspiracy and two counterfeiting-related charges.

No sentencing date has been set for von NotHaus, who could get up to 15 years in prison. Three other co-defendants are still awaiting a separate trial.

The Liberty Dollars are still a hit with some coin collectors without a political or philosophical agenda. But most buyers, it appears, came from the ranks of anti-tax or radical “sovereign citizen” movements. The common denominator: challenging the authority of the federal government to tax and regulate, along with the notion that the Federal Reserve is controlled by private Jewish bankers. ( continue to full post… )

Roanoke, Va., neo-Nazi leader Bill White has become embroiled in yet another investigation by the federal government. U.S. attorneys recently issued a subpoena ordering the Yahoo! Internet service provider to turn over any E-mail exchanges between White and John Crockett Henry, a Virginia Beach landlord accused in a complaint filed in May 2007 of violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against African-American tenants. A lawsuit, filed by the Department of Justice based on the complaint, is scheduled for trial in federal court on May 19.

The civil rights lawsuit against Henry, which stems from a complaint made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), was brought on behalf of five African Americans who say Henry insulted them with racial slurs and imposed strict tenant rules on the basis of race. White inserted himself into the matter by mailing to the tenants copies of his American National Socialist Workers Party newsletter. The newsletter referred to African Americans as “niggers” and made other derogatory references. White also mailed personal letters to the tenants that said, in part: “[K]now that the white community has noticed you and we know that you are and will never be anything more than a dirty parasite — and that our patience with you and the government that coddles you runs thin.”

“Bill White sent very threatening letters to our clients,” Jason Manning, one of the tenants’ attorneys, told Hatewatch. “We just want to know the extent of the relationship between Mr. White and Mr. Henry.” Manning and other plaintiffs’ attorneys believe there may have been collusion between White and Henry. ( continue to full post… )

The white nationalist world is filled with any manner of oddball schemes, but a recent advertisement in the race science publication American Renaissance for “saving” the white race through the use of “Positive Subliminal Audio Programming” has got to take the cake for kookiest.

Alexander Thiele of the Legion of Joan of Arc blog proposes that for white nationalists to “safeguard [their] ethnic genetic interests,” they must counter destructive PC propaganda, which he calls negative subliminal audio programming, that whites are subjected to every day. That programming supposedly interferes with whites’ ability to understand that their true interests are in saving the white race — not hanging out with people of color.

Thiele came to this understanding of how whites went wrong after reading a 2006 article by anti-Semitic theorist Kevin MacDonald, a psychology professor at California State Long Beach, in the white supremacist journal, The Occidental Quarterly. The article argued that although “ethnic tendencies are automatic,” the mass media and our multicultural society’s “cultural programming” is somehow interfering with these natural processes — and thus stopping white nationalism from taking off. (For more on Kevin MacDonald’s anti-Semitic body of work, see here.)

So what does Alexander propose that whites should do? Lucky for white nationalists, Thiele says he has already created a way to bring “self programmed positive subliminal audio into our people’s daily routines.” He created a “subliminal, hypnotic guided meditation called Destiny and another piece, a pure subliminal called Winning.” The audiotapes are composed of tones that supposedly stimulate the frontal cortex and “synchronize both hemispheres of the brain which unifies and protects the mind from the enemies [sic] negative subliminal assault.”

Worried that Thiele’s Aryan tones might not work? Just listen to this American Renaissance conference-goer’s testimonial: “My wife and I had not been doing very well. We were edgy, finding fault with each other and talking about a divorce. … So I did what you suggested; put the CD on the home stereo and let it repeat on track one for a month. After two weeks things smoothed out a little. … After a year we made a good deal on a better house. I have some very interesting new job offers which I have not acted on yet because I want to do it right. My level of political activity has increased considerably. My wife and I have not spoken about divorce since before listening to the CD.”