Since the SPLC warned the U.S. military about extremist activity among active-duty personnel in 2006, the Pentagon brass has steadfastly denied that a problem existed and insisted that its “zero-tolerance” policy was sufficient to keep organized racists out of its ranks.

That changed this past November, when the Pentagon quietly tightened its policy on extremist activity, which formerly only banned “active participation” in extremist groups but did not define what that meant.

Under the new regulations, military personnel “must not actively advocate supremacist doctrine, ideology or causes” or “otherwise advance efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights.” The new rules specify that “active participation” includes activities such as recruiting, fundraising, demonstrating or rallying, training, organizing and distributing supremacist material, including online posts.

The revision should give commanders ample new tools to root out racial extremists in their midst. The previous policy, in effect since the mid-1990s, could be interpreted to mean that military personnel were allowed to be “mere members” of hate groups or that they could engage in unaffiliated extremist activities — such as posting racist and anti-Semitic messages to social networking websites and e-mail lists or maintaining online profiles filled with racist materials. As the SPLC has repeatedly pointed out, the policy allowed numerous active-duty members to engage in a range of supremacist activities.
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Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism” report. Broad-based populist anger at political, demographic and economic changes in America ignited an explosion of new extremist groups and activism across the nation.

The SPLC documented a 244 percent increase in the number of active “Patriot” groups in 2009. “Patriot” groups and the paramilitary arm of the movement, the militias, are steeped in wild, antigovernment conspiracy theories and see the federal government as their enemy. Their numbers grew from 149 groups in 2008 to 512 groups in 2009, an astonishing addition of 363 new groups in a single year. Militias were a major part of the increase, growing from 42 in 2008 to 127 in 2009.

The numbers back up an August report by the SPLC, “The Second Wave: Return of the Militias,” that first documented the return of antigovernment extremist groups. The movement came roaring back to life after more than a decade of decline. The increase is worrying as the 1990s Patriot movement was associated with high levels of violence, most dramatically the Oklahoma City bombing that left 168 people dead.

The growth of Patriot groups comes at a time when the number of hate groups stayed at record levels – rising from 926 in 2008 to 932 in 2009, according to the report. The increase caps a decade in which the number of hate groups surged by 55 percent. The expansion would have been much greater in 2009 if not for the demise of the American National Socialist Workers Party, a key neo-Nazi network whose founder was arrested in October 2008.

There also has been a surge in “nativist extremist” groups – vigilante organizations that go beyond advocating strict immigration policy and actually confront or harass suspected immigrants. These groups grew from 173 groups in 2008 to 309 in 2009, a rise of nearly 80 percent.

These three strands of the radical right – the hate groups, the nativist extremist groups, and the Patriot organizations – are the most volatile elements on the American political landscape. Taken together, their numbers increased by more than 40 percent, rising from 1,248 groups in 2008 to 1,753 last year.

Hatewatch recently posted a report about private E-mails of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) showing up on the Internet. While that post focused on the infighting that has dogged America’s largest neo-Nazi group, some of the E-mails also shed light on a more serious matter: racial extremists in the military.

The E-mails show that several people who identified themselves as active military personnel contacted NSM over the past two years to express interest in the organization, including at least one soldier who subsequently joined. Their inquiries were among more than 600 NSM E-mails that were posted late last month to the website wikileaks.org, which publishes leaked documents. The E-mails had been sent to a hotmail account maintained by an NSM member whose responsibilities included corresponding with potential recruits.

The NSM E-mails from military personnel provide more evidence that racial extremists are infiltrating the military and that service members are being recruited by hate groups. Since 2006, the Southern Poverty Law Center has provided the military with information about white supremacist activity in its ranks. In July, the SPLC asked Congress to investigate the problem and to take steps to ensure that the armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists.

Asked if the servicemen who contacted NSM would face consequences if they were still in the military, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk said department policy prohibits active participation in “supremacist” groups. But enforcement of that policy falls to the individual service branches. “The Department works closely with its criminal investigative agencies and the FBI to ensure that gang or extremist activity in the military is aggressively investigated and appropriately prosecuted,” he wrote in an E-mail, “and that new accessions [recruits] are rigorously screened to deny entry to those who do not renounce participation in criminal gangs and activities.”

However, the policy sometimes has been interpreted to mean that military personnel are allowed to be “mere members” of hate groups or to engage in unaffiliated extremist activities, such as posting racist and anti-Semitic messages to social networking websites and E-mail lists or maintaining online profiles filled with racist materials. Melnyk said in his E-mail that the Defense Department believes it “is broad and inclusive in its definition of ‘active participation,’ and encourages commanders to pursue and weed out service members who actively participate in these type of groups.”

Among those who contacted NSM was an infantryman who identified himself as Kyle R. Wrobel. Writing from a hotmail contact, Wrobel told NSM that he was from Cleveland, Ohio. “i am a sergeant in the US Army infantry, currently serving my second combat tour to iraq,” he wrote on Jan. 17, 2008. “i vehemently support your cause, ( continue to full post… )

Like most hate groups, the National Socialist Movement (NSM) conducts virtually all its business in secret. So leaders of America’s largest neo-Nazi group couldn’t have been happy last week when hundreds of its private E-mails appeared on the Internet.

The messages — more than 600 of them dated between July 2007 and August 2009 — are posted to the website wikileaks.org, which publishes leaked documents. They were sent to a hotmail account maintained by an NSM member identified as William Herring, a self-described ex-con who handled correspondence for the group. They provide a glimpse into the inner world of the NSM, whose members seem to spend almost as much time at each other’s throats as they do standing up for the white race.

Among the highlights was a major dust-up in fall 2007 that featured claims of Jewish collaboration and led to the ouster or resignation of several key members, including the group’s 2008 presidential candidate. On Oct. 3, 2007, NSM leader Jeff Schoep wrote an “internal party memo” urging members to stop squabbling. “When Col. Bishop and I have to play babysitter, and talk to people about drama, it makes us, all of you, and our Party look foolish,” he wrote. “America is being overrun with Mexicans and other invaders, instead of expelling certain people, these members and the Party are better served if the drama is saved for the playground, and we all get back to work.” Two weeks later, he adopted a harder line in another E-mail to NSM members. “The NSM does not operate as a Democracy, your pledge of Loyalty is to the Party and its Leadership. Honor your Oath, and your Pledge of Loyalty to the Party, or get out of our Ranks now while you still can!”

In mid-October 2007, Schoep took aim at former NSM regional leader Jim Ramm, an alias for Matthew Ramsey, in a flurry of E-mails. “Jim Ramm is collaborating with the ADL [Anti-Defamation League],” Schoep declared in a message dated Oct. 18. He also forwarded an E-mail titled “giving it to the jews” in which Ramm, who served as webmaster for NSM’s nukeisrael website, supposedly threatened to give the site to the ADL. Ramm later asserted that the E-mail was a fake and denied contact with “the Jews.” He attacked Schoep in a rambling Oct. 21 E-Mail, alleging that Schoep had covered up for an associate who was coming on to Ramm’s then-girlfriend. He complained that in 2006, NSM records grossed over $110,000 in sales, yet wasn’t required to report profits to members. “NSM members are expected to just smile and just hope Commander is spending the money wisely,” he said. “NSM members make no mistake: Jeff Schoep is in this just for the money and he really doesn’t give a damn about the White Race.” ( continue to full post… )

Racial extremists aren’t known for their brevity, but hate in 140 characters or less is starting to flourish thanks to Twitter, the social messaging service that allows users to provide constant updates for friends, family and just about everyone else.

Hatewatch has counted more than a dozen Twitter accounts associated with hate groups ranging from the League of the South to the Jewish Defense League to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. For those unfamiliar with the Twitter fad, it allows users to send very brief messages (known as “tweets”) that others can opt to receive by cell phone, instant message or the Twitter website. According to its rules, Twitter does not censor users’ posts except in limited cases, such as when they include threats of violence or confidential information.

Here’s a sampling of tweets and partial tweets that Hatewatch found during a recent tour of Twitter:

•    From Stormfront: “Breaking News: Whites are really getting screwed these days.” (The tweet, which refers to affirmative action, also includes a link to a post on Stormfront, the world’s leading white supremacist Web forum.)

•    From the anti-immigrant group American Patrol: “William Gheen (ALIPAC) is an idiot.” (Glenn Spencer, the leader of American Patrol, is feuding with Gheen, head of another nativist group called Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, over accused double murderer Shawna Forde’s alleged links to Spencer’s group, which Spencer denies.)

•    From the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim Jewish Defense League: “We’ve decided not to take any vacations to Islam-loving Hawaii. There are 49 other states to visit. And we love to travel in Israel too!”

•    From the Traditional Values Coalition, a  virulently anti-gay group federation of churches based in Washington, D.C.: “Gay Agenda on Fast-Track in Congress.”

•     From “Life_of_a_Nazi,” also known as Kris Johnson, Wisconsin state leader for the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement: “Dinner time…Family time…important time for a National Socialist.”

Although white supremacists and other racial extremists haven’t yet rushed wholesale to use Twitter, they have been among the first to adopt all kinds of new technologies in recent years. They began using early computer bulletin boards long before the general population, and also were among the first to set up Web pages and interactive fora including dating pages. They also were early builders of video games, typically with a racist slant, that users can play via their computers.

The BBC reported today that five American right-wing extremists were among 16 individuals banned from entering the United Kingdom since last October for reasons of “fostering extremism or hatred.”

According to a new report from the Home Office (the lead U.K. government department for immigration and passports), the five Americans and the reasons they were not allowed into the U.K. were:

• Stephen Donald Black, a.k.a. Don Black, former Alabama Klan leader and creator of the white nationalist online forum Stormfront, banned for “promoting serious criminal activity and fostering hatred that might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.”

• Erich Gliebe, chairman of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, for “engaging in unacceptable behaviour by justifying terrorist violence, provoking others to commit serious crime and fostering racial hatred.”

• Fred Phelps, Sr., and Shirley Phelps Roper, leaders of the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, for “picket[ing] the funerals of Aids victims and [claiming] the deaths of American soldiers are a punishment for US tolerance of homosexuality.”

• Michael Alan Weiner, a.k.a. Michael Savage, right-wing talk radio host, for “seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred.” The Home Office also noted that Savage’s “views on immigration, Islam, rape and autism have caused great offence in the US.”

Other individuals banned from entering the U.K. in the past six months include Muslim extremists, a Jewish militant and two Russian skinhead gang leaders.

All across the nation on April 15, protesters of various stripes will stage “tea parties” that are supposed to conjure up images of the American colonists’ iconic 1773 protest of British tax policy. Similarities between the events are few, however. While the colonists were objecting to an increase in the tax they had to pay on tea from England that they said amounted to taxation without representation, the modern-day protesters are taking issue with everything from the federal stimulus package to undocumented workers, as well as a federal income system they believe needs to be overhauled or eliminated.

Demonstrators won’t be doing anything so dramatic as dumping loads of tea in a harbor in Boston Harbor. In Livingston, Tex., for example, marchers are asked to bring a teabag to be dropped in a tub of water. Atlanta organizers are asking for canned food to be donated to a food bank.

There already were national tea party events in more than 40 cities on Feb. 27, and additional protests earlier this month. But April 15, the deadline for filing federal income tax returns, is the main event. One of the tea party organizers says that protests are scheduled in more than 2,000 cities. And April 15 may not be the end of them. A “cowboy tea party,” for example, is scheduled for July 4 in Cheyenne, Wyo. ( continue to full post… )

Southern Poverty Law Center president Richard Cohen and Mark Potok, editor of this blog and the Intelligence Report magazine, will host a live webcast at 2 p.m. (EDT) on March 18 to discuss the SPLC’s recently released annual count of hate groups.

This year’s report documented 926 hate groups operating in the United States, representing a 54 percent increase since 2000. Potok and Cohen will discuss the factors fueling the growth of hate groups in the United States.

They will accept questions before and during the 30-minute audio webcast.

This event is closed. An audio archive is posted on iTunes (links below).

 

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Last week, we released our annual hate group count in the latest edition of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report. The key finding was that the number of hate groups operating in the United States continued to rise in 2008 and has grown by 54% since 2000 — an increase fueled last year by immigration fears, a failing economy and the successful campaign of Barack Obama.

The SPLC identified 926 hate groups active in 2008, up more than 4% from the 888 groups in 2007 and far above the 602 groups documented in 2000. A list and interactive, state-by-state map of these groups can be viewed here.

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by fears of Latino immigration. This rise in hate groups has coincided with a 40% growth in hate crimes against Latinos between 2003 and 2007, according to FBI statistics. But two additional factors were introduced to the volatile hate movement in 2008: the faltering economy and the Obama campaign.

Several white supremacists have been arrested while allegedly plotting to kill Obama, and following the election he received more threats than any previous president-elect. Scores of racially charged incidents — beatings, effigy burnings, racist graffiti, threats and intimidation — were reported across the country after the election. Extremists are also exploiting the economic crisis, spreading propaganda that blames minorities and immigrants for the subprime mortgage meltdown. Tough economic times historically provide fertile ground for extremist movements.

A Nashville, Tenn., sheriff who’s been criticized for his crackdown on undocumented immigrants recently spoke at a white supremacist gathering.

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall addressed the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white nationalist hate group, at a dinner meeting last Nov. 22. Descended from the pro-segregationist White Citizens’ Councils (also known as the uptown Klan), the CCC has described blacks as a “retrograde species of humanity” and “genetically inferior,” compared pop singer Michael Jackson to an ape, and condemned “race-mixing.”

Hall’s appearance at the Middle Tennessee CCC meeting was reported in the latest issue of the Citizens Informer, the CCC’s in-house publication. “The meeting drew the largest attendance in 12 years, with many youth in attendance,” the newsletter noted.

Karla Weikal, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said the Middle Tennessee CCC asked Hall to talk to the group about his immigration enforcement program. She said Hall often speaks to private groups about issues related to the sheriff’s office and was not aware of the CCC’s racist beliefs. “Those views would certainly not be views that Sheriff Hall would support. Absolutely not,” Weikal said. “He went before that group to provide information about a program that the sheriff’s office participates in. Period. It was not an endorsement of this organization.”

But critics of the sheriff’s handling of immigration enforcement said Hall should have known better. “I am shocked that he would appear before such a group,” said Nashville immigration lawyer Elliott Ozment. “Any claim that he might make that he did not know the nature of this group is really no excuse. He has staff that should be checking out these things.”

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