CQResearcher - Maxwell School

Hate GroupsIs extremism on the rise in the United States?

National crises create opportunities for extremists.

Today the global economic crisis now wreaking

havoc on millions of American households is

hitting while the first black president is in the

White House and the national debate over illegal immigration re-

mains unresolved. Already, some far-right extremists are proclaim-

ing that their moment is arriving. Indeed, an annual tally by the

Southern Poverty Law Center shows 926 hate groups operating in

2008, a 50 percent increase over the number in 2000. And the

Department of Homeland Security concludes that conditions may

favor far-right recruitment. But a mix of conservatives and liberal

free-speech activists warn that despite concerns about extremism,

the administration of Barack Obama should not be intruding on

constitutionally protected political debate. Some extremism-monitoring

groups say Obama’s election showed far-right power is waning,

not strengthening. But that equation may change if the economic

crisis deepens, the experts caution.

I

N

S

I

D

E

THE ISSUES ......................423

BACKGROUND ..................430

CHRONOLOGY ..................431

CURRENT SITUATION ..........435

AT ISSUE ..........................439

OUTLOOK ........................441

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................445

THE NEXT STEP ................446

THISREPORT

Followers of the neo-Nazi National SocialistMovement demonstrate at the opening of the Illinois

Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Ill., on April 19, 2009.

CQResearcherPublished by CQ Press, A Division of SAGE

www.cqresearcher.com

CQ Researcher • May 8, 2009 • www.cqresearcher.comVolume 19, Number 18 • Pages 421-448

RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR

EXCELLENCE ◆ AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD

422 CQ Researcher

THE ISSUES

423 • Could the election of ablack president and the eco-nomic crisis spark far-rightpolitical activity or violence?• Are immigrants in dangerfrom extremist violence?• Is right-wing and ex-tremist speech encouraginghate crimes?

BACKGROUND

430 Building MovementsHatred of Jews played akey role.

432 Fighting and KillingChristian Identity sympathiz-ers embraced extremism.

434 Explosion and AftermathViolence further intensifiedin the 1990s.

CURRENT SITUATION

435 Hate in AprilHitler’s birth month beginsthe extremist rally season.

437 Free Speech, Hate SpeechThe government has beenaccused of underminingradical ideas.

438 Recruiting VeteransMilitary training is valuedby neo-Nazi supremacists.

OUTLOOK

441 Guns in HolstersExtremists say they arebiding their time.

SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS

424 Hate Groups Active in AllBut Two StatesHate groups were active inall the states except Hawaiiand Alaska in 2008.

425 Dozens of Extremist EventsAre Planned This SummerMany are being held in KKKstrongholds.

428 Hate Groups Increasedby 50 PercentThe number of hate groupsactive in the United States in-creased to 926 in 2008.

431 ChronologyKey events since 1934.

432 Concern About ExtremismRising in EuropeCzech Republic expels ex-Klanleader Duke.

436 ‘Fascism’ Label Comes inHandy for CriticsBut respected writers say it’sa legitimate — if unlikely —concern.

439 At IssueIs anti-immigration rhetoricprovoking hate crimes againstLatinos?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

444 For More InformationOrganizations to contact.

445 BibliographySelected sources used.

446 The Next StepAdditional articles.

447 Citing CQ ResearcherSample bibliography formats.

HATE GROUPS

Cover: Getty Images/Scott Olson

MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. [email protected]

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy [email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost

STAFF WRITERS: Thomas J. Billitteri, Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rachel Cox, Sarah Glazer, Alan Greenblatt,

Barbara Mantel, Patrick Marshall, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks

DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa

FACT-CHECKING: Eugene J. Gabler, Michelle Harris

EDITORIAL INTERN: Vyomika Jairam

A Division of SAGE

PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER:John A. Jenkins

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, REFERENCE INFORMATION GROUP:

Alix B. Vance

Copyright © 2009 CQ Press, A Division of SAGE.

SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein,

unless previously specified in writing. No part of this

publication may be reproduced electronically or oth-

erwise, without prior written permission. Unautho-

rized reproduction or transmission of SAGE copyright-

ed material is a violation of federal law carrying civil

fines of up to $100,000.

CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional

Quarterly Inc.

CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid-

free paper. Published weekly, except; (Jan. wk. 1)

(May wk. 4) (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov.

wk. 4) and (Dec. wk. 4), by CQ Press, a division of

SAGE Publications. Annual full-service subscriptions

start at $803. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020, ext. 1906.

To purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or elec-

tronic format (PDF), visit www. cqpress.com or call

866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk pur-

chase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also

available. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C.,

and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send

address changes to CQ Researcher, 2300 N St., N.W.,

Suite 800, Washington, DC 20037.

May 8, 2009Volume 19, Number 18

CQResearcher

May 8, 2009 423www.cqresearcher.com

Hate Groups

THE ISSUESTwo police officers

drove up to a brickhouse in the middle-

class Pittsburgh neighborhoodof Stanton Heights on April 4,responding to an emergencycall from a woman about her22-year-old son. “I want himgone,” Margaret Poplawski tolda 911 operator. 1

She also said that he hadweapons, but the operatorfailed to share that crucial in-formation with the police,who apparently took no spe-cial precautions in respond-ing. Seconds after officersStephen J. Mayhle and PaulJ. Sciullo walked into thehouse, Richard Poplawskiopened fire, killing both men.He then shot and killed EricKelly, a policeman outsidethe house. After a four-hourstandoff, Poplawski surren-dered. 2 Hours after that, theAnti-Defamation League anda Pittsburgh Post-Gazette re-porter traced a March 13 Web post byPoplawski to the neo-Nazi Web siteStormfront.

“The federal government, main-stream media and banking system inthese United States are strongly underthe influence of — if not complete-ly controlled by — Zionist interest,”the post said. “An economic collapseof the financial system is inevitable,bringing with it some degree of civilunrest if not outright balkanization ofthe continental U.S., civil/revolution-ary/racial war. . . . This collapse islikely engineered by the elite Jewishpowers that be in order to make fora power and asset grab.” 3

Obsessions with Jewish conspira-cy, racial conflict and looming col-lapse of the political and social order

have long festered in the extreme out-posts of U.S. political culture. Whileextremists typically become active intimes of social and economic stress,Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma Citybomber, struck in 1995 during a rel-atively tranquil, prosperous time. (See“Background,” p. 435.)

Now, law enforcement officials warn,dire conditions throughout the coun-try have created a perfect storm ofprovocations for right-wing extremists.In the midst of fighting two wars, thecountry is suffering an economic cri-sis in which more than 5 million peo-ple have lost their jobs, while the hy-percharged debate over immigration— and the presence of about 12 mil-lion illegal immigrants — continuesunresolved. 4

“This is the formula — theformula for hate,” says JamesCavanaugh, special agent incharge of the Bureau of Al-cohol, Tobacco, Firearms andExplosives (ATF) Nashville,Tenn., division and a veter-an investigator of far-right ex-tremists. “Everything’s align-ing for them for hate.”

The Department of Home-land Security (DHS) drew asimilar conclusion in earlyApril, adding a concernover the apparent rekin-dling of extremist interest inrecruiting disaffected militaryveterans.

“The consequences of aprolonged economic down-turn . . . could create a fer-tile recruiting environmentfor right-wing extremists andeven result in confrontationsbetween such groups andgovernment authorities,”the DHS said. 5

The election of BarackObama as the nation’s firstAfrican-American presidentalso could prompt an ex-

tremist backlash. “Obama is going tobe the spark that arouses the whitemovement,” the Detroit-based Nation-al Socialist Movement * — considereda leading neo-Nazi organization — an-nounced on its Web site. 6

But the Obama effect will be neg-ligible among hardcore, violent ex-tremists, says an ex-FBI agent whoworked undercover in right-wing ter-rorist cells in the early 1990s. “They’rein an alternative universe,” says MikeGerman, author of the 2007 bookThinking Like a Terrorist, and now apolicy counselor to the American CivilLiberties Union on national-securityissues. “When you believe the American

BY PETER KATEL

Richard Poplawski, 22, faces murder charges inPittsburgh after allegedly shooting and killing threepolice officers on April 4, 2009. Three weeks earlier,

Poplawski, who tatooed on his chest what he reportedlydescribed as an “Americanized” Nazi eagle, apparentlyposted an anti-Semitic message on Stormfront, a neo-Nazi Web site. The number of active hate groups in the

nation has jumped to 926 groups — a 50 percentincrease — since 2000.

* “Nazi” is the German-language contractionof “National Socialist.”

424 CQ Researcher

government is the puppet of Israel,whether Obama is the face of the gov-ernment instead of George W. Bushmakes little difference.”

Indeed, says Columbia Universityhistorian Robert O. Paxton, the Obamavictory demonstrated that the coun-try’s worrisome conditions haven’tsparked widespread rejection of thepolitical system — the classic catalystfor major upsurges of extremism.“Sure, we have a black president, butif the Right were really at the door,we wouldn’t have elected him,” saysPaxton, a leading scholar of Europeanfascism. (See sidebar, p. 434.)

Still, Paxton and others caution thatthe sociopolitical effects of the eco-nomic crisis may take a while to hit.The Montgomery, Ala.-based SouthernPoverty Law Center (SPLC), whichtracks the Ku Klux Klan and other“hate groups,” reports activity by 926such groups in 2008, a 50 percent in-crease over the number in 2000. 7

“That is a real and a significant rise,”says Mark Potok, director of the cen-

ter’s Intelligence Project. Despite theincreased activity, the center says there’snothing approaching a mass move-ment. Moreover, drawing connectionsbetween extremist organizations andhate crimes can be complicated.

“Most hate crimes are not com-mitted by members of organizedhate groups,” says Chip Berlet, se-nior analyst for Political ResearchAssociates of Somerville, Mass., whohas been writing about the far rightfor a quarter-century. “These groupshelp promote violence through theiraggressive rhetoric. But you’re morelikely to be victim of hate crime froma neighbor.”

For example, three young menfrom Staten Island, N.Y., charged withbeating a 17-year-old Liberian immi-grant into a coma on presidential elec-tion night last year were not accusedof membership in anything more thana neighborhood gang. Their victim,who also lives on Staten Island, saidhis attackers, one of them Hispanic,yelled “Obama” as they set on him. 8

Mental health problems also mayplay a role in such violence, not allof which is inspired by hate rhetoric.In the single deadliest attack on im-migrants in memory, Jiverly Wongis charged with killing 13 people(and then himself) at an immigrants’service center in Binghamton, N.Y.,one day before Poplawski’s allegedkillings in Pittsburgh. Eleven ofWong’s victims were immigrants,like Wong, a native of Vietnam. Wongleft a note in which he complainedof his limited English-speaking abil-ity and depicted himself as a victimof police persecution. 9

But in other recent cases in whichimmigrants were targeted, the allegedshooters did invoke far-right views.Keith Luke, 22, who lived with hismother in the Boston suburb ofBrockton, was charged in Januarywith killing a young woman, shoot-ing and raping her sister and killinga 72-year-old man — all immigrantsfrom Cape Verde. His planned nextstop, police said, was a synagogue.Luke, whom one law enforcementsource described as a “recluse,” al-legedly told police he was “fightingextinction” of white people. 10

A similar motive was expressed bya 60-year-old Destin, Fla., man chargedwith killing two Chilean students andwounding three others, all visitingFlorida as part of a cultural-exchangeprogram. Shortly before the killings,Dannie Roy Baker had asked a neigh-bor, “Are you ready for the revolu-tion?” And last summer, he had sente-mails to Walton County RepublicanParty officials — who forwarded themto the sheriff’s office. One said, inpart, “The Washington D.C. Dictatorshave already confessed to rigging elec-tions in our States for their recruitingdictators to overthrow us with foreignillegals here.” 11

Some immigrant advocates say suchcomments indicate that extremists areexploiting resentment of immigrants inthe hope of stirring up more attacks.

HATE GROUPS

Hate Groups Active in All But Two States

Hate groups were active in all the states except Hawaii and Alaska in 2008, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Iowa, California, Texas and Mississippi had the largest concentrations of groups.

N.Y.

Ohio

Texas

Va.

Minn.

Iowa

Mo.

Calif.

Nev.

Ore.

Colo.

Wash.

Idaho

Mont.

Utah

Ariz. N.M.

Wyo.

N.D.

S.D.

Alaska

Okla.Ark.

La.

Ill.

Miss.

Tenn.

Ga.

Conn.

Mass.R.I.

MaineVt.

W.Va.N.J.

Del.

Md.Ala.

Fla.

Wis.

Mich.

Ind.

N.C.S.C.

N.H.

Kan.Ky.

Hawaii

D.C.

Source: “The Year in Hate,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 2009

Neb.Pa.

66

1

22

2019

815

4

30

66

23 16 23

11

38

66 36 40

56

45

0

0

19

513

84

277

12 61

48

1023

24

37

14 26

30

132

40

4

13

8

5

12

2


“It is the perfect vehicle, particu-larly with the decline of the econo-my,” says Eric Ward, national field di-rector of the Chicago-based Center forNew Community, which works withimmigrants. “With American anxietybuilding, they hope that they can useimmigrants as scapegoats to build theirmovement.”

“Illegals are turning America intoa third-world slum,” says one of aseries of leaflets distributed in theNew Haven, Conn., area in earlyMarch by North-East White Pride(NEWP). “They come for welfare, orto take our jobs and bring with themdrugs, crime and disease.”

The NEWP Web site carries the cryp-tic slogan, “Support your local 1488.”In neo-Nazi code, “88” represents“Heil Hitler,” words that begin withthe eighth letter in the alphabet. And“14” stands for an infamous, 14-wordracist dictum: “We must secure the ex-istence of our people and a future forwhite children.” Its author was the lateDavid Lane, a member of the violentneo-Nazi organization, The Order, whodied in prison in 2007. 12

The Order, whose crimes includedthe murder of a Jewish radio talk-show host in Denver in 1984, sprangfrom the far-right milieu, as did Ok-lahoma City bomber McVeigh. And asource of inspiration in both cases wasa novel glorifying genocide of Jews andblacks, The Turner Diaries, authoredby the late William Pierce, founder ofthe neo-Nazi National Alliance, basedin West Virginia. 13

Pierce’s death from cancer in2002 was one of a series of devel-opments that left a high-level leader-ship vacuum in the extremist move-ment. One of those trying to fill itis Billy Roper, 37, chairman ofWhite Revolution, a group based inRussellville, Ark. Roper predicts thatracial-ethnic tensions will explodewhen nonstop immigration from LatinAmerica forces the violent breakupof the United States.

Dozens of Extremist Events Planned This Summer

More than two dozen gatherings of white extremists will be held around the nation this summer, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Many are being held in traditional Ku Klux Klan (KKK) strongholds in the South and Midwest by groups such as the KKK, National Socialist Movement and Christian Identity organizations.

Source: Anti-Defamation League

Upcoming Extremist Events in the United States(Partial list, May-October)

Location Event

Russelville, Ala. Courthouse rally organized by Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Odessa, Mo. Paramilitary training organized by the Missouri Militia.

Phoenix, Ariz. Gathering organized by neo-Nazi Nationalist Coalition Arizona with invitations to members of Stormfront, a hate Web site.

York County, Pa. Open meeting of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement for current and interested members.

Marshall, Texas KKK cookout on private property organized by the United White Knights.

Las Vegas, Nev. Workshop organized by Paper Advantage, a sovereign citizen group advocating right-wing anarchy.

Champaign Paramilitary training with the Unorganized Militia of County, Ohio Champaign County.

Burlington, N.C. Conference organized by the neo-Confederate North Carolina Chapter of League of the South.

New Albany, KKK rally at county courthouse followed by a Miss. gathering and cross-burning on private property.

Dawson Springs, Annual Nordic Fest white power rally organized by Ky. the Imperial Klans of America.

Oceana and Camping trip organized by the white-supremacist Muskegon forum White Pride Michigan. counties, Mich.

Schell City, Mo. National youth conference organized by Church of Israel, whose followers practice Christian Identity, a racist and anti-Semitic religion.

Jackson, Miss. Annual national conference of racist group Council of Conservative Citizens.

Sandpoint, Idaho Weekend conference organized by America’s Promise Ministries, practitioners of Christian Identity.

Pulaski, Tenn. Weekend gathering commemorating the birthday of Nathan Bedford Forrest — the first KKK leader — including a march, cross-burning and fellowship.

426 CQ Researcher

“We’re at a pre-revolutionary stage,where it’s too late to seek recompensethrough the political process, and tooearly to start shooting,” Roper says.

As police and scholars monitor ex-tremist groups, here are some of thekey questions they areasking:

Could the election ofa black presidentand the nation’s eco-nomic crisis spark aresurgence of far-right political activi-ty or violence?

The precedent-shat-tering nature of Obama’spresidency could pro-vide enough of a sparkfor racist reaction, someext remism exper t sargue. Others questionwhether that’s enoughto propel significantnumbers of people intooutright rejection of thepolitical system, evenamid the nation’s eco-nomic turbulence. Theynote that organizedracist violence againstAfrican-Americans wasalready fading by thelate 1960s, after civilrights had become thelaw of the land.

Nonetheless, at least some membersof the far right are reacting. Shortlybefore the presidential election last year,federal agents charged an 18-year-oldfrom Arkansas and a 20-year-old fromTennessee with plotting to kill Obamaafter first killing 88 black people, be-heading 14 of them — apparent ref-erences to the “88” and “14” codes.The father of one of the young mensaid the alleged plans were no morethan “a lot of talk.” According to theSPLC, the 20-year-old, Daniel Cowart,had been a probationary member ofa new and active skinhead organiza-

tion, Supreme White Alliance, thoughthe organization said he’d been ex-pelled before the alleged murder plotwas conceived. 14

Michael Barkun, a professor of po-litical science at Syracuse University,

says older extremists may seeObama’s election as a big favor totheir movement. “They tend to thinkof it as a great recruiting tool,” saysBarkun, who specializes in politicaland religious extremism. “My sense isthat from their point of view, theywould see it as a continuation of whatthey regard as the marginalization ofthe white population: ‘See, we wereright all along.’ ”

But extremists may be disap-pointed, Barkun adds, given howthe election itself showed the ex-tent to which racism has weakened.

Still, the economic crisis offers re-cruiting possibilities to extremists,because millions of people are suf-fering its effects. “I would be sur-prised if the economic crisis did notproduce some very nasty side ef-

fects,” he says, citing thepseudo-constitutional in-terpretations adopted bythe “Posse Comitatus”movement that flour-ished in the 1980s. “Cer-tainly some of the fringelegal doctrines on the farright lend themselves toexploitation here.” *

Yet for a segment ofU.S. society, Obama ’selection is already stokingthe fires of rage, says an-other veteran observer ofthe far right. Michael Pit-cavage, investigative re-search director for the Anti-Defamation League, saysthat immediately after theelection, extremists withMySpace pages started in-cluding the slogan, “I haveno president.”

These are anecdotalsigns, Pitcavage acknowl-edges. But he notes that atleast one president in therecent past did prompt anextreme reaction on the farright. “The election of Bill

Clinton, I would call one of the sec-ondary causes of the resurgence ofright-wing extremism in the 1990s,” hesays. Clinton’s Vietnam War draft avoid-ance and his evasive acknowledgementof past drug use aroused enormousanger among extremists (as amongmainstream conservatives), Pitcavage

HATE GROUPS

Members of the World Order of the Ku Klux Klan, one of scores ofKlan groups in the United States, rally on Sept. 2, 2006, at

Gettysburg National Military Park, site of a decisive Civil War battle.

AP P

hoto

/Bra

dle

y C

. B

ow

er

* Posse Comitatus means “power of thecounty,” a phrase that adherents used to de-note the supposed illegitimacy of the federalgovernment. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878was passed to remove the U.S. Army fromdomestic law enforcement activities.


says — sentiments that expanded intoconspiracist views after a violent con-frontation between federal law en-forcement officers and a heavily armedreligious group in Waco, Texas.

But at least one right-wing writeron racial issues says that in his cir-cles Obama’s presidency has had lit-tle effect. “We have always had so-phisticated readers whose views ofthe world are not going to beknocked askew by some unforeseenpolitical event,” says Jared Taylor, ed-itor of American Renaissance, a mag-azine based in Oakton, Va., a Wash-ington suburb. “Though I don’t wishto detract at all from the symbolic im-portance of a non-white Americanpresident, it’s very much part of apredictable sequence. Readers of Amer-ican Renaissance don’t necessarilyapprove of the idea of a black pres-ident, but it’s not something that wakesthem up to something they weren’taware of before.” Taylor greetedObama’s election with an article head-lined, “Transition to Black Rule?” 15

Taylor’s magazine opposes all anti-discrimination and affirmative-actionlaws but doesn’t espouse violence.However, attendees at the magazine’sannual conference in 2006 includedwell-known extremists, including DavidDuke. When the former Louisiana Klanleader raised the issue of Jewish in-fluence, a Jewish attendee walkedout. Taylor later wrote that he wouldnever exclude Jews, adding, “Somepeople in the [American Renaissance]community believe Jewish influencewas decisive in destroying the tradi-tional American consensus on race.Others disagree.” 16

As for the ailing economy, Taylorsays it hasn’t been helping his pub-lication. “We haven’t seen any sort ofsudden leap in subscribers,” he says.“If anything, the economic conditionsare bad for us because we’re a non-profit organization. We depend oncontributions; people have less tocontribute.”

Still, the sociopolitical consequencesof the economic crisis transcend fi-nancial problems at individual out-posts of right-wing opinion.

Cavanaugh, the longtime ATF offi-cial, is one of many who sees theglobal economic meltdown as an echoof the crisis in Germany’s Weimar Re-public in the 1920s and early ’30s,which enabled Hitler’s National So-cialist Party to come to power.

“This is how they recruited,” saysCavanaugh. “Nazism was founded onblaming the Jewish people for the eco-nomic crisis.” In today’s United States,Cavanaugh hypothesizes, extremistscould try to make immigrants the groupresponsible for the crisis.

But Cavanaugh doubts that Obama’spresidency, per se, appeals to ex-tremists. Many of them view the con-ventional political system as the “Zion-ist Occupation Government,” or ZOG.“The president has done more to unitethe country — you can feel it,” hesays. “That doesn’t help hate groupsget stronger. They can rail against anypresident, and they have. Any presi-dent to them is the head of ZOG.”

Are immigrants in danger fromextremist violence?

Black Americans have been far andaway the major targets of 20th-centuryextremist violence.

But organized racist violence, fromcross-burning to bombings, lynchingand assassinations of black communi-ty leaders or white civil rights sup-porters, has faded from the scene, de-spite episodic hate crimes thatsometimes target Jews as well as blacks.

Obama’s election demonstrated theextent to which the black-white dividein American life has narrowed. Indeed,when it comes to arousing political pas-sion, race has been replaced by illegalimmigrants, who number an estimated12 million in the United States. 17

“Black people are here, and no oneis talking about deporting them,” saysTaylor of American Renaissance. “Im-

migration is a current and constantflow that is, in my view, only build-ing up problems and conflict for thefuture, and that’s a process that couldbe stopped. That is why it is muchmore a subject of political interest.”

Bipartisan congressional legislation toprovide a “path to citizenship” — re-strictionists prefer the term “amnesty”— for illegal immigrants” stalled dur-ing the George W. Bush administration.

Aside from mainstream political de-bate over the solution to illegal im-migration, immigrant advocates saythey’re worried that violence againstLatinos — or brown-skinned peoplethought to be immigrants — is on therise. According to the most recent FBIstatistics, there were 830 attacks of var-ious kinds on Hispanics in 2007. Bycomparison, 1,087 attacks were madeon homosexuals, who are also fre-quent targets of hate speech. 18 In2000, there were 557 reported attackson Hispanics compared to 1,075 at-tacks against homosexuals. 19

But both conservatives and liberalstake a dim view of those FBI statis-tics. Marcus Epstein, a conservativeanti-immigration activist who draws aline between his views and those ofextremists, criticizes the FBI catego-rization scheme for using the ethnicterm “Hispanic” only for crime victims.Offenders, by contrast, are listed onlyby race, so “Hispanic” doesn’t appear.The result, he argues, is that statisticsare skewed so that any Hispanic hate-crime perpetrators are statistically in-visible. (The FBI says that the agency“does not agree” that its categories“render the data invalid for statisticalpurposes.”)

Epstein, executive director of TheAmerican Cause, a conservative or-ganization founded by political com-mentator and immigration restriction-ist Pat Buchanan, is particularlyconcerned about illegal immigrantswith criminal records committing fur-ther crimes. He cites the case of ManuelCazares, who turned himself in to

428 CQ Researcher

police in Hannibal, Mo., in March,saying he’d killed an ex-girlfriend anda male friend of hers. Cazares, a Mex-ican citizen, was in the United Statesillegally, but police hadn’t checked hisstatus, although federal immigrationauthorities said his name wasn’t intheir database. 20 “Illegal immigrantskill American citizens — that greatlyoutweighs the number of crimes com-mitted by right-wing white Americansagainst immigrants,” Epstein says.

He cites a statistical analysis byEdwin S. Rubinstein, an economicconsultant in Indianapolis and formersenior fellow at the Hudson Institute,a conservative think tank. Writing onthe VDare Web site, which opposesimmigration except by white people,Rubinstein, while acknowledging thatnational data on crime and ethnicityare thin, extrapolated from Californiaand national figures to estimate thatin any given year illegal immigrants“could kill 2.6 persons per day acrossthe U.S.” 21

The vast majority of violent crimesfall within city and state jurisdic-tions, not all of which collect dataon ethnicity. Mark Hugo Lopez, as-sociate director of the Pew HispanicCenter, and co-author of a recentreport on Hispanics and federalcrime, says. “The reason that weused federal statistics is that thoseare the cleanest data.” The Pew studyshowed that 70 percent of Latinooffenders were non-citizens, and that3.1 percent of all Latino convictswere sentenced for crimes of violence,including murder. 22

Others warn that hate crime statis-tics aren’t reliable where immigrantsare concerned. “One of the difficul-ties we have is getting certain com-munities to report hate crime,” saidBrian Levin, director of the Center forthe Study of Hate and Extremism atCalifornia State University, San Bernardi-no. Illegal immigrants are especiallyreluctant, says Levin, in a widely sharedobservation. 23

In any event, supercharged rhetoricfrom extremists has ratcheted up fearamong immigrants and their advocates.Ward of the Center for New Communi-ty says that recent episodes of violencetargeting immigrants reflect a generalhostility toward immigrants that he’ssensing on the street. For example, hesays, following an organizational meet-ing in Wilmer, Minn., a town in themeat-processing factory belt of the upperMidwest, “A woman pulls up behind acar of our field people and starts scream-ing racial epithets.”

Though of little significance by itself,Ward says it reflects an atmosphere thatreminds him of “things I saw in the1980s and ’90s during the rise of theneo-Nazi movement.” He adds, “Thesekinds of incidents, I would call an earlywarning of what will be the backlash.”

Immigration restrictionists argue thattheir political foes are whipping up pas-sions in an effort to create the appear-ance that Latinos in general and immi-grants in particular face growing danger.

“All hate crimes are abominable, andany decent person would oppose themno matter who the target is,” says IraMehlman, national media director of theFederation for American ImmigrationReform (FAIR), which advocates re-stricting immigration. “But they are hyp-ing the statistics on hate crimes. Hatecrimes against Hispanics are much fewerin actual number than attacks againstgays or Jews, who represent much small-er percentages of the population.”

Hard-core extremists still rank Jewsas their No. 1 enemy, says Pitcavage atthe Anti-Defamation League, which wasformed in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism.

Some of the most horrific hate crimesare committed by “mission offenders,”or mentally ill people who hear voicesthat command them to rid the world ofa particular set of evildoers, Pitcavagesays. 24 While they may target Jews —and those are often some of the mosthorrific crimes — “racial/ ethnic targets”— including Latinos and immigrants ingeneral — do run a risk from hatecrime because they’re “more visuallyidentifiable and thus better targets ofopportunity,” he says.

Is right-wing and extremistspeech encouraging hate crimes?

The killings of three Pittsburghpolice officers intensified the ongo-ing debate over free speech and itsconsequences. Some liberal and left-wing commentators saw RichardPoplawski’s horrific crime as an out-growth, at least in part, of the far-right conspiracy culture that had in-fluenced him, judging by his Webposts. In addition, they say, his ragehad been stoked by conservative com-mentators. Still, the Pittsburgh reporterwho helped trace those posts arguesin the online magazine Slate that thewritings reveal more inner tormentthan ideology.

Journalist Dennis B. Roddy wrotethat Poplawski also posted to a non-racist conspiracist site — Infowars, whichdescribes its politics as libertarian. There,

HATE GROUPS

Hate Groups Increased by 50 Percent

The number of hate groups active in the United States — including skinheads, Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis — increased more than a 50 per-cent from 2000 to 2008.

Source: “The Year in Hate,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 2009

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

20082000

602

926

Hate Groups in the U.S.


the alleged cop-killer “seemed to find. . . a bridge from the near-mainstreamto a level of paranoid obsession insearch of an explanation for his life’sfailures. For that, one does not needan ideology, just an inclination.” 25

Nevertheless, Roddy acknowledgesthat Poplawski complained on Infowarsthat the site neglected race. Othercommentators insisted that Poplawski’sposts fo l low a c lear pat tern .“Poplawski’s black-helicopter andanti-Semitic ravings put him at theouter edge of the right,” wrote GaryKamiya, executiveeditor of Salon, aliberal online mag-azine. “But his para-noid fear that Obamawas going to takeaway his AK-47 ismainstream amongconservatives . . .fomented by theNRA and echoedby right-wing com-men t a t o r s f r omLou Dobbs to Lim-baugh.” 26

Kamiya doesn’tpropose limiting free-speech rights, but hedoes argue that ex-treme anti-Obama andgun-rights rhetoric isbound to producemore episodes like thePittsburgh shootings.

The U.S. SupremeCourt has ruled thateven hate-filled racistspeechmaking is pro-tected by the First Amendment. In 1969,the court overturned the terrorism-advocacy conviction of an Ohio Ku KluxKlan leader who’d given a speech in-cluding a call to “send the Jews backto Israel,” and to “bury the niggers.” Thecourt ruled unanimously that the gov-ernment may not “forbid or proscribeadvocacy of the use of force or of lawviolation except where such advocacy

is directed to inciting or producing im-minent lawless action.” 27

Worries about the effects of viciousand hyperbolic speech haven’t onlycome from the left. In 2005, FreedomHouse, a human-rights advocacy or-ganization then headed by formerCIA director James Woolsey, a neo-conservative, issued a report accusingthe government of Saudi Arabia ofdisseminating “hate propaganda” —targeting Christians, Jews and convertsfrom Islam — in religious publica-tions sent to mosques. 28

In late March, an American writerof Arab descent wrote on a conserv-ative Web site that American Muslimswho get their news on satellite TVfrom the Middle East are, in effect,being brainwashed into a pro-jihadistoutlook. “We must never underesti-mate the power of hate propaganda,”Nonie Darwish wrote, “because, quitesimply, it works. Believe it or not, if

you grow up hearing ‘holy’ cursingday in and day out, it can feel andsound normal, justified and even good.”Darwish didn’t call for banning thetransmissions. 29

But the more explosive recentdisputes over speech arise from theimmigration conflict. At the centerof the controversy are radio andcable TV commentators like GlennBeck, of Fox News. In June 2007(before he had joined Fox), Beckread on his radio program a fakecommercial for “Mexinol” — a fuel

produced from thebodies of illegal immi-grants from Mexico. 30

“We have a buttload of illegal aliens inour country,” said thefake ad, which was as-cribed to Evil Conser-vative Industries. “WithMexinol, your raw ma-terials come to you ina seemingly never-ending stream.” Becktried to put some dis-tance between himselfand the ad’s authors,though in a lightheartedtone. “I don’t even knowif that’s conservative,” hesaid, chuckling. “Thatwould be . . . psychotic,perhaps?” 31

La s t yea r, J ane tMurguía, president of theNational Council of LaRaza, a leading Hispan-ic organization, citedthe segment in calling

for cable channels to “to clean up therhetoric of their own commentators ortake them out of their chairs.” She ar-gued that much of the commentaryby the hosts and some of their guestsspurred anti-immigrant violence. “Whenfree speech transforms into hate speech,we’ve got to draw that line.” 32

Epstein of The American Causeargues that Murguía is trying to

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a neo-Nazi Army veteran,was executed in 2001 for killing 168 people, including 19 children, at the Murrah Federal Building. While extremists typically become

active in times of social and economic stress, McVeigh struck in 1995 during a period of relative tranquility.

AFP

/Get

ty I

mag

es/B

ob D

aem

mer

ich

430 CQ Researcher

“muzzle” free speech. The painfulreality of the nation’s economic cri-sis, not anti-immigrant rhetoric —explains more about anti-Hispanicviolence, he says.

“People should not hold an individ-ual Hispanic responsible for the fact thatwages are being depressed, and theycan’t get a job, or that schools are over-crowded, that there’s an increase in crimein the community,” he says. “But that’sthe reason these people are lashing out.In the few cases of [violence], they’reresponding to the problems that immi-gration causes.”

Epstein argues that mainstreamanti-immigration groups like FAIRprovide a legitimate channel for cit-izens who favor limiting immigrationto express their views. “If there wasno one actually speaking for Amer-icans, they’re going to turn to moreradical groups,” he says. Epstein postshis writings on the VDare Web sitebut says he doesn’t agree with allthe views expressed on the site, someof them virulently racist.

A recent post by one contributorargued that hiring people of SouthAsian Indian ancestry guaranteed“corruption and ethnocentric dis-crimination”; another opined thathiring better public school teachersand firing less competent ones means“on net, firing blacks and hiringwhites.” And another contributor at-tacked “the cultural pollution of our‘entertainment industry,’ which pro-motes diversity, multiculturalism andwhite demoralization.” 33

Cavanaugh of the ATF says he’saware that a constellation of legal or-ganizations provide moral backingeven for violent actions. In the civilrights days, such groups were knownas the “white-collar Klan,” he says. “Theysupport people who will go out anddo those things.”

But, he says, free speech is free speech.“Is it illegal?” he asks rhetorically. “It’sawful, but I can’t do much about awful,and I shouldn’t be able to.”

BACKGROUNDBuilding Movements

E xtreme-right political movementsreached their peak in the 1930s

in the United States and abroad. AdolfHitler came to power in Germany in1933. Benito Mussolini, originator ofthe term “fascism,” who began his ruleof Italy in 1922, soon forged an al-liance with Hitler. Other far-right move-ments triumphed in Central Europe.The United States, of course, neversuccumbed to totalitarian rule. But theAmerican extreme right did commanda sizable sector of public opinion. 34

As in Germany and elsewhere(though not to a major extent in Italy),hatred of Jews played a key role inthe American right-wing mobilization,with communists and socialists closebehind on the enemies list.

Henry Ford, founder of the FordMotor Co., actively spread anti-Semitismin the 1920s, using a newspaper that heowned, the Dearborn Independent, topublish vast amounts of propaganda abouta Jewish plot for world domination. 35

After Ford withdrew from publicanti-Semitic activity under pressurefrom Jewish organizations and theU.S. government, other leadersemerged. Gerald L. K. Smith, a min-ister and failed political candidate al-lied with hate-mongers, denouncedPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)and African-Americans as well as Jews.William Dudley Pelley led the fascistSilver Legion — the “Silver Shirts” —which dedicated itself mainly to march-es and other publicity-seeking eventsexpressing hatred of Jews, blacks andall minorities.

The Rev. Charles Coughlin, a RomanCatholic priest, known as “FatherCoughlin,” soared to national promi-nence and influence through radio broad-casts from his church outside Detroit.

At first a Roosevelt supporter, the “radiopriest” by 1934 was raging against FDRand the Jews, on whom he blamed theGreat Depression.

After the United States entered WorldWar II, the Catholic Church and thefederal government forced Coughlinoff the air. Pelley was convicted in1942 of sedition and intent to causeinsurrection in the military and wassentenced to 15 years in prison. 36

By war’s end, American fascismas a mass movement had ended. Buta core of committed activists keptthe far right alive, spurred on by theCold War against the Soviet Unionand the first stirrings of the civilrights movement. 37

As public opposition to communismgrew, Smith preached that Jews andcommunists were one and the sameand that the Holocaust never occurred.

The founding of the John Birch So-ciety in 1958 marked the reemergenceof conspiratorial, far-right views —minus the anti-Semitism — in re-spectable society. Birch Society doc-trine viewed the United Nations as acommunist organization. FounderRobert Welch, an executive in hisbrother’s candy company, went fur-ther, calling President Dwight D. Eisen-hower “a dedicated, conscious agentof the communist conspiracy.” 38

Welch’s wild accusation stoked out-rage in the political mainstream. Pres-ident Harry S Truman reportedly calledthe Birch Society “the Ku Klux Klan,without nightshirts.” 39

By the mid-1960s, the Klan — es-tablished in 1866 in Pulaski, Tenn. —had become the center of extremistresistance to the civil rights movement.Members and ex-members of the se-cret organization carried out some ofthe most notorious crimes of the era,including the 1963 bombing of the16th Street Baptist Church in Birm-ingham, Ala., in which four younggirls were killed; the assassination ofcivil rights leader Medgar Evers in

HATE GROUPS

Continued on p. 432


Chronology1930s-1960sAttempts to create U.S. versionsof European fascism fail, but far-right activists build smaller orga-nizations after World War II.

1934The Rev. Charles Coughlin (“FatherCoughlin”) gains a nationwide fol-lowing for denouncing PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and Jews.

1941-1942Coughlin is forced off the air andanother far-right leader, WilliamDudley Pelley, is sent to prisonfor sedition.

1952Anti-Semite Gerald L.K. Smith failsto persuade the Republican Partyto link communism and Jews.

1958John Birch Society is founded.

1963Ku Klux Klan members bomb ablack church in Birmingham, Ala.,killing four young girls.

1967American neo-Nazi leader GeorgeLincoln Rockwell is killed by anembittered ex-aide.

1969U.S. Supreme Court rules that aKu Klux Klan leader’s denunciationsof blacks and Jews are constitution-ally protected speech.

•

1970s-1980sAnti-government and anti-Jewishorganizations turn to violence,most often against police officers,who are seen as agents of the“Zionist Occupation Government.”

1971Anti-Semitic, Christian Identity activistWilliam Potter Gale formulates thedoctrine underlying the radicallyanti-government Posse Comitatusmovement, which by 1976 has atleast 12,000 members, according tothe FBI.

1978The Turner Diaries, a genocidefantasy by neo-Nazi William Pierce(pseudonym: Andrew Macdonald),is published.

1983Posse Comitatus leader Gordon Kahlkills two federal marshals in NorthDakota, later dies in a shootout withfederal agents in Arkansas.

1984The Order, a small extremist groupinspired by The Turner Diaries,murders a Jewish talk-show host inDenver who had denouncedracism. . . . The group’s founder iskilled later in a shootout in Wash-ington state.

1988A federal jury in Arkansas acquits14 right-wing extremists, includingfive members of The Order, onsedition and other charges.

•

1990s Extremist vio-lence climaxes in armed con-frontations with federal officers.

1992An attempt to arrest survivalist andChristian Identity proponent RandyWeaver in Ruby Ridge, Idaho, endswith the deaths of a marshal andWeaver’s wife and young son.

1993Extremist leaders gather in Estes

Park, Colo., to plan cooperationwith less-threatening groups. . . .Federal siege of the Branch Davidi-an religious-cult compound in Waco,Texas, leads to deaths of more than80 people. . . . Extremists depictRuby Ridge and Waco as examplesof government ruthlessness. . . .Outrage at government helps build“patriot militia” movement.

1995Timothy McVeigh, an extremistmilitary veteran inspired by TheTurner Diaries, detonates truckbomb outside Alfred P. MurrahFederal Building in OklahomaCity, killing 168 people. . . . Militia membership declines.

•

2000s Extremist move-ment erodes further following9/11 attacks and the removalof major figures by death andimprisonment, but economiccrisis ignites fears of a resur-gence.

2001McVeigh executed by lethal injection.

2004Richard Butler, influential leader ofIdaho-based “Aryan Nations,” diesof natural causes.

2005Up-and-coming extremist leaderMatthew Hale, founder of WorldChurch of the Creator, is sentencedto 40 years for conspiracy to com-mit murder.

2009Homeland Security Department warnsextremists could exploit economic cri-sis as a recruiting opportunity; criticsblast department for focusing on ide-ology rather than criminal acts.

432 CQ Researcher

Jackson, Miss., that same year; the mur-der of three civil rights workers in1964 in Neshoba County, Miss.; andthe killing of another civil rights work-er in Alabama in 1965. 40

Anti-civil rights violence ebbed afterenactment of the Voting Rights Actin 1965. From then on, the extrem-ist right became steadily more influ-enced by neo-Nazism. George Lin-coln Rockwell, founder of theAmerican Nazi Party, pioneered thewhite-nationalist trend. The formerNavy pilot and World War II veteranwas shot and killed by a dismissedfollower in 1967. 41

Rockwell had been a mentor toWilliam Pierce, a former universityphysics professor who in 1974founded the National Alliance, whichbecame a major influence in theextremist right. Pierce became na-tionally notorious in the 1990s asauthor of The Turner Diaries ,which laid out a scenario for whitegenocide of blacks, Jews and “racetraitors” — a process led by a se-cret brotherhood known as TheOrder, which sets events in motionby blowing up FBI headquarterswith a truck bomb.

The first open sign of a Klan-Nazinexus was the 1979 killing in broad day-

light of five Communist Workers Partymembers who were starting an anti-Klanmarch in Greensboro, N.C., in 1979.

Fighting and Killing

L ess visibly, another trend was underway. An extreme anti-government

and anti-Jewish movement founded in1971 by William Potter Gale begangrowing, especially in the West andMidwest. Posse Comitatus (“Power ofthe County”) held that the federal gov-ernment was constitutionally illegiti-mate. For example, county justices of

HATE GROUPS

Continued from p. 430

Memories of the horrific consequences of far-right ex-tremism remain strong in Europe. Yet nearly 65 yearsafter the Nazi Holocaust, the extreme right has been

gaining ground in parts of the continent, prompting worriesthat ultranationalism is on the upswing.

“The possibilities for a rise of the far right in the light ofthe financial and economic crisis are there,” Anton Pelinka, aprofessor of politics at Central European University in Budapest,Hungary, told The Guardian, a leading British newspaper. 1

So far, the European far right is advancing further — at thepolls and in the expansion of illegal neo-Nazi organizations —than in the United States. But the gains by European extremistsgive heart to their U.S. counterparts, who have long maintainedties to Europe, though some European governments do their bestto disrupt the relationships. In April, the Czech Republic expelledex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, a neo-Nazi, who had beeninvited by an extremist Czech group to lecture in Prague and Brno.

And the British government announced in early May that ithad barred — among others — Don Black, founder of theStormfront Web site, from entering Britain.

Duke’s aborted visit notwithstanding, transatlantic ties mayhave frayed somewhat following the 2002 death of William Pierce.The American neo-Nazi leader had been traveling regularly toEurope for meetings, says Mark Potok, Intelligence Project di-rector at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Birmingham, Ala.But even if Duke fails to take Pierce’s place as emissary to theOld World, American far-right Web sites commonly post links toextremist Web sites and news from Europe. 2

The news is plentiful. In Austria, the country’s two far-rightparties together won 29 percent of the vote in national parlia-mentary elections last year. One of the parties had been found-

ed by Jörg Haider, who died in a car crash shortly after the vote.Haider made his brand of politics a major force by combiningsalesmanship, xenophobic opposition to immigration and appealsto the Nazi heritage of Adolf Hitler’s country of birth.

Haider had been forced to quit as a provincial governor in 1991(he was reelected in 1999) after praising Hitler’s “orderly employ-ment program.” And in 1995 he praised Waffen SS veterans as “de-cent men of character who remained faithful to their ideals.” 3

Indicators of the growing strength of extremism extend intoGermany and Britain as well as parts of the former Soviet bloc.In Russia, where ultranationalist groups, including neo-Nazis, arepart of the political landscape, there were at least 85 systematickillings of migrant workers from Central Asia, as well as othersseen as ethnically non-Slavic, in 2008, according to the Sova Cen-ter, a Moscow-based hate crime-monitoring group. The victimsincluded a migrant worker from Tajikistan who was beheaded.Human-rights advocates who denounce these killings have beenthreatened with death themselves. 4

Violence isn’t limited to Russia. In late 2008, the police chiefof Passau, a Bavarian town with a strong neo-Nazi presence, wasstabbed following his 2008 order to open the grave of a formerNazi who had been buried with an illegal Swastika flag. 5

The attack took place against a backdrop of increasing vi-olence by German neo-Nazi organizations. A German news-paper reported that violent crimes originating in the extremistright increased by 15 percent during the first 10 months of2008. And a government research institute reported that a greatersegment of male teenagers — 5 percent — were involved inneo-Nazi groups than in mainstream politics in 2007-2008. Informerly communist-ruled eastern Germany, nearly 10 percentof youths participated in far-right groups. 6

Concern About Extremism Rising in EuropeCzech Republic expels ex-Klan leader David Duke.


the peace held legal supremacy overthe U.S. Supreme Court, according toPosse ideology, and federal currencywas invalid. 42

Posse alienation went far deeper.An anti-Semitic religious doctrineknown as “Christian Identity” exerteddeep influence on many Posse lead-ers and members, including Gale (de-spite his own definitively proved Jew-ish descent, which he denied). Thedoctrine — rejected by all mainstreamChristian denominations — holds thatwhite people are the genuine de-scendants of the Biblical Hebrews.That is, they’re God’s chosen people,and Jews and blacks are the devil’s

spawn. By 1976, the FBI estimated Possemembership at 12,000 to 50,000, notincluding sympathizers.

Posse Comitatus played a major rolein raising the level of far-right extrem-ism to a fever pitch in the last twodecades of the 20th century. In the early1980s, economic crisis gripped the FarmBelt, bringing a wave of foreclosures.The Posse launched a major recruitingdrive, preaching that Jewish bankerswere to blame for the falling grainprices and land values that broughtmany farmers to ruin.

One Posse tactic was to flood thefederal court system with amateurlawsuits to cancel farmers’ loan oblig-

ations, on the grounds that the loanswere illegal. When authorities enforcedforeclosure orders, trouble sometimeserupted.

In 1983, Gordon Kahl, a ChristianIdentity Posse activist who had serveda prison term for tax evasion, killedtwo federal marshals following a meet-ing to recruit members in North Dakota.Kahl fled and was killed three monthslater in a gunfight with federal agentsin Arkansas. Kahl became a martyr inextremist circles.

An almost identical episode tookplace the next year near Cairo, Neb.,when a Posse sympathizer, ArthurKirk, was killed in a shootout with

Throughout Western Europe, the enormous growth of immi-grant populations, especially from Muslim countries, has providedthe biggest boost to right-wing parties — from traditional con-servative groups to neo-Nazis — over the past two decades.

However, the European far right’s growth isn’t uniform. In France,Jean-Marie Le Pen, an apologist for Nazism who was one of thepioneers of the post-World War II extreme right, saw his NationalFront party win only 4.3 percent of the vote in parliamentary elec-tions in 2007. 7 Analysts said that President Nicolas Sarkozy effec-tively co-opted Le Pen’s anti-immigration politics, though withoutthe ethnic and religious extremism. In 2002, Le Pen had finishedsecond in the first round of the presidential race. 8

Le Pen’s counterparts across the English Channel are show-ing more success. The British National Party (BNP) is seen bysome British politicians as likely to win the most votes in anelection in June to choose European Parliament representatives.BNP leaders portray their party as defending the country againstnon-white immigrants. Pro-immigrant policies “have made whiteBritons second-class citizens,” the party says. 9

Meanwhile, the BNP is trying to play down its historic anti-Semitism. Party leader Nick Griffin wrote in 2007 that taking an“Islamophobic” stance “is going to produce on average much bet-ter media coverage than . . . banging on about ‘Jewish power.’ ” 10

That purely tactical shift notwithstanding, others in the Euro-pean political world argue that old-school anti-Semitism is flour-ishing — on the left as well as the right — often disguised asopposition to Israeli policies.

“The extravagant rhetoric of the demagogic left and right isgaining ground, and the most obvious manifestation is the re-turn of anti-Semitism as an organizing ideology,” Dennis Mac-Shane, a Labor Party member of Parliament, wrote in late 2008.

“As jobs are lost and welfare becomes meaner and leaner, thepolitics of blaming the outsider can only grow.” 11

1 Quoted in Kate Connolly, “Haider is our Lady Di,” The Guardian, Oct. 18,2008, p. A29. For background, see Sarah Glazer, “Anti-Semitism in Europe,”CQ Global Researcher, June 2008, pp. 149-181.2 For example, see “Stormfront forum, international,” www.stormfront.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=18; Kinism.net — Occidental Christianity,http://kinism.net/; The French Connection, http://iamthewitness.com/; League of American Patriots, http://leagueap.org/wordpress/?page_id=17.3 Quoted in Matt Schudel, “Jörg Haider; Politician Made Far-Right Party aForce in Austria,” The Washington Post, Oct. 12, 2008, p. C8.4 Michael Schwirtz, “Migrant Worker Decapitated in Russia,” The New YorkTimes, Dec. 13, 2008; Luke Harding, “Putin’s worst nightmare: Their mis-sion is to cleanse Russia of its ethnic ‘occupiers,’” The Observer magazine(U.K.), Feb. 8, 2009, p. 32; “Neo-Nazis threaten to murder journalists inRussia,” Committee to Protect Journalists, Feb. 11, 2009, http://cpj.org/2009/02/neo-nazis-threaten-to-murder-journalists-in-russia.php.5 Nicholas Kulish, “Ancient City’s Nazi Past Seeps Out After Stabbing,” TheNew York Times, Feb. 12, 2009, p. A18; “Police Chief Long Reviled by NPDLeadership,” Spiegel Online International, Dec. 19, 2008, www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,597645,00.html.6 Ibid.; and “German teens drawn to neo-Nazi groups — study,” Reuters,March 17, 2009, http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-38554620090317.7 In 2008, Le Pen was fined 10,000 Euros for having called the Nazi occu-pation of France “not especially inhumane, even if there were a number ofblunders.” Quoted in “Le Pen fined over war comments,” The Irish Times(Reuters), Feb. 9, 2008, p. A10.8 Adam Sage, “Hard-up National Front sells office to immigrants,” The Times(London), Aug. 13, 2008, p. A37.9 “Immigration — time to say ENOUGH!” British National Party, undated,http://bnp.org.uk/policies-2/immigration. Also see Andrew Grice, “The BNP arenow a bigger threat than ever,” The Independent (London), April 10, 2009, p. A12.10 Quoted in Matthew Taylor, “BNP seeks to bury antisemitism and gain Jew-ish votes in Islamophobic campaign,” The Guardian (London), April 10, 2008,p. A17.11 Denis MacShane, “Europe’s Jewish Problem,” Newsweek, International Edi-tion, Dec. 15, 2008, p. 0.

434 CQ Researcher

state police officers serving foreclo-sure papers. Before the shootingstarted, Kirk denounced Jews, bankersand the Israeli intelligence agency,Mossad, to officers trying to get himto surrender. 43

Ideology aside, some farmers whoaccepted help from the Posse were try-ing to survive financial crisis. Anothergroup formed in the 1980s dedicateditself purely to violence.

The Order (its name borrowedfrom The Turner Diaries) vowed tostrike the “Zionist Occupation Gov-ernment” in defense of “White Amer-ica.” Robert Mathews founded the smallgroup with eight other men in theearly 1980s. By 1983, The Order hadbegun committing armed robberies toraise money. In 1984, the group as-sassinated a Denver radio talk-showhost, Alan Berg, who was Jewish, andhad argued with racists on the air.Later that same year, the group robbedan armored car of $3.6 million.

Mathews died in a shootout withfederal agents on Whidbey Island,near Seattle, in December 1984.

In 1985, 23 surviving members ofthe group went to trial or pleadedguilty to racketeering charges, withmost receiving sentences of 40 to 100years. David Lane later was sentencedto 150 years in a separate trial for par-ticipating in Berg’s murder. 44

Federal prosecutors in Fort Smith,Ark., failed, however to convict Laneand 13 other extremists of sedition in1988. They’d been charged with plot-ting to overthrow the government andset up a separate white nation in thePacific Northwest. 45

That same year, in that very region,an upsurge of anti-minority violenceby skinheads claimed the life of Ethiopi-an immigrant Mulugeta Seraw, whowas bludgeoned to death with a base-ball bat by the East Side White Pridegang. Three years later, Tom Metzger,an infamous San Diego extremist, wasfound responsible for the death, alongwith others, on the grounds that his

White Aryan Resistance group had in-cited the group who killed Seraw.The verdict, in a civil suit brought bythe SPLC, required Metzger and hiscodefendants to pay $12.5 million toSeraw’s family. 46

Explosion and Aftermath

T he violence that marked the 1980sintensified in the ’90s, sparked by

the botched 1992 arrest of survivalistand Christian Identity adherent RandyWeaver for failing to appear in courton a gun-law charge. (He’d been giventhe wrong court date.) Weaver had holedup with his family in remote Ruby Ridge,in northern Idaho, which had becomea center for the extreme right and washome to Christian Identity leaderRichard Butler. 47

When federal marshals attemptedto arrest Weaver, who had not beeninvolved in previous violence, a gun-fight broke out in which Weaver’s sonand a marshal were killed; later, dur-ing a siege of the family’s cabin, anFBI sniper killed Weaver’s wife. Weaversurrendered and was sentenced to 18months in prison. 48

FBI handling of the case waswidely considered a fiasco, and worse.But on the far right, a more omi-nous view prevailed: Ruby Ridgeseemed to validate conspiracist fearsof government violence against gunowners and opponents of the “NewWorld Order” — far-right code forU.N.-controlled global government.

Months after Ruby Ridge, ChristianIdentity preacher Peter Peters orga-nized a meeting of about 150 ex-tremists at Estes Park, Colo. In akeynote speech, Louis Beam, a for-mer leader of the Texas Klan and oneof those acquitted in the Arkansassedition case, outlined a strategy of“leaderless resistance” — formation ofsmall cells of committed activists with-out central direction. A Vietnam vet-eran, Beam also spoke of the need

for “camouflage” — the ability to blendin the public’s eye the more com-mitted groups of resistance “with main-stream ‘kosher’ associations that aregenerally seen as harmless.” 49

Similarly, others at the meeting ad-vocated uniting with less extreme groupsto form a broad anti-governmentmovement. 50

Meanwhile, a related developmenthad just shocked the mainstream po-litical establishment. David Duke, aformer Klan leader who hadn’t re-nounced his anti-black or anti-Jewishviews, won the 1991 Republican pri-mary for Louisiana governor. (He wenton to lose the general election.) 51

Following the Estes Park conclave,“militias” sprang up around the coun-try, especially in the rural Midwest andWest. Ideas animating the movementincluded survivalism, gun-rights defenseand — among many members, butnot all — far-right conspiracy theories.Among those who passed throughmilitia circles was a U.S. Army veter-an of the 1990-1991 Persian Gulf War,Timothy McVeigh.

But before McVeigh’s name hit theheadlines, a series of events nearWaco, Texas, would seize national at-tention and electrify the far right. Mem-bers of the Branch Davidian religiouscult, led by a fiery preacher namedDavid Koresh, fired on ATF agentsattempting to search for guns andammunition believed to be stored atthe Davidians ’ compound; fouragents were killed. On April 19, 1993,after a 51-day siege, FBI agents movedon the compound with tanks. In theconflagration that resulted, Koresh andabout 80 other Davidians died, in-cluding many children.

A widespread suspicion that FBIteargas canisters started the fire be-came a certainty on the far right. Inthose circles, Waco stood as evi-dence of government ruthlessness.Koresh, who had followed the Weavercase closely, probably wouldn’t havebeen surprised. “Koresh spoke to me

HATE GROUPS


frequently on the phone about RubyRidge,” says Special Agent Cavanaughof the ATF, who negotiated with theBranch Davidian leader during thesiege. Koresh and his top aide “werewell-versed in everything that hap-pened there and were spitting out‘New World Order’ crackpot con-spiracy theories.”

In 2000, an outside counsel to theJustice Department concluded that thecanisters hadn’t started the fire but thatDavidians themselves ignited it. 52

But by then, April 19 had becomenotorious for another reason. OnApril 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated abomb in a rented truck he parked infront of the Alfred P. Murrah FederalBuilding in Oklahoma City, killing 168people, including 19 children. Arrest-ed hours later after a traffic stop,McVeigh was later often described asa lone wolf. But, among other activ-ities, he had sold The Turner Diariesat gun shows, which were popularwith militia members and with ex-tremists in general.

“McVeigh was not a lone extrem-ist; instead, he was trained to makehimself look like a lone extremist,”wrote former FBI agent German. “It’sa right-wing terrorism technique thatcomes complete with written instruc-tion manuals.” 53

The bombing — for which McVeighwas executed in 2001 — made Turn-er Diaries author Pierce and his Na-tional Alliance notorious. But the bomb-ing also saw a steep decline in militiamembership, as those without a highlevel of commitment to extremist pol-itics dropped away.

More blows followed. Pierce died ofcancer in 2002. Two years later Butlerdied; earlier he had lost his Idaho com-pound after losing a civil lawsuit filedby the Southern Poverty Law Center. 54

Then, in 2005, Matthew Hale, 33,considered an up-and-coming extrem-ist leader as head of the World Churchof the Creator, was sentenced to 40years in federal prison for conspiring

to kill a federal judge. Since his im-prisonment, extremist-watchers say,no charismatic leader has emerged fromthe extremist world.

CURRENTSITUATION

Hate in April

H itler was born in April, whichmarks the beginning of the pub-

lic rally season for right-wing extrem-ists, and for opponents who mountcounterdemonstrations. 55

This year promises to be a busyone for haters. In April alone, 32 con-ferences, celebrations, militia trainingsessions and other events were plannedby neo-Nazi, Klan, Christian Identityand related organizations in 22 states,according to the Anti-DefamationLeague; dozens more events arescheduled into October. 56

The list includes Hitler birthdaycommemorations in Illinois and NorthCarolina and a march by robed Klanmembers in Pulaski, Tenn., whereConfederate veterans founded theKlan.

Counterdemonstrators showed foran NSM rally of about 70 membersthe day before at the Gateway Archin St. Louis, Mo. No one was arrest-ed, but the two groups yelled at eachother and traded “Heil Hitler” salutesand raised-middle-finger retorts. A sec-ond group of counterdemonstratorsorganized by the ADL held a “rally forrespect” at a nearby site. 57

Commenting on the NSM rally,Lewis Reed, president of the St. LouisBoard of Aldermen, said, “It’s sad thatthere are still people today, in 2009,that only want to divide the races andbreed hate.” 58

Yet neo-Nazi rallies, at least inmajor metropolitan areas, typicallydon’t draw big crowds of extremists.In Skokie, Ill., a Chicago suburb witha large Jewish population — includ-ing Holocaust survivors — the open-ing of a state holocaust museum inApril drew a neo-Nazi demonstration— of seven people. Twelve thou-sand people attended the openingceremony, where former PresidentBill Clinton spoke. 59

This year’s rally season began witha snag. “East Coast White Unity” and“Volksfront” (“Peoples’ Front” in Ger-man) had planned to meet in Bostonover the April 11 weekend. But afterthe Boston Anti-Racist Coalition toldthe Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)about the nature of the “Patriot’s Day”rally, the VFW withdrew permissionto use their hall. Instead, the eventwas held at an American Legion Hallin Loudon, N.H. 60

“These racist speakers, bands andtheir supporters will always have towalk on egg shells and face the veryreal prospect of their events being ex-posed to the general public, wherev-er and whenever they rear their uglyheads,” the coalition said in a post onan anarchist Web site. 61

But Roper of White Revolutionreplied, “Because a venue, or two, orthree, has cancelled on us due to theefforts of anti-white, communist andJewish activists, the event has notbeen cancelled and will go on,” hesaid. “We plan for such eventualitiesin depth.” 62

For its part, One People’s Project,an anti-supremacist organization, saysit infiltrates neo-Nazi and Klan groupsto find out about planned events intime to organize countermobilizations.“We can’t keep on allowing groupslike the Klan, Aryan Nations, NationalAlliance, National Vanguard and theNational Socialist Movement to holdsociety at-large hostage,” Daryle La-mont Jenkins of One People’s Pro-ject said. 63

436 CQ Researcher

On April 19, 2008, 30 to 40 mem-bers of the National Socialist Move-ment (NSM) rallied in Washingtonfor an anti-immigration march fromthe National Mall to the U.S. Capi-tol. They were greeted by raucouscounterdemonstrators, five of whomwere arrested for allegedly assault-ing police officers with pepper sprayand a pole. 64

White supremacist gatherings don’ttend to be large affairs. Roper told areporter by phone from the New Hamp-shire event that 200 people were par-

ticipating, making it one of the biggerevents of its type. But no independentconfirmation was available.

In 2005, Roper organized a protestdemonstration outside an event inBoston commemorating the 60th an-niversary of the liberation of Nazi deathcamps. Police and counterprotesters faroutnumbered Roper and his dozen orso demonstrators. 65

However, on occasion, suprema-cists’ crowds have been bigger, andviolence has erupted. In 2002, about60 supporters of the now-imprisoned

Matthew Hale’s World Church of theCreator gathered in York, Pa., wherea former mayor and eight others hadbeen charged in the 1969 death of ablack woman during a racially chargedriot. Several hundred counterprotestersfought with Hale’s supporters in thecity streets, as police tried to sepa-rate the groups. Twenty-five peoplewere arrested. 66

However, in April of that year, onlyabout 30 to 40 neo-Nazis showed upin York for a Hitler’s birthday cele-bration. 67

HATE GROUPS

A ccompanying today’s worries about an extremist resur-gence are fears that the United States could, if eco-nomic conditions worsen, embrace fascism — the to-

talitarian ideology that modern hate groups champion.But the concern focuses on the federal government itself,

not fringe, neo-Nazi organizations. Indeed, some of PresidentBarack Obama’s foes are calling him a fascist, the same labelsome had applied to President George W. Bush.

The labeling would seem to show once again that “fascist”is one of the most loosely applied — and handy — terms inthe political lexicon. Nevertheless, fascism isn’t foreign to theUnited States, even though the word comes from 1920s Italy.Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined “fascismo” to name theviolence-glorifying, socialist-hating and ultranationalist move-ment he formed after World War I, appropriating a term thenused for militant political groups of all stripes. 1

Notwithstanding those Italian roots, Robert Paxton, one ofthe leading historians of the European far right, wrote that thefirst fascist group in history may have been the Ku Klux Klan.“By adopting a uniform . . . as well as by their techniques ofintimidation and their conviction that violence was justified inthe cause of their group’s destiny,” wrote Paxton, a Virginianative, “the first version of the Klan in the defeated AmericanSouth was arguably a remarkable preview of the way fascistmovements were to function in interwar Europe.” 2

But Paxton, an emeritus professor of social science at Co-lumbia University, dismisses the attempt to label Obama fas-cist as a desperation move. “When there’s a popular figure andyou can’t get a grip on opposing him, you call him a fascist,”he says. “As opposed to Hitler and Mussolini in uniform, shriek-ing into microphones and juicing up the nationalism of crowds,Obama is a calm, reasonable person whose basic drives haveall been toward bolstering democracy and the rule of law.”

Obama’s extreme critics insist otherwise. Obama heads a “Gestapogovernment,” conservative blogger David Limbaugh (brother ofradio commentator Rush Limbaugh) told a radio interviewer. AndThe American Spectator, a conservative magazine, likened Obama’seconomic policies to those of Mussolini. 3

The author of the Spectator piece, senior editor Quinn Hillyer,added that he wouldn’t go so far as to compare Obama’s ad-ministration to that of Adolf Hitler, whose version of fascismturned out far deadlier than the Italian original. Still, he wrote,“The comparison of today’s situation to that of Italian fascismis no mere scare tactic but a serious concern.” 4

In calling Obama a fascist, critics may simply be hoping forbetter results than they got when they tried pinning the “so-cialist” label on him during and after the 2008 presidential cam-paign. “We’ve so overused the word ‘socialism’ that it no longerhas the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10years ago,” Sal Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Re-publican Party, told The New York Times. “Fascism — every-body still thinks that’s a bad thing.” 5

To be sure, only a small minority accepts “fascist” as a com-pliment. But aiming it at a politician after first denouncing himas a leftist seems an odd tactic, given fascists’ historic hatredof socialists. 6

But that seemed to bother Obama’s foes as little as the factthat they were borrowing from the vocabulary that some crit-ics of the Bush administration used in 2001-2008.

The liberal group MoveOn.org, for instance, created an ad in2004 that tried to connect Bush to Hitler, intoning: “A nation warpedby lies. Lies fuel fear. Fear fuels aggression. Invasion. Occupation.What were war crimes in 1945 is foreign policy in 2003.” 7

Liberal author Naomi Wolf made a similar case in her bookThe End of America, published toward the end of the Bush ad-ministration. 8

‘Fascism’ Label Comes in Handy for CriticsBut respected writers say it’s a legitimate — if unlikely — concern.


Free Speech, Hate Speech

S ome conservatives are attackingthe Department of Homeland Se-

curity (DHS) examination of far-rightextremism as a barely disguised attackon political foes of the Obama ad-ministration.

“One of the most embarrassinglyshoddy pieces of propaganda I’d everread out of DHS,” thundered conser-vative blogger Michelle Malkin. Oth-ers in the conservative blogosphere

shared her view that the report triedto tie conservatives to extremists. 68

Homeland Security Secretary JanetNapolitano later responded that theagency is on “the lookout for crimi-nal and terrorist activity but we do not— nor will we ever — monitor ide-ology or political beliefs.” 69

The report noted that extremists areespecially interested in recruiting vet-erans, an observation that triggeredangry criticism from some veterans’ or-ganizations (see below). In essence the14-page assessment holds that economic

turmoil, the election of a black presi-dent and a growing number of veter-ans — whom right-wing extremists havea documented interest in recruiting —are creating a climate in which far-rightextremism could flourish again. Specif-ically, the report said the DHS “assessesthat right-wing extremist groups’ frus-tration over a perceived lack of gov-ernment action on illegal immigrationhas the potential to incite individualsor small groups toward violence.” Butany such violence would likely be“isolated” and “small-scale.” 70

“The Nazis rose topower in a living, if bat-tered, democracy,” Wolfwrote. “Dictators can rise ina weakened democracy evenwith a minority of popularsupport.” 9

Drawing in part fromPaxton’s most recent bookon fascism, Wolf argued thaterosions of civil libertiesunder the Bush adminis-tration paralleled events inItaly and Germany as Mus-solini and Hitler moved to-ward totalitarian rule.

But these argumentsleave out the widespread loss of faith in democracy, and thestate of near-civil war that served as the backdrop to the riseof fascism in Italy and Germany, Paxton says.

By contrast, Americans opposed to Bush expressed theirdiscontent within the system, by voting in Obama, Paxtonnotes. And the political climate even before that, when Wolfwas writing, didn’t begin to approach the Italian and Germanprecedents. “In the collection of pre-conditions, you needsomething worse,” he says. “A lost war, big-time national hu-miliation — we might get there, but we’re not quite there yet— and a sense that our existing way of doing politics isn’tworking. And then power moving to the streets, with para-military organizations. I don’t see any of that.”

Paxton does agree that the detention and intelligence-gathering policies adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terroristattacks could be compared with early moves by Hitler upon

winning election as chancellorin 1933. “You can draw someparallels — with care,” he says.“The focus should be on stepsaway from the rule of law.”

Still, Paxton discouragescomplacency. “In three years,if we’re not out of this mess,we could see something thatwould call itself the patrioticparty or the minutemen, asymbol that has a nice nation-alistic resonance,” he says. “Itwould sweep up all the dis-contented from the left and theright; it would be light on ide-ology. The immigration issue

would be a very plausible gathering point for some sort ofmovement like this.”

1 Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism (2004), pp. 4-5.2 Ibid., p. 49.3 Quinn Hillyer, “Il Duce, Redux?” The American Spectator, April 2, 2009,http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/02/il-duce-redux. Limbaugh quoted inCarla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli, “Fascist? Socialist? Attacks on Obama takea shrill tone,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 9, 2009, p. A1.4 Hillyer, op. cit.5 Quoted in John Harwood, “But Can Obama Make the Trains Run on Time?”The New York Times, April 20, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/us/politics/20caucus.html?scp=1&sq=fascism&st=cse.6 Paxton, op. cit., pp. 60-67.7 Marinucci and Garofoli, op. cit.8 Naomi Wolf, The End of America: Letters of Warning to a Young Patriot,A Citizen’s Call to Action (2007).9 Ibid., pp. 39-40.

Followers of the neo-Nazi NPD party stand defiantly near a“Berlin against Nazis” poster during a demonstration

in Berlin on May 1, 2009. Anti-immigration neo-Nazis and skinheads often clash with

anti-fascists on May Day in Germany.

AFP

/Get

ty I

mag

es/A

xel Sc

hm

idt

438 CQ Researcher

HATE GROUPS

Though critics later said the DHSfailed to distinguish between extremistsand mainstream political advocates, thereport did try to draw that line. De-bates on gun rights and other consti-tutional issues are often intense — butperfectly legal, the report said. “Violentextremists,” it added, “may attempt toco-opt the debate and use the contro-versy as a radicalization tool.” 71

But Berlet of Political Research As-sociates argues that the report itselfcrosses into the potentially unconsti-tutional territory of monitoring ideo-logical trends.

“The government should not bein the business of undermining rad-ical ideas,” he says. “As citizens wehave a responsibility to challengerhetoric that demonizes and scape-goats, but I don’t think the FirstAmendment allows the governmentto be in that battle.”

Despite attacks from the left as wellas right, some commentators defend-ed the report against its critics. “ThisDHS assessment was begun more thana year ago, before Barack Obama waseven nominated,” blogger CharlesJohnson — a political independentwho had been popular with conserv-ative critics of Islam — wrote on hisinfluential “Little Green Footballs” site.“It was not done at the behest of theObama administration. . . . The DHSreport is not intended to target anyonebut the most extreme elements of thefar right, and it’s depressing to see somany bloggers jumping to totally un-warranted conclusions.” 72

Reaction to the document mayhave been especially intense becauseit followed closely on an uproar thatgreeted disclosure of a report on the“Modern Militia Movement” in Mis-souri. It was produced by a “fusioncenter,” one of 70 around the coun-try that were set up by law enforce-ment agencies after Sept. 11 to en-sure that intelligence is shared betweenfederal, state and local officers. Thereport mostly summarized information

on extremist activities in the 1990s andoutlined some ideas said to be circu-lating now on the far right. 73

But the report lumped together ex-tremists and mainstream political ac-tivists with no violent inclinations.“Militia members most commonly as-sociate with third-party politicalgroups,” the report said, going on toname supporters of 2008 libertarianpresidential candidate Bob Barr, Con-stitution Party candidate Chuck Bald-win and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, whoran for the Republican Party presi-dential nomination. 74

“This smacks of totalitarian regimes ofdays gone by,” said Baldwin, one of manyto react furiously to the document. 75

Within weeks, the Missouri StateHighway Patrol had apologized to thethree politicians and replaced the headof the fusion center. 76

Not all critics came from the right.“This is part of a national trend whereintelligence reports are turning atten-tion away from people who are ac-tually doing bad things to people whoare thinking thoughts that the gov-ernment, for whatever reason, doesn’tlike,” former FBI agent German toldThe Associated Press. 77

The ACLU, where German is nowa policy counselor, noted that theNorth Central Texas Fusion Systemhad produced a report in Februarythat tied former Rep. Cynthia McKinneyand former U.S. Attorney GeneralRamsey Clark to “far left groups” thatallegedly sympathize with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia of Lebanonand other armed movements in theMiddle East. 78

Fusion centers, German said, are an“equal opportunity infringer” on civil rightsof citizens on the right and the left. 79

Indeed, DHS says that it produceda report earlier this year on left-wingextremists. That report soon leakedout as well. The document forecast arise in cyber-attacks aimed at busi-nesses, especially those deemed to beviolators of animal rights. 80

Extremism-watchers, for their part,greeted the DHS report as an echoof their own conclusions. “ThisHomeland Security report reinforcesour view that the current political andeconomic climate in the United Statesis creating the right conditions for arise in extremist activity,” said Potokof the SPLC. 81

But one of the center’s most fero-cious left-wing critics, writer AlexanderCockburn, ridiculed that reasoning, ac-cusing the center of “fingering militia-men in a potato field in Idaho” insteadof “attacking the roots of Southern pover-ty, and the system that sustains thatpoverty as expressed in the endless pris-ons and death rows across the South,disproportionately crammed with blacksand Hispanics.” 82

Fights are also continuing over broad-casters’ commentaries. In Boston, radiostation WTKK-FM suspended right-wingradio talk-show host Jay Severin after heresponded to the influenza outbreakwith comments including: “So now, inaddition to venereal disease and the otherleading exports of Mexico — womenwith mustaches and VD — now wehave swine flu.” Mexicans, he said, are“the world’s lowest of primitives.” 83

Franklin Soults, a spokesman forMassachusetts Immigrant and RefugeeAdvocacy Coalition, called Severin’slanguage “dehumanizing.”

Severin himself referred questionsto his lawyer, George Tobia, who toldthe Boston Globe that he expected thebroadcaster to be back on the air soon.“But I don’t know when.” 84

Recruiting Veterans

D ischarged from the U.S. MarineCorps after being arrested for al-

legedly taking part in armed robberiesat two hotels in Jacksonville, N.C., aformer lance corporal now facesprosecution for allegedly threateningPresident Obama’s life.

Continued on p. 440

no


At Issue:Is anti-immigration rhetoric provoking hate crimes againstLatinos?Yes

yesMARK POTOKDIRECTOR, INTELLIGENCE PROJECT,SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, APRIL 2009

across the board, nativist organizations in America haveangrily denounced those who suggest that demonizingrhetoric leads to hate violence. One of them even re-

cently issued a press release criticizing the “outrageous behav-ior” of groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center that pro-pose such a link and “provide no proof whatsoever.”

Nativist organizations take the remarkable position that hatespeech directed against Latino immigrants has no relationshipat all to hate crime — not even the utterly false allegationsthat Latinos are secretly planning to hand the American South-west over to Mexico, are far more criminal than others, arebringing dread diseases to the United States, and so on.

In addition to defying common sense, that head-in-the-sandapproach completely ignores the statements that are typicallymade by hate criminals during their attacks.

Take the case of Marcelo Lucero, who was allegedly mur-dered by a gang of white teenagers in the Long Island townof Patchogue, N.Y., last November. Prosecutors say the sus-pects told detectives they regularly went “beaner jumping” —beating up Latinos — and that they used racial epithets dur-ing the attack. “Let’s go find some Mexicans to [expletive] up,”one said beforehand, according to Newsday.

Nativist groups use the fact that we don’t know preciselywhere the teens’ fury comes from to deny it was related to na-tivist demonization. But just because it’s not possible to pinpointthe exact source of their racial anger — rhetoric from nativistgroups, their parents, local anti-immigrant politicians, or pundits— does not mean it magically popped into the assailants’ minds.

There is also hard evidence to back up the link betweendemonization and violence. According to FBI statistics, anti-Latino hate crimes went up 40 percent between 2003 and2007 — the very same period that saw a remarkable prolifera-tion of nativist rhetoric.

Experts agree that there is a link. “Racist rhetoric and de-humanizing images inspire violence perpetrated against inno-cent human beings,” says Jack Levin, a nationally known hatecrime expert at Northeastern University. “It’s not just the mostrecent numbers. It’s the trend over a number of years thatlends credibility to the notion that we’re seeing a very realand possibly dramatic rise in anti-Latino hate incidents.”

Ignoring the role that demonization plays in such violenceis a surefire way to generate more of it. Marcelo Lucero’smurder is only the latest in a sad list of violent incidents in-spired by ugly rhetoric that will certainly grow longer.No

MARCUS EPSTEINEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE AMERICAN CAUSE

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER, APRIL 2009

last year, Barack Obama accused broadcasters Lou Dobbsand Rush Limbaugh of “feeding a kind of xenophobia.”He added that their broadcasts were a “reason why hate

crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year.”Obama’s facts and logic are plain wrong. The FBI found

only 745 anti-Latino hate crimes nationwide in 2007, downfrom 770 in 2006. In fact anti-Hispanic hate crimes per capitadropped 18 percent over the last decade.

Most of these hate crimes were for minor offenses, such asgraffiti or name-calling, with only 145 aggravated assaults, twomurders and no rapes in 2007. To put this in perspective, for-mer Hudson Institute economist Ed Rubenstein estimates illegalaliens murder at least 949 people a year.

There is also no evidence that hate crimes are motivated bythe immigration-control movement. Those who claim there’s aconnection cannot point to a single, significant commentator orpolitician who has advocated violence against Latinos. Nor canthey find a single hate crime committed by their followers.

Although whites are the vast majority of listeners of conser-vative talk radio and television, they committed only 52 per-cent of hate crimes against Latinos — a percentage wellbelow their proportion of 66 percent of the population. More-over, Los Angeles County classified 42 percent of black-on-Hispanic hate crimes as “gang related.” This is not to suggestthat blacks cannot be racist, but that they are unlikely to be in-fluenced by the purveyors of supposed anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The 2008 murder of José Osvaldo Sucuzhanay in Brooklynby blacks who targeted him because they mistook him as gaywas denounced as a significant anti-Hispanic, anti-immigranthate crime by all New York politicians and by The New YorkTimes. Even when they were at large, the race of the killerswas rarely mentioned.

Groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center that perpetu-ate misconceptions about anti-Latino hate crimes make no se-cret of their goals. They want supporters of immigration con-trol silenced because, in the words of La Raza president JanetMurguía, “We have to draw the line on freedom of speech,when freedom of speech becomes hate speech.”

These organizations run relentless smear campaigns accus-ing virtually all opponents of illegal immigration — no matterhow nuanced or tempered — of hate speech that must notbe allowed on the airwaves, in print, or in front of Congress.

Before we abandon our core democratic principles of freespeech and open debate in the name of stopping hate crimes,we should at least get our facts straight.

440 CQ Researcher

Kody Brittingham, 20, who servedin the 2nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Ma-rine Division, was indicted in Febru-ary for the alleged threat by a feder-al grand jury in Raleigh, N.C. Anunnamed federal law enforcement of-ficial told the Jacksonville (N.C.) DailyNews that the charge followed dis-covery of a journal in Brittingham’sbarracks at Camp Lejeune in whichhe laid out a plan to kill Obama, whoat that point hadn’t yet been inaugu-rated. Investigators reportedly alsofound white-supremacist literatureamong Brittingham’s possessions. 85

How plausible thealleged assassinationplans were is notclear. But the arrestdid reawaken con-cerns about white-supremacist andneo-Nazi recruitmentof men with militarytraining, especiallythose with combat ex-perience (Brittingham,however, had neverserved overseas).

Those concernsaren ’t limited toextremist-watchersfrom advocacy or-ganizations. An FBIreport las t yearcounted 203 indi-viduals with “con-firmed or claimed”military experience who had beenspotted in extremist groups since theSept. 11 attacks, which effectivelymarked the beginning of a periodin which hundreds of thousands ofmilitary personnel began acquiringbattlefield experience. 86

Those 203 individuals represent a mi-nuscule fraction of the country’s 23.8 mil-lion veterans or 1.4 million active-dutypersonnel, the report acknowledged. 87

The recent DHS assessment dis-cussed extremist groups’ interest in

recruiting veterans, only to promptoutraged reaction from some veter-ans’ organizations and some politi-cians. “To characterize men andwomen returning home after defend-ing our country as potential terroristsis offensive and unacceptable,” HouseRepublican leader John Boehner ofOhio said in a press release. The De-partment of Homeland Security owesour veterans an apology.” 88

In discussing extremists’ interest inveterans, the FBI said that neo-Naziswere not discouraged by the smallnumber of vets who might be re-sponsive to recruiting pitches.

“The prestige which the extremistmovement bestows upon memberswith military experience grants themthe potential for influence beyondtheir numbers,” said the report, whichis marked “unclassified/for official useonly/law enforcement sensitive.” Thereport, now available online, has cir-culated among journalists and non-governmental specialists. 89

Among a handful of specific cases,the FBI noted that two privates inthe elite Army 82nd Airborne Divi-

sion received six-year prison sen-tences for attempting to sell bodyarmor and other equipment in 2007to an undercover agent posing as awhite-supremacist movement mem-ber. And in 2005, a former Army in-telligence analyst who’d been con-victed of a firearms violation foundeda skinhead group that reportedly ad-vocated training members in firearms,knife-fighting, close-quarters combatand “house sweeps.” 90

The FBI intelligence assessmentfollowed an investigation by the SPLC.In 2006 the center published a de-tailed report that quoted neo-Nazi

vets, a supremacist whohad renounced the ex-tremist cause, as well asa Defense Departmentinvestigator. Extremists“stretch across all branch-es of service, they arelinking up across thebranches once they’re in-side, and they are hard-core,” investigator ScottBarfield told the SPLC.“We’ve got Aryan Nationsgraffiti in Baghdad.” 91

Worries about a neo-Nazi presence in themilitary had surfacedyears before U.S. troopswere deployed to Iraqand Afghanistan. Thetrigger was the randommurder in 1995 of ablack man and woman

in Fayetteville, N.C., by two soldiersin the elite Army 82nd Airborne Di-vision, whose home base is nearbyFort Bragg. In the uproar that fol-lowed, 22 members of the 82nd —including those arrested for the killing— were found by the Army to haveextremist ties. 92

But far-right efforts to penetratethe Armed Forces apparently con-tinued. The SPLC published excerptsfrom a 1999 article in the NationalAlliance magazine by an Army Special

HATE GROUPS

Continued from p. 438

Members of the National Socialist Movement demonstrate on thegrounds of the U.S. Capitol on April 19, 2008. Fifteen years earlier, onanother April 19, a fire during an FBI siege at the Branch Davidian

compound outside Waco, Texas, killed David Koresh and about 80 followers, including many children.

Get

ty I

mag

es/D

avid

S. H

ollow

ay


Forces veteran who urged youngsupremacists to sign up. “Light in-fantry is your branch of choice,” hewrote, “because the coming racewar, and the ethnic cleansing to fol-low, will be very much an infantry-man’s war. It will be house-to-house,neighborhood-by-neighborhood, untilyour town or city is cleared and thealien races are driven into the country-side where they can be hunted downand ‘cleansed.’ ” 93

Supremacists who enlisted weretold to stay undercover: “Do not —I repeat, do not — seek out otherskinheads. Do not listen to skinhead‘music.’ Do not keep ‘racist’ or ‘White-supremacist tracts’ where you live.During your service you will be sub-jected to a constant barrage of equalopportunity drivel. . . . Keep yourmouth shut.” 94

OUTLOOKGuns in Holsters

T he possibility that far-right ex-tremists will emerge from the

margins is as uncertain as the courseof today’s economic crisis, veterananalysts say.

For their part, extremists includ-ing Roper of White Revolution har-bor no doubt that the medium-termfuture will see the outbreak of majorracial and ethnic violence accompa-nying the breakup of the United States.“A lot of people might think it’s im-possible, but if you had gone tothose same people in 1980 and toldthem the Berlin Wall was going tofall and the Soviet Union was goingto collapse without a single missilebeing launched, they would havethought that was impossible too,”Roper says.

Others would argue that U.S. societyand government have firmer foundationsthan the Soviet system, which came topower in 1917 and sustained itself firstby mass terror and then by mass re-pression.

In any event, the consensus amongmonitors of the far right is that ex-tremist intensity hasn’t even reachedthe level of the 1990s — the point atwhich the extremist movement “goesfrom red-hot to white-hot,” as Pitcav-age of the ADL puts it.

A key indicator of the latter stageis the discovery of major conspira-cies or actual large-scale attacks,such as the Oklahoma City bomb-ing. “In the 1980s and mid-’90s, avariety of white-supremacist or anti-government extremist groups hadhuge plots — start a white revolu-tion, break off part of the country,hit military targets,” Pitcavage says.“What they shared was an elaboratelarge-scale conception, often far larg-er than actual capabilities. If we startseeing some more of these we willknow that things are starting to gowhite-hot again.”

The present crisis is too new tosuddenly spawn a new wave of high-intensity extremism, Pitcavage adds.“Movements don’t start overnight,” hesays. “It takes a while for people toexperience these things and form areaction to them.”

But Barkun at Syracuse Universitysays today’s conditions are far morealarming than those of the “white-hot”years. War and global economic crisisalone open the possibility of a newextremism paradigm, he says.

”We’re in an economic situationwhich is so dire and so long-lastingthat it will have social and politicaleffects,” Barkun says. “Things maydevelop along entirely novel linesthat don’t necessarily arise out of pre-existing groups, or that can readilybe placed along the right-wing con-tinuum, where the extreme right andthe extreme left come together.”

He adds that he hasn’t seen anyevidence of this taking place. How-ever, left-right extremes have metbefore, at least elsewhere. Mussoli-ni’s early fascist movement took informer socialists like him. The “so-cialist” in Germany’s National So-cialist (Nazi) Party did express some— short-lived — opposition to cap-italism. Attempts by some Europeanfar-rightists to co-opt left-wing anar-chists represent an attempt to revivethat tradition.

Also up in the air, to Barkun and oth-ers, is whether America’s tradition ofracial conflict will reassert itself in a coun-try whose demography has been trans-formed from the old, white majority-black minority pattern.

One effect of the growing Latinopolitical presence likely will be anaccommodation by the RepublicanParty, where most support for tougherimmigration control has centered,says Potok of the Southern PovertyLaw Center. The result would be thatwhite, non-Hispanic voters alienatedby demographic change fall awayfrom the conventional political sys-tem. “When that happens, a lot ofthese people would just go home,but some percentage of them wouldgo into that extremist world,” hespeculates. “For them, there’s noway out of a multiracial system. Soit’s ‘Let’s go off and start our owncountry.’ ”

On the organizational side, Potoktheorizes, the absence of major, con-trolling figures, such as Pierce of theNational Alliance and Butler of AryanNations may be a danger sign. “I under-stand that a lot of really scary people,like The Order, came out of the Al-liance,” he says, adding that some ex-tremist leaders have a history of de-picting a need for violence only atsome indefinite point in the future.“Leaders ultimately have the effect ofholding people back: ‘We’re going tokill the Jews, but keep your guns inyour holsters.’ ”

442 CQ Researcher

HATE GROUPS

Notes

1 Quoted in Jonathan D. Silver, “911 Oper-ator Failed to Warn About Weapons,” Pitts-burgh Post-Gazette, April 7, 2009, p. A1. Un-less otherwise indicated, all details of thisevent are drawn from Post-Gazette articlespublished April 5-8, 2009.2 Quoted in Michael A. Fucco, “Deadly Am-bush Claims the Lives of 3 City Police Of-ficers,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 5, 2009,p. A1.3 Quoted in Dennis B. Roddy, “On Web:Racism, Anti-Semitism, Warnings,” PittsburghPost-Gazette, April 7, 2009, p. A1.4 “The Employment Situation: March 2009,”U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 3, 2009,www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm; Jef-frey Passel and D’Vera Cohn, “Trends inUnauthorized Immigration,” Pew HispanicCenter, Oct. 2, 2008, http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=94. CQ Re-searcher has published reports on immigra-tion going back to the early 1920s. Three ofthe most recent are: Reed Karaim, “Ameri-ca’s Border Fence,” Sept. 19, 2008, pp. 745-768; Alan Greenblatt, “Immigration Debate,”Feb. 1, 2008, pp. 97-120, and Peter Katel,“Real ID,” May 4, 2007, pp. 385-408.5 “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economicand Political Climate Fueling Resurgence inRadicalization and Recruitment,” HomelandSecurity Department, April 7, 2009, http://images.logicsix.com/DHS_RWE.pdf.6 “Why Obama is Good for Our Movement,”National Socialist Movement, undated,www.nsm88.org/activities/why obama is goodfor our movement.html. See also Alan Green-blatt, “Race in America,” CQ Researcher, July 11,2003, pp. 593-624.

7 David Holthouse, “The Year in Hate,” Intelli-gence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center,spring 2009, www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=1027. For background, see Ken-neth Jost, “Hate Crimes,” CQ Researcher, Jan. 8,1993, pp. 1-24.8 Tom Hays, “Feds charge 3 men in elec-tion bias attacks,” The Associated Press,Jan. 7, 2009; Christine Hauser and ColinMoynihan, “Three Are Charged in Attackson Election Night,” The New York Times,Jan. 8, 2009, p. A25.9 Manny Fernandez and Javier C. Hernan-dez, “Binghamton Victims Shared a Dreamof Living Better Lives,” The New York Times,April 5, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/nyregion/06victims.html?scp=7&sq=JiverlyBinghamton&st=cse; Al Baker and Liz Rob-bins, “Police Had Few Contacts With Killer,”The New York Times, April 7, 2009.10 Quoted in Jessica Fargen, “Sicko Kill PlotEmerges,” Boston Herald, Jan. 23, 2009, p.5; Milton J. Valencia, “Father of attacked Brock-ton sisters calls for justice,” Boston Herald,Jan. 24, 2009, p. B3.11 Quoted in Melissa Nelson, “FL man actedoddly before Chilean students’ deaths,” TheAssociated Press, March 13, 2009.12 “Hate on Display: A Visual Database ofExtremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos,” ADL,undated, www.adl.org/hate_symbols/numbers_14-88.asp. For a Web site filled withpraise for Lane see www.freetheorder.org/dlrip.html.13 Jeffrey Gettleman, “William L. Pierce, 68;Ex-Rocket Scientist Became White Su-premacist,” Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2002,p. B10.14 Quoted in John Krupa, “Teen in plot listsdrinking as his job,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,Oct. 29, 2008; see also Holthouse, op. cit.

15 Jared Taylor, “Transition to Black Rule,”American Renaissance, Nov. 14, 2008, www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2008/11/transition_to_b.php.16 Jared Taylor, “Jews and American Renais-sance,” American Renaissance, May 2006,www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2006/04/jews_and_americ.php.17 Passel and Cohn, op. cit.18 “Hate Crime Statistics, Victims, 2007,” FBI,www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2007/table_07.htm.19 Ibid.20 Jim Salter, “Mo. town outraged overkillings, illegal immigrant,” The AssociatedPress, March 20, 2009; “Hannibal murder sus-pect is illegal alien,” The Associated Press,March 4, 2009.21 Edwin S. Rubinstein, “Illegals kill a dozena day?” VDare, Jan. 12, 2007, www.vdare.com/rubenstein/070112_nd.htm.22 Mark Hugo Lopez and Michael T. Light,“A Rising Share: Hispanics and Federal Crime,”Pew Hispanic Center, Feb. 18, 2009, p. 4,http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/104.pdf.23 Quoted in Sarah Burge, “Hate CrimesContinue Their Rise in Riverside County,”Press-Enterprise (Riverside, Calif.), July 20,2006, p. B1. See also Denes Husty III,“Crime vs. Hispanics up,” The News-Press(Fort Myers, Fla.) Feb. 11, 2007, p. A1, andTroy Graham, “Hate Crime Statistics BelieTruth,” Daily Press (Newport News, Va.),Jan. 30, 2000, p. A1.24 “A Local Prosecutor’s Guide For Respondingto Hate Crimes,” American Prosecutors Re-search Institute, undated, www.ndaa.org/pdf/hate_crimes.pdf.25 Dennis B. Roddy, “An Accused Cop Killer’sPolitics,” Slate, April 10, 2009, www.slate.com/id/2215826/.26 Gary Kamiya, “They’re coming to take ourguns away,” Salon.com, April 7, 2009, www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2009/04/07/richard_poplowski.27 Quoted in Adam Liptak, “The Nation: Pris-ons to Mosques; Hate Speech and the Amer-ican Way,” The New York Times, Jan. 11, 2004.The Supreme Court decision is Brandenburgv. Ohio, 395, U.S. 444 (1969).28 Quoted in Katherin Clad, “Group citesSaudi ‘hate’ tracts,” The Washington Times,Jan. 29, 2005, p. A1.29 Nonie Darwish, “Muslim Hate,” Front-PageMagazine.com, March 25, 2009, www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=A629F1F3-BBBA-420D-8C31-D340A577A083.

About the AuthorPeter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ-ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time andNewsweek and covered the Southwest for newspapers inNew Mexico. He has received several journalism awards,including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for coverage of drugtrafficking, from the Inter-American Press Association. Heholds an A.B. in university studies from the University ofNew Mexico. His recent reports include “Mexico’s DrugWar,” “Homeland Security” and “Future of the Military.”


30 “Glen Beck joins Fox News,” Reuters, Oct. 16,2008, www.reuters.com/article/televisionNews/idUSTRE49G0NW20081017.31 Eric Boehlert and Jamison Foser,” On radioshow, Beck read ‘ad’ for refinery that turnsMexicans into fuel,” County Fair blog, MediaMatters for America, June 29, 2007, (audioclip is posted), http://mediamatters.org/items/200706290010.32 Ariel Alexovich, “A Call to End Hate Speech,”The New York Times, The Caucus blog, Feb. 1,2008, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/a-call-to-end-hate-speech/?scp=1&sq=murguia%20hate%20speech&st=Search; “Presidentand CEO Janet Murguia’s Remarks at the Waveof Hope press briefing,” National Council of LaRaza, Jan. 31, 2008, www.nclr.org/content/viewpoints/detail/50389/.33 Steve Sailer, “What Obama hasn’t figured outyet,” Vdare, April 27, 2009, http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/04/27/what-obama-hasnt-figured-out-yet-better-teachers-means-___/; Patrick Cle-burne, “More Indians means more . . .,” Vdare,April 19, 2009, http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/04/19/more-indians-means-morefill-in-blank/;Cooper Sterling, “Tom Tancredo at AmericanUniversity: Maybe It Is About Race,” Vdare,March 14, 2009, www.vdare.com/sterling/090314_tancredo.htm.34 Unless otherwise indicated this subsectiondraws on Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy ofFascism (2004); William E. Leuchtenburg,Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal (1963);and Chip Berlet and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Com-fort (2000); Daniel Levitas, The Terrorist NextDoor: The Militia Movement and the RadicalRight (2002).35 See Binjamin Segel, A Lie and a Libel: TheHistory of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion(1996). For an article in the Dearborn Inde-pendent that takes the Protocols as fact, seeHenry Ford and the editors of the DearbornIndependent, “ ‘Jewish Protocols’ Claim PartialFulfillment,” www.churchoftrueisrael.com/Ford/original/ij12.html.36 Biographical sketch in “William Dudley Pel-ley Collection,” University of North Carolina atAsheville, D. H. Ramsey Library, http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/pelley/default_pelley_william_dudley.htm.37 Unless otherwise indicated, this subsectiondraws on Levitas, op. cit.; and Berlet and Lyons,op. cit.38 Quoted in ibid., p. 180.39 Quoted in Thomas M. Storke, “How Some

Birchers Were Birched,” The New York Times,Dec. 10, 1961.40 See Shaila Dewan, “Revisiting ’64 Civil RightsDeaths, This Time in a Murder Trial,” The NewYork Times, June 12, 2005, p. A26; ManuelRoig-Franzia, “Reopened Civil Rights Cases EvokePainful Past,” The New York Times, Jan. 10,2005, p. A1. For background on the KKK,see the following Editorial Research Reports,predecessor to CQ Researcher: K. Lee, “KuKlux Klan,” July 10, 1946; W.R. McIntyre,“Spread of Terrorism and Hatemongering,”Dec. 3, 1958; H.B. Shaffer, “Secret Societiesand Political Action,” May 10, 1961; R.L.Worsnop, “Extremist Movements in Race andPolitics,” March 31, 1965; S. Stencel, “TheSouth: Continuity and Change,” March 7, 1980,and M.H. Cooper, “The Growing Danger ofHate Groups,” May 12, 1989.41 Fred P. Graham, “Rockwell, U.S. Nazi, Slain,”The New York Times, Aug. 26, 1967.42 Except where otherwise indicated, thissubsection is drawn from Levitas, op. cit.,and James Ridgeway, Blood in the Face:The Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, NaziSkinheads, and the Rise of a New WhiteCulture (1990).43 Wayne King, “Right-Wing Extremists Seekto Recruit Farmers,” The New York Times,Sept. 20, 1985, p. A13. See also “Arthur Kirk:Kirk & Radical Farm Groups,” nebraskastudies.org, undated, ww.nebraskastudies.org/1000/frameset_reset.html?www.nebraskastudies.org/1000/stories/1001_0112.html.44 “Supremacists Sentenced,” The WashingtonPost, Dec. 4, 1987; “Five White Supremacists GetLong Prison Terms,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 7,1986, p. A41; “40-Year Sentences Given to 5 inWhite-Supremacist Group,” The New York Times(The Associated Press), Feb. 8, 1986, p. A17.45 “13 Supremacists Are Not Guilty of Conspir-acies,” The New York Times, April 8, 1988, p. A14.46 Richard A. Serrano, “Metzger Must Pay$5 Million in Rights Death,” Los Angeles Times,Oct. 23, 1990, p. A1.47 Elaine Woo, “Richard Butler, 86; SupremacistFounded the Aryan Nations,” Los Angeles Times,Sept. 9, 2004, p. B8.48 David Johnston with Stephen Labaton,“F.B.I. Shaken by Inquiry Into Idaho Siege,”The New York Times, Nov. 25, 1993, p. A1.49 Louis Beam, “Leaderless Resistance,” February1992, www.louisbeam.com/leaderless.htm. Seealso “Militias,” in Peter Knight, ed., ConspiracyTheories in American History: An Encyclopedia(2003), pp. 467-476.

50 Leonard Zeskind, “Armed and Dangerous,”Rolling Stone, Nov. 2, 1995.51 Megan K. Stack, “Duke Admits Bilking Back-ers,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 19, 200, p. A22.52 Susan Schmidt, “Investigation Clears Agentsat Waco,” The Washington Post, July 22, 2000,p. A1. See also “Final Report to the DeputyAttorney General Concerning the 1993 Con-frontation at the Mt. Carmel Complex,” JohnC. Danforth, Special Counsel, Nov. 8, 2000,www.apologeticsindex.org/pdf/finalreport.pdf.53 Mike German, Thinking Like a Terrorist:Insights of a Former FBI Undercover Agent(2007), p. 71.54 Woo, op. cit.; “William Pierce, 69, Neo-NaziLeader, Dies,” The New York Times, July 24,2002, p. A16.55 “Hitler’s birthday was April 20, 1889. Un-welcome distinction as Hitler’s birthday bur-dens Austrian town,” The Globe and Mail(Toronto), (Reuters), April 20, 1989.56 “Schedule of Upcoming Extremist Events:2009,” regularly updated, www.adl.org/learn/Events_2001/events_2003_flashmap.asp.57 Steve Giegerich, “Angry words fill air atneo-Nazi rally,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 19,2009, p. A4.58 Quoted in ibid.59 Lisa Black, “Holocaust museum opens to‘fight capacity for evil,’ ” Chicago Tribune,April 20, 2009, p. A8.60 Padraig Shea,” Spurned by Hub hall,supremacist group holds rally in N.H.,” TheBoston Globe, April 12, 2009, p. B3; “Whitesupremacists’ event shifted to N.H.,” UPI,April 12, 2009.61 “We shut down the fascists!” Boston Anti-RacistCoalition, April 8, 2009, www.anarkismo.net/article/12633.62 Billy Roper, “One If By Land, Two If BySea,” White Revolution, April 8, 2009, http://whiterevolution.com.63 “Ku Klux Klan Coming to Your Town?”The Tennessee Tribune (Nashville), July 6, 2006,p. C8.64 “Arrests, fights break out at neo-Nazi march,”wtop.com, April 19, 2009, www.wtop.com/?sid=1389944&nid=25. Video available at AlbertXavier Barnes, “The Arrests, Counter-Demo,”undated, www.truveo.com/The-Arrests-Counter-Demo-NSM-March-on-DC-19/id/3760920024.65 Brooke Donald, “Two arrested outsideBoston Holocaust gathering,” The AssociatedPress, May 9, 2005.66 R. Scott Rappold, “Mobs clash in York,”York Sunday News, Jan. 13, 2002 , p. A1.

444 CQ Researcher

HATE GROUPS

67 Marc Levy, “White supremacist rally sparselyattended,” The Associated Pres, April 22, 2002.68 Michelle Malkin, “Confirmed: The ObamaDHS hit job on conservatives is real,” michelle-malkin.com, April 14, 2009, http://michelle-malkin.com/2009/04/14/confirme-the-obama-dhs-hit-job-on-conservatives-is-real/. See alsoStephen Gordon, “Homeland Security docu-ment targets most conservatives and liber-tarians in the country,” The Liberty Papers(blog), April 12, 2009, www.thelibertypapers.org/2009/04/12/homeland-security-document-targets-most-conservatives-and-libertarians-in-the-country.69 Quoted in “Napolitano defends report onright-wing extremist groups,” CNN, April 15,2009, www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/15/extremism.report/.70 “Rightwing Extremism. . . .,” op. cit., p. 5.71 Ibid., p. 6.72 “About That DHS Report on Right-WingExtremism,” Little Green Footballs, April 14,2009, http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/33364_About_That_DHS_Report_on_Right-Wing_Extremism.73 “The Modern Militia Movement,” MIAC [Mis-souri Information Analysis Center] StrategicReport, Feb. 20, 2009, pp. 3-4, www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09-;David A. Lieb, “Analysis: Militia report unitesACLU, Republicans,” The Associated Press,April 6, 2009.74 “Modern Militia Movement,” op. cit.75 Chad Livengood, “Agency apologizes formilitia report on candidates,” Springfield (Mo.)News-Leader, p. A1.76 Chris Blank, “Mo. Patrol names new leaderfor information center,” The Associated Press,April 6, 2009.77 Quoted in Lieb, op. cit.78 Quoted in “Prevention Bulletin,” NorthCentral Texas Fusion System, Feb. 19, 2009,p. 4, www.privacylives.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/texasfusion_021909.pdf.79 Quoted in Lieb, op. cit.80 “Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Useof Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade,”Department of Homeland Security, Jan. 26,2009, www.fas.org/irp/eprint/leftwing.pdf.81 Quoted in “Homeland Security: Economic,Political Climate Fueling Extremism,” SouthernPoverty Law Center, April 15, 2009.

82 Quoted in ibid. Alexander Cockburn, “Kingof the Hate Business,” The Nation, May 18, 2009,www.thenation.com/doc/20090518/cockburn.83 Quoted in David Abel, “WTKK-FM sus-pends Severin for derogatory comments aboutMexicans,” The Boston Globe, April 30, 2009,www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/04/_jay_severin.html.84 Quoted in ibid.85 Lindell Kay, “U.S. charges former Marinewith making a threat against Obama,” Jack-sonville Daily News, Feb. 27, 2009, www2.journalnow.com/content/2009/feb/27/us-charges-former-marine-with-making-a-threat-agai.86 “White Supremacist Recruitment of MilitaryPersonnel since 9/11,” FBI, CounterterrorismDivision, July 7, 2008, http://wikileaks.org/wiki/FBI:_White_Supremacist_Recruitment_of_Military_Personnel_2008.87 Ibid.88 “Boehner: Homeland Security Report Char-acterizing Veterans as Potential Terrorists is‘Offensive and Unacceptable,’ ” press release,

April 15, 2009, http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=122567.89 “White Supremacist Recruitment . . . ,” op.cit. See also Jim Popkin, “White-powergroups recruiting from military,” “Deep Back-ground — NBC News Investigates,” July 16,2008, http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/16/1202484.aspx.90 “White Supremacist Recruitment,” op. cit.91 David Holthouse, “A Few Bad Men,” In-telligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Cen-ter, July 7, 2006, www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?pid=79.92 Art Pine, “Ft. Bragg Troops Restricted AfterSwastikas Are Painted,” Los Angeles Times,July 17, 1996, p. A9; William Branigin andDana Priest, “3 White Soldiers Held in Slay-ing of Black Couple,” The Washington Post,Dec. 9, 1995, p. A1.93 “Planning a Skinhead Infantry,” sidebar to“A Few Bad Men,” op. cit., www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?sid=21.94 Ibid.

FOR MORE INFORMATIONThe American Cause, 501 Church St., Suite 315, Vienna, VA 22180; (703) 255-2632.Educational organization founded in 1993 by conservative commentator Pat Buchananthat supports “conservative principles of national sovereignty, economic patriotism,limited government and individual freedom.”

Anti-Defamation League, Law Enforcement Agency Research Network;http://adl.org/learn/default.asp. A monitoring and research program aimed mainlyat keeping law enforcement agencies up to date on extremism.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, J. Edgar Hoover Building, 935 Pennsylvania Ave.,N.W., Washington, DC 20535; www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/civilrights/hate.htm. Provides statis-tics, information on the agency’s anti-hate crime program and links to other sites.

Political Research Associates, 1310 Broadway, Suite 201, Somerville, MA 02144;(617) 666-5300; www.publiceye.org. A left-oriented think tank that investigates thefar right.

Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104;www.splcenter.org/intel/intpro. Specializes in suing extremist organizations; main-tains a research arm that monitors the extreme right.

Stormfront, P.O. Box 6637, West Palm Beach, FL 33405; (561) 833-0030;www.stormfront.org/forum. A heavily trafficked far-right site.

White Aryan Resistance, Tom Metzger P.O. Box 401, Warsaw, IN 46581;www.resist.com. A Web site maintained by a longtime extremist leader.

FOR MORE INFORMATION


Selected Sources

Bibliography

Books

Berlet, Chip, and Matthew N. Lyons, Right-Wing Populismin America: Too Close For Comfort, Guilford Press, 2000.Longtime analysts of the far right chronicle the long history

of a movement that’s larger than right-wing extremism.

German, Mike, Thinking Like a Terrorist, Potomac Books,2007.A former FBI agent recounts his undercover assignments

in violent, far-right cells while arguing for government focuson law-breaking, not ideology.

Levitas, Daniel, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Move-ment and the Radical Right, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.The life of Posse Comitatus founder William Potter Gale

provides the framework for an independent scholar’s detailedhistory of domestic militias.

Paxton, Robert O., The Anatomy of Fascism, Alfred A.Knopf, 2004.A leading scholar of the European extreme right distinguishes

between its historic relics and the elements that survive.

Raspail, Jean, The Camp of the Saints, Charles Scribner’sSons, 1975.Popular on the far right, this novel by a well-known French

writer anticipates the fervent opposition to immigration fromdeveloping countries by depicting it as an invasion that willtopple Western democratic societies.

Ridgeway, James, Blood in the Face: Ku Klux Klan, AryanNations, Nazi Skinheads, and the Rise of a New WhiteCulture, Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1990.Journalist Ridgeway’s prescient book includes documentary

extremist material.

Articles

Blow, Charles M., “Pitchforks and Pistols,” The New YorkTimes, April 3, 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/04/04/opinion/04blow.html.A columnist argues that apocalyptic talk from conservative

commentators preaching revolution and warning of gun-grabbing plans by the Obama administration may set offunstable minds.

Hedgecock, Roger, “Disagree with Obama? Gov’t has eyeson you,” WorldNetDaily, April 13, 2009, http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94799.The conservative columnist who obtained the first leaked

copy of the Department of Homeland Security’s recent as-

sessment of the far right attacks it as a justification for po-litical surveillance of Obama administration critics.

Jenkins, Philip, “Home-grown terrorism,”Los Angeles Times,March 10, 2008, p. A17.During the presidential campaign, a prominent Penn State

historian of religion forecast a new wave of right-wing ex-tremism — and of repressive Democratic response.

Roddy, Dennis B., “An Accused Cop Killer’s Politics,” Slate,April 10, 2009, www.slate.com/id/2215826/.A reporter who investigated the man charged in the recent

Pittsburgh police killings finds his political ideas jumbled.

Serrano, Richard A., “ ’90s-style extremism withers,” LosAngeles Times, March 11, 2008, p. A1.Writing before the latest wave of concern about extremism,

a veteran correspondent reported that the far right hadn’t re-covered from the blows it suffered early in the decade.

Shapiro, Walter, “Long Shadow,” The New Republic,April 1, 2009, www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=9b2152b7-07fc-4503-9f33-4e2d222161d8.A veteran political writer sees a likely surge in populist rage

with violent undertones.

Reports and Studies

“The Modern Militia Movement,”Missouri Information Analy-sis Center, Feb. 20, 2009, www.scribd.com/doc/13290698/The-Modern-Militia-MovementMissouri-MIAC-Strategic-Report-20Feb09.The report, later repudiated by Missouri officials, triggered

a nationwide controversy over government intrusion in po-litical debate.

“Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Cli-mate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,”Department of Homeland Security, April 7, 2009, www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf.The controversial evaluation of the potential for a resurgence

of the far right prompted a backlash against governmentalmonitoring of ideological trends.

“White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnelsince 9/11,” Federal Bureau of Investigation, July 7, 2008,http://wikileaks.org/wiki/FBI:_White_Supremacist_Recruitment_of_Military_Personnel_2008.This recent and more focused FBI report on extremists’ in-

terest in recruiting veterans received little attention, exceptamong specialists.

446 CQ Researcher

Europe

Baker, Andrew, “America Is Walking Away From FightingHate in Europe,” The Forward (New York), March 14,2008, p. 11.The State Department is backing out of a proposed ini-

tiative to train European police how to effectively respondto hate crimes.

Besser, James D., “Jew Hatred Cited By European RightsGroup,” Chicago Jewish Star, June 8, 2007, p. 1.Anti-Semitic hate crimes in Europe are occurring at a much

higher frequency than in the 1990s, according to several in-ternational human rights groups.

Danilova, Maria, and Olga Bondaruk, “Ukraine GrapplesWith Alarming Rise in Hate Crimes,” The AssociatedPress, July 11, 2008.The alarming rise of hate crimes in the Ukraine may hin-

der its chances of securing a spot in the European Unionand NATO.

Marquand, Robert, “ ‘Fitna’: Dutch Leader’s Anti-IslamFilm Brings Strife,” The Christian Science Monitor,March 26, 2008, p. 1.An incendiary film against Muslims by a right-wing Dutch

party leader has led to Islamic riots in the country andabroad.

Momigliano, Anna, “ ‘Xenophobic Climate’ Fueling Policies,Violence in Italy,” The Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 1,2008, p. 4.A recent wave of racially motivated attacks in Italy has

caused a backlash from those who feel like they are beingtreated as second-class citizens.

Sonne, Paul, “Russians Sentenced for 19 Hate Killings,”The Associated Press, Dec. 15, 2008.Seven young Russians have been sentenced to prison amid

a series of hate crimes involving racist assaults, xenophobiaand neo-Nazism.

Immigrants

“Latinos’ Deaths Prompt Calls for Hate Crimes Law,” TheAssociated Press, Dec. 16, 2008.Recent beatings of Latino immigrants have led Hispanic

groups to lobby for a federal hate crimes law.

Bello, Marisol, “White Supremacists’ New Angle,” USAToday, Oct. 21, 2008, p. 3A.Recent membership gains in supremacist groups have been

fueled by the debates on illegal immigration and the strugglingeconomy.

Collins, Kristin, “Hispanic Leaders Fear for Safety,”News & Observer (North Carolina), July 19, 2008, p. A1.Several of North Carolina’s prominent Hispanic advocates

have received an abundance of profanity-laced messages.

Constable, Pamela, “Neo-Nazis Clash With Protesters,”The Washington Post, April 20, 2008, p. C3.Violence erupted after the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement

marched in Washington, D.C., to denounce illegal immigration.

de la Isla, Jose, “Hispanics Victims of Hate Crimes,” SanAngelo Standard-Times (Texas), Dec. 21, 2008.Many who commit crimes against immigrants in Texas claim

that it is because immigrants pose a public-safety threat.

Jones, Bart, “Latino Group Seeks U.S. Probe,” Newsday(New York), Dec. 23, 2008, p. A22.A Latino rights group has asked the Department of Justice

to investigate alleged lax attention to hate crimes by lawenforcement officials in Suffolk County, N.Y.

Marquez, Myriam, “Innocent Chilean Students Paid SavagePrice for Man’s Hate,” Miami Herald, March 1, 2009, p. B1.Several Chilean college students were killed during an anti-

immigration rampage by a Florida man.

Reddy, Sumathi, “Attacks Against Latinos Increasing, FBIReports,” Seattle Times, Nov. 24, 2008, p. A4.Hate-related attacks on Hispanics grew 40 percent from 2003

to 2007, while the total number of hate-related incidents nation-wide has remained steady over the same period.

Ross, Janell, “Hate Crimes Rise Against Hispanics andthe Disabled,” The Tennessean, May 10, 2008.Hate crimes against Hispanics in Tennessee more than doubled

from 2006 to 2007, while those against the disabled grew from1 to 30.

Walker, Devona, “To Fringe, Border Debate Is a Boon,”The Oklahoman, June 6, 2008, p. 1A.Most members of the National Socialist Movement are con-

cerned over the continued flow of undocumented immi-grants.

Watanabe, Teresa, “Crimes Rooted in Hatred Increase,”Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2008, p. B3.Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have reached their

highest point in five years largely due to increased attackson Latinos and blacks, according to county officials.

Whaley, Monte, “Climbing Reports of Hate Crime Tell Bad-News/Good-News Story,” Denver Post, April 11, 2008, p. A1.Statistics suggest that hate crime in the Denver area is not

due to any anti-immigration sentiments.

The Next Step:Additional Articles from Current Periodicals


Obama

Asbury, John, “Attacks Linked to Election of Obama, PoliceSay,” Press Enterprise (California), Jan. 18, 2009, p. C1.Local police believe that a series of attacks in a California

suburb stem from the election of Barack Obama as the firstblack president.

Curry, George E., “Obama Triumph Sparks Increase in RacistBehavior,” Wave West (California), Nov. 20, 2008, p. A6.A recent rise in racist incidents is a reminder that hate

groups still flourish despite the election of Barack Obamaas the nation’s first black president.

Hauser, Christine, and Colin Moynihan, “Three AreCharged in Attacks on Election Night,” The New YorkTimes, Jan. 8, 2009, p. A25.A group of Staten Island men have been charged with at-

tacking black men on election night after it became clearthat a black man would be elected president.

Jonsson, Patrik [cq], “After Obama’s Win, White BacklashFesters in US,” The Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 17,2008, p. 3.Obama’s presidential victory and the political marginalization

of certain Southern whites could produce a backlash againstwhat some have called the dawn of a post-racial America.

Saslow, Eli, “Hate Groups’ Newest Target,” The WashingtonPost, June 22, 2008, p. A6.Barack Obama’s achievements as a symbol of racial progress

and cultural unity have also sparked an increase in white-supremacist activity.

Toone, Stephanie, “Some Fear for Obama’s Safety as RaceNears End,” Augusta Chronicle (Georgia), Nov. 3, 2008,p. A3.A foiled amateur plot to assassinate Barack Obama has

raised concerns over his safety amid a growing number ofhate groups.

Witt, Howard, “Hate Incidents in U.S. Surge,” ChicagoTribune, Nov. 23, 2008, p. A4.More than 200 hate-related incidents have been reported with-

in three weeks after Barack Obama was elected president.

Speech

Gamboa, Suzanne, “Latino Group Claims ‘Hate Speech’ Emerg-ing Over Immigration,” The Associated Press, Jan. 31, 2008.The National Council of La Raza has launched a web site

to counter what it considers to be ‘hate speech’ that hasemerged from immigration debates.

Goldberg, Daniel, “Term ‘Hate Crime’ Rejected for FreeSpeech Reasons,” Herald-Sun (North Carolina), Feb. 27,2009, p. C5.

The University of North Carolina refuses to use the term“hate crime” in its student codes of conduct because of thecomplexities and constitutional guarantees of free speech.

Liptak, Adam, “Freedom to Offend Outside U.S., Hate SpeechCan Be Costly,” The New York Times, June 12, 2008, p. A1.Hate speech is more constitutionally protected in the United

States than in other countries, including democracies.

Lowry, Rich, “Hate-Speech Complaint Battles Free-SpeechIdeal,” Sun Journal (Maine), June 12, 2008, p. A8.A Canadian human rights group has accused a journalist of

“hate speech” for publishing a scathing editorial against Muslims.

Miller, Matthew, “Free Speech Controversy Split Campus,”Lansing State Journal (Michigan), March 2, 2008, p. 1A.Debates over whether hate speech is free speech has created a

rift between several student groups at Michigan State University.

Murse, Tom, “Pitts Opposes Expansion of Hate Crimes Law,”Lancaster New Era (Pennsylvania), April 30, 2009, p. B1.Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., has opposed speech protections based

on sexual orientation and gender identity over the belief thatthey would crimp free speech.

Torres, Joe, “FCC to Investigate Link Between Hate Speechand Hate Crimes,” La Prensa San Diego, Feb. 6, 2009, p. 1.The National Hispanic Media Coalition has called on the Fed-

eral Communications Commission to investigate the impact ofhate speech over the airwaves on the Latino community.

Ziner, Karen Lee, “New Initiative Aims to Stop ‘HateSpeech,’ ” Providence Journal (Rhode Island), March 21,2008, p. B1.A new initiative borne out of an altercation between a store

owner and Spanish-speaking customers seeks to stop hatespeech directed at immigrants and communities of color.

CITING CQ RESEARCHER

Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography

include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats

vary, so please check with your instructor or professor.

MLA STYLEJost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher

16 Nov. 2001: 945-68.

APA STYLE

Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty.

CQ Researcher, 11, 945-968.

CHICAGO STYLE

Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher,

November 16, 2001, 945-968.

ACCESSCQ Researcher is available in print and online. For access, visit your li-brary or www.cqresearcher.com.

STAY CURRENTTo receive notice of upcoming CQ Researcher reports, or learn moreabout CQ Researcher products, subscribe to the free e-mail newsletters,CQ Researcher Alert! and CQ Researcher News: http://cqpress.com/newsletters.

PURCHASETo purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or electronic format (PDF),visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at$15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are alsoavailable.

SUBSCRIBEAnnual full-service CQ Researcher subscriptions—including 44 reports ayear, monthly index updates, and a bound volume—start at $803. Add$25 for domestic postage.

CQ Researcher Online offers a backfile from 1991 and a number of toolsto simplify research. For pricing information, call 800-834-9020, ext.1906, or e-mail [email protected].

Upcoming ReportsFertility Ethics, 5/15/09 Future of Books, 5/29/09 Children’s Rights, 6/5/09

In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

CQ RESEARCHER PLUS ARCHIVE

Get Online Access to VitalIssues From 1923 to the Present

For a free trial, visit http://library.cqpress.com/trials.

For pricing information, call 1-800-834-9020, ext. 1906 or e-mail [email protected].

*Editorial Research Reports, the predecessor to CQ Researcher, provides the same expert, nonpartisan reporting on the vital issues that have shaped our society.

CQ Press • 2300 N Street, NW, Suite 800 • Washington, DC 20037

CQ Researcher Plus Archive delivers fast, online access to every CQ Researcher report from 1991 to the present, PLUS lets you ex- plore the complete archive of Editorial Research Reports* from 1923-1990. Search and browse more than 3,600 in-depth reports.

Loaded with handy online features, CQ Researcher Plus Archive provides the trustworthy reporting and the advanced online functionality today’s research-ers demand. The new “Issue Tracker” feature pro-vides quick links to past and present reports on the specific topics you need.

New!

?Are you writing a paper?

Need backup for a debate?

Want to become an expert on an issue?

For 80 years, students have turned to CQ Researcher for in-depth reporting on issues in thenews. Reports on a full range of political and social issues are now available. Following isa selection of recent reports:

Civil LibertiesClosing Guantánamo, 2/09Affirmative Action, 10/08Gay Marriage Showdowns, 9/08America’s Border Fence, 9/08Immigration Debate, 2/08

Crime/LawJudicial Elections, 4/09Mexico’s Drug War, 12/08Prostitution Debate, 5/08Public Defenders, 4/08Gun Violence, 5/07

EducationReading Crisis? 2/08Discipline in Schools, 2/08Student Aid, 1/08Racial Diversity in Public Schools, 9/07Stress on Students, 7/07

Environment/SocietyFuture of Journalism, 3/09Confronting Warming, 1/09Reducing Carbon Footprint, 12/08Protecting Wetlands, 10/08Buying Green, 2/08

Health/SafetyExtreme Sports, 4/09Regulating Toxic Chemicals, 1/09Preventing Cancer, 1/09Heart Health, 9/08Global Food Crisis, 6/08

Politics/EconomyBusiness Bankruptcy, 4/09Future of the GOP, 3/09Middle-Class Squeeze, 3/09Public-Works Projects, 2/09The Obama Presidency, 1/09

Documents

CQResearcher - Maxwell School