>> NARRATOR: Tonight... >> You will not replace us... >> NARRATOR: From
Charlottesville to Pittsburgh... >> ...he's got an automatic
weapon... >> Bowers stormed into this
synagogue and said, "I just want to kill Jews." >> NARRATOR: An ongoing
investigation... >> He's identifying Jews as a
threat to "our people." What he means there
is "white people." >> NARRATOR: ...of violent
neo-Nazis... >> THOMPSON: What do you think
was going on in this house? >> They were making bombs. >> NARRATOR: ...through
interviews with insiders... >> NARRATOR: ..."Frontline"
and ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson uncover
the movement's method... >> THOMPSON: They are actively
recruiting military members. Does that surprise you? >> NARRATOR: ...and expose
their hate. >> "Make America great again." In order to make America
great again, you'd have to make America
white again. >> NARRATOR:
Tonight, "Documenting Hate:
New American Nazis." >> Hold the perimeter.
We're under fire. We're under fire. He's got an automatic weapon,
he's firing out of the front of the synagogue. >> THOMPSON: Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, October 27, 2018. >> 34-10: Please send the medics
up here! >> I've got one alive. >> THOMPSON: Robert Bowers
storms into the Tree of Life synagogue
with an AR-15 and allegedly kills
11 Jewish worshippers. >> 7-1: Suspect's talking about
"All these Jews need to die." >> We have multiple casualties
inside the synagogue. We have three officers
who have been shot. >> Members of the Tree of Life
synagogue, conducting a peaceful service in
their place of worship, were brutally murdered by a
gunman targeting them simply because of their faith. >> THOMPSON: Another act of
terror in America, the country again left to ask,
"Where does this hate come from? Could it have been prevented?" >> It's just been 24 hours since
Robert Bowers stormed into this synagogue and said,
"I just want to kill Jews." >> THOMPSON: Over the past
few years, I've been reporting on a resurgent
white supremacist movement. I've seen its ideas migrate into
the mainstream. I've seen violence in cities
across the country. And now this: the deadliest
known attack on the Jewish community in
American history. I fear there will be more
to more to come. ♪ ♪ >> Blood and soil!
>> Blood and soil! >> Today's alt-right "Unite the
Right" rally is expected to draw over 6,000 people... >> THOMPSON: A year ago, the
white supremacist movement shocked the nation
with a show of force in Charlottesville, Virginia. >> Anti-white! >> You will not replace us! You will not replace us! >> THOMPSON: They spilled blood
in the streets, militant and unafraid. >> Panic and horror in
Charlottesville. A car slams into a crowd of
counter-protesters... >> When a driver plowed
into the crowd, killing a young woman
and injuring 19. >> THOMPSON: White supremacists
killed one protester and injured dozens of others. After Charlottesville,
I identified some of the groups behind the violence. With a team of reporters,
I exposed a neo-Nazi fight club called the Rise Above Movement,
or RAM. They were involved in melees
in four different cities. Following our investigation,
eight members or associates of RAM are now facing
federal charges. But the most extreme
organization I've been looking at is called
the Atomwaffen Division. Atomwaffen means "atomic
weapons" in German. The group embraces Nazi ideology
and preaches a hatred of minorities, gays, and Jews. It calls for lone wolf acts of
violence, much like the massacre
in Pittsburgh. For months, my colleagues and I
have been talking to a former Atomwaffen member, who asks us to call him John
and disguise his voice. He says the group's ranks
swelled after Charlottesville. So after Charlottesville, people
start coming into the group... >> THOMPSON: So if protests
don't work, what is the answer? >> THOMPSON: John tells me that
Atomwaffen's ideology draws from the writings
of an obscure neo-Nazi named James Mason,
who published a newsletter in the 1980s called "Siege." (explosion booms) >> THOMPSON: Atomwaffen has made
"Siege" required reading for all of its members. >> "Siege" by James Mason. >> THOMPSON: To them, Mason is
the latest in a long line of Nazi leaders,
inheriting the role from American Nazi Party founder
George Lincoln Rockwell, who in turn took his inspiration
from Adolf Hitler himself. I learn that Mason's writings
are kept at the University of Kansas. >> The bulk of the collection
came to us in the early 2000s. >> THOMPSON: Rebecca Schulte is
the curator of the Wilcox Collection, an archive of contemporary
political movements. Is this the only collection
of his work? >> Yes, this is his archive. We are the only ones
that have them. "Enclosed with this letter is
a sample copy of 'Siege,' the newsletter of the National
Socialist Liberation Front." >> THOMPSON: Mason's archive is
highly disturbing. His writing lays out an
apocalyptic neo-Nazi vision. He says the white race in
America is under siege by people of color,
and undermined by Jews in positions of power. "We do not wish for law and
order, for law and order means the continued existence of this
rotten rip-off capitalist Jew system. We wish for anarchy and chaos,
which will enable us to attack the system while
her Big Brother pigs are trying to keep the pieces
from falling apart." >> And this is a paste-up. You know, it's got... see that? >> THOMPSON: Yeah. Mason advocated attacks on
institutions like Hollywood, media, and the courts. Notorious killer Charles Manson
is one of Mason's heroes, and the two had a long
correspondence. >> So this is an object that Charlie Manson knitted in prison and gave to James Mason. >> THOMPSON: So it's some kind
of ornament or... >> Yes, I... >> THOMPSON: Some kind of
artwork. >> ...kind of knitting, yeah. I don't know exactly. Looks like they corresponded
a lot. >> THOMPSON: Yeah, it looks like
over a long period of time. >> Mm-hmm. >> THOMPSON: Like '81 to '90s.
>> Right. We've had the collection
described online for many years, and we haven't seen
a lot of action. (chuckles)
>> THOMPSON: Right. >> But in the last few years,
there have been more people coming to use the collection. So that's always an indicator that there's something happening
out there, there's an interest. We don't always know what it is. >> THOMPSON: So people are
starting to look at his writings again-- that's very interesting.
>> Mm-hmm, they are. >> THOMPSON: We're not the first
people to come visit you. >> No, you're not. >> THOMPSON: Back in New York,
our Atomwaffen source, John, agreed to talk over video chat
with me and my colleague Ali Winston. (video chat program ringing) >> THOMPSON: When you say
lone wolf attacks, it sounds to me like you're
talking about basically terrorist acts. >> THOMPSON: So, how many...
how many initiates would you say there are?
>> Or were? >> THOMPSON: Or were? >> THOMPSON: Wow. (radio squawking) ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: John tells me that
if I want to investigate the group, I need to start
where it began, in Tampa, Florida. ♪ ♪ Atomwaffen was founded in 2015
by Brandon Russell, a National Guardsman
in his early 20s. ♪ ♪ He moved into this
apartment complex with three other members
of the group. One of them, an 18-year-old high
school dropout named Devon Arthurs, would bring
Atomwaffen to the attention of the authorities. >> Friday night, Tampa police
arrested 18-year-old Devon Arthurs. He confessed to killing his
roommates, 22-year-old Jeremy Himmelman and
18-year-old Andrew Oneschuk. >> Arthurs told cops a fourth
roommate, Brandon Russell, participates in neo-Nazi
chat rooms. >> The common thread that
connected all four roommates was neo-Nazi beliefs. ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: Why had Arthurs
apparently shot two of his roommates? His father agreed to talk to me
about what happened that day. >> I was working in my office,
and the cellphone went off, and it was Devon. And he said, "Dad, I'm sorry. I've really messed up.
I've really messed up." I said, "What's, what's the
matter, buddy? What's going on?" "The two guys, the two that were
staying or whatever, they're dead. I, I shot them. They upset me and I shot them." I tried to hold it together and
then I said, "Put the gun down
or any weapon down, and go turn yourself
in right now. Right now." All I was hearing, "I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, Dad. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry." I said, "Just turn yourself in." >> THOMPSON: Alan Arthurs says
Devon began gravitating to neo-Nazi ideas when
he was 13 or 14 years old. So is this Junior ROTC? What is... what is... >> Yeah, that's ROTC
in high school. >> THOMPSON: He was really
interested in the military. >> That's what he said. >> THOMPSON: What do you think
he was really interested in? >> There were two other brothers
and another member of that ROTC that were obviously
into the neo-Nazi stuff. >> THOMPSON: So you think he
was joining the ROTC group because there were other kids
that were into Nazism in the group?
>> Yes. Yes, definitely. >> THOMPSON: Arthurs says his
relationship with his son became increasingly strained. >> By that time, we weren't
talking and I didn't even, you know... >> THOMPSON: Devon ended up
dropping out of high school. He eventually moved into the
Tampa apartment with Russell and the other Atomwaffen
members. Did you ever talk to Devon
since the incident? >> He said that he would not, when he figured out what Brandon
was going to do, he couldn't live with himself. That's all he's ever said to me. >> THOMPSON: Tampa police refuse
to talk to us about the case. But I obtain video of Devon
Arthurs' police interview. Over and over, he tells
detectives about Atomwaffen. >> THOMPSON: Inside
the Atomwaffen apartment, police discovered
Nazi paraphernalia, guns, radioactive material,
and handmade explosives. On a dresser was
a framed photograph of Oklahoma City
bomber Timothy McVeigh. (explosion echoes) >> Holy cow! About a third of the building
has been blown away! >> THOMPSON: On April 19, 1995,
Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Oklahoma City
Federal Building. Scores were killed. For you, what are the lessons
that we should know today about Oklahoma City? >> I think it's not only
Oklahoma City, it's lessons that
we've been learning about lone wolf terrorism. It doesn't take a large
organization to cause mass casualty. >> THOMPSON: Kerry Myers was an
FBI bomb tech who investigated the
Oklahoma City bombing. I show Myers the crime scene
photos from the Atomwaffen apartment. >> Do we have close-ups of that? >> THOMPSON:
I don't know, let me look. They document a wide range of
explosives, including some of the same
ingredients used by McVeigh in his
Oklahoma City attack. >> They were making bombs. This is a bomb maker's workshop. There's the cooler. This is the HMTD. This is actually what caused
them the most concern, and rightfully so. HMTD is not very common,
it has to be handmade-- it requires a process and you
have to be sophisticated. >> THOMPSON: And how powerful is
that? I mean, is this something... >> It goes off about 14,000 feet
per second. It's probably more powerful than
ammonium nitrate. They could make a car bomb... If these materials were put
together correctly and it went off in this
classroom, it'd kill or seriously
injure every person in this classroom. >> THOMPSON: So, obviously these
guys aren't master criminals. Are we focusing too much on a
group that's not really a threat? >> Well, in this case, we have
two dead, two young men dead, shot with an assault rifle, and
we recovered enough explosives here to blow up a car, blow up
an airplane, blow up a bus, blow up this room. We have the same basic
explosive kit here that the Boston Marathon
bombers had. ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: The night of
Arthurs' arrest, Brandon Russell was also
detained and questioned by local police and the FBI. He told a different story. He said the explosives were his,
but insisted that he was only using them
to power model rockets. Atomwaffen was nothing more
than a club. The police released Russell
without charging him. They even gave him a ride home
so he could pick up his car. Russell promptly disappeared. He met up with another
Atomwaffen member and began driving south. As the men drove, the FBI issued
an arrest warrant for Russell on explosives charges. >> We had his picture. We were told that he could
possibly be going up near Turkey Point for
some type of terrorist act. That's all we knew. >> THOMPSON: That's all you
knew? >> That was it. He turned into the Burger King. I put my patrol car right behind his car to block it in. And I didn't even think, I just
got out of the car and said, And he looked at me and he
looked startled for a second, and before I gave him reaction
to do anything, I just grabbed his arm and
started handcuffing him. Do you have any weapons on you? Do you have any weapons on you?! >> Put your hands behind your
back. >> He was shaking,
which made me shake because I didn't know what he
had on him. All I could think is that he had
some type of detonator on him because he was so nervous. Stop fidgeting. Why are you fidgeting? >> What are we going to find in
that car? >> Guns, ammunition. >> You have at least two long
guns, in excess of 1,000 rounds of
ammunition, homemade body armor, no
suitcases, no toiletry bags. It was the absence of the other
things that was a little bit
concerning. >> He is too nervous, man.
He is way too nervous. >> We were very, very thankful
that we contacted them away from that car, because
if we had pulled them over, the outcome of that event could
have been way different for everybody involved, based on
what they had inside the car. >> THOMPSON: Given all the
weapthem, within hand reach,rigd as well as the ammunition. And I believe they had loaded
magazines in the center console
for the rifles. When we found all the weapons,
we were convinced that we had just stopped
a mass shooting. >> THOMPSON: The Monroe County
Sheriffof violent attack,they sd but it's still not clear what Brandon Russell
may have been planning. He had the weapons and
ammunition to kill dozens of people, and the FBI bulletin said
he might have been targeting the nearby Turkey Point
nuclear power plant. Russell eventually
pleaded guilty to illegal possession
of explosives. He was sentenced to five years
in prison. But according to Devon Arthurs, Russell wasn't the only threat
inside Atomwaffen. >> THOMPSON: It's unclear
what the authorities did in response to Arthurs' plea
to investigate Atomwaffen. The FBI won't talk to me about
its handling of the case. But here is what I do know:
Atomwaffen continue to operate, and its violence didn't end. Seven months later in Virginia, Atomwaffen follower Nick Giampa
allegedly killed his ex-girlfriend's parents. They had objected
to his Nazi views. Giampa has yet to stand trial, but the 17 year old appeared to
be fascinated with Atomwaffen. His social media accounts were
full of its propaganda. Weeks later, in California, Sam
Woodward was arrested for allegedly killing Blaze
Bernstein, a gay Jewish college student. Shortly after the arrest,
I published a story identifying Woodward as a member
of Atomwaffen. Woodward has pleaded not guilty, but in a cache of confidential
chat logs I obtained, Atomwaffen celebrated
the slaying. They referred to Woodward as a
"one-man gay Jew wrecking crew." Three killings
in the eight months after the arrest of Brandon
Russell and Devon Arthurs. Devon Arthurs' predictions of
violence seemed to have come true. But Arthurs had given police
one more warning. >> THOMPSON: He claimed
that Atomwaffen had members inside the military. >> Okay. >> THOMPSON: From everything
I've learned, Devon Arthurs is a deeply
troubled young man. He gave conflicting explanations
for the killings and was ultimately deemed
mentally unfit to stand trial. But as I continue my
investigation, his description of Atomwaffen
and its ambitions is checking out. Atomwaffen's confidential
chat logs support Arthurs' claim that the
group is recruiting soldiers. And they reveal the existence of
what they describe as "hate camps," in which
members with military experience provide training in firearms
and guerrilla tactics. One hate camp early this year
took place here... In Death Valley, on the border
between Nevada and California. Atomwaffen filmed themselves
training out in the desert. The group was drawn
to Death Valley because of its association
with Charles Manson. They made a pilgrimage
to Devil's Hole. ♪ ♪ This small gap in the rock opens
up into a massive,
500-foot-deep cavern. Manson planned to found an
underground city here after the apocalypse. Atomwaffen's communication show
this hate camp was convened by a member
who used the online handle "Komissar." I'm able to identify Komissar
as Michael Hubsky, based in Las Vegas. Hubsky isn't a soldier himself, but claimed to have been
a private military contractor. He boasted in Atomwaffen chats about his short-barreled CZ
Scorpion rifle. Hubsky discussed attacks on
infrastructure and claimed to have
a classified map of the West Coast power grid. At Hubsky's Death Valley
hate camp, and at other Atomwaffen
gatherings around the country, the group shoots
propaganda videos. Their members fire assault
rifles, storm buildings, and clear rooms. Hubsky hoped to organize
regular training for Atomwaffen and encouraged
members to join a Nevada weapons facility
called Front Sight. The idea was for Atomwaffen
members to get schooled in advanced firearms tactics. I contacted Front Sight,
and they were shocked to learn about the group. They agreed to meet with me out
at their facility. (guns firing) >> Front Sight is unique. We're a 550-acre firearms
training facility about 40 minutes outside
of Las Vegas. We have 50 ranges and the capacity of
approximately 2,000 people at one time. >> THOMPSON: When did you first
learn about Michael Hubsky, the Atomwaffen leader who wanted
to come train here? >> I believe initially we were
contacted by you folks, and you asked questions. And as a response to that,
we investigated with our law enforcement
contacts, and that was enough to convince
us that they needed to not be coming to Front Sight
any further. >> THOMPSON: Hi, Michael,
it's A.C. Thompson from ProPublica and "Frontline." I'm in Las Vegas and still interested in talking
to you, so... When I reach Hubsky, he'd been banned for life
from Front Sight. He tells me he left Atomwaffen
and has renounced Nazism. He won't go on camera
for an interview. But using information from the
chat logs, I'm able to identify
other hate camp participants. One of them agrees
to talk to me. He's a 20-something army veteran who asks me to call him
Jeremiah. He came back from a combat tour
damaged and angry. >> (distorted): There were
a lot of people that were disenchanted
with the mission. I'd say about half the guys in
my unit. I think a lot of guys, they're
lost and they want hope. They're looking for answers. >> THOMPSON: How big would you
say the white nationalist movement
is within the armed forces? >> (distorted): There's
a good amount of them. They keep quiet about it,
especially when they're in. You can get in a lot of trouble. Going onto Facebook, I never
mention the military. >> THOMPSON: How did the group
regard combat veterans and service members? >> (distorted): We definitely
wanted to appeal to veterans. We would say they had the
fighting spirit that the National Socialists of
the 1920s had, that people of the alt-right
lack. Take an average 19-year-old
from Atomwaffen. His only experience of war
is video games, versus some guy like me, who
knows how to handle himself in a war. People looked up
to the military guys. You were at least using the
training that they had given you
to hit back at them. >> THOMPSON: When you guys did
do training, what kind of training was it? What did you,
what did you learn, what kind of skills were shared? >> (distorted): Going
to the range, clearing rooms, medical, how to wage
an effective insurgency. A lot of the Iraq and Afghan
war vets, they took what they saw the
Taliban or al Qaeda in Iraq doing and applied it
to what's going on here. Jews were the number-one enemy. We would say the Jews were the
virus, and the people of color, the homosexuals,
they were the symptoms. ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: By studying
Atomwaffen chat logs, my colleagues and I develop
a list of more than 80 Atomwaffen
members. Seven of these men
have military experience. I already know about Atomwaffen
founder Brandon Russell and his time
in the National Guard. But there are also three
active-duty soldiers or Marines and three military veterans. And my sources say
there could be more. I want to better understand
the link between Atomwaffen and the military. I go to see Professor
Kathleen Belew at the University of Chicago. She's been researching
the history of the white power movement. We're looking at a current group
called the Atomwaffen Division, and they are actively recruiting
military members. Does that surprise you? >> Not at all. That's a strategy pioneered
by the white power movement in the period of my study, and continued throughout
the post-Vietnam period. One thing to understand is that
throughout American history, there's always a correlation
between the aftermath of warfare and this kind of vigilante and revolutionary white power
violence. So if you look, for instance, at the surges in Ku Klux Klan
membership, they align more consistently with the return of veterans
from combat and the aftermath of war
than they do with anti-immigration, populism,
economic hardship, or any of the other factors that
historians have typically used to explain them. Nationalist fervor,
populist movements, those are all worse predictors
than the aftermath of war. >> THOMPSON: Postwar periods
tend to correspond, then, with with an upsurge
in white-power, white-supremacist activity? >> Always, yes.
>> THOMPSON: Wow. Belew outlines a long history
of military men who became key figures in the
white power movement: George Lincoln Rockwell,
World War II veteran and founder
of the American Nazi Party; Richard Butler,
World War II veteran and founder
of the Aryan Nations; Louis Beam, Vietnam veteran and
Grand Dragon of the KKK; Timothy McVeigh,
Gulf War veteran and Oklahoma City bomber. >> It's important to remember,
too, that returning veterans that join this movement,
and active-duty troops, we're talking about a tiny, not
even statistically significant, percentage of veterans. But within this movement, those
people who did serve are playing an enormously
important role in instruction of weapons,
in creating paramilitary activist
mentality and training. >> THOMPSON: When we speak
to people involved in this movement today,
they talk about leaderless resistance. Can you explain that to me?
>> Sure. Leaderless resistance
is basically what we would understand today
as cell-style terrorism: the idea that you can recruit
a small number of committed activists,
organize them, and then they will behave on
their own in a cell without direct ties
with movement leadership. If we think, for instance, about
the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy McVeigh is sort of
the ideal soldier of leaderless resistance. He's in an infantry unit
and serves in the Gulf and is involved in white power
groups while he's on post. He's consistently involved in
this movement, right up to the moment
of the Oklahoma City bombing. We know that this is part of the
white power movement and an act of leaderless
resistance. But we have this memory of that
as an act of one person. And as a result, I think
we've never really delivered a decisive stop
to this activism. >> THOMPSON: That because we
don't understand Oklahoma City as being an outgrowth
of an organized movement, that it has been around for
decades, that is modeling the military, that is involving military
members, that the authorities have never
really been able to put a stop to it. >> That's right. The military response
to white power activism, like the court response
to white power activism, and the police response
to white power activism, reflects the many ways that our
society has not been prepared to deal with this kind of
a movement. >> THOMPSON: In Washington, a
senior analyst at the Department of Homeland
Security had tried to draw attention to some of
these same concerns. In 2009, Daryl Johnson wrote an
intelligence report looking at the rise of white
supremacist groups and their connection
to the military. >> The wars that have gone on in
Afghanistan and Iraq, we had the rise of Islamophobia. That's a huge factor in both
the anti-government groups and the militias that rally with
firearms outside of mosques, but also the white supremacist
groups that hate people of other nations
and other skin colors. >> THOMPSON: Johnson's report
warned that the U .S. faced a growing terrorist threat from
white supremacist and anti-government groups, and
that these groups might recruit military veterans. >> What we've seen happen
in the years since that report was released is basically
everything that we had predicted has come to fruition. And it's actually worse than
what we had anticipated. And I'm afraid that more
law enforcement officers, more innocent civilians,
more minorities and faith-based communities are
going to be targeted and actually victimized
by these violent offenders. It's like every month we have
something, whether it's a, a shooting, a stabbing, even
bombings starting to happen now. >> THOMPSON: Today Johnson's
report may seem prophetic, but its publication nearly a
decade ago provoked a political backlash
from conservative lawmakers and veterans' groups. The report was retracted
and his unit disbanded. >> Our unit got shut down
in '09, and then the money started
drying up, and, uh... So these communities are
basically left to fend for themselves. This threat is out there... >> THOMPSON: After speaking to
Johnson I hear from two former Homeland Security
officials who say that the government
remains under-resourced and out of position for dealing with the
white supremacist threat. For months, I've been trying to
get someone in the government, especially at the Department
of Defense, to talk to me. No one at the Pentagon--
not even a spokesperson-- will agree to an interview. But Congressman Keith Ellison
has read my reporting. He's written a letter to the
Department of Defense, demanding an accounting of
their efforts to rid the ranks of extremists. >> Well, let me tell you,
I am a believer in our nation's military. I have very close relatives who
serve, including active duty, and I can tell you that it's an
institution that, even in my family,
we've always revered. To think that somebody who does
not support the true goals of the U.S. military,
which is to protect Americans, and actually wants to use that
training to hurt Americans, is revolting to me, and I hope
that, that people in the military
really do take this seriously. >> THOMPSON: Right-- we've
identified seven members of one neo-Nazi group who are
current or former military. >> Is that Atomwaffen?
>> THOMPSON: That's Atomwaffen. What do you make of that? >> Well, I think that they have
decided this is a strategic initiative
for them. They want their people to go
into the military. There's a real legitimate
fear here, and I think that we've got to be
vigilant about it. ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: The Pentagon
responded to Ellison with a letter stating that the
military aggressively screens new recruits. The D.O.D. also said it had
received 27 reports of extremist activity
over the past five years, and had disciplined
18 service members. I put those numbers
to Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty
Law Center. >> That's laughable.
>> THOMPSON: You think so? >> Yeah, I do.
That's ridiculous. >> THOMPSON: So you just, you
think the number, that's low? >> I think it's crazy-low. I mean, look, hate groups are
telling their people to join the military, and this was something that's
been documented, both in FBI reports and
in DHS reports, to gain these skills. There's not only going to be 27
of them in a military force of, I don't know, one-and-a-half to
two million people in the United States, who are,
who are under arms. It's not possible. I think it's actually... That's just an indicator, to me, of how low a priority it is
to root these people out. We presented the military
and committees in Congress, like the Armed Services
committees, with 130 profiles off of the
National Socialist movement's, like, equivalent of Facebook,
this thing called New Saxon. >> THOMPSON: Nazi Facebook.
>> Exactly, Nazi Facebook. And we keep sending stuff
to the military, like, examples of people...
>> THOMPSON: Oh, really? >> Saying, yeah,
"You should look at this guy, he looks like he might be
in violation." And, you know, most of the time
we never even hear anything back from them. I just think that the military
needs to have pressure put on it to put this
at the top of its list. If that means shuffling around
resources, so be it. We don't want another McVeigh,
right? You just can't have this. >> THOMPSON: With nobody at the
D.O.D. willing to talk to me, I sit down with a former
military prosecutor who has handled white
supremacist cases. >> Okay. And I can see this is a response
to a congressman who's apparently asked a
question... >> THOMPSON: Yeah. >> As a follow-up to some
of the work you guys were doing in these articles
about service members. >> THOMPSON: Major General
John Altenberg served as the deputy
judge advocate general-- the second-highest-ranking JAG
officer in the U.S. Army. He later oversaw the military
commissions at Guantánamo Bay. >> It sounds like they
understand the issue, and they laid out for the reader
all the different ways that they, they approach
this issue, and that they believe they've
got control of this issue. >> THOMPSON: And from that,
your impression is they have a handle on it,
and they're dealing with this? >> Yeah, and, I mean,
I'm pleased to see that they're doing all this. This looks very thorough to me and looks like
they're on top of it. >> THOMPSON: So it's been put
to me, "Look, this is a very small
fraction of the U.S. military. The vast bulk of service members
are wonderful people. You're disparaging the whole
armed forces by raising this." Do you think that's true?
>> No. No, I think it's too important. There's no question that there
are organizations that would like for people to go
in the military to acquire the training
that you get in the military. And how we could screen all
those people out, you know, is pretty difficult. But there always could be
corners of a given organization where people could hide out
and not be seen. >> THOMPSON: In its letter
to Congressman Ellison, the D.O.D. also said it
had investigated the Atomwaffen members
I'd identified. But they didn't say
what they had done. All I know about is that only
one member-- a Marine, Vasilios Pistolis-- was court-martialed and expelled
from the service. In response to our questions,
a Pentagon spokeswoman sent a statement saying she
couldn't provide information on individual cases but,
"our standards are clear; participation
in extremist activities has never been tolerated
and is punishable under the Uniform Code
of Military Justice." She added that commanders are "encouraged to be preventive
and pro-active, and they are doing that." I've been writing stories about
Atomwaffen and talking to insiders
for nearly a year. And it seems like the group
has been paying attention. From federal prison, Atomwaffen
founder Brandon Russell issues a thinly veiled threat
to former members, people he believes are leaking
information about the group. >> THOMPSON:
I learn the video was put out by the group's Texas cell,
led by John Cameron Denton, who calls himself Rape. In 2017, Atomwaffen began
barring its members from appearing in public
demonstrations, but I find pictures from an
earlier anti-immigrant protest. Denton can be seen at the rally
with a shotgun and a skull mask, and then afterwards posing with
his fellow neo-Nazis with his mask off. I get a tip that Denton
may be attending a black metal festival here
called Destroying Texas. (heavy metal music playing) After a year of tracking
Atomwaffen online, I have a chance to confront
the group in person. >> (singing growled lyrics) >> THOMPSON: If I do find them
inside the club, I'm not sure what to expect. (distorted metal music playing) The show is packed. Most of the concert-goers look
like typical metalheads, but I do spot a few obscure
neo-Nazi patches on some people's clothing. I find Rape drinking outside, along with two other Atomwaffen
members I recognize from my reporting. Are you Rape? I'm A.C. I wanted to come out here and
talk to you about Atomwaffen. >> No comment.
>> THOMPSON: No comment? >> No. >> THOMPSON: You're not going
to do an interview? >> No. >> THOMPSON: Are you worried
about going to prison? >> Nope. >> THOMPSON: Atomwaffen members
stand accused of multiple murders, and their
propaganda is filled with violent threats. But after all of the online
posturing, Rape and the others aren't
physically intimidating. And they are far less aggressive
in person than the skinhead gangs
I've followed in the past. All right, thanks. Hey, Jeremiah. >> Hey, how are you doing? >> THOMPSON: I met Rape out
at a metal show in Texas. >> How'd that go? >> THOMPSON: I was kind of
surprised because they talk all this
violent stuff online, but they were just kind of
quietly hostile and seething. If they were wanting to do
something violent, they wouldn't do it publicly. These guys, they're not stupid. They're not like
these skinhead types. >> THOMPSON: Jeremiah says I
shouldn't underestimate Rape. He has a direct relationship
with Atomwaffen's intellectual leader,
James Mason. Did you ever get to talk to
Mason or meet him? >> We heard him over a couple
of voice chats. I never met him in person,
though. Rape and Mason had their own
little thing. >> THOMPSON: What kind of sense
did you get of him when you were talking to him
on those chats? >> I thought he was a genius. >> THOMPSON: In propaganda
videos, Atomwaffen say that Mason
disappeared for 15 years until they located him. They pose for photos with Mason
dressed in a Nazi uniform and celebrate their
collaboration. I'm unable to find a phone
number for Mason, but I learn that he's living
in the Denver area. Mason has no online profile-- no social media, he doesn't even
appear to have an email account. He spent time in a Colorado
prison for menacing someone
with a pistol. A bankruptcy filing from a few
years ago reveals a solitary life, working at Kmart
and living alone. I've gotten several possible
addresses for Mason, and I begin to search
neighborhoods for him. Then, I get a call. It's Mason and he wants to talk
to me. >> Whenever you're ready. >> THOMPSON:
So how big do you think that the Atomwaffen Division
is these days? How many members... >> I don't have the foggiest
idea. >> THOMPSON: But they come visit
you, you exchange... >> On occasion, they will come
through the territory, yes. I'm always happy to meet
with them. >> THOMPSON: Mason is evasive
at first. I try to get him to talk about
the killings and violence linked
to Atomwaffen. >> I'm glad I didn't know about
it and I don't want to know, because if I did know,
I'd be involved in it, and I don't want to be involved
in it. >> THOMPSON: You don't want to
go back to prison. >> I do not urge anybody
to do anything like that, but when it gets done,
I won't disown them. I kind of welcome the chaos. >> THOMPSON: What did you think
of James Fields, the guy who allegedly drove the
car into the crowd in Charlottesville? >> I say bless his heart, because he sure is in a jam. >> THOMPSON: So you're
sympathetic? >> Oh, very sympathetic.
Totally sympathetic. >> THOMPSON: To you,
Fields is a hero? >> Yes. >> THOMPSON: What did you think
of Tim McVeigh? >> Another hero. >> The white race is in danger. And it's not by accident. It's driven.
It's planned. >> THOMPSON: Who's planning it?
>> The Jews. We know it's the Jews. I mean, we know that. >> THOMPSON: Mason has a lot
more to say-- the kind of anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories I've come to expect
from white supremacists. But I'm struck
by what he says next. >> With Trump winning that
election by surprise, and it was a surprise,
I now believe anything could be possible. >> THOMPSON: After decades of
railing against the government, Mason says Trump
is giving him hope. >> As Trump says, and he has it
printed right across the front of his hat,
"Make America Great Again." In order to make America
great again, you'd have to make America
white again, okay? It's interesting. We're headed
for interesting times. (crowd singing) >> The darkest day in the
history of Pittsburgh, said the mayor,
and you're looking right now at the memorial forming... >> ...outside the synagogue
today, mourners struggled to process
any of it. >> THOMPSON: I'm in Pittsburgh,
weeks after speaking to Mason and just days after the massacre
at the Tree of Life synagogue. Before he allegedly
stormed the synagogue, Robert Bowers posted on social
media writing about Jews helping immigrant invaders
who were killing his people. Kathleen Belew
examined the posts. >> Even a cursory look at his
social media indicates that he is decisively part
of a white power ideology. >> THOMPSON: What did you see
when you were looking through those accounts? >> His last post expressed that
he was going to go in shooting and it's an anti-Semitic rant. But it also repeats twice the
phrase "our people," that he needs to protect
"our people," that he's identifying Jews
as a threat to "our people." That what he means there
is "white people." And then, through the rest of
the account, there's a whole bunch of other
markers of white power ideology. All of that content is deeply,
deeply disturbing, but is historic. We have a history. >> THOMPSON: You've seen it
before. >> Absolutely. I think this is an example of
leaderless resistance in that it is a... what appears
to be a lone gunman, but someone who is motivated
and propelled by a worldview, and by a social
network of likeminded people who push and enable violence. This movement has been using
these structures for decades. >> Our community was devastated
with this attack, with this senseless slaughter
of 11 people. The entire community was
affected. The Jewish community absolutely
the brunt of it, but the entire Pittsburgh
community was devastated. >> THOMPSON: Retired FBI agent
Brad Orsini is the director of security
for the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh. Even while Pittsburgh was
grieving, he says neo-Nazi propaganda was
appearing around the city. >> THOMPSON: And what... what's
going on here? >> These are posters that are up
at various parts of the city. Flyers, posters, stickers. This week in particular
we've seen an increase. >> THOMPSON: After what's
happened in recent days, you have a fascist group
coming in here? >> Yes, and I got numerous
reports on Tuesday. >> THOMPSON: Orsini says even
before the shooting he had decided to take
additional precautions. >> We have put casualty bags in each one of our synagogues
and schools. There's tourniquets,
there are compression pads, there's wound packing material. >> THOMPSON: And so basically
you have extreme first aid kits, live-saving kits, in the
synagogues, the schools... >> Absolutely. >> THOMPSON: ...and other
institutions round here? >> In every one of our major
institutions, we have them. >> THOMPSON: It's kind of sad. >> It's incredibly sad, um, to think we're in a day where we have to worry
about security for people going in to pray. ♪ ♪ >> THOMPSON: Pittsburgh is still
mourning and the questions it
provoked still linger: can these kinds of killings be
prevented? I now know the FBI is looking
at Atomwaffen. Agents in several states have
been talking with former members. And it turns out the bureau
is investigating Robert Bowers' relationship
to two neo-Nazis brothers with connections to Atomwaffen. But what I've learned
in my years covering white supremacist
groups is that they are many and that they draw from a deep
reservoir of ugliness in America. Just this month,
the FBI announced hate crimes had spiked again,
the third year running. This story is far from over. ♪ ♪ >> Go to pbs.org/frontline for our latest reporting
with ProPublica. Then, starting November 29, our
original podcast series, "The Frontline Dispatch,"
returns with a new season. >> It's so risky. I don't want
to be walking around like this. I don't want someone... >> I think it's gut-wrenching that he knew that he could go
out there and he could get shot... >> Subscribe now on our website, or wherever you listen
to podcasts. To order Frontline's
"Documenting Hate: New American Nazis" on DVD,
visit ShopPBS or call 1-800-PLAY-PBS. This program is also available
on Amazon Prime Video.
I'm not sure what this communities stance is on The Last Podcast on The Left but they did a really great series on Timothy McVeigh and how he was almost certainly aided by other white supremacists who the FBI ignored in favor of pursuing the "lone wolf" narrative.
Video unavailable?
The part where he catches up with the leader of the atomwaffen division Texas call and he's erally just like a 20 year old twerp LMAO. fucking larpers. Shame they inspire weak, fragile broken young men to commit horrible horrible acts.
I could make a fortune selling sunscreen at these rallies.
Remember the "Illinois Nazis" scene in The Blues Brothers, where pretty much everyone universally hated Nazis and their ideas were seen as not only hateful but pathetic?
When I was younger I thought the scene was hilarious because I didn't think that Americans could be so stupid as to embrace Nazi rhetoric and ideology.
If you filmed a scene like that today the "centrists" would be upset about a film glamorizing two criminals trying to commit vehicular manslaughter against a bunch of citizens exercising their free speech.
I'm very happy for the people outside and inside the US being able to watch it - it would be so nice of one of you to mirror this for the rest of us... :)
Pls, don't comment all the different countries it's available in, it does not help make it available here, a mirror would. thank u <3
Frontline does great work - probably the best mainstream TV journalism there is.
Meet the new Nazis
Same as the old Nazis
I’m amazed with how progressive it was for being made by a main stream news outlet.