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this is democracy now democracynow.org
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the war and peace report
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I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez well
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nearly a month after a gunman opened
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fire the tree of life synagogue in
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Pittsburgh killing 11 Jewish worshippers
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we spend the rest of the hour looking at
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the rise of tree of life synagogue in America tonight
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a new documentary airs around the
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country by frontline and ProPublica
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reporter AC Thompson it's titled
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documenting hate new American Nazis it's
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Berg Pennsylvania October 27th 2018
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[Music]
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storms into the Tree of Life synagogue
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with an ar-15 and kills 11 to ash
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worshipers
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we have multiple casualties inside the
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synagogue we have three officers who
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have been shot members of the Tree of
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Life synagogue conducting a peaceful
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service in their place of worship were
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brutally murdered by a gunman targeting
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them simply because of their faith
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another act of terror in America the
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country again left to ask where does
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this hate come from could it have been
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prevented it's just been 24 hours since
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Robert Bowers stormed into this
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synagogue and said I just want to kill
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Jews
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over the past few years I've been
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reporting on a resurgent white
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supremacist movement I've seen its ideas
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migrated into the mainstream I've seen
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violence in cities across the country
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and now this what looks to be the
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deadliest attack on the Jewish community
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in American history and I fear there
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will be more to come
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synagogue gunman Robert Bowers had a
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long history of openly railing against
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Jews and immigrants on social media
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sites circulating racist memes and
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asserting Jews are the enemy of white
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people in his post Bauer's made specific
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and repeated threats against Jews
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including one just before allegedly
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attacking the Tree of Life synagogue he
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wrote highest he was referring to the
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Hebrew immigrant Aid Society highest
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likes to bring invaders in that kill our
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people referring to the caravan and the
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immigrants on the border on the same day
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that Bauer's opened fire in the
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Pittsburgh synagogue a neo-nazi named
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Edward Clark that Bowers had been
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communicating with took his own life in
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Washington DC
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the man's brother Jeffrey Clark has
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since been arrested on weapons charges
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the brothers were both linked to the
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violent white supremacist group Adam
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Wathan well for more we go to Boston
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where we're joined by AC Thompson
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correspondent for frontline PBS reporter
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for ProPublica his investigation
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documenting hate new American Nazis
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premieres tonight on PBS stations around
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the country on online at pbs.org slash
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frontline ac welcome back to Democracy
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Now for the second of your series you
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posted that report about what happened
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on the same day Bauer's opened fire in
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Pittsburgh in Washington DC why don't
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you begin there know so this is a
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fascinating fascinating aspect of the
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story and disturbing right so we all
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know what happened in Pittsburgh we have
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Robert Bowers we have a man who
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with spewing anti-semitic racist
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invective online he was using the
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platform gab to network with other white
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supremacists
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he's accused of going into the Tree of
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Life synagogue and killing 11
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worshippers attacking police and so
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forth the story that comes out after
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that is really bizarre fascinating and
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disturbing and this is the story we have
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two brothers in Washington DC they are
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part of the white nationalist scene and
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they start out sort of hanging out with
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Richard Spencer and that crew and they
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gravitate more and more and more to the
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full Nazi Fringe they get involved with
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Vanguard America which is one of the
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groups that marched in Charlottesville
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one of the groups tied to the murder of
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Heather hire in Charlottesville and then
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what we know after that looking through
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the chat logs of the extreme neo-nazi
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group Adam Waffen division we know that
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one of the brothers shows up in those
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chat logs as somebody who was hanging
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out with Adam Levine's Northern Virginia
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contingent his online handle shows up in
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there communicating with other Northern
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Virginia people people from his area
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police go to the scene of to the house
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where the two brothers that the two
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brothers shared recently and they find
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Adam Waffen literature as well by this
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time one of the brothers Edward Clark
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has committed suicide he committed
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suicide on the morning of the synagogue
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massacre right around the time the
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synagogue massacre and the other brother
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Jeffrey Clark gets arrested for weapons
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charges for having high-capacity
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magazines ammunition magazines and they
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find all this racist literature and Adam
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Waffen literature so now what we're
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looking at is this atom of and division
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extremely uh Nazi group being tied to
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this incredible act of violence in
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Pittsburgh and we're really not sure
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where the story is gonna go from here
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but it's a really interesting disturbing
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development
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well AC I want to turn back to your
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investigation documenting hate new
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American Nazis they this clip is about
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the neo-nazi group Adam Waffen Adam
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Waffen was founded in 2015 by Brandon
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Russell a National Guardsman in his
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early 20s
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[Music]
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he moved into this apartment complex
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with three other members of the group
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one of them an 18 year old high school
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dropout named Devon Arthur's would bring
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Adam Waffen to the attention of the
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authorities
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Friday night Tampa Police arrested
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18-year old Devon Arthur's he confessed
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to killing his roommates 22 year old
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Jeremy Himmelman and 18 year-old Andrew
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on Asha Arthur's told cops a fourth
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roommate brandon russell participates in
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neo-nazi chatroom the common thread that
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connected all four roommates was
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neo-nazi beliefs
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[Music]
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why in Arthur's apparently shot two of
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his roommates his father agreed to talk
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to me about what happened that day
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I was working in my office
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and cell phone went off and it was Devin
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and he said dad I'm sorry I've really
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messed up I've really messed up I said
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what's what's the matter buddy what's
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going on that's what the two guys the
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two was staying or whatever they're
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they're dead
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I I shot him I they they upset me and I
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shot him I tried to hold it together and
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I said put the gun down or any weapon
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down and go turn yourself in right now
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right now all I was hearing I'm sorry
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I'm sorry dad I'm sorry I'm sorry I said
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just turn yourself in Allen Arthur says
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Devin began gravitating to neo-nazi
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ideas when he was 13 or 14 years old so
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is this Junior ROTC what is what if yet
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that's that's ROTC in high school he was
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really interested in the military mm-hmm
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that's what he said
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what do you think he was really
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interested in there were there were two
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other brothers and another member of
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that ROTC that were obviously into the
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neo-nazi stuff so you think he was
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joining the ROTC group because there
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were other kids that were into Nazism
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yes in the group
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yes definitely he had gone Arthur says
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his relationship with his son became
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increasingly strained because but we
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weren't talking and I didn't even you
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know Devin ended up dropping out of high
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school he eventually moved into the
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Tampa apartment with Russell and the
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other Adam Waffen members did you ever
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talk to Devon since the incident he said
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that he would not when he when he
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figured out what Brandon was gonna do he
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couldn't live with himself that's all
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he's ever said to me
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Tampa police refused to talk to us about
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the case when I obtained video of Devon
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Arthur's police interview over and over
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he tells the detectives about Fadem
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Waffen division is terrorist
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organization it's a neo-nazi
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organization that was part of but the
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things that they were planning were
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horrible they're planning bombings and
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stuff like that and kind of countless
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people they're planning to kill civilian
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life well with a specific unit once
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power lines nuclear reactors synagogues
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nuclear reactors synagogues that was
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neo-nazi Devon Arthur in his police
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interview after allegedly shooting and
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killing two fellow members of Adam
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Waffen AC Thompson take us back to this
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this the the founding of Adam Waffen and
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and how the group has developed it's
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really interesting story
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so Adam Waffen develops the way a lot of
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these groups develop now out of the
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online world
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it starts with young men conversing on a
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fascist forum called iron March and on
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that forum Devon Russel would post memes
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about how he loves school shooters about
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how he loved Adolf Hitler he posted a
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picture of himself carrying a Mossberg
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shotgun with a t-shirt that said
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natural-born killers and a Nazi Eagle
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below it and at one point in 2015 he
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said hey I'm starting this group I've
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been thinking about it for a long time
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if you want to get involved contact me
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we're gonna be about the militant stuff
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we're going to be about sort of armed
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struggle or the fascist cause to take
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over the government and start a race war
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and impose our fascist ideas on this
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country and that's how he got followers
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people joined up with the group that way
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and it networked using the internet
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using modern communications tools so
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that there have been nodes of the group
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created all over the country that are
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all sort of linked using encrypted chats
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using various tools to keep them in
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communicate
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we now think there's somewhere between
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50 and 80 members of the group we know
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there's members in Canada we know people
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in Australia have gotten involved and we
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know that the groups linked to five
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different murders that what about the
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the their ideological guru that you
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talked about James Mason who is he and
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what's his relationship to the group so
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James Mason was kind of an obscure
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figure in the neo-nazi movement he had
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been involved with the American Nazi
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Party of George Lincoln Rockwell he had
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been involved with other neo-nazi groups
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but he wasn't really a a main player
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Mason's deal is he says hey we're not
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going to create Nazism fascism in
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America through the ballot box we're not
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going to do it through politics we're
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not gonna do it through political
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protest we're gonna do it through the
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gun and the way that we're gonna do this
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is terrorism assassination acts of hyper
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violence and just general chaos we're
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gonna collapse the system and then we
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will take charge and that message which
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he promulgated in a newsletter called
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seeds throughout the 80s has been
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adopted by this new generation of white
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supremacists who say yeah that's what we
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want to do that's the most extreme thing
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we can do let's do it and they have sort
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of adopted him as their guru as their
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intellectual eminence how important are
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these people how many are there and
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let's go back ac to when President Obama
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first came into office this report on
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the threat of white supremacy and
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domestic terrorists that was squelched
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by right-wing Congress members who
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demanded it not be released is this what
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they were tracking yeah this is exactly
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what they were tracking and I think we
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should say also it was retracted
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eventually by the Obama administration
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yeah I mean that's when this whole thing
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starts taking up 2008-2009 you see
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resistance to the first African American
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president in this country you see
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dissatisfaction from veterans coming
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home from wars that have been very hard
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on them and they're returning to a
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disastrous economy and having
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difficulties fitting in in some cases
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and you see anger about potential gun
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control legislation what has happened
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since then is all these things have
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ticked up they've escalated and now
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we're in a much more dangerous place
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than even Darrell Johnson at DHS was
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predicting at that time one of the
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things that he predicted is he said look
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I'm concerned that these returning
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veterans will get involved with these
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groups we've seen it in the past it may
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happen again and that is exactly what's
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happened you know the vast bulk of
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service members are decent wonderful
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people my father served in the Army my
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grandfather served in the Army I can
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tell you this but there has consistently
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been this small hard core of members who
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get involved with these white power
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groups like Adam Waffen and end up doing
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pretty serious damage to the country but
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they see on this issue though given the
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fact that this group is so small you're
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mentioning the many of them come out of
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military experience the reality is that
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our country has been in virtually
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perpetual war so there's been a constant
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churn of soldiers going out to fight in
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the enemy learning how to kill and
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coming back to the country I'm wondering
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what your sense is this situation of
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perpetual war how it's affected not just
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the veterans who might get involved in
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these extremist groups but also who
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might be susceptible once they're in
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back in civilian life to this picture
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painted by a trump or another political
15:07
conservative of the need to fight the
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enemy you know that's you put it exactly
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right and that's actually what we hear
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from the veterans who have gotten
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involved with the white power movement
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they say perpetual war they say we have
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been sent to these wars that have been
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disastrous that have ruined our friends
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that we've seen horrible horrible things
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happen and now we feel broken and we
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feel damaged and we're looking around
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for answers and we're there finding
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answers some of them honest
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some of them are finding answers in
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progressive politics and really decent
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causes and some of them are finding
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answers in neo Nazism I was just reading
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chat messages sent by one member of Adam
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Waffen who served in Afghanistan and he
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said the small moral part of me that
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still exists has nightmares about the
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people I know being blown up about
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seeing them blown up in combat and he
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says and I feel guilt because I was a
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squad automatic gunner with a belt-fed
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machine gun and I remember killing women
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and children inadvertently accidentally
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and I feel great guilt about it and the
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thing that happens then is this guilt
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and anger is being channeled into this
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obviously incredibly noxious not you
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know neo-nazi ideology but you've nailed
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it exactly it this perpetual war is
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having damaging effects back here Casey
16:32
Thompson we have to break for 30 seconds
16:34
and we're going to come back
16:34
correspondent for frontline PBS reporter
16:37
for ProPublica his investigation
16:39
documenting hate new American Nazis
16:41
premieres tonight on PBS stations and
16:44
online at pbs.org slash frontline when
16:46
we come back we continue with AC
16:48
Thompson to look at the connections
16:50
between the US military and white
16:52
supremacy stay with us
17:01
you
