The racist NA Troll network, in brief

Exploiting the Internet

An Opportunity to Promote Hate

Like other hate groups today, the National Alliance uses the Internet to showcase its racist and neo-Nazi ideology. Pierce, who has a doctorate in physics, was quick to understand the potential power of the Internet and to take aggressive steps to incorporate it into the National Alliance propaganda arsenal. The organization relies on the Internet as a tool for recruitment and for broad, inexpensive dissemination of its hate-filled ideas.

The NA maintains one of the most technically sophisticated hate sites on the World Wide Web. Constantly updated, the site effectively uses the idea of "Internet radio." The NA's weekly half-hour American Dissident Voices (ADV) radio broadcasts -- transmitted over nine AM or FM radio stations and on shortwave radio via WRNO (based in Metairie, Louisiana) -- appear on the group's Web site on the day of the broadcast. They then stay in the Web site's program archives for several months, ready to be listened to at any time, anywhere in the world. The user simply needs to click a mouse to listen to the violent, hate-filled fantasies of William Pierce, and the venom he aims at Blacks, Jews, and other minorities.

In a May 1998 broadcast, Pierce accused Russian Jewish immigrants in the United States of belonging to a global criminal network called "Organizatsiya," a Russian word meaning "the organization." He railed, ". . .These Jews from the former Soviet Union are far more predatory than the Mafia ever was. They suck far more blood from law-abiding Americans." In another broadcast, in July 1998, Pierce asked, "What can we do to free ourselves from the Jews? What can we do to break their death grip on our mass media of news and entertainment and on our political system? How can we bring about an end to their racket of using us to extort money from the rest of the world for them?"

In an effort to disseminate this type of virulent propaganda to sympathetic extremists abroad, the NA has recently made the texts of selected ADV broadcasts available in Swedish on the organization's Web site.

Logging On

A glance at the NA's Web site reveals that the group's ideology mirrors that of Nazi Germany: biological determinism, hierarchical organization, an emphasis on will and sacrifice, and "a long-term eugenics program involving at least the entire populations of Europe and America." The group's Web pages offer a series of policy statements explaining the NA's program for establishing an "Aryan society." These statements include a call for the creation of "White Living Space," an area that incorporates all of Europe and "the temperate zones of the Americas," which is to be purged of all non-whites. The group also calls for the formation of a "strong, centralized government" that is "wholly committed to the service of [the white] race and subject to no non-Aryan influence." These policy statements are also contained in the essay, "What Is the National Alliance?" which is distributed through the group's publishing arm, National Vanguard Books.

Familiar Themes in a New Venue

Also included on the Web site is Pierce's anti-Semitic essay, "Who Rules America?" and articles from Free Speech, the NA's newsletter, and National Vanguard, its magazine. The publications contain familiar themes: America is in decline, its vital essence polluted by non-Aryans, and only the revolutionary program of the NA can save it. Recently, the group added three foreign language texts to its Web site: French and German versions of The Turner Diaries, and a German translation of "What Is the National Alliance?"

Racist Electronic Commerce

The Web site also features an on-line version of the organization's National Vanguard Books catalog, which offers an extensive selection of books, videotapes and cassettes. The materials are divided into categories such as "National Socialist Revolution," "Race: Science and Sociology," and an especially long list on "Communism, Zionism, Feminism, and the Jews." Visitors to the site can download a form for ordering these materials and print out a membership application that can be mailed to the organization.

Hate in Many Languages

Recently, the site became even more "user friendly." It added a search engine, which enables users to plug in key words to find items relating to a particular topic, and a translation feature, which allows the site's English text to appear in five additional languages at the push of a button.

In an April 1998 ADV broadcast, Pierce claimed that about 12,000 people a day are visiting the NA's Web site, and that this number "is up about 75 percent from what it was a year ago." While it is not possible to verify these figures, as the Internet becomes increasingly popular, it is likely that a growing number of users are discovering the site.

Use of Public Internet Forums

National Alliance sympathizers have also increased the group's exposure by exploiting public Internet forums, including a feature offered on the popular on-line book service, amazon.com. In a section called "Reviews and Commentaries," amazon.com browsers are invited to comment on books they have read. In at least two such reviews, which no longer appear on the Web site, NA supporters have pushed the organization's message. Reviewing The Turner Diaries, one of these sympathizers urged other readers to "contact the author's organization, the National Alliance, and get involved in the struggle for self determination and freedom for our people." Another commentary lamented that "the white peaple [sic] out there that just sit on their butts all day and allow the Jewish takeover of the U.S. to continue unchallenged really need to read the chapter called the 'Day of the Rope.' Everyone else who wants to fight needs to join the National Allience [sic]."

Harassment on the Net

The NA has been connected to a number of provocative actions on the Internet. In April 1998, three Black students at Southwest Texas University were charged with raping two white students at a dormitory party. The campus NAACP chapter voiced opposition to the charges and criticized school administrators for a "rush to judgment." In response, a National Alliance member sent 16,000 unsolicited E-mail messages to students and faculty calling on the NAACP to apologize to "victims of rape and all white women." "The truth is," the E-mail said, "White people in this country are under attack by an ever-growing population of black criminals." This type of mass mailing, known as "spamming" in Internet slang, is widely considered a serious breach of "netiquette," the term for responsible Internet use.

More Spam

Similarly, in February 1998, hundreds of people received an unsolicited E-mail message containing one of Pierce's anti-Semitic and racist propaganda pieces. The message was a transcript of a recent radio broadcast by Pierce, entitled "Bill, Monica, and Saddam." In it, Pierce claimed that by writing about the Monica Lewinsky affair, the "Jewish media bosses" harmed President Clinton, who "would do whatever they told him to do," but "had screwed up so many times that he had become a liability for them." Pierce also asserted that these "media bosses" exaggerate the danger posed by Saddam Hussein so that the United States will attack Iraq and aid Israel, adding "the Jews would like to have us get rid of Saddam Hussein and cripple Iraq for them." In the same transcript, Pierce described Steven Spielberg as "one of the most influential of the Jewish media bosses." He went on to say that Spielberg's films, such as Schindler's List and Amistad, "were designed purely as psychological weapons for keeping White people off balance and feeling guilty, so that Jews can manipulate and exploit them more easily." Spams promoting NA ideology have been sent on at least two earlier occasions, once in 1995, on the eve of the Jewish High Holy Days, and in October 1994. Both times, the organization disavowed responsibility for the act.

Disrupting Discussion Groups

Until recently, another harassment tactic employed by the organization was the creation of an "Alliance Cybercell," whose members disrupted Internet discussion group exchanges, particularly those dealing with issues of concern to the Jewish community. During a 1996 speech to the NA's Cleveland unit, Pierce explained how the NA cells operated: "We have organized members working as teams, not identifying themselves as Alliance members but going into these discussion groups and virtually taking them over. . . ." Pierce went on to say that cell leaders "decide what discussion groups they want to get into . . . analyze the situation, analyze the types of propaganda that have been presented by the other side and we go in there and just tear them apart." This tactic, however, proved to be disappointing as a means of attracting potential members to the group. In 1998, Pierce reportedly urged Cybercell members to shift their recruiting activities from public debate to private one-on-one discussions with individuals they "meet" over the Internet.

Harnessing the Power of the Net

The Internet is used by the NA not just as a battleground for winning over new recruits but as a tool for mobilizing the "troops." The organization claims to have established a "Rapid Response Team (RRT)," a group of NA volunteers who are contacted via E-mail to respond to special situations. According to the NA, this team serves many purposes, from gathering information to quickly alerting other NA members in their area if an "emergency" arises.

Keeping up with new Internet technology has been a priority for the National Alliance. In an acknowledgment of his vision of the potential power of the Internet for the NA, Pierce has declared, "[The Internet] is the one medium where we are on an equal footing with CBS, NBC, and all the rest of them."