When White Supremacist Websites War — With Each Other
But, true to form, what began as a discussion of the developments in Leith quickly turned into the kind of internecine catfight that characterizes so much of the American racist right. The squabble quickly developed into a major battle between White Nations, the website where Cobb had been posting regularly on his Leith project, and Vanguard News Network (VNN), a neo-Nazi Web forum.
Why all the bad blood? Well, aside from the perennial suspicions and mutual jealousies that typically plague small radical groups, White Nations is home to people who have been banned from VNN for a myriad of offenses, real and imagined. The founder of White Nations, last week exposed by Hatewatch as Stanley Edward Diggs of Houma, La., was one of those expelled. (Diggs’ White Nations site is moderated by Cynthia W. Slay of Hogansville, Ga., who posts there as “WitchesChild” and calls herself the “Heretic Admin from Hell.”)
Diggs, who calls himself “Fred O’Malley” online, created his White Nations forum after being booted from VNN for what he described as his attempt to get rid of an “SPLC mole,” a reference to the Southern Poverty Law Center that publishes this blog. Diggs writes that after VNN declined to ban the supposed spy, a “homosexual administrator” at VNN began harassing him and eventually banned him entirely. Since that time, Diggs, as O’Malley, has been posting against VNN relentlessly.
Alex Linder, the bellicose owner of VNN and hardly one to pass up on a fight, has in turn repeatedly attacked the white supremacists on White Nations, calling them a “collection of paranoids, nutbags and sex deviants.” He warned that anyone posting at White Nations “will likely be banned” from VNN.
The war between the forums grew particularly fierce this week after a VNN poster did some research on Diggs. Someone using the name “M. N. Dalvez” posted links to a Daytona Beach Morning Journal story that ran in 1985 about Diggs, then 34, titled “Rapist Gets 15 Year Prison Term.” The article reported that Diggs had been found guilty of sexual battery and burglary for forcing himself on a young woman in her own bed. “Diggs struck her on the head, knocked her down and choked her,” the article said, citing trial testimony. The story also reported that Diggs had been charged with aggravated assault earlier in Louisiana for “beating his ex-wife.” The VNN thread about Diggs’ past is labeled “‘Fred O’Malley’ is a Convicted Rapist.” Hatewatch’s calls to Diggs for comment were not returned.
That was the revelation that caused Linder to characterize White Nations as a home for “sex deviants.” But he had other reasons. One is another White Nations regular who was banned from VNN last January — Stephen Lewis Akins of Jasper, Ala. Linder kicked him off VNN after Akins, who used “Steven L. Akins” on VNN, began posting about his interest in underage girls, at one point writing “Old enough to drive, old enough to ride.” Akins also posted pornographic images of young girls — photos that were rapidly pulled down by VNN’s administrators — and referred to pedophiles as “normal members of society as they aren’t queers or race-mixers.” Akins’ comments elicited this from “Angel Ramsey” on VNN: “Why does it not surprise me that Akins would be on a pedophile thread. Rolleyes.”
More: Leith Revelations Spark Battle Between White Supremacist Forums