Hollywood blog TheWrap investigates…

In Touch Tabloid Publisher – Mired in Tom Cruise Lawsuit – Trades in Nazis, Porn and Sometimes Both

The Bauer Media Group may be the biggest publishing company you’ve never heard of, with 600 print publications worldwide, 300 websites and billions of dollars in annual revenue.

Though it is based in Germany, Bauer claims to have the highest retail sales of any magazine publisher in the United States, thanks to titles like In Touch and Life & Style, celebrity tabloids that are staple offerings at supermarket checkout lines.

The company’s slogan is “We think popular,” with a strong appeal to female readers through titles that focus on health, beauty and celebrity gossip.

But an investigation by TheWrap has found that there is a darker side to the privately held company, including publication of at least one magazine appealing to neo-Nazis, as well as significant involvement in the distribution of pornography — including Nazi-themed porn movies.

…Among TheWrap’s discoveries:

>> A wholly owned Bauer subsidiary publishes Der Landser, a military adventure magazine that specializes in World War II stories sympathetic to Hitler’s armies and that enjoys brisk sales among skinheads and neo-Nazis. The respected Germany newsmagazine Der Spiegel once described it as “a specialist journal for whitewashing the Wehrmacht.”

>> Until last year Bauer published the far-right magazine Zuerst!, whose publisher, Dieter Munier, has been involved in the German neo-Nazi movement for 40 years. Bauer sold the magazine in May 2012 after a public outcry.

>> Other Bauer wholly owned subsidiaries distribute pornography, including Nazi-themed porn movies. One movie, ”Inglorious Bitches,” is put out over a Bauer internet service provider and includes a scene in which a pair of soldiers clearly identified as Nazis work themselves into a sexual frenzy by torturing two resistance fighters.

When asked via email by TheWrap what percentage of Bauer’s profits stem from pornography, Bauer spokeswoman Claudia Bachhausen ignored the question. She also had no response to a question about Nazi-themed porn.

….

huffingtonpost.com

At a rally of Germany’s biggest far-right party, skinheads raise fists to nationalist chants and wear T-shirts that skirt the limits of German law: “Enforce National Socialism” reads one; another proclaims the wearer to be “100 percent un-kosher.” Some cover illegal neo-Nazi tattoos with masking tape because police are on the prowl.

But the party’s leader insists he is taking his National Democratic Party mainstream.

“My aim is to make the NPD a party firmly based in the present and looking toward the future,” Holger Apfel said in an interview at the rally. Breaking a far-right taboo, he told The Associated Press that Nazi Germany’s record during World War II included “crimes.”

Apfel has tactical reasons for toning down his message: Authorities are currently considering a ban on the party. Yet the attempt to appeal to the center has prompted anger in the country’s small but entrenched ultra-right movement, where many refuse to acknowledge that Germany under Nazism - or National Socialism - was responsible for the slaughter of 6 million Jews. Some NPD members have left; others threaten to do so.

This just keeps getting uglier.

Wade Michael Page, the racist skinhead who killed six people last weekend at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin before turning the gun on himself, was a “patched” member of the Northern Hammerskins, a regional chapter of the larger Hammerskin Nation, the Southern Poverty Law Center has learned.

Page became a full, or patched, member of the Hammerskin chapter last October and appeared to be rising quickly in the organization, according to postings on Crew 38, the online forum for Hammerskin Nation (HSN). This year, in fact, his girlfriend, using the name “LuluRoman” on the forum, directed all regional inquiries regarding Northern Hammerskin events to Page. […]

The Hammerskins is one of the oldest, most violent and most dominant skinhead groups in the United States. Unlike other groups, the Hammerskins managed to organize quickly nationally under decentralized leadership.

The Hammerskin Nation is now seeking to distance itself from Page, however. It has locked its online forum to all but a select few and stopped accepting applications for new users. The sudden attention to security comes as the FBI treats the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism. […]

More at SPLC…

hosted.ap.org

Wade Michael Page played in white supremacist heavy metal bands and posted frequent comments on Internet forums for skinheads, repeatedly exhorting members to act more decisively to support their cause.

“If you are wanting to meet people, get involved and become active,” he wrote last year. “Stop hiding behind the computer or making excuses.”

A day after Page strode into a Sikh temple with a 9mm handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition, authorities were trying to determine if the 40-year-old Army veteran was taking his own advice when he opened fire on total strangers in a house of worship.

postandcourier.com

Rogers said he has received nothing but congratulations from supporters. But he scoffs at the distinction, describing it as “childish name-calling” and an inconsequential scam to boost fundraising.

“It’s all about convincing little old ladies that there really is this army of skinheads and Nazis out there so they will donate money,” he said. “They are talking about stuff that only exists in Hollywood movies.”

Rogers said he is not a racist or a danger; he’s just voicing facts and opinions that are ignored by mainstream media.

He said his group upholds the ideals of the nation’s founding fathers by fighting government intrusions in people’s lives, illegal immigration that undermines the country’s stability and “social engineering” programs like affirmative action that give one group advantages over another.

Poke a little deeper and Rogers also will share beliefs that black people ruin things for the rest of society and that “slaves who were taken to the United States hit the slave lottery” because they were brought to a country where they could thrive and prosper.

Black people here, he argues, “are the most privileged members of their race” and “benefit greatly from the generosity of American whites, as they always have.”

“I don’t see a legacy of oppression,” Rogers said. “Blacks have always benefited from being in the United States.”

Bernard Powers, a College of Charleston professor who specializes in African-American history, said Rogers’ views fly in the face of historical fact, ignoring the brutal subjugation of millions of people, the strip-mining of Africa’s populace and myriad inequities that remain barriers to success.

“To say that America was the promised land for these folks is far from borne out by the facts,” he said.

But make no mistake, Rogers has his followers, and that worries people like Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project. Rogers has emerged as a key member of the council’s new guard, using Web-savvy and racist rhetoric to promote an agenda of white supremacy and societal division, she said.

“Most folks in the group are pretty old, so he represents the future of the organization,” she said. “The council is not a violent organization. But they push nasty propaganda that causes major damage in this country.”

citizensvoice.com

The Luzerne County Republican Committee is researching whether it can oust Steve Smith, a Pittston committeeman with a criminal record and past ties to racist organizations, Committee Chairman Terry Casey said Monday.

Casey also issued a statement denouncing Smith’s “abhorrent views” and criticizing reports and comments about Smith’s election by the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and Democratic-affiliated media. Smith, 41, was elected to the Republican committee with one write-in vote from the April 24 primary election.

Smith confirmed Monday he voted for himself, adding he wants to serve on the committee to help elect Republican candidates. He scoffed at the talk about removing him from the committee.

“That’s against the Constitution,” Smith said. “That’s against free speech.”

Smith said he is no longer affiliated with the Keystone State Skinheads and Keystone United, adding he is the founder of his latest organization, the European American Action Coalition. He said he is an advocate for white Americans, not a white supremacist.

“That’s a bunch of name-calling the liberals do,” Smith said. “I have made mistakes, and I am moving on.”

Smith said media accounts about his 2003 arrest were incorrect, adding he did not beat up a black man with stones and chunks of pavement.

Here are two links. One from the ADL:

accessadl.blogspot.com

And another from the Miami Herald:

miamiherald.com

ORLANDO, Fla. — Seven people with ties to what Florida law enforcement officials called a white supremacist and known domestic terrorist organization were arrested this past weekend on felony conspiracy and hate crime charges in a FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force operation.

Authorities arrested 39-year-old Marcus Faella, and wife 36-year-old Patricia Faella, on Friday, along with 29-year-old Mark McGowan and his wife 25-year-old Jennifer McGowan. Others arrested and taken to Osceola County Jail were 28-year-old Diane Stevens, 25-year-old Paul Jackson and 22-year-old Kent McLellan.

Each was charged with paramilitary training, attempt to shoot into an occupied dwelling and evidence of prejudices while committing offense, a first-degree felony.

It is a felony in Florida to participate in paramilitary training for use “in furtherance of, a civil disorder within the United States.” The “prejudices” charge falls under Florida’s hate crimes law.

The ADL has a page on “American Front”, founded in 1987 in California, but has moved around the U.S. since. It’s one of the oldest, active racist groups in America.

latimes.com

A dozen years ago, a neo-Nazi skinhead named John Butler was convicted of killing two young men who, while also skinheads, condemned his white supremacist beliefs. But authorities have long contended that Butler had help gunning down his victims in the desert outside Las Vegas.

On Wednesday, federal prosecutors indicted three people they described as Butler’s accomplices in the 1998 killings of Daniel Shersty and Lin Newborn, who belonged to a Las Vegas group dedicated to fighting racism.

Melissa Hack, Ross Hack and Leland Jones were charged with murder and firearms offenses.

tampabay.com

White supremacist James Robertson couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

Trying to finagle his way out of a long prison sentence for bank robbery, Robertson told authorities about two cold murder cases involving homeless men in Tampa. He pointed the FBI to three of his skinhead buddies.

Robertson, who admitted being at the murder scenes, portrayed himself as a minor participant.

But a federal jury on Tuesday convicted Robertson of committing two murders in a racketeering enterprise after a two-week trial. Prosecutors told them Robertson played a leading role in the 1998 beating deaths of Alfred Williams, 62, and Richard Arseneau, 44.

“These men had no material goods, no wealth,” prosecutor Lee Bentley told jurors in closing statements. “They were struggling to survive. This defendant and three of his associates took the only thing these men had left — their lives.”

Robertson, 32, faces life in prison when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich. A sentencing date has not been set.

The killings may have gone unsolved but for Robertson’s botched effort at leniency in an unrelated bank robbery case five years later.

Prosecutors say Robertson and three other skinheads were members of a group called “Blood and Honour” who wandered Tampa’s streets in the fall of 1998 on a predatory hunt they called “bum rolling.”

stuff.co.nz

A white supremacist who attacked Asians as he walked along a Christchurch road has been jailed and told of the damage he has done to New Zealand.

The group Jared Levi Peck was with abused or attacked at least five Asians in Riccarton Rd on September 24 last year.

A Japanese man has now returned home and tells people they should be cautious about travelling to New Zealand.

A Chinese victim was attacked three-on-one and had his jaw broken.

“The actions of your group caused him to decide to leave New Zealand,” Christchurch District Court Judge David Holderness told Peck at his sentencing at the Rangiora Courthouse.

Peck stood in the dock with a shaved head and a skull tattoo on his neck as Judge Holderness imposed a jail term of two years and  four months.

His mother ran from the courtroom in tears when she realised he was not going to be allowed home detention. She wanted him at home to help her while she is treated for cancer.

A 17-year-old co-offender, Michael Holmes, has already been sentenced in Auckland, where he was given six months home detention.

Judge Holderness said he regarded Holmes’ sentence as “extraordinarily lenient” and there was no proper basis to extend the same leniency to Peck, who was two years older, had a record of offending and had continued to offend.