They then they took their fight one step further, and reportedly took down the website of the American Nazi Party and the affiliated site, White Honor, though both those sites have since returned to the Internet.

Anonymous’ latest hits are on a group that is particularly close to my heart, American Third Position. As of this writing, the main website of the group is down; its owners have apparently responded by redirecting its URL to the website of Merlin Miller, A3P’s candidate for US President in 2012 (yes, they have a presidential candidate). A huge amount of information on A3P’s Jamie Kelso has now been posted on the “Good Night White Pride” website. Anonymous has reported that they have evidence that Ron Paul, who is currently seeking the Republican nomination for a 2012 presidential run, met with A3P’s board of directors. If this is true, it is an explosive revelation. I haven’t looked at the evidence for this yet, but it is already circulating on some news sites, though it has not yet made the national press. (Allegations that Ron Paul has links to white supremacist groups have been out there for years, and the controversy over his newsletters, which in the past have contained extremist content, is well known.) Of course the extremists themselves are blaming Anonymous’ activities on Jews.

Although I also fight extremism and anti-Semitism by publishing information on this blog about the activities and ideas of extremists, I do not support illegal activity or hacking. I post information I find online or in printed materials; I do not try to hack websites. (In any case, I have no idea how to do that.)

I can’t say I’m terribly sorry to see them go. As I have documented on this blog, Press TV has promoted anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and maintains a roster of avowed anti-Semites as commentators. Free speech is a serious issue, but from what I have read, Ofcom, the British entity that regulates commercial broadcasting (I guess similar to the American FCC?), proposed several solutions to allow Press TV to come into compliance with the existing regulations. If Press TV refuses to play by the rules everyone else adheres to, I don’t think it’s censorship to close them down until they mend their ways. (I have a problem with selective enforcement of the rules, but I don’t know enough to determine whether that is the case here.)

You can be sure that some people will blame Jews for this. Oh wait, they already do. Gilad Atzmon writes that the decision to revoke Press TV’s license was made due to “Jewish lobby pressure.” And people commenting on Press TV’s own story about the incident are saying that Britain was forced to make this decision by its “Zionist commanders” or by “Israel and their closest cousins AMERICANS [sic].” One commenter alleges that the decision was “instigated by israhell through a local ishelli group in uk. Those seedlings of satan cannot stand criticism nor truth, for it places a huge spotlight on their demon infested lives.” Another writes that Press TV was the only broadcaster in the UK that was not “editorially controlled by Israel by proxy.”

Pedro Varela with David Duke

Israel Shamir, a Jewish convert to Christianity who espouses medieval-style anti-Judaism but who defends himself by claiming he is merely an anti-Zionist, called my attention to an article in in the Spanish newspaper El Pais about Pedro Varela. Varela is a right-wing extremist in Spain who denies the Holocaust and venerates Hitler. He has been in prison since late 2010, when he was convicted of disseminating Holocaust denial.

In his introduction to the article, Shamir reveals that Varela is his Spanish-language publisher. He calls him a “wonderful man” and insists that all the charges against Varela are merely “political accusations.”

David Duke also calls Varela “a good friend,” and the two of them conducted a book tour in Spain in 1987 to promote Duke’s blatantly anti-Semitic book, Jewish Supremacism. Varela also facilitated a notorious speech by David Irving in Spain in 2007 (see Irving’s account of the speech here and here), and eventually became Irving’s Spanish-language publisher.

It is hardly necessary to adduce any more proof of Israel Shamir’s anti-Semitism, but his lauding of Pedro Varela and use of him as his publisher is just one more bit of damning evidence.

In his latest blog post, Kevin Macdonald, a professor of evolutionary psychology at Cal State-Long Beach and white supremacist ideologue, complains that the Occupy Wall Street movement is not calling attention to the fact that Jews have a “dominant position” among the financial elite and that Jews “have control” over important Wall Street firms. MacDonald thinks that this Jewish control is very important to understanding the US financial woes of recent years. In a 2010 post, MacDonald asked, “Does Jewish financial misbehavior have anything to do with being Jewish?” Predictably, he answered in the affirmative:

“[T]he current financial meltdown has revealed a large role for Jewish companies and Jewish money managers who engineered the meltdown and profited handsomely from it….The key point is the legitimacy of fraud within the Jewish community. Successful fraudsters are not shunned but rather become pillars of the community….The idea is that the Jewish financial elite sees the non-Jewish world in instrumental terms — as objects with no moral value….In psychological terms, these Jews are behaving in a sociopathic manner toward the non-Jewish world. That is, they have no concern for the moral consequences of their actions — no empathy or concern for victims….In any case, it is a very troubling sign indeed for the US that the financial sector is vastly outpacing the rest of the economy in corporate earnings as well as in executive compensation — especially when it’s being run by a group of people who have sociopathic attitudes toward non-Jewish America.”

Of course, MacDonald’s argument is undermined by the fact – which he himself notes! – that Jews are also prominently represented in the ranks of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Doesn’t that disprove his own argument about an alleged Jewish penchant for and veneration of financial fraud?

For that matter, why doesn’t MacDonald talk about the stirring calls for honesty, fairness, and social justice made by Judaism’s great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah? MacDonald loves to tout his command of Jewish sources, so why doesn’t he talk about these verses in Leviticus, when Moses commands the Jews:

“Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight…Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly… Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight or quantity….Do not causes perversions of justice; use honest scales and honest weights; I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19, slightly modified translation from the NIV Bible)

How typical of MacDonald, to craft bizarre theories of Jewish perfidy and to demonize our tradition, while ignoring our foundational principles and the ideals that are preached in synagogues across the world every week.

The Gaede Twins in 2007

According to a report on Good Morning America, the twin sisters who comprised the white power music duo, Prussian Blue, have renounced white supremacism. They started their band when they were twelve years old, after having been home-schooled by their mother, neo-Nazi April Gaede. For years they were the darlings of the worldwide white supremacist movement, and they publicly expressed both their admiration for Adolf Hitler and their contention that the Holocaust was a myth. Today, however, after suffering from several serious health problems, the now-19-year-old women have repudiated their old belief system. That’s a hard thing to do, especially since making this change probably alienated them from many of the people in their lives. Congratulations, Lynx and Lamb. I have great respect for what you’ve done.

Update: Apparently, discussions about the Gaede twins’ personal growth have been burning up the white supremacist message boards. The administrators of Stormfront have deleted all threads on the subject. Over at VNN, a lengthy thread includes several posts from April Gaede, including this one, in which she claims that her daughters’ beliefs have not changed as much as the media are claiming. That’s certainly possible. Many white supremacists insist that they respect all races and religions even while promoting their racist beliefs, and the twins’ statements could be interpreted in that manner. But Juju Chang, who did the Good Morning America story, seems to have had some extensive conversations with the girls, and for now I’m going to trust her presentation of their views.

Bishop Williamson’s defense may well not hold up in court. There is precedent for German courts upholding their right to prosecute any case where Holocaust denial was made accessible to German citizens, even if the actual statements were made outside Germany and in a foreign language. We saw this in the case of Fredrick Toben in late 2000, and the principle was reaffirmed in 2007 with the conviction of Ernst Zundel in Germany, partially for web content that was posted outside the country. [Correction 07/12/2011: German news sources are reporting that Bishop Williamson's interview with Swedish TV took place in Germany. That made his defense much weaker, I think. I'm not surprised the court upheld his conviction.]

If convicted, Bishop Williamson may be forced to pay a fine; I don’t think the prosecutors are asking for prison time.

Bishop Williamson is a member of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which has a history of promoting anti-Semitism. The bishop’s own anti-Semitic comments have been documented as well.

In another recent show, Yeager said: “I’m not one who believes that we can live with any large number of Jews with all the freedoms that they want to have in our gentile societies….Jews are an enemy to gentile society — I mean that’s very strong, and people really aren’t prepared to hear that, or to repeat it — but I think it’s true…”

Smith constantly talks about how he has nothing against Jews and is only interested in freedom of inquiry, but if that’s true, why does he work so closely with Nazi-quoting anti-Semite Carolyn Yeager?

This event has been on Smith’s radar for some time. Back in April he posted an email that an associate of his had sent to Marianne Hirsch, the professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University who will be delivering this year’s lecture.

[You know what's odd? In his post, Smith links out not to the official USHMM page for the event, but to an announcement for the event that appeared on the listserv of a small group dedicated to researching the history of the Jewish communities in the Czernowitz-Sadagora regions of the Ukraine.]

I don’t know what Smith intends to do at the lecture (though if he somehow gets a chance to speak out I would bet that he will use one of his favorite phrases: “the professorial class”). I also don’t know whether the USHMM has the right to bar Smith from attending.

This is not the first time, though, that Smith and his compatriots have attempted to attend public conferences and lectures.  Back in November 2010, both Fredrick Toben and Bradley Smith’s associate, David Merlin, tried to attend a scholarly conference on Holocaust Denial and Anti-Semitism in Dublin, Ireland. They were refused entry. I wouldn’t say this is a trend yet, but it’s interesting to note.

Fredrick Toben

I bumped into Fredrick Toben twice this week. Once when I came across an interview he gave recently to the [Iranian] Fars News Agency, in which he lauded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for helping promote Holocaust denial. Toben, who has been a hardcore Holocaust denier for decades, even graciously allowed that Ahmadinejad had taught him a thing or two: “I conducted research into the holocaust before the Iranian president [revealed that he was a denier],” Toben said, “but Ahmadinejad…guided me to grasp a correct understanding of this historical lie.”

In the Fars article, Toben presented Holocaust denial as a technique for depriving Israel of its “main tool of propaganda.” This is consistent with the approach taken by many Holocaust deniers in the Arab and Muslim world, who argue vociferously that they are not in favor of Nazis or against Jews; they are merely anti-Zionists. This point was made ad nauseum during the infamous 2006 Tehran Holocaust denial conference convened by President Ahmadinejad’s government, at which Toben was a delegate. [Toben wrote about his experiences at that conference here. He has visited Iran numerous times since then, including as recently as Feb. 2011.]

This leads me to the second time I came across Fredrick Toben this week…when he posted a genuine HITLER VIDEO on YouTube, with the following caption:

“How wonderful to hear such an inspirational political speech and witness the genuine adulation for the Führer. Compare that with the emptiness and hedonistic self-destructive adulation of today’s youths in our free and democratic western world who obtain their inspiration and moral values from rock and sports stars. Note how the predatory international financial system destroys individuals and nations that refuse to submit to the Talmudic-Marxist death dialectic.”

Some folks say that Ahmadinejad should not be taken literally when he says he wants to wipe Israel off the map, that he has no murderous fantasies about Israelis or Jews. I’ll take that argument a little more seriously when Ahmadinejad denounces his buddy Fredrick Toben, the Hitler fanboy.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Fredrick Toben, Tehran 2006