Roanoke Nazi, William White, posted Jena 6 addresses, is being indicted

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Roanoke neo-Nazi condemns Jena Six

Friday, September 21, 2007
William A. White posted the youths' addresses on a Web site that calls for lynching the group.

By Laurence Hammack
981-3239

As thousands of people rallied in Jena, La., for six black youths charged with assaulting a white classmate, the FBI was monitoring a neo-Nazi activist in Roanoke who posted their names and addresses on a Web site that proclaimed: "Lynch the Jena 6."

William A. White also listed some of the defendants' telephone numbers, urging his readers to "Get in touch, and let them know justice is coming."

The leader of a Roanoke-based white supremacy group, White has a penchant for inserting inflammatory rhetoric into racially charged incidents that attract national attention, as the Jena Six case has done this week.
"He has done this kind of thing routinely, but probably never in such an outrageous way as this," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups.

"It's appalling, but it's not surprising."

An FBI official said the agency is aware of White's posting.

"The FBI reviews information provided for possible violations under our jurisdiction, and would seek a prosecutive opinion at the appropriate time," said Sheila Thorne, a special agent with the agency's New Orleans division.

The review came as protesters gathered Thursday in Jena, the site of racial unrest since last summer. After a black student asked the school for permission to sit under a tree where white students traditionally gathered, three nooses were found hanging from the tree. Months later, the Jena Six were charged with beating a white student.

On his Web site, White complained of "agitators" who were demanding acquittals.

A posting Thursday afternoon that contained contact information for the six youths was headlined:

"Addresses of Jena 6 N-----s; In case anyone wants to deliver justice."

In a second item, White was quoted as saying:

"If these n------s are released or acquitted, we will find out where they live and make sure that white activists and white citizens in Louisiana know it ... in order to find someone willing to deliver justice."

White, commander of the American National Socialist Workers Party, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Earlier this year, White seemed unconcerned about reports that the FBI was investigating death threats against Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, whose phone number White posted online during a controversy over a Pitts column about black-on-white crime.

"Law enforcement doesn't care," White told a McClatchy-Tribune reporter.

"We have a controversy like this about every two or three months. They don't waste their time contacting me anymore."

Potok said attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center were researching whether the language on Overthrow.com could amount to a criminal charge, either as a hate crime or as some form of inciting violence.

"It's a close call," he said.

>>>update<<<

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Neo-Nazi arrested, jailed on federal charge

William A. White of Roanoke has been charged with obstruction of justice, an assistant U.S. attorney says.

By Laurence Hammack
981-3239
William A. White

Photo courtesy of the Roanoke City Jail


A white supremacist known for his inflammatory Internet postings about race-related issues -- and for his verbal attacks on the people involved in them -- has been charged with threatening a federal juror.
William A. White, head of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, was being held without bond Saturday in the Roanoke jail.
White was arrested late Friday afternoon and charged with obstruction of justice, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said.
Bondurant said the charge involves the "threatened use of force" against the foreman of a Chicago jury in the case of Matthew Hale, who was convicted in 2004 of soliciting the murder of a U.S. District Court judge.
At the time, Hale was the leader of the World Church of the Creator, which adhered to some of the same neo-Nazi beliefs as White's organization.
Bondurant declined to comment on the details of the alleged threat, except to say that White's trial will be held in Chicago.
In an interview last week, White said he recently posted information about a juror in the Hale case to his Web site, overthrow.com. White said he included personal information about the juror but made no threats in discussing what he said were his concerns about the fairness of Hale's trial.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama organization that monitors hate groups, said on its Web site last month that White did not directly propose violence against the juror.
It is not clear, however, if the conduct described by both White and the SPLC is related to the federal charge against him.
According to the SPLC blog item, White posted the name, home address and several phone numbers of what he called the "gay, Jewish, anti-racist" juror who helped convict Hale.
Previous coverage

• White's Web site closed by FBI (Oct. 17, 2008)
• Roanoke neo-Nazi cleared of threat allegation (July 29, 2008)

In 2005, Hale was sentenced to 40 years in prison for encouraging his head of security, who turned out to be a federal informant, to kill Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow. The judge had ruled against Hale in a trademark infringement case involving the name of his organization.
White "told his readers that the [juror] played a leading role in inciting both the conviction and the harsh sentence that followed," the SPLC blog post states. "He also described the conviction as wrongful and said the prison term handed Hale was a 'criminally long sentence.' "
Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said Thursday that although White has often come close to the line between free speech and criminal activity, he may have finally crossed it by posting personal information about a juror.
Federal authorities are particularly sensitive about protecting jurors in cases such as Hale's, Potok said.
One week ago, FBI agents seized computer equipment from White. Several days later, White posted to a Yahoo message group what he said was a partial copy of the search warrant.
The warrant authorized FBI agents to search a Patterson Avenue building that houses White's online operation. According to the warrant, authorities were looking for computer files and other records "that may contain all evidence of the crime of threatening Hale Juror A."
The warrant also covered "documents, photographs or other information that shows an intent to intimidate or injure persons whose personal information has been posted in the same manor [sic] as Hale Juror A."
White has a penchant for posting the personal information of people whose views or activities run counter to his own neo-Nazi beliefs.
In September 2007, when thousands of people converged on Jena, La., for a civil rights demonstration on behalf of six black teenagers charged with assault, the event caught the attention of overthrow.com.
"Lynch the Jena 6," a headline stated, followed by the home addresses and telephone numbers of the youths, "in case anyone wants to deliver justice."
White also has published the home addresses of Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, attorneys on the other side of a housing discrimination case he inserted himself into and officials at the SPLC.
In addition, he has used overthrow.com to issue blanket condemnations of an entire race.
In July, he attacked what he called the "respectable n------" in the NAACP and elsewhere in America, according to the SPLC. "I am convinced, more and more each day, that the only solution to the problem is to kill all the n------ involved, preferably with state sponsorship," the post stated. "When the death squads come, line me up as volunteer number one."
More recently, the Web site overthrow.com carried an image of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, his head in the cross hairs of a rifle sight fashioned into a swastika, along with the headline "Kill This N-----?"
Officials with the U.S. Justice Department's civil rights division in Washington, D.C., have been saying since shortly after the Jena Six case that White is under investigation. It is not clear if the probe includes the Obama material.
White and two other sources have said a federal grand jury has been empaneled in Roanoke to hear testimony against him. The two sources said they had personal knowledge of the grand jury but declined to speak publicly about an investigation going on behind closed doors.
Legal skirmishes are nothing new to White, who moved to Roanoke in 2004 and began to buy inner-city homes in the West End neighborhood for his rental business.
Claims of housing discrimination -- critics once claimed that White planned to exclude blacks from his homes as part of what he called a "ghetto beautification project" -- were investigated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development but produced no charges.
Attorneys who have opposed White in court have twice sought sanctions against him for his heated online rhetoric, but so far he has yet to be cited by a judge.
As for the Hale case, White's recent online commentary about the juror was not the first time he weighed in on that case.
In 2005, after Lefkow's husband and mother were killed in their Chicago home, White wrote on overthrow.com that "I don't feel bad."
"In fact, when I heard the story I laughed," the post continued. " 'Good for them' was my first thought."
In his commentary and an interview at the time, White said he looked forward to future killings of Jews and their sympathizers. He said that he did not encourage violence, but that violence by white supremacists is justified because they are being persecuted for their views.
Since the FBI raid of White's computer operation a week ago, overthrow.com has been down.
In a posting to a Yahoo message group for white supremacists, made either late Thursday night or sometime during the day Friday, someone identifying himself as White said the FBI had just executed a second search warrant, this one on his home.
"They left remarking on how they did not have anything with which to chargesme [sic] and they needed to plan theyre [sic] next step," the post stated.
With White now in jail, the next step will be an initial appearance before a magistrate judge, which is scheduled for this afternoon.



Supremacist indicted on additional charges

As William A. White awaits trial in Chicago, a grand jury in Roanoke has brought seven more counts against him.

By Laurence Hammack and Mike Gangloff
981-3340
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
"This case will not serve as a referendum on freedom of speech," acting U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley said. "This case is about innocent people being threatened, intimidated and extorted by a man that in most cases, they did not know and have never met."

The Roanoke Times | File October
William A. White is led into the Roanoke City Jail following a bond hearing in October on federal charges of encouraging violence against a juror. White was indicted Thursday in Roanoke on additional federal charges.
What happened

• The new charges against William A. White include five counts of threatening people, including nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts, one count of making a threat linked to extortion and one count of trying to intimidate witnesses in a federal lawsuit.
• Maximum sentences are five years in prison on each threat charge, 20 years on the extortion charge and 10 years on the witness intimidation charge, plus $250,000 fines on all counts.

What happens next

• The new charges won't be prosecuted until a federal charge White faces in Chicago is resolved.
• In that case, White is accused of encouraging violence against a juror. A trial is scheduled for March.
• Attorneys for White said they plan to ask that is case in Chicago be transferred to Roanoke, where it could be consolidated with the other cases.

Related

Video

• See video from the news conference

Documents

• Read the indictment against White handed down by a Roanoke federal grand jury (PDF, 3.28 MB)Editor's note: These documents contains language that some readers might consider offensive.
  
  Previous coverage
  
  • White to be held without bond in Chicago (December 06, 2008)
  • White pleads not guilty to charges in Chicago (November 13, 2008)
  • Did neo-Nazi White go too far this time? (October 26, 2008)
  • Neo-Nazi fails to persuade judge to release him (October 23, 2008)
  • Roanoke white supremacist remains jailed (October 19, 2008)
  • White's Web site closed by FBI (October 17, 2008)

After spewing hate from his Web site for years with no legal consequences, neo-Nazi leader William A. White has been charged for the second time in two months with crossing the line between free speech and threats.
White, who is awaiting trial in Chicago on a charge of encouraging violence against a juror, was accused Thursday of more threats and intimidation.
From behind his computer screen, White allegedly picked targets across North America: a bank employee in Kansas City, Mo., a human rights lawyer in Canada, a newspaper columnist in Maryland, a university administrator in Delaware, a small-town mayor in New Jersey and a group of tenants at an apartment complex in Virginia Beach.
All of them were strangers to one another and to White, united only by his contempt for blacks and Jews.
White's indictment is a major blow to the white supremacy movement nationwide, said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama organization that monitors hate groups.
"White has been seen as the leading threat-maker in the entire white supremacy scene for many years," Potok said. "He really specializes in pushing the First Amendment to its absolute limits."
In a seven-count indictment returned by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, White was charged with threatening or intimidating his victims by telephone, by e-mail and on the Internet, either on his Web site, overthrow.com, or in chat rooms frequented by white supremacists.
White has said his posts were satire and protected free speech -- a claim that federal prosecutors rejected during a news conference held Thursday to announce the indictments.
"This case will not serve as a referendum on freedom of speech," acting U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley said. "This case is about innocent people being threatened, intimidated and extorted by a man that in most cases, they did not know and have never met."
White, the self-proclaimed commander of the Roanoke-based American National Socialist Workers Party, was indicted Thursday as he sat in a Chicago jail.
The 31-year-old is awaiting trial on a separate charge of encouraging violence against a Chicago man who served on a jury that convicted a fellow white supremacist in 2004.
In that case and most of the ones included in the Roanoke indictment, White inserted himself into race-related disputes that he learned of through the news media, subjecting the people involved to verbal attacks, veiled threats and death wishes.
In one example cited in the indictment, White was angered when Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, who lives in Maryland, wrote about public reaction to black-on-white crime.
"You and your fellow black filth are quickly losing ground," White wrote in an e-mail to Pitts, "and I look forward to the rapidly approaching day when whites once again rise up and slaughter and enslave your ugly race to the last man, woman and child. Itz [sic] coming."
Similar rhetoric appears throughout the 19-page indictment, which contains charges that could carry up to 55 years in prison if White is convicted.
White's Chicago attorneys described the charges as yet another effort by government officials to silence someone whose views they don't agree with.
Many of the comments attributed to White in court documents are partial quotes taken out of context, said Nishay Sanan, who represents White along with co-counsel Chris Shepherd.
"They're playing with words," Sanan said. "If you're picking and choosing the words that you want somebody to focus on, it's going to look like a threat."
But for some people -- including those in Roanoke who have been dealing with White since he arrived in town four years ago and began to buy up rental properties -- there's little doubt about his intentions.
Ever since White commented online in May that he had developed a detailed plan to murder several dozen of Roanoke's "Negro nuisances," people have expressed fears that their names might be on his list.
Daniel Hale, president of the Roanoke branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he was pleased to see the charges against White but disappointed it took so long for authorities to act.
"It was allowed to fester, and the more it festered, the bolder he became," Hale said.
Thursday's indictment came less than a week after a federal judge in Chicago ordered White held without bond. White is charged in Chicago with posting a juror's address and telephone numbers on his Web site, which federal authorities say was an invitation for others to harm the man. The juror served in the case of neo-Nazi Matthew Hale, who was convicted of soliciting the murder of a federal judge.
The new charges against White cover incidents in which he allegedly made threats against Pitts and four other people:
-- A Citibank employee in Missouri during a dispute about a business account. Prosecutors say White threatened to make public the employee's personal information and mentioned the murder of a federal judge's family, saying "Lord knows that drawing too much publicity and making people upset" led to the murders. White also faces an extortion charge linked to the dispute.
-- An administrator at the University of Delaware, Kathleen Kerr, who oversaw a diversity seminar for students.
-- Richard Warman, a Canadian lawyer involved in an effort to shut down a Canada-based Web site that White administered.
-- Charles Tyson, who was the target of racial attacks after he became the first black mayor of South Harrison, a small New Jersey township.
White also is accused of trying to influence witness testimony by sending inflammatory letters to black tenants who were involved in a housing discrimination case against their landlord in Virginia Beach.
The charges against White followed a yearlong investigation by federal authorities in Roanoke, who were assisted by attorneys in the civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department.
Potok called the case one of the government's most significant prosecutions of a white supremacist.
"By and large, it's been a hair or two short of being considered a threat under case law," he said of the individual postings. But when viewed collectively in the context of White's movement, Potok said, "I think there's very little question that he's encouraging people to go out and kill his enemies."


Peace be upon you
Supremacist indicted on additional charges - Roanoke.com