>> narrator: tonight... ou >> y will not replace us... >> narrator: from charlottesville, to pittsburgh. >> ...he's got an automatic weapon... obert bowers stormed into this synagogue and said, "i just want to kill jews." >> narrator: a ground-breaking frontline propublica investigation. >> he's indetifying jews as a threat to "our people". what he means there eo "whitee." >> narrator: ...of violent neo-nazis. >> what do you think was going on in this house? >> they wereaking bombs. >> narrator: through interviews with insiders. >> narrator: reporter a.c. thomps uncover the movements

methods. >> they are actively recruiting oulitary members. does that surprise? >> narrator:eind exposes r hate. >> "make ameria great again." in order to make america great again, you'd have to make america white again. >> narrator: tonight, "documenting hate: new american nazis". bl>> frontline is made posby contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.ra and by the coron for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to buiing a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfnd.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social c worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism.ou the parkation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner

family trust. supporting trustworthyt journalism tforms and inspires. and by the frontline urnalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. >> hold the perimeter. we're under fire. we're under fire. he's got an automatic weapon, he's firing out of the front of the synagogue. >> thompson: pittsburgh,, pennsylvaniatober 27, 2018. >> 34-10: please send the medics up here! >> i've got one alive.>> hompson: robert bowers storms into the tree of life synagogue with an ar-15 and allegedly kills 11 jewish worshippers. >> 7-1: suspect's talking about "all these jews need to die." >> we have multiple casualties inside the synagogue. we have three officers who have been shot. >> members of the tree of lifena gue, conducting a peaceful service in their place of worship, were brutally murdere

by a gunman targeting them simply because of their faith. >> thompson: another act of terror in america, the coury again left to ask, "where does this hate come from? could it have been prevented?" >> it's just been 24 hoursince robert bowers stormed into this synagogue and said, "i just want to kill jews." >> thompson: over the past few years, i've been reportingon resurgent white supremacist movement. ve seen its ideas migrate into the mainstream. i've seen violence in cities across the country. and now this: the deadliest known attack on theom jewishmunity in american history. i fear there will be more to more to come. ♪ >> blood and soil! >> blood and soil!

>> today's alt-right "unite th right" rally is expected to draw over 6.000... >> thompson: a year ago, the white supremacist movement shocd the nation with a show of force in charlottesville, virginia. >> anti-white! >> you will not replace us!u ll not replace us! >> thompson: they spilleblood in the streets, militant andid unaf. >> panic and horror ine. charlottesvi a car slams into a crowd ofot counteesters... >> when a driver plowed into the crowd, killing a young woman and injuring 19.>> thompson: whs killed one protester and injured dozens of others. after charlottesville, i identified some of the groups behind the violence. with a team ofeporters, i

exposed a neo-nazi fight club called the rise above movement or ram. they were involved in melees in four different cities. followg our investigation, eight members or associates of ram are now facing federal charges. but the most extreme organization i've been looking at is called the atomwaffen division. omwaffen means "atomic weapons" in german. the grp embraces nazi ideology and preaches a hatred of minorities, gays, and jews. it calls for lone wolf acts of violence, much like the massacre in pittsburgh. , for mont colleagues and i have been talking to a former atomwaffen member, who asks us to call him john and disguise p's voice. he says the grous ranks swelled after charlottesville.

so afterharlottesville, people start coming into the group... >> thompson: so if protests don't work, what is the answer? >> thompson: john tells me thats atomwaffen ideology draws from the writings of an ocure neo-nazi named james mason, who published a newsletter in the 1980s called "siege."

(explosion booms) >> thompson: atomwaffen has made "siege" required reading for all of its members. >> "siege" by james mason.so >> tho to them, mason is the latest in a long line of nazi leaders, inheriting the role from american nazi party founder george lincoln rockwell, who in turn took his inspiration from adolf hitler himself. i learn that mason's writis are kept at the university of kansas. >> the bulk of the collection came to us in the early 00s. >> thompson: rebecca schulte is the curator ofhe wilcox collection, an archive of contemporary political movemes. is this the only collection of his work? >> yes, th is his archive. we are the only ones t them.e "enclosed with this letter is a sample copy of 'siege,' the

newsletter of the national socialist liberation front." >> thompson: mason's archive is hily disturbing. his writing lays out an apocalyptic neo-nazi vision. he says the white race in america is under siege by people of color, and undermined by jews in positions of power. "we do not wish for law and order, for law and order means the continued existence of this rotten rip-off capitalist jew system. we wish for anary and chaos, which will enable us to attack the system while her big brother pigs are trying to keep the pieces from falling apart." >> and this is a paste-up. you know, it's got... see that? >> thompson: yeah. llson advocated attacks on institutions like ywood, media, and the courts. nosorious killer charles man is one of mason's heroes, andha the two a long correspondence.

>> so this is an object that charlie manson knitted in prison and gave to james mason. >> thompson: so it's some kind of ornament or... >> yes, i...>> hompson: some kind of artwork. >> ...kind of knitting, yeah. i don't know exactly. looks like they corresponded a lot. >> thompson: yeah, it looks like over a long period of time. >> mm-hmm. >> thompson: like '81 to '90s. >> right. we've had the collection described online for many years, and we haven't seen a lot of action. (chuckles) >> thompson: right. >> but in the last few years, there have been more people coming to use the collection. so that's always an indicator that there's something happening out there, there's an interest. we don't always know what it is. >> thompson: so ople are starting to look at his writings again-- that's very interesting.

>> mm-hmm, they are. >> thompson: we' not the first people to come visit you. >> no, you're not. >> thompson: back in new york, our atomwaffen source, john, agreed to talk over video chat with me and my colleague ali winston. (video chat program ringing) >> thompson: when you say lone wolf attacks, it sounds to me like you're talking about basically terrorist acts.

ld thompson: so, how many... how many initiates wou say there are? >> or were? >> thompson: or were? >> thompson: wow. (radio squawking) ♪ >> thompson: john tells me that if i want to investigate the group, i need to start where it began, in tampa, florida. ♪ atomwaffen was founded in 2015 by brandon russell, a national guardsman in his early 20s. ♪

he moved into this apartment complex with three other members of the group. one of them, an 18-year-old high school dropout named devon arthurs, would bring atomwaffen to the attention of the authorities. >> friday night, tampa police arrested 18-year-old devon arthurs.ed he confeo killing his roommates, 22-year-old jeremy himmelman and 18-year-old drew oneschuk. >> arthurs told co a fourth roommate, brandon russell, participates in neo-nazi chat rooms. >> the common thread that wnnected all four roommat neo-nazi beliefs. ♪ t >>mpson: why had arthurs apparently shot two of histe roommas?th hier agreed to talk to me about what happened at day. >> i was working in my office, and the cellphone went off, and it was devon. " and he said, i'm sorry.

i've really messed up. i've really messed up." i said, "what's, what's the matter, buddy? what's going on?" "the two guys, thewo that were staying or whatever, they're dead. s i,t them. they upset me and i shot them." i tried to hold it together and then i said, "put the gun down or any weapon down, and go turn yourself in right now. right now." all i was hearing, "i'm sorry. i'm sorry, dad. i'm sorry. i'm sorry." i said, "just turn yourself in." >> thompson: alan arthurs saysn devon begagravitating to neo-nazi ideas when he was 13 or 14 years old. so is this junior rotc? what is... what is... >> yeah, that's rotc in high school. >> thompson: he was really interested in the military. >> that's what he said. >> thompson: what do you think he was really interested in? >> there were two other brothers and another member of that rotc

that were obviously into the neo-nazi stuff. >> thompson: so you think he was joining the rotc group becausere there ther kids that were into nazism in the group? >> yes. ye definitely. >> thompson: arthurs says his relationship with his son became increasingly strained. >> by that te, we weren't talking and i didn't even, you know... >> thompson: devon ended up dropping out of high s he eventually moved into the tampa apartment with russell ant the othewaffen members. did you ever talk to devon since the incident? >> he said that he would not, when he figured out what brandon was going to do, he couldn't live with himself. that's all he's ever said to me. >> thompson: tampa police refuse to talk to us about the case. but i obtain video of devon arthurs' police interview. over and over, he tells detectives about atomwaffen.

>> thompson: inside theff atomwaen apartment, police discovered nazi paraphernalia, guns, radioactive material, and handmade explosives. on a dresser was a framed photograph of oklahoma city bomber timothy mcveigh. (explosion echoes) >> holy cow! about a third of the blding has been blown away! >> thompson: on april 19, 1995, gulf war veteran timothy mcveigh detonated a truck bomb in ont of the oklahoma city federal building. scores were killed.

for you, what are the lessons that we should know today about oklahoma city? le i think it's not only oklahoma city, it'ons that we've been learning about lone wolf terrorism. it doesn't take a large organization to cause ma casualty. >> thompson: kerry myers was an fbi bomb tech who investigated the oklaho city bombing. i show myers the crime scene photos from the atomwaffen apartment. >> do we have close-ups of that? >> thompson: i don't know, let me look. they document a wide range of explosives, including some of the same ingredients used by mcveigh in his oklahoma city attack. >> they were making bombs. this is a bomb maker's workshop. there's the cooler. thiss the hmtd. this is actual what caused them the most concern, and rightfully so. hmtd is not very common, it has to be handmade-- it requires a process and you have to be sophisticated. >> thompson: and how powerful is that? i mean, is this something... >> it goes off about 1000 feet

per second. it's probably more powerful than ammonium nitrate. they could make a car bomb... if these materials were put together correctly and it went off in this classroom,t'd kill or seriously injure every person in this classroom.mp >> tn: so, obviously these guys aren't master criminals. are we focusing too much on a group that's not really a threat? >> well, in this case, we have two dead, two young men dead, shot with an assault rifle, and we recovered enough exosives here to blow up a car, blow up an airplane, blow up aus, blow up this room. we havthe same basic explosive kit here that the bostonbe marathon bomrs had. ♪ >> thompson: the night o arthurs' arrest, brandon russell was also detained and questioned by localpo ce and the fbi. he told a different story.

he said the explosives were his, but insisted he was only using them to power model rockets. atomwaffen was nothing more than a club. the police released russell without charging him. they even gave him a ride home so he could pick up his car. russell promptly disappeared. he met up with another atomwaffen member and began driving south. as the men drove, the fbi issued an arrest warrant r russell on explosives charges. >> we had his picture. we were told that he could possibly be going up near turkey point for some type of terrorist act. that's all we knew. >> thompson: that's all you knew? >> that was it. he turned into the burgeking. i put my patrol car right behind his car to block it in. and i didn't even think, i just got out of the car and said, "braon, come here." and he looked at me and he looked startled for a second, and before i gave him reaction to do anything, i just grabbed his arm and started handcuffing

him. do you have any weapons on you?u do yave any weapons on you? >> put your hands behind your back. >> he was shaking, which made me shake because i didn't know what he had on him. explosive materials? all i could think is that he had some type of detonator on him because he was so nervous. stop fidgeting. why are you fidgeting? >> what are we going to find in that car? >> guns, ammunition. >> you have at least two long guns, in excess of 1,000 rounds of ammunition, homemade bodymo r, no suitcases, no toiletry bags. it was the absence of the othe things that was a little bit concerning. >> he is too nervous, man. he is way too nervwes. >> we very, very thankful that we contacted them ay from that car, because if we had pulled them over, the outcomeha t event could have been way different for everybody involved, based on what they hac inside t. >> thompson: given all the weapons. >> the weapons were right behind them, within hand reach, as well as the ammunition.

and i believe they had loaded magazines in the center console for the rifles. when we found all the weapons, we were convinced th we had just stopped a mass shooting. >> thompson: the monroe county sheriff's department believes they stopped some kind of violent tack, but it's still not clear what brandon rusll may have been planning. he had the weapons and ammunition to kill dozens of people, and the fbi bulletin said he might have been targeting the nearby turkey point nuclear power plant. russell eventually pleaded guilty to illegal possession of exosives. he was sentenced to five years in prison. but according to devon arthurs, ruell wasn't the only thre inside atomwaffen.

>> thompson: it's unclear what the authorities did in response to arthurs' plea to investigate atomwaffen. the fbi won't talk to me about its handling of the case.wh but here i i do know: atomwaffen continue to operate,n its violence didn't end. seven months later in virginia, atomwaffen follower nick giampa allegedllled his ex-girlfriend's parents. they had objected to his nazi

views. giampa has yet to enter a plea, but the 17 year old appeared to be fascinatewith atomwaffen.hi social media accounts were full of its propaganda. weeks later, in california, sam woodward was arresd for allegedly killing blaze bernstein, a gay jewish college student. after the arrest, i published a story identifying woodward as a memb of atomwaffen. woodward has pleaded not guilty, but in a cache of confidential chat o logsained, atomwaffen celebrated the slaying.ey referred to woodward as a ewne-man gay jew wrecking ." three killings in the eight months after the arrest of brandon russell and devon arthurs. devon arthurs' predictions of violence seemed to have come true. but arthurs had given police one

more warning. >> thompson: he claimed that atomwaffen had members inside the military. >> okay. >> thompson: from everything i've learned, devon arthurs ex a deeply troubled young man. he gave conflictinanations for the killings and was ultimately deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. but as i continue my investigation, his description of atomwaffen and s ambitions is checking out. at

waffen's confidential chat logs support arthurs' claim that the group is recruiting soldiers. and they reveal the existence of what they describe as "hate camps," in which members with military experience ovide training in firearms and guerrilla tactics. one hate camp early this year took pla here... in death valley, on the border between nevada and california.om atffen filmed themselves training out in the desert. the group was drawn to death valley because of its association wi charles manson. they made a pilgrimage to devil's hole. ♪

this small gap in the pens up into a massive, 500-foot-deen cala mansoned to found an underground city here after the apocalypse. atomwaffen's communication show this hate camp was convened by a member who used the online handle "komissar." ♪ i'm able to identify komissar as michael hubsky, based in las vegas. hubsky isn't a soldier himself, but claimed to have been a private military contractor. he boasted in atomwaffen chats about his short-barreled cz scorpion rifle. hubsky discussed attacks on infrastructure and claimed to have a classified map of the west coast power grid.

at hubsky's death valley hate camp, and at other atomwaffen gatherings around the country, the group shoots propaganda videos. their members fire assault rifles, storm buildings, and clear rooms. hubsky hoped to organize regular training for atomwaffen and encoured members to join a nevada weapons facility called front sight. the idea was for atomwaffen members to get schooled in advanced firearms tactics. i contacted front sight, and they were shocked to learn about the group. they agreed to meet with me out at their facility. (guns firing) >> front sight is unique. we're a 550-acre firearms training facility about 40 minutes outside of las vegas. an we have 50s and the capacity of approximately 2,000

people at one time. >> thompson: when did you first learn about michael hubsky, the atomwaffen leader who wanted to come train here? >> i believe initially we were contacted by you folks, d you asked us some questions. and as a response to that, we investigated with our law enforcement contacts, and that was enough to convinces that they needed to not be coming to front ght any further. it>> thompson: hi, michael a.c. thompson from propublica and "frontline." i'm in las vas and still interested in talking to you, so... when i reach hubsky, he'd been banned for life from frontgh t. he tells me he left atffenun and has renod nazism. he won't go on camera for an interview. but using information from the chat logs, i'm able to identify other hate camp participants. one of them agrees to talk to me.

he's a twenty something army veteran who asks me to call m jeremiah. he came back from a combat tour damaged and angry. >> (distorted): there were a lot of people that were disenchanted with the mission. i'd say about half the guys in my unit. i think a lot of guys, they're lost and they want hope. they're looking for answers. >> thompson: how big would you say the white nationalist movement is within the armed forces? (distorted): there's a good amount of them. they keep quiet about it, especially when they're . you can get in a lot of trouble. going onto facebook, i never mentioned the military. >> thompson: how did the group regard combat veterans and servicmembers? >> (distorted): we definitely wanted to appeal to veterans. we would say they had the fighting spirit that the national socialists of the 1920s had, that people of the alt-right lack. frke an average 19-year-ol atomwaffen, his only

experience of war is v games, versus some guy like me, who knows how to handle himself in a war. people looked up to the military guys.le you were at using the training that they had given you to hit back at em. >> thompson: when you guys did do training, what kind of training was it? what did you, what did you learn, what kind of skil were shared? >> (distorted): going to the range, clearing rooms, medical, how wage an effective insurgency. a lot of the iraq and afghanwa vets, they took what they saw the taliban or al qaeda in iraq doing and alied it to what's going on here. e ws were number-one enemy. we would say the jews were the virus, and the people of color, the homosexuals, they were the symptoms. ♪ >> thompson: by studying atomwaffen chat logs, my colleagues and i p develist of more than 80 atomwaffen members.

seven of these men have military experience. i already know about atomwaffen founder brandon russell and his me in the national guard but there are also three active-duty soldiers omarines and three military veterans. and my sources be say there coulore. i want to better understand the link between atomwaffen and the miliry. i go to see professor kathleen belew at the university of icago. she's been researching the history of theme white power mos we're looking at a current group called the atomwaffen division,v and they are ay recruiting military members. does that surprise you? >> not at all. that's a strategy pioneered by the white power movement in the period of my study, and continued throughout the post-vietnam period. one ing to understand is tha

throughout american history, there's always a correlation between the aftermatarfare and this kind of vigilante and revolutionary white power violence. so if you look, for instance,at he surges in ku klux klan membership, they align more consistently witthe return of veterans from combat and the aftermath of war than they doi- with amigration, populism, economic hardship, or any of the other factors that historians have typically used to explainth . nationalist fervor, populist movements, those are all worse predictors than the aftermath of war. >> thompson: postwar periods tend to correspond, thenwith with an upsurge in white-power, white-supremacist activity? >> always,es. g thompson: wow. belew outlines a lhistory of military men who became key figures in the white power movement: george lincoln rockwell, world war ii veteran and founder of the american nazi rty; richard butler, world war ii veteran and founder of the aryan nations; louis beam, vietnam veteran and

grand dragon of the kkk; timothy mcveigh, gulf war veteran and oklahoma city bomber. >> it's important to remember, too, that returning veterans that join this movement, and active-duty troops, we're talking about a tiny, not even statistically significt, percentage of veterans. but within this movement, those yiople who did serve are p po enormously important role in instruction of w, in creating paramilitary activist mentality and training. o thompson: when we speak people involved in this movement today, they talk about leaderless resistance. can you explain that to me? >> sure. leaderless resistance is sically what we would understand today as cell-style terrorism: the idea that you can recruit a small number of committed activists, organize them, and thenhey will behave on their own in a cell without direct ties with movemen leadership. if we think, for instance, about the oklama city bombing, timothy mcveigh is sort of the

ideal soldier of leaderless resistance.an he's infantry unit and werves in the gulf and is involved in white groups while he's on post. he's consistently involved in this mement, right up to the moment of the oklahoma city bombing. we know that this is part of tho white powement and an act of leaderless resistance. but we have this memory of that as an act of one person. and as a result, i think we've s ver really delivered a decisive stop to ttivism. >> thompson: that because we don't understand oklahoma city as being an outgrowth of an organized movement, that it has aren around for decades, that is modeling the mil that is involving military members, thah authorities have never really been able to put a stop to it. >> that's right. the military response to white power activism, like theco t response to white power activism, and the police response to white power activism, reflec the many ways that our society has not been prepared to deal with this kind of a movement. on>> thompson: in washingta

senior analyst at the department of homeland security had triednt to draw atn to some of these same concerns. in 2009, daryl jnson wrote an intelligence report looking at the risef white supremacist groups and their connection to the military. >> the warthat have gone on in afghanistan and iraq, we had the rise of islamophobia. h that'se factor in both the anti-government groups andas the milihat rally with firearms outside of mosques, but also the white supremacistha groupshate people of other nations and other skin colors. thompson: johnson's report warned that the u.s. faced a growing terrorist threat frompr white acist and anti-government groups, and that these grou might recruit military veterans. >> what we've seen happen in the years since that repor released is basically everything that we had predicted has come to fruition. and it's actually worse than what we had anticipated. and i'm afraid that more law enforcement officers, more innocent civilians, more

minorities and faith-based communities are going to be targeted and actually victimized by these violent offenders. it's like every month e something, whether it's a, a shooting, a stabbing, even bombings starting to happen now. >> thompson: today johnson's report may seem prophetic, but itsat publn nearly a decade ago provoked a political backlash s from conservative lawmakd veterans' groups. r the report wracted and his unit disbanded. >> our unit got shut down in '09, and then the money starteda drying u, uh... so these communities are basically left to fend for themselves. this threat is out there... >> thompson: after speaking to johnson i hear from two former homeland security officials who say that the governmentun remainr-resourced and out of position for dealing with the white premacist threat. for months, i've been trying to get someone in the government, especially at the department of defense, to talk to me.

no one at the pentagon-- not even a spokesperson-- will agre toterview. but congressn keith ellison has read my reporting. he's written a letter to the depament of defense, demanding an accounting of their efforts to rid the ranks of extremists. >> well, let me tell you, i am a believer in our nation's military. i have very close relatives who serve, including active duty, and i can tell youhat it's an institution that, even in my family, we've always revered. to think that somebody who does n support the true goals of the u.s. military, which is to ptect americans, and actually wants to use that training to hurt americans, is revolting to me, and i hope that, that people in the military really do take this seriously. >> thoson: we've identified seven members of one neo-nazi group who are current or former military. >> is that atomwaffen?

f thompson: that's atomwaffen. what do you make oat? >> well, i think that they have decided this is a strategic initiative for them. they want their people to go into the military. there's a real legitimate fear here, and i think thate've got to be vigilant about it. ♪ >> thompson: the pentagon responded to ellison with a tatter stating that the mi aggressively screens new recruits. the d.o.d. also said it had received 27 reports of extremist activity over the past five years, a had disciplined 18 service members. i put those numbers to heidi beirich of the southern povert law center. >> that's laughae. >> thompson: you think so? >> yeah, i do. that's ridiculous. >> thompson: so you ju think the number, that's low? >> i think it's crazy-low. i mean, look, hate groups are telling their people to join the military, and this was sething that's been documented, both in fbi reports and in dhs reports,

to gain these skills. there's not only going to be 27 of them in a military force of, i don't know, one-and-a-half to ao million people in the united states, who are, w under arms. it's not possible. i think it's actually... mat's just an indicator, of how low a priority it is to root these people out. we presented the military and committees in congress, like the armed services committees, withr 13iles off of the national socialist movement's, like, equivalent of facebook, this thing called new saxon. >> thompson: nazi facebook.xa >>ly, nazi facebook. and we keep sending stuff to the military, like, exampl of people... >> thompson: oh, really? >> saying, yeah, "you shouldis look at uy, he looks like he might be in violation." and, you know, most of the time we never even hear anything back from them.t i just think te military needs to have pressure put on it to put this at the top of its list.an if that shuffling around resources, so be it. we don't want another mcveigh, righ you just can't have this. >> thompson: with nobody at the d.o.d. willing to talk to me, i

sit wn with a former militar prosecutor who has handled white supremacist cases. >> okay. and i can see this is a response to a congressman who's apparently asked a question... >> thompson: yeah. >> as a follow-up to some of the work you guys were doing in these articles abo service members.>> hompson: major general john altenberg served as the deputy judge advocate general-- the second-highest-ranking jag officer in the u.s. army. he later oversaw the military commissions at guantánamo bay. >> it sounds like they understand the issue, and they laid out for the reader all the different ways that they, they approach this issue, and that trey believe they've got c of this issue. >> thompson: and from that, your impression is ty have a handle on it, and they're dealing with this? >> yeah, and, i mean, i'm pleased to see that they're doing all this. this looks very thorough to me and looks like they're on top of it. >> thompson: so it's been put to me, "look, this is a very small

fraction of the u.s. military. the vast bulk of service members are wonderful people. you're disparaging the whole armed forces by raising this." do you think that's true? >> no. no, i thk it's too important. there's no question that thereon are organizathat would like for people to go in the miliry to acquire the traini that you get in the military. and how we cld screen all those people out, you know, is ouetty difficult. but there always be corners of a given organization where peopleould hide out and not be seen. t>> thompson: in its letto congressman ellison, the d.o.d. also said it had investigated the atomwaffen members i'd identified. but they didn't say what ey had done. all i know about is that only ilone member-- a marine, vs pistolis-- was court-martialedm

and expelled fe service. in response to our questions, a pentagon spokeswoman sent a statement saying she couldn't provide information on individual cases but, "our standards are clear; participation in extremist activities has never been tolerated and is punishable under the uniform code ofce military jus she added that commanders areto "encouragee preventive and pro-active, and they are doing that." i've been writing stories about atomwaffen a talking to insiders for nearly a year. and it seems like the group has been paying attention. from federal prison, atomwaffen isfounder brandon russell es a thinly veiled threat to former members who he believes are leaking information about the group.

>> thompson: i learn the video was put out by the group's texas cell, led by john cameron denton, who calls himself rape. in 2017, atomwaffen began barring its members fromg appear public demonstrations, but i find pictures from an earlier anti-immigrant protest. denton can be seen at the rallys withtgun and a skull mask,

and then afterwards posing with his fellow neo-nazis with his mask off. i get a tip that denton may be attending a black metal festival here called destroying texas. m (heaal music playing)a aftear of tracking atomwaffen online, i have a chance to confront the group in person. >> (singing owled lyrics) >> thompson: if i do find them inside the club, i'm not sure what to expect. (distorted metal music playing) the show is packed. most of the concert-goers look like typical metalheads, but isc do spot a few e neo-nazi patches on some people's clothi. i find rape drinking outside, along with t other atomwaffen members i recognize from my m porting. are you rape? i'c.

ouwanted to come out here and talk to you atomwaffen. >> no comment. >> thompson: no comment? >> no.ou >> thompson:e not going to do an interview? >> no. >> thompson: are you worried about going to prison? >> nope. >> thompson: atomwaffen members stand accused of multiple murders, and their propaganda is filled with violent threats. but after all of the online posturing, rape and the others aren't physically intimidating. and they are far less gressive in person than the skinhead gangs i've followed in the past. all right, thanks. hey, jeremiah. >> hey, how are you doing? >> thompson: i met rape out at a metal show in texas. >> how'dhat go? >> thompson: i was kind of surprised because they talk all this violent stuff online, but they were just kind of quietly hostile and seething. >> that figures.

if they were wanting to do something violent, they wouldn't do it publicly. these guys, they're not stupid. they're ke these skinhead types. >> thompson: jeremiah says i shldn't underestimate rape he has a direct relationship with atomwaffen's intellectual leader, james mason. did you ever get to talk to mason or meet him? >> we heard him over a couple of voice chats. i never met him in person, though. rape a mason had their own little thing. >> thompson: what kind of sensge did yoof him when you were talking to him on those chats? >> i thought he was a genius. thompson: in propaganda videos, atomwaffen say that mason disappeared for 15 years until they located him. they pose for photos with masonz dressed in theuniform and celebrate their collaboration. i'm unable to find a phone number for mason, but i learn that he's living in the denver area.s

mason online profile-- no social media, he doesn't even appear to have an email account. he spent time in a colorado prison for menacing soone with a piol. a bankruptcy filing from a few ars ago reveals a solita life, working at kmart and living alone. i've gotten several possible addresses for mason, and i begig to search neorhoods for him. then, i get a call. al's mason and he wants to to me. >> we're gooev wh you're ready. >> thompson: so how big do you think that the atomwaffen division is these days? how many members... >> i don't have the foggiest idea. >> thompson: but they come visit you, you exchange... >> on occasion, they will come through the territory, yes. i'm always happy to meet with them. >> thompson: mason is evasive at first. i try to get him to talk about

e killings and violence linked to atomwaffen. >> i'm glad i didn't know about it and i don't want to know, because if i didnow, i'd be involved in it, and i don't want to be involved in it. >> thompson: you don't want to go back to prison. >> i do not urge anybody to do anything like that, but when it gets done, i won't disown them. i kind of welcome the chaos. >> thompson: what did you think of james fields, the guy who allegedly drove the car into the crowd in charlottesville? >> i say bless his heart, because he sure is in a jam. >> thompson: so you'rec? sympathe >> oh, very sympathetic. totally sympathetic. >> thompson: to you, fields is a hero? >> yes. >> thompson: what did you think of tim mcveigh? >> another hero. >> the white race is in danger.

and it's not by accident.it driven. it's planned. >> thompson: who's planning it? >> the jews. we know it's the jews. i mean, we know that. >> thompson: mason has a lot more to say-- the kind of anti-semitic conspiracy i theorie come to expect from white supremacists. t i'm struck by what he says next. se with trump winning that election by surpand it was a surprise, i now believe anything could be possible. >> thompson: after decades of railing against the government, mason says trump is giving him hope. >> as trump says, and he has it printed right across the front of his hat, "make america great again." in order to make america great again, you'd have to make america white again, okay? it's interesting.e we'raded for interesting times. (c

wd singing) >> the darkest day in the history of pittsburgh, said the mayor, and you're looking rightm now at theial forming... >> ...outside the synagogue today, mourners struggled to process any of it. >> thompson: i'm in pittsburgh, weeks after speaking to mason and ju days after the massacre at the tree of life synagogue. before he allegey stormed the synagogue, robert bowers posted on social media writing about jews helping immigrant invaders who were killing his people. kathleen belew examined the posts. >> even a cursory look at his social media indicates that he is decisively part of a white power ideology. >> thompson: what did you see y wh were looking through those accounts? >> his last post expressed that he was going to go in shooting and it's an anti-semitic rant. pe but it also s twice the phrase "our people," that he needs to protect "r people," that he's identifying jews as a threat to "our people." that what he means there is

"white people." anthen, through the rest o the account, there's a whole bunch of other markers of white power ideology. all of that content is deeply, deeply disturbing, but is historic. we have a history. >> thompson: you've seen it before. >> absutely. i think this is an example of leaderless resistance in that it is a... what appears to be aun lonen, but someone who is motivated and propelled by a worldview, and by a cial network of likeminded people who push and enable violence. this movement has been using these structures for decad. >> our community was devastate with this attack, with this senseless slaughter of1 people. the entireommunity was affected. the jewish community absolutely

the brunt of it, but the entire pittsburgh community was devastated. >> thompson: retired fbi agent ewad orsini is the director of security for theh federation of pittsburgh. even whileittsburgh was grieving, he says neo-nazi propaganda was appearing around e city. >> thompson: and what... what's going on here? >> these are posters that are up at various parts of the city. flyers, posters, stickers. this week in particular we've seen an increase. >> thompson: after what's happened in recent dayou have a fascist group coming in here? >> yes, and i got numerous reports on tuesday. >> thompson: orsini says sh even before thting he had decided to take additional asecautions. >> we have put clty bags insy each one of ougogues and schools. there's tourniquets, there are compression pads, there's wound packing material. >> thompson: and so cally kiu have extreme first aid

kits, live-saving ts, in the synagogues, the schools... >> absolutely... >> thompson:d other institutions round here? >> in every one of our major institutions, we have them. d. thompson: it's kind of >> it's incredibly sad, um, to think we're in a day where wey have to woout security forn people going pray. ♪ >> thompson: pittsburgh is still mourning and the questions it provoked still linger: can these kinds of killings be prevented? i now know the fbi is looking at atomwaffen. agents in several states have been talking with formermb mes. and it turns out the bureau is investigating robert bowerssh relationip to two neo-nazis brothers with connections to atomwaffen. but what i've learned from my years in covering white supremacist groups is that they are many and that they draw from a deep reservoir of ugliness in erica.

just this nth, the fbi announced hate crimes had spiked again, the third year running. this story is far from over. >> here comes the federal government saying that they own the land and everything on it is theirs, but my dad said hell no. >> how one family's fight against the government. ff in.the armed stan bunkerville. >> this became sort of this rallying cry, for anti-government extremists everywhere. >> sparked a movement overnment patriot groups... >> ...ammon bundy is in federald custy now. >> and what it means. >> free the patriots! c>> the bundys defied thrrt orders, and the rule of law. >> go to pbs.org/frontline and find out what's happened since th film originally aired. and watch our first film in this series, "documenting hate: charlottesville." >> i juswant to let you know there's been all kinds of crazy violence over here. pepper spray, people beating

each other with sticks, and we're trying to figure out if the police are going to intervene to stop that or if this is going to keep going on. >> connect to the frontline community on facebook, twitter or pbs.org/frontline. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewersike you. thank you. and by the corporation for publicroadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committedb lding a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information ama ound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, mmitted to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting tstworthy journalism that informs and inspires.

and by thein fronjournalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this her frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. to order frontline'scu "nting hate: new american nazis" on dvd visit shoppbs or call 1-800-playpbs. this program is also availablee on amazon prdeo.

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