'Non-Racist' Group's Contact With Neo-Nazis Surfaces

The East Bay Coalition for Border Security claims on its website to be "a racially diverse organization" with "NO ROOM for Racists, Socialists, or Communists!" And when the group, which also operates as the Golden Gate Minutemen, held its first anti-immigration rally June 2 in Fremont, Calif., some of its 35 members and supporters who took part waved signs that read, "No Racists Here."

But it seems the East Bay Coalition may have room for racists after all, starting right at the top. Its co-founder and president, Casey Fargo, is credited with posting at least two essays to the website of National Vanguard, a neo-Nazi group.

One, posted in 2003 and titled "White Americans Regularly Suffer Extortion by Mexican Police," rails against "the double standard employed by the Jewish press when it comes to publicizing cases of abuse of Whites by non-Whites" and warns of "the dangers faced by Whites in non-White areas and in an increasingly non-White America." Credited to Fargo on the National Vanguard website, the essay is apparently based on a December 2003 column by San Diego Union-Tribune national affairs columnist Joseph Perkins -- who's described in the essay as "a maverick Negro" -- detailing the robbery and rape of American tourists by Tijuana police officers.

When Fargo was questioned about his involvement with National Vanguard for a July 14 article in The Argus, an Alameda County, Calif., newspaper, the 25-year-old Livermore resident said the term "racist" is overused, but denied writing the essay. He attributed the "confusion" to his having E-mailed the Perkins column to a "wide-ranging list of media outlets" in order to "share the story with as wide an audience as possible." According to The Argus, Fargo said that in addition to the neo-Nazi website, he E-mailed the column to The New York Times and the Southern Poverty Law Center. "I didn't write what was posted," he was quoted as saying. "I just E-mailed the column to the National Vanguard website." Also, according to The Argus, "Fargo said the column must have been summarized and rewritten by someone at National Vanguard, who then attributed the published post to him."

Such an innocent explanation would be easier to believe if Fargo weren't also credited as the source of a March 2005 essay on the National Vanguard website that promoted a petition circulated by European/American Issues Forum president Louis Calabro that called on Congress to "immediately and thoroughly investigate and hold public hearings to determine if Jewish organizations and individuals are exercising excessive, disproportionate influence in America."

Fargo did not respond to three E-mailed requests for comment from the Intelligence Report. But East Bay Coalition for Border Security co-founder Charles Dirkman issued a statement reconfirming his group's anti-racist commitment. "National Vanguard is an evil, poisonous group based on nothing but destruction," he said. "That kind of stuff makes me want to puke."