White Supremacists Worried About Movement's Image

Some white supremacists are bemoaning Wednesday’s fatal shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

But it’s not because they feel sorry for the security guard who died or take issue with the virulent anti-Semitism of James von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist who’s been charged with his murder. Rather, they’re concerned that the violent act could hurt their movement.

“The responsible white separatist community condemns this,” John de Nugent, a self-described white separatist, told the Washington Post. “It makes us look bad.”

Anonymous posts on the neo-Nazi website Vanguard News Network were less polite. “The entire episode is a gift to the International Jew and a Knife in the back [of] the Cause we are fighting for,” wrote a poster using the online moniker “The Red Skull.” “We are in for BIG trouble because of ONE senile old man. … The Jewsmedia will beat this horse until its [sic] no longer even recognizable. Incredibly STUPID, and hurtful to the entire movement!”

Added “Parsifal:” “The major problem I have with this incident is that there were White children in that god damn Holohoax indoctrination center at the time of the shooting. … I cannot support what Von Brunn did, although it will be a pleasure to see that evil temple of lies demolished after the Revolution.”

The administrator of Vanguard News Network, neo-Nazi Alex Linder, had a different take on the shooting: “Von Brunn sacrificed his life to show his people that the Holocaust is a Big Lie: a deliberately concocted atrocity myth being used by jews and their running dogs at Fox News and CNN to browbeat whites into submission to the Jewish Tyranny known as the New World Order.”

While saying he condemned von Brunn’s actions, Edgar J. Steele, the attorney who represented neo-Nazi Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler, drew a similar conclusion. “Why did Von Brunn choose to unload at the National Holocaust Museum?” he asked. “Because it is an edifice to one of the most stupendous lies of modern times, paid for and maintained with taxpayer dollars, that’s why.”

He added: “Make no mistake. Today’s was no isolated incident. You will see more and more shootouts like what took place in Washington, DC, this morning, until America begins to listen to all her citizens and accords all her children an equal voice in her affairs.”

Meanwhile, columnist Debbie Schlussel blamed the attacks on her usual scapegoat: Muslims. “It’s guys with names like Mohammed and Ahmed on our own American streets who make Mr. Von Brunn far more at ease in 2009 than he was even in 1999 to attack places associated with the Jews,” she said. “They created the comfort zone for James W. Brunn to engage in today’s shooting.”

Others spun wild conspiracy theories about government involvement in the attack. “Does anyone else here have a (more than) sneaking suspicion that this guy was paid off to do this so that the government would have yet another reason to crack down on us right-wing nutjobs? [sic]” asked “CoffeehouseGirl25” on Stormfront, the leading white supremacist forum.

And on the website of the Political Cesspool, a racist radio program, host James Edwards decried what he called a double standard in media coverage of the Holocaust Museum shooting.

“The media deliberately buries this epidemic of hate and violence, because the vast majority of murderers are non-white, and many of their victims are white. … [But] the local, regional, and national media are trumpeting the holocaust museum murder non stop [sic] and in huge fonts.”

Larry Keller contributed to this report.