Nathan Damigo, a notorious white nationalist leader and co-organizer of 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally, has relocated to Atlanta, where he now attempts to harass those he views as anti-racists, forest defenders, and leftists. Nathan Benjamin Damigo was the first leader for Identity Evropa (IE), a white power organization that eventually morphed into the “American Identity Movement” and disbanded in 2020. As IE’s leader until his resignation in August 2017, Damigo participated in street brawls—including punching a woman in the face—in Berkeley, California and helped organize the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Damigo has now been tied to the property of longtime racist leader, lawyer for Klansmen, and gentrification profiteer Sam Dickson in Buckhead, Atlanta. Damigo is currently operating with the “William McKinley Institute” (WMI), an anti-anti-fascist project that defines itself as “at odds with the Jewish values that dominate our civilization today, infecting every institution with perversion, degeneracy, confusion and chaos”.
Berkeley, California, April 2017.Nathan Benjamin Damigo
WMI recently circulated photographs of Saturday’s protest in Atlanta over the death of Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán, who was shot and killed by the Georgia State Patrol during a multi-agency raid on the Weelaunee Forest / “Stop Cop City” protest site on Wednesday, January 18th. Some politically targeted property destruction occurred during the Saturday protest responding to the murder, and a series of violent arrests by police then followed. As part of a broader right-wing campaign to identify and harass those they claim are part of the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest, WMI published video and still photographs from the Saturday protest after sending someone to spy on the event. These images were then picked up by the “Antifa Watch” doxing blog, and eventually circulated by far-right propagandist Andy Ngo. While Ngo promoted WMI to his mass audience, he did not note its white nationalist and virulently antisemitic nature.
We have now identified white power leader Nathan Damigo as a key “William McKinley Institute” participant, who is currently based in Atlanta.
Nathan Damigo, born in Maine in 1986 but raised in California, has an extensive history of white supremacist activism. In November of 2007 after serving in the Marines, Damigo pulled a loaded gun on a stranger because he “look[ed] Iraqi” and robbed the man of $43. While serving a prison sentence, Damigo grew more familiar with white supremacist ideology. On his release in 2014, he joined the youth wing of the America Freedom Party, the National Youth Front. This group would evolve into Identity Evropa in 2016.
Nathan Damigo at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia, August 2017.
Identity Evropa was especially active on college campuses, where they campaigned against perceived “anti-white” bias. In his time organizing with this group, Damigo was a close associate of Richard Spencer and moved in broader “Alt-Right” circles. On April 15, 2017, Damigo scuffled in the “Battle of Berkeley”, where he notably sucker-punched a diminutive woman who was a part of the antifascist protest. Damigo helped lead August 2017’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Identity Evropa had a large contingent. Not long after the deadly rally, Damigo left his leadership position with IE and claimed to be re-focusing on other parts of his life. He was later one of the defendants ordered to pay significant damages in the Sines v. Kessler civil suit over Unite the Right violence.
A brief look at the WMI website – which claims to document “anti-White terrorism and extremism” – shows that it is particularly focused on Atlanta, even including a blog post documenting leftist, anarchist, and anti-fascist stickers found around the city. On August 5, 2022, the WMI website published an incident report from the Georgia State University (GSU) police department. The report concerned an action at GSU’s downtown campus the month before, which WMI linked to the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest and to stop the “Cop City” development. Since the police report was clearly accessed through a public records request, we obtained that request. As a result, we can now confirm that Damigo has been living in Atlanta and is active as a white nationalist in our city.
Open records request by Nathan Damigo to Georgia State University. (Unredacted file here.)
As shown in the attached evidence, Damigo made the open records request for the GSU incident report and provided an address on Ridgeland Way in Buckhead, Atlanta on the paperwork. We have previously written about this address, which is owned by longtime racist leader Samuel Glasgow Dickson and serves as a hub of sorts for white nationalists.
Nathan Damigo’s presence in Atlanta is further corroborated by him speaking at the “Fall Retreat” held in metro Atlanta by Counter-Currents Publishing, a white nationalist propaganda project. That event was held at an undisclosed location from October 21-23, 2022. Counter-Currents subsequently released footage of Damigo’s speech.
Nathan Damigo speaks at racist “Fall Retreat” in metro Atlanta, October 2022
While our documentation does not establish that Damigo is the only participant in the William McKinley Institute, he appears to be a trusted one. The anti-anti-fascist, anti-“anti-White” project takes its name from a US President who was assassinated by an anarchist in 1901. Its obscure blog was launched in 2019, with a Telegram channel and proper website appearing last year. WMI claims to work directly with the “Antifa Watch” website. We have already noted WMI’s profound antisemitism, and that the project is premised on white nationalist narratives that the US is being overrun by an “anti-White” wave. Although far-right propagandist Andy Ngo has shared WMI content after it was laundered by “Antifa Watch,” WMI have pointed to Ngo as an example of “degenerate liberals”. This may seem strange, but follows white supremacist logic: Ngo’s politics are fascist, but his status as a gay Asian male means that his white supremacist allies will never truly accept him, no matter his actions for the cause.
Far-right propagandist Andy Ngo boosts WMI and their materials to his audience
The purpose of WMI is to identify and then harass those they perceive as anti-fascists from around the country. The “Antifa Watch” project works with WMI to further promote its materials and to build broader harassment campaigns against those targeted. Damigo, whose Identity Evropa organization was undermined by diverse anti-fascist organizing, clearly has reason to detest “antifa” and aligned movements. It is very likely that Damigo also had a hand in the most recent photographs of Atlanta protesters published on the WMI site. If anyone has footage of Damigo or others who could have been the WMI photographer/videographer at the January 21st protest, please reach out to us. While some US protests have seen far-right agitators dressing in “black bloc” in order to infiltrate protests and gather information, it appears that WMI’s watcher simply took long-range photographs from a higher vantage point and then tailed the protest from a slight distance while recording video.
We are sharing this information to warn our community and the movement to defend the Weelaunee forest about Nathan Damigo and the “William McKinley Institute”. If you have more information about Damigo, his associates in our region, or the WMI, please contact us. If you are an activist in Atlanta, please be on the lookout for Damigo or for sketchy individuals who stand out from regular journalists, who are specifically taking pictures of faces at protests. We hope that this publication will also draw attention to Sam Dickson, his house on Ridgeland Way, and his mentoring and material support of young white supremacists. Dickson’s activities have long been tacitly condoned by the Atlanta power structure, and he maintains a friendly network of real estate connections as well as legal standing with the Georgia Bar.
Update, late November 2022:Online footage shows Hunter Lamm training with the Peach State Cats,revealing that the team’s internal investigation has concluded and favored Lamm. The team never reached out to our group with questions or for further documentation. We strongly condemn the team’s reckless decision.
Update, late September 2022: According to a post on the Peach State Cats’ Facebook page, Hunter Lamm has been removed from the team while it pursues an internal investigation. Anti-racist researcher Nick Martin has uncovered that Eugene Yu’s campaign paid Lamm at least $2,500 for work this year.
Introduction
Hunter Wyatt Lamm (born 1996) of Cumming, Georgia is a longtime neo-Nazi who was active with the American Nazi Party until at least late 2021. This year, Lamm is attempting to build a future for himself in professional sports. Lamm plays football for the Peach State Cats, a team within the semi-professional Elite Indoor Football league. On September 24, the Peach State Cats will play an exhibition game against the Western Maryland Warriors at the Atlanta Silverbacks Suwanee Indoor field. We are publishing documentation on Lamm because this game is a scouting opportunity for him. We believe that Lamm should not be allowed an opportunity to make money in sports, and that the Peach State Cats should kick the racist out rather than giving him opportunities to advance. We are also circulating information on Lamm in case he tries to build influence as a Republican political activist, since Lamm was active this year in a Republican campaign in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.
Hunter Wyatt Lamm
Lamm and Neo-Nazism
We first wrote about Lamm in 2018, when we noted that he was one of the racists listed as “Going” on the Facebook event page for a white power rally, “Rock Stone Mountain II,” that was scheduled for February 2019. Due to poor organizing by white supremacists, Stone Mountain Park denying a permit for the event, and anti-racist community mobilization, that white power rally did not take place as announced.
In our 2018 discussion of Lamm, we pointed out that he was an avowed “National Socialist” who attempted one-man racist demonstrations in Forsyth County and promoted something called the “National Socialist American Workers Party.” This “Party” appears to have mainly been Lamm himself.
Leaked 2017 messages from a communications channel operated by Vanguard America also included posts by Hunter Lamm. Vanguard America was a fascist organization best known for being the group Heather Heyer’s murderer marched with at “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville, Virginia, before his deadly vehicular attack later that day.
Hunter Lamm’s YouTube account previously included a reference to the American Nazi Party (ANP) and to the “Fourteen Words,” a white supremacist slogan.
Our previous discussion of Lamm highlighted that he had been a US Marine, although Lamm’s military career ended prematurely in 2017 – possibly because of his open neo-Nazi organizing.
In 2019, Hunter Lamm began loudly promoting the “American Nazi Party” (ANP), a tiny organization founded by Rocky Suhayda as an attempted relaunch of George Lincoln Rockwell’s original ANP. On a blog created by Lamm in 2019, he claimed to have a much longer history within the ANP:
“I want to take action for the American Nazi Party […] I will do whatever I can to ensure victory and success. […] I’m 22 years old, and have been apart [sic] of the party since 13.”
ANP’s website currently hosts thirteen podcast episodes by Hunter Lamm, recorded in 2020 and 2021. Lamm’s most recent episode was recorded less than a year ago, in October 2021.
News story on American Nazi Party propaganda in Forsyth County, January 2021
In January 2021, American Nazi Party propaganda appeared in mailboxes in Cumming, Georgia, on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Lamm lives in Cumming and all evidence points to him distributing these flyers. On a podcast episode, Lamm boasted of placing other ANP materials: specifically, printing out ANP flyers at the library and leaving them in books about the Holocaust. His comments about driving long distances to meet other ANP members suggest that Lamm was the only active ANP member in his immediate area.
Ironically, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) publicly appealed for information about the neo-Nazi propaganda left in Cumming mailboxes. At the time, Hydie Panthea Lamm (born 1970) worked as a Sergeant with FCSO and presumably knew of her son’s neo-Nazi activities, since they lived under the same roof. Hydie Lamm’s law enforcement career ended later in 2021, although this had nothing to do with her covering for her son’s neo-Nazi harassment.
2022: Football and Republican Politics
This year, Lamm began playing with the Peach State Cats, a team within the semi-professional Elite Indoor Football league. Lamm aspires to getting scouted and building a lucrative pro career. The Peach State Cats are a majority Black team. Presently, Lamm’s social media bears no trace of the hardcore neo-Nazism which he had been espousing just last year.
Eugene Yu and Hunter Lamm earlier this year
Also this year, Lamm assisted Eugene Yu’s run in 6th Congressional District. Yu – who moved to Georgia from South Korea while in high school – is a businessman, veteran, and perennial candidate in Republican primaries. In this year’s 6th Congressional District primary, Yu came in fifth with 6.5% of the vote. Lamm wrote on Facebook that he was “apart of” (sic) Yu’s campaign, and frequently promoted Yu during the race. Eugene Yu may not have been fully aware of Lamm’s history as a white supremacist, since in 2020 during an earlier political campaign, Yu canceled an in-person appearance after learning that his hosts were a group with extensive Klan and neo-Nazi ties.
Reformed?
Lamm’s recent activity – playing on a majority Black football team and helping an Asian-American’s political efforts – may suggest that he has changed his views and abandoned the white supremacist movement. Writing of his time with the Yu campaign, Lamm mentioned in passing that “There is a lot I regret in life,” which could suggest that Lamm regretted his time as a neo-Nazi. However, we do not believe that Lamm has reformed.
Our group has documented neo-Nazi activity by Lamm from 2017 onward, yet by Lamm’s own account he was an active neo-Nazi for years before this, starting at the age of thirteen. Behaviors and patterns of thought learned over years of white supremacist involvement simply do not reverse themselves overnight. Changing requires recognizing the harm that one has caused, and peer support is often needed so that one does not backslide into harmful and racist behavior. Less than a year ago, Lamm was promoting the American Nazi Party. Since that time, Lamm has made no direct apology or any effort to set things right, for example by taking responsibility for ANP flyers placed around Cumming or discussing how his mother kept quiet on his behalf while she worked in law enforcement.
Lamm never contacted our organization about leaving the racist movement, as we encourage people in our state to do. There is no evidence that Lamm tried to reach out to any reputable group that provides support for those leaving the racist movement.
January 24, 2022 messagesMarch 21, 2022 messages
Finally, our organization has received screen-captured Facebook messages seemingly sent by Lamm earlier this year. In one message, Lamm writes of staying quiet about his actual views so that he can move ahead with his life goals and eventually be able to “secretly” deliver “massive funding” to the ANP. In another message a few months later, Lamm refers to Black people as “n[****]rs” who should be hung. Lamm was part of the Peach State Cats, a majority Black team, at the time of this message.
Given the above, Lamm’s work for the Yu campaign is most likely a tactical move, not an indication that he has rejected his earlier neo-Nazi beliefs. Lamm is attempting to enter Republican political circles and gradually build influence, but his Hitlerite end-goals have not necessarily changed.
Conclusion and Call to Action
Atlanta Antifascists have always encouraged those in the white power movement to leave and start to turn their lives around. Hunter Wyatt Lamm, who less than a year ago recorded propaganda for the American Nazi Party, never left the racist movement. Rather, he has adopted a stealth mode while trying to build a career in sports in order to fund his neo-Nazi goals. Lamm has also dabbled in Georgia Republican politics in a likely attempt to build influence for the same goals.
Football reel for Hunter Wyatt Lamm
Contrary to popular misconceptions, many neo-Nazis are capable of working closely with the minorities they hate. In their Nazi safe spaces, they often brag about their surface politeness and their ability to pass for a non-racist. However, they also constantly pass each other derogatory information about the people they work with, mock them behind their backs, and fantasize about how to handle them after a race war. It is very likely that Lamm’s attitude toward his coaches and teammates follows this model, and we believe that nobody should have to play on a team with a committed neo-Nazi. Please contact the Peach State Cats and the Elite Indoor Football league, expressing concern about Hunter Lamm’s involvement. Demand that they drop the Nazi player.
We also ask that readers distribute this information to friends in Forsyth County and particularly in Cumming, so that neighbors can be aware of their local neo-Nazi.
If you have further information on Hunter Lamm or other white supremacists in our region, please get in touch.
Around 5PM on Saturday June 25th, a group of almost twenty Proud Boys came into downtown Atlanta, looking to harass pro-choice protesters. We covered the excursion on a Twitter thread here, helping amplify many sources who were on the ground. Most of the Proud Boys wore plates and custom branded insignia, and their convoy consisted of three pickup trucks plus a repurposed armored truck. Despite their obvious intent to intimidate Atlantans with this show of force, the Proud Boy convoy met with immediate concerted resistance and was prevented from harassing protesters by local armed community defense.
The Proud Boys attempted to conceal their identities by wearing gaiter masks and obscuring their plates. This tactic has worked well for them in the past, since they typically have friendly relations with the police. However, it did not entirely succeed this time, and they received traffic citations for attempting to obscure their plates.
The neo-fascist Proud Boys have had little to no public presence in metro Atlanta for several years. Their organization statewide in Georgia focused on social events and quiet networking. Many recruits would pass through the Proud Boys only temporarily, with some members eventually moving toward more openly white supremacist and neo-Nazi politics. However, judging by the ridiculous insignia on their vanity truck, the Georgia chapter has been reconstituted as of 2021. We are working on further identification and will have more to publish soon. In the meantime, we are posting this gallery of media for the public to examine. If you have any tips, contact us. Email is the most secure method, and as always, we guard the confidentiality and anonymity of our sources.
Video of departing convoyPolice Scanner audio discussing traffic citationsEdited to add another submitted photoset
Michael David Weaver (also known as Michael David Carothers) is a violent neo-Nazi who has been active since he was a teenager. Currently, he lives in Cartersville and is engaging in a campaign to spread hate in Georgia. Since late last year, Weaver has distributed copious amounts of antisemitic propaganda, mainly for the antisemitic Goyim Defense League but also for other white supremacist groups. Weaver also holds one-mandemonstrations with antisemitic signs outside the Bartow County Courthouse. Weaver has a long history of ideologically driven harassment and violence, including an assault on a Black man in Columbus, Georgia for which Weaver served a one-year sentence. Continue reading for more info on Weaver and actions which community members can take.
Michael David Weaver (AKA Michael Carothers)
According to a propaganda article about Weaver/Carothers, Weaver joined the National Alliance “upon turning 18.” Even before then, he distributed racist materials at his high school. At one point, the National Alliance was the largest neo-Nazi organization in North America. It was founded by William Luther Pierce, author of the notorious neo-Nazi genocide fantasy The Turner Diaries. Weaver claims to have met Pierce at a National Alliance meeting in Dahlonega, Georgia before Pierce’s death in 2002.
Michael Weaver/Carothers in 2008 National Alliance newsletter.
Weaver was not just a regular member of the National Alliance but set himself apart to the point that the organization named him as its “Activist of the Year” in 2008. (The National Alliance went into steep decline after Pierce’s 2002 death.) Weaver distributed National Alliance literature both on his own and along with his father, David Ray Carothers, who is also a committed neo-Nazi.
In a 2003 interview, Michael Carothers (Weaver) praised the World Church of the Creator’s leader, who was later convicted for soliciting the murder of a judge.
Weaver/Carothers was also a member of the white power “World Church of the Creator” (WCOTC) – now known as “Creativity” – which calls for a “racial holy war.” WCOTC newsletters listed Weaver/Carothers as a contact starting from at least the year 2000. In early 2003, Weaver gave an interview as a WCOTC activist, in the wake of WCOTC’s leader being charged with soliciting the murder of a judge.
Weaver at court hearing
In December 2010 in Columbus, Georgia, Weaver assaulted a Black man, a stranger, pulling up next to him as he was walking and pepper-spraying him. Weaver pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and received a sentence of one year in jail, nine years’ probation, and banishment from the city of Columbus until the end of his probation.
Upon his release, Weaver relocated to Cartersville and assumed a comparatively lower profile. Soon enough, however, he reared his ugly head again, posting regularly on his “White Information Network” blog which he had initially established in 2010 before his jail sentence (Google/Blogspot removed the site in 2021.) Weaver attended the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017 and was in the planning chat for “Unite the Right 2” the following year.
Weaver (black shirt on right) after violence at the Unite the Right torch march, August 11, 2017. Also pictured walking through crowd with Weaver: white nationalists Renee and Brad Griffin.
In 2018, Weaver called for supporters to join a hate rally led by the National Socialist Movement although he did not personally attend. Weaver also became involved with the “Rock Stone Mountain II” white power rally that was set to take place in early 2019. The rally collapsed after Stone Mountain Park denied organizers their application for a permit, and anti-racists promised to challenge any unpermitted rally.
Weaver (on left) poses with other neo-Nazis and Klansmen including Chester Doles (third from left) after the first meeting of “American Patriots USA,” December 2019.
Weaver was highly active in north Georgia’s “American Patriots USA” (APUSA) from its founding in late 2019 until mid-2020 when he left over disagreements. Neo-Nazi and former Klan leader Chester Doles created APUSA, in the hope that a group with patriotic branding could build alliances with the broader far-right. Doles and Carothers know each other from their days in the National Alliance, where Doles had been a unit leader.
White nationalist Telegram channel with close ties to Michael Weaver claims that antisemitic flyers in metro Atlanta were left by him. Using an account under a known alias, Weaver also shared the Atlanta Jewish Timesstory about his flyers to the white supremacist Stormfront forum.
Coinciding with the end of his probation, Weaver has restarted intense flyering activity. He typically targets Cartersville and the surrounding area, but also hits metro Atlanta. On his Telegram channel, Weaver brags of his neo-Nazi propaganda distribution campaigns – sometimes logging more than one incident a day. Weaver usually distributes flyers from the extremely antisemitic Goyim Defense League. He also circulates materials from the racist/fascist Patriot Front – he is a sympathizer, not a member – as well as the National Alliance, to which he once belonged.
Michael Weaver placing Goyim Defense League flyers on vehicles, Cartersville, April 2022.
On 19 April, 2022 when placing antisemitic materials on parked cars by the Bartow County Courthouse, Weaver began menacing and then followed an individual who had taken offense to the flyers and had started to remove them from cars. A police officer who arrived on the scene declined to charge Weaver regarding this conflict but cited him for a misdemeanor city ordinance violation regarding the flyers. The racist Conservative Action Report paper reports that Weaver is fighting this charge with help from Atlanta attorney Justin Showalter.
David Ray Carothers throws antisemitic flyers on lawns in Georgia.
Two videos recently shared online by Weaver show his father, David Ray Carothers, throwing Goyim Defense League flyers onto lawns from a moving car. Weaver seemingly drove and took the footage. One of these videos mentions targeting Euharlee, which is a short drive from Cartersville. If Weaver’s constant brags on Telegram are to be believed, he has hit many other north Georgia communities. Throwing weighted bags containing flyers onto lawns is a distribution method associated with the Ku Klux Klan, although other white supremacists also use it to spread propaganda.
Michael Weaver (on right) with neo-Nazi and former Klan leader David Duke.
Michael David Weaver is a violent neo-Nazi. He has a history of attempting to intimidate anyone he perceives as an enemy, or who stands in the way of his racist and antisemitic “activism.” To disrupt his efforts, you can:
1. Send us information on Weaver’s landlord. Michael David Weaver lives in an apartment on Fite Street, in a building owned by Brill Brothers, LLC. The person listed as this company’s agent on Georgia Secretary of State filings, states that he has not actually been involved with the company for years. We are asking anyone with current information for Brill Brothers, LLC to contact us. Property managers need to know that by housing a violent white supremacist, they endanger other residents and community members.
2. Report Michael Weaver’s PayPal, @mweaver1521. Weaver uses this account to solicit funds for his antisemitic and white supremacist flyering campaigns.
3. Share any info you may have on Weaver’s training/nutrition business, or other potential sources of income. You can contact our organization by email at: afainatl [at] riseup [dot] net. More contact info is available on our “About” page.
Community alert on Michael Weaver. For a .pdf you can print and distribute, click here.
Update 6/3/2022: The far-right anti-vaccine conference is now taking place at the DoubleTree in Roswell, Georgia. Please contact the hotel directly as well as the company that manages it, Hospitality Ventures Management Group, with your concerns.
Update 6/2/2022: Unity North Atlanta has canceled the reservation for Next Steps conference.
Introduction
On Friday and Saturday, June 3-4, “Next Steps,” a major anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial conference, is scheduled to take place at Unity North Atlanta in Marietta, Georgia. QAnon believer Tiendra “Tia” Severino (née Demian) of Tucker, Georgia organized the conference with support from Timothy John Ray’s “UI Media” network. Tim Ray and at least two other speakers are vocal antisemites. One of these speakers has proclaimed that the “God of the Jews is Satan himself.”
Tiendra Severino of Tucker, Georgia
“UI Media” and the “Next Steps” conference are thoroughly intertwined. The conference will feature a “UI Media Awards” ceremony presented by Tia Severino and Tim Ray. UI Media is the exclusive source for footage of the conference and markets “digital replay[s]” of conference workshops on its website. Conference organizer Tia Severino has hosted her show on UI Media for the past two years. The conference’s “VIP Party” on Saturday night will be held in Canton, Georgia, which happens to be where Tim Ray owns a home.
Timothy John Ray of Canton, Georgia
The “Next Steps” conference features big names from anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial circles, such as Dr. Christiane Northrup, who played a key role in amplifying coronavirus disinformation in the pandemic’s first year, and COVID/snake venom conspiracy theorist Dr. Bryan Ardis. The conference also reflects the deep antisemitism of Tim Ray and his “UI Media” project. A couple scheduled to speak at the conference’s “VIP Dinner” on Friday argues that a Jewish conspiracy has plotted for centuries to rule the world, currently controls the US government, and aims to enslave all non-Jewish people. Tim Ray finds this theory credible enough to promote the couple and other hardcore antisemites on his UI Media site. In a speech to an anti-mask/anti-vaccine rally in Atlanta last year, Tim Ray made thinly coded references to conspiracy theories of Jewish power, blaming “international Sabbatian cabalists” for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Promotional image for Next Steps conference
As well as spreading medical falsehoods and stirring up hatred against Jewish people, the Next Steps conference has ties to other far-Right organizers in Georgia and nationally. We document these ties throughout this piece. Since the conference aims to not only undermine public health measures but to normalize far-right and antisemitic organizing, we believe it deserves a response. We include action items at the end of this article.
“VIP dinner” promotional image
Steven and Jana Ben-Nun
Steven and Jana Ben-Nun of Israeli News Live are scheduled to speak at the Friday night “VIP Dinner” for the Next Steps Conference. The couple has earlier histories in Messianic Jewish circles. In recent years, they have embraced an unambiguously antisemitic worldview. Before a 2012 name change, Steven Ben-Nun was known as Stephen Troy Cummings. He has also used the name “Steven DeNoon” in early writings. Jana Ben-Nun is listed as Jana Sutoova in Florida business filings for their DeNoon Institute of Biblical Research. The couple presently lives in Sunbright, Tennessee.
Steven and Jana Ben-Nun
In a May 2021 interview with Tim Ray on the UI Media website, Steven Ben-Nun claimed that a Jewish conspiracy spanning centuries has “been steering everything from the background” and is headed toward establishing a “New World Order.” He added that this conspiracy operates on a “global scale” and impacts “every aspect of government and social life.” “All the wars that we see happening in the world” are a result of Jewish infiltration and manipulation, according to Ben-Nun. In the second half of the interview, Steven Ben-Nun was joined by his wife Jana, and the two discussed the alleged conspiracy’s plans to kill off much of the world’s population, to make non-Jewish people into the slaves of Jews, and to behead Christians and others who do not submit. According to Jana Ben-Nun, the conspiracy aims for a world where “One Jew will have 2,500 gentiles as slaves”. Jana Ben-Nun also asserted that the world-controlling Jewish conspiracy is behind child trafficking and organ trafficking and that the “God of the Jews is Satan himself.” Following this interview, program host Tim Ray invited Steven Ben-Nun back on UI Media another three times.
May 2021 UI Media appearance
The interview we summarized is typical Ben-Nun fare. In a 2020 interview on Rick Wiles’ TruNews – another antisemitic website – Jana Ben-Nun declared that the “transgender agenda today” has “its origin in Zionism” and is part of the massive Jewish plot. A November 2021 article by Jana Ben-Nun on Israeli News Livestates: “Israel was created by the Rothchild [sic] dynasty […] These are the same people that were responsible for the Holocaust.” Jana Ben-Nun uses a rhetorical technique called synecdoche, in which a part of something is used to stand for the whole: in this case, the Rothschild family is used to represent a broader Jewish conspiracy. Blaming an imagined Jewish conspiracy for the Nazi genocide against Europe’s Jewish population is peak antisemitism.
The fact that Steven and Jana Ben-Nun have achieved niche celebrity status is symptomatic of the antisemitism which already exists within anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial spaces. However, by giving Jew-hating propagandists a prestigious spot at the Next Steps “VIP dinner,” organizers are attempting to place antisemitism even closer to the center of anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial movements.
Two Other “VIP Dinner” Speakers
Many of the conference speakers are well-known figures within anti-vaccination circles. They can roughly be divided between “old school” anti-vaxxers who were active before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and those who became active with the pandemic. It would be tedious to discuss these characters individually, but researchers can check their names on an archived version of the event’s website. However, we wish to highlight two other speakers scheduled for the Next Steps “VIP dinner,” since these figures highlight the broader far-Right circles and agenda which animate the gathering.
Benjamin Swann
Benjamin Swann is the keynote speaker for the “Next Steps” dinner. Swann regularly appeared on RT America, a channel sponsored by the Russian state, between 2013 – 2015. In June 2015, he landed a job at CBS 46 in Atlanta. While at the station, Swann’s “Reality Check” reports “often veered into alt-right conspiracy theories” according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Swann devoted a six-minute news section to Pizzagate in 2017, with Swann promoting the conspiracy theory in a “just asking questions” manner. Pizzagate, which claimed that liberal elites participated in a child abuse ring run from the basement of a Washington DC pizzeria, was later elaborated on by the QAnon movement.
The station suspended Swann following his Pizzagate broadcast and fired him in January 2018, after Swann tried to relaunch his “Reality Check” series without his employer’s consent. Swann then returned to RT America. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Swann has been a prolific source of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and falsehoods. In 2020, he established ISE Media – a video streaming and social networking site – which was later rebranded as SovRen. The site has been adopted by far-right propagandist Alex Jones of InfoWars among others.
Kandiss Taylor
Kandiss S. Taylor, who was a fringe candidate for governor in Georgia, is also scheduled to speak at the “VIP dinner.” Taylor turned conspiracy theories into campaign issues, claiming that she would take on the “Global Luciferian Regime [that] has seeped its way into our Government.” While Taylor has not publicly endorsed QAnon, such rhetoric resonates within QAnon circles. Campaigning on the slogan of “Jesus Guns Babies,” Taylor rejected separation of church and state and promoted Christian nationalism. Taylor also claimed that Native Americans who faced massacres and whose land was stolen, made a “sacrifice” so that settlers could worship Jesus freely. Taylor promotes conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, with MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell a key supporter of her campaign. After coming in third for the Republican gubernatorial nomination with 3.4% of the vote, Taylor has predictably refused to concede, with Lindell promising a “big investigation” and Taylor tweeting: “I don’t stand still while communism takes over control.”
Timothy Ray, UI Media, Antisemitism, and the Far-right
We earlier discussed Timothy John Ray’s “UI Media” being centrally involved in conference organizing and promotion. Next Steps even includes a “UI Media Awards” as part of its programming. “UI Media” is an outgrowth of Tim Ray’s United Intentions Foundation, Inc., registered as a Georgia business in 2009 and approved by the IRS as a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2010. According to a recent IRS return, United Intentions’ mission is to “awaken all people to the power of their intentions.” In 2015, United Intentions launched the UI Radio Network – now UI Media Network – with broadcasts focusing on self-help and a “conscious” lifestyle, but occasionally veering into paranormal topics and conspiracy theories. With the 2020 debut of Tim Ray’s “Frequency Wars” show, UI Media Network moved to unambiguous far-Right politics and antisemitism, while maintaining its lifestyle programming to drawn people in.
Tim Ray broadcast with David Icke (right)
In addition to promoting Steven and Jana Ben-Nun, Tim Ray has hosted other antisemites on UI Media. Ray has done two broadcasts with David Icke, a conspiracy theorist and New Age personality who cites The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and defends Holocaust deniers in his writing. Icke believes that “Rothschild” plotters were behind Hitler’s rise to power. He has subsequently claimed that “Rothschild” conspirators are behind everything from staging the September 11, 2001 attacks to manufacturing the coronavirus pandemic, which Icke claims is not an actual pandemic.
Tim Ray also hosted New Ager and conspiracy theorist Sacha Stone for three episodes on UI Media’s “Frequency Wars.” According to the UK monitoring organization Hopes Not Hate, Stone deploys “coded antisemitic language very similar to that of David Icke.” In October 2021, Tim Ray hosted a UI Media appearance for Harry Vox. Vox has claimed that “Jewish Finance Capital [aims] to destroy & enslave us” and that COVID-10 vaccines are a Jewish plot to sicken and kill white women.
Tim Ray, Robert David Steele, and Sacha Stone, May 2021
Ray’s work with antisemites does not stop there. On May 20, 2021, Ray hosted Robert David Steele along with Sacha Stone for the first date of Steele’s “Arise USA” speaking tour. The event took place in the parking lot in front of the United Intentions Foundation office in Roswell, Georgia. A detailed profile on Steele by the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights describes him as an “prolific purveyor of antisemitism who spews conspiracy theories about ‘satanic Zionists’ engaged in a global plot against white people [and who] promotes Holocaust denial”. Steele would die later in 2021 from COVID-19, which until the end he refused to accept as real.
Beyond these antisemites, UI Media also promotes other far-right movements and figures. On presidential election day, November 3, 2020, UI hosted Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, for the first time. Over the next year, Rhodes made further appearances on the network. Rhodes and other Oath Keepers are presently facing federal “seditious conspiracy” charges for their roles in the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.
Alex Newman appearance on UI Media
The John Birch Society (JBS) is another source of guests for UI Media. Alex Newman, a senior editor at JBS’s The New American magazine, has appeared on UI Media a dozen times. For two of those appearances, Newman was joined by G. Edward Griffin, a JBS life member who is best known for writing the anti-Federal Reserve The Creature from Jekyll Island. JBS, founded in 1958 and whose membership peaked in the mid-1960s, is an anti-communist and far-right group that believes a shadowy group of “insiders” manipulate world politics and economy. JBS claims that its theories have no antisemitic aspect or implication, yet it is easy to see how this worldview could merge with explicit antisemitic beliefs. In another example of UI Media promoting JBS figures, on her “The People’s Truth” show Tia Severino interviewed JBS member Kim Fletter of Cleveland, Georgia on the topic of “The U.N. and the N.W.O. [‘New World Order’]”.
Incidentally, frequent UI Media guest and The New American senior editor Alex Newman is on the advisory board for Truth in Education, a Georgia group with an anti-trans, anti-“obscenity,” and anti-“critical race theory” agenda. Truth in Education is listed among Next Steps’ “Silver Sponsors” and is one of the Georgia organizations presenting at the conference’s “Community Building” workshop.
Tiendra “Tia” Severino
Next Steps conference organizer Tiendra Severino (née Demian) has a complicated and problematic history as a parent and activist-parent. When police arrested her on other charges in 2003, they alleged that she had neglected her daughter. In the name of protecting children, Severino began her anti-vaccination activism in 2016 when she arranged Atlanta screenings for “Vaxxed”, a documentary film promoting the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder (Severino has a son with autism spectrum disorder, which she blames on vaccination). Severino subsequently helped with a sequel documentary, “Vaxxed II”. The name of Severino’s UI Media show, “The People’s Truth,” is taken from the subtitle for this sequel.
The producer of “Vaxxed,” Del Bigtree, is scheduled to speak at Next Steps conference while the director of “Vaxxed II,” Brian Burrowes, will talk during the conference’s Friday night “VIP dinner.”
Tia Severino interviews Jordan SatherTia Severino interviews Dustin Krieger (“Dustin Nemos”)
By 2018, Severino was drawing close to QAnon, a movement based on conspiracy theories of a child-murdering Satanic elite. QAnon viewed Trump as a hero who, along with unnamed military generals, would vanquish this vast conspiracy. On the Facebook page of “Peeps TV” – a media channel connected with production for “Vaxxed II” – Severino interviewed two major QAnon promoters, Jordan Sather and Dustin Krieger (“Dustin Nemos”), in November 2018. During 2020, Severino publicly displayed her QAnon sympathies in social media posts. With Trump’s electoral defeat, QAnon has transformed and camouflaged itself, with some participants moving on to other circles and issues, and others increasingly upfront about their antisemitism. It is unclear whether Severino continues believing in the complete QAnon package. However, she endorsed the view that Satanic elites sacrifice children during a September 2021 discussion about “Secret Societies” on UI Media. In December 2021, she interviewed QAnon influencer Dustin Krieger again, this time for UI Media.
Tia Severino, 2020
Conclusion
The Next Steps conference is attracting high-profile anti-vaccine propagandists and is endorsed by major anti-vaccine organizations such as the National Vaccine Information Center and Children’s Health Defense. By circulating debunked claims and suggesting a medical conspiracy at work, anti-vaccine organizers work against public health measures that save lives. This is dangerous enough on its own. However, our documentation shows that the anti-vaccination and COVID-19 denial scenes serve as a bridge to even more extravagant conspiracy theories and to far-right organizing.
The Next Steps conference is a collaboration between main organizer Tia Severino and Tim Ray’s “UI Media.” Severino believes that child-sacrificing Satanists operate behind the scenes of world events. Tim Ray believes that “international Sabbatian cabalists” are behind the COVID-19 pandemic, which Ray also believes is fake. UI Media is centrally involved with the Next Steps conference, which includes “UI Media Awards” hosted by Ray and Severino as part of its programming. UI Media will also profit from selling recordings of the event. The media project combines “conscious” lifestyle content with hatred of Jewish people and support for far-right organizing.
Antisemitism is directly promoted at the conference, since the event advertises Steven and Jana Ben-Nun as speakers during its Friday night “VIP Dinner.” The Ben-Nuns believe that a Jewish conspiracy aims to enslave humanity and threatens to behead anyone who would resist. UI Media endorses and promotes this antisemitic conspiracy theory.
Just weeks ago, a white supremacist gunman murdered ten Black people and injured others in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Antisemitism was a core element of the murderer’s manifesto and helped animate and intensify his anti-Black racism. To explain this dynamic further, it is important to understand that white supremacists typically hold two contradictory beliefs about race: that white people are naturally superior, and that white people are naturally victimized. White supremacist antisemites argue that if the playing field were equal, then whites would “win,” but a Jewish conspiracy using Black people as puppets tricks white people into allowing themselves to lose. Antisemitism therefore allows racists to avoid the cognitive dissonance of holding two contradictory beliefs, and encourages them to nurse imagined racial grievances until they explode into murderous rage.
Organizing against those who spread Jew-hatred is community defense, and antisemites must be rejected wherever they attempt to organize. With this in mind, we ask all readers to share our documentation and to devote time to our action items below. Please also follow our social media for updates about the conference. Get in touch if you have further information about the Next Steps conference, UI Media, or other far-right organizing in our region.
Action Items
· Contact Unity North Atlanta and ask them to cancel the antisemitic anti-vaccine event. The venue may not be aware of the conference’s true nature, so please be polite when presenting information.
· Contact Serendipity Catering of Sandy Springs. Ask them why they are catering the Friday and Saturday lunches for this conference. Stress that they are not only supporting anti-vaccine and COVID-19 denial causes, but far-right organizing and agitation against Jewish people.
· Reach out to Maine Street Coastal Cuisine of Cartersville, Georgia. Ask why they are catering the Friday night “VIP Dinner” featuring antisemitic speakers who proclaim that “God of the Jews is Satan himself.” Stay polite but insist that the business must cancel all support for this event.
· UI Media spreads antisemitic propaganda as well as lies around COVID-19. Amazon Web Services host this website, with its domain name registered by GoDaddy. Contact Amazon Web Services to complain about its hosting an antisemitic propaganda website. Also contact GoDaddy about its domain name services for the site.
William C. Fisher of Phoenix, Arizona is a longtime white supremacist who claims that “Hitler was right.” Under his online persona of “Preston Brooks,” Fisher references “the Day of the Rope,” a white supremacist fantasy of mass murder, and repeatedly calls for lynching. Fisher is also a grassroots Republican Party activist who serves as a committeeman with the Legislative District 20 Republican Party (LD20 GOP) in Arizona. Fisher’s wife, Kimberly K. Fisher, is also an LD20 GOP committee member. Kim Fisher is currently serving her second term on the Deer Valley Unified School District’s governing board, which is responsible for over thirty thousand students. As we discuss, Kim Fisher must be aware of her husband’s white supremacist agitation. She calls her husband “the smartest man I know” and consults with him on political issues.
Christian Tyler Goggins (born 1993) of Bessemer, Alabama is a member of Patriot Front (PF), a white supremacist and fascist organization whose members justkeepgettingexposed. Goggins goes by the alias “Andrew AL” within the racist group. A trove of PF internal communications that was leaked online in January 2022 clearly identifies Goggins as “Andrew AL”. Goggins participated in PF’s masked national rally in Washington, DC on December 4, 2021 alongside other Alabama members. He also joined PF members in placing propaganda for the organization in Birmingham, Alabama the weekend before that demonstration. Goggins’ online trails connect him to other white supremacist circles such as the neo-Nazi bonehead music scene.
Christian Tyler Goggins
In a message sent before Patriot Front’s national demonstration in December, Goggins shared his home address to another Alabama member, “James AL”. “James AL” was supposed to leave his car at Goggins’ home, before another PF member, “Sean AL”, collected the two and drove them north. Goggins also identified himself by providing a CashApp account linked to his real name in an earlier message to “Sean AL”.
After Patriot Front’s national rally, Goggins further confirmed his participation by posting to a PF regional chat that he was “Really glad I was able to make it out and finally be a part of one of the demonstrations”. According to leaked comments, Goggins and three other Patriot Front members also placed propaganda in Birmingham, Alabama on the night of Sunday, November 28, 2021 – less than a week before the road trip to the DC rally.
Goggins as “Reichneck,” defending Patriot Front to white supremacist group on Telegram, February 2022
On the Telegram messaging application, Goggins uses the name “Reichneck” –a reference to Hitler’s Third Reich. Goggins chose an image of segregationist politician and four-term governor of Alabama, George Wallace, as his profile picture. The “Reichneck” account is a member of the Telegram group for the White Lives Matter (WLM) racist network in Alabama. While Goggins does not seem particularly active in that network, in his leaked Patriot Front comments Goggins notified other Alabama PF members of an upcoming WLM rally. Goggins’ Telegram account is also a member of the “Southern white nationalists chat group”, which promotes and is closely tied to the white supremacist and Southern secessionist League of the South. In his comments to this chat, Goggins/“Reichneck” defended Patriot Front on February 4, 2021, insisting that Patriot Front was a true “WN [white nationalist] organization” and that nobody could find “a n[****]r or a s[**]c in PF uniform.”
Goggins profile image on Venmo
Tyler Goggins payment on Venmo to Travis Condor
Tyler Goggins enjoys and is connected to the bonehead (racist “skinhead”) scene. In his profile image on the Venmo electronic payments app, Goggins wears a t-shirt for Vengeance, a late 1980s racist rock group from the UK. In his payment history, Goggins sent funds to Travis Condor, a bonehead with a history of violence who is affiliated with American Defense Skinheads and highly involved in the US white power music scene. As a sick joke, Goggins used Star of David icons to accompany his payment to the neo-Nazi.
If you have further information on Goggins or other members of Patriot Front, please get in touch. We particularly seek information about Goggins’ work. As an active white supremacist, Goggins is a threat to co-workers, customers, and the communities he visits for his job.
For an image gallery of yet-to-be-identified PF members, sorted by state and associated with their aliases within the organization, see here.
Real Estate Agent *no broker affiliation as of 1/25/22*
Thanks to the latest release of Patriot Front Chat logs by Unicorn Riot, we can identify Daniel Turetchi of Owings Mills, Maryland as “Grant-MD”. Turetchi was employed as a Real Estate Agent in Parkville, MD and an active member and Network Scribe of Patriot Front’s Network 9 (NW9), encompassing the Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginia areas. He resides at Beckett Green Condominiums in Owings Mills, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb, since purchasing a unit in 2018.
*UPDATE* As of January 25th, 2022, Tuertchi’s former brokerage confirmed that his employment has been terminated. This article has been updated to reflect that.
Meet Paul Gancarz, Patriot Front Network Director for Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware. Paul attended Unite the Right in Charlottesville as a Proud Boy; was involved in scrawling swastika graffiti in Greenpoint, Brooklyn; and was a previous Network Director for New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Among other things…
*1/25/22 Update* – Gancarz’s BJJ gym membership has been terminated. This article originally indicated a gym Gancarz had used to register for competition, but was not his home gym. This has been corrected, and specific contact information has been removed out of respect for gym owners who have taken appropriate action
Summary
Paul Michael Gancarz is a fascist and Patriot Front’s Network Director for the region covering Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, and Delaware. He currently lives in Virginia Beach, Virginia, but is originally from New York City where he has strong ties to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and Forest Hills, Queens. As a member of Patriot Front, Gancarz is very active in the group’s propaganda campaigns in both New York and Virginia where he is responsible for much of the Patriot Front stickers, posters, and stencils reported in these areas. In his role as a Patriot Front Network Director, Paul would have been directly involved or consulted on high-profile vandalism in his network, such as the defacement of the Arthur Ashe mural in Richmond, Virginia. As the host for Patriot Front marches in Washington DC on January 29th, 2021 and more recently on December 4th, 2021, he would have had a large role in the organizing and staging of these fascist spectacles (and any U-haul mishaps that may have occurred).
Paul Gancarz’s involvement in Far Right politics also goes well beyond Patriot Front. On August 12, 2017 he attended the deadly white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia as a Proud Boy and has maintained strong connections to the group over the years. In December 2019, Paul and Proud Boy member Simon Ming Yui Lee (AKA Simon “Lee Greenwood”) scrawled swastikas outside of a Greenpoint, Brooklyn restaurant. Gancarz also helps distribute a variety of fascist and far right propaganda, notably those for white nationalist Robert Rundo’s groups, Rise Above Movement (RAM) and Will2Rise (W2R). His work as an engineer provides him the opportunity to travel around the United States, network with different fascists, and spread fascist/white nationalist propaganda and ideas. He currently works for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel Expansion Project in the Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Virginia area.
After publication of this article, Triad Martial Arts removed Ian Elliott and stripped him of any rank from the school. The school states that it firmly stands against bigotry.
Concealed Tactical has not made any public statement but quietly removed Elliott’s profile from its instructors page. We will update our story if Concealed Tactical clarifies its stance.
On Saturday, December 4, Patriot Front rallied in Washington, DC. Video footage from the event shows Ian Elliott sticking close by Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau, seemingly serving as his personal security.
Elliott on rightElliott on leftIan Elliott protects Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau, Washington, DC, December 4, 2021.
Ian Michael Elliott of Harvest, Alabama is a member of the racist and fascist organization Patriot Front, going by the alias of “Norman AL” within the group. Elliott is also highly active in martial arts: he trains at Triad Martial Arts in Huntsville, Alabama and teaches at Concealed Tactical, a Krav Maga school in Madison, Alabama. In the neo-Nazi “Church of Aryanity” Telegram channel, Elliott – using the alias “Varangian” – states that he spends most of his time “traveling, and training, with White Nationalists”. By sharing his martial arts skills with racist associates, Elliott helps white supremacists prepare for violence against their enemies.
Ian Michael Elliott
Comment as “Varangian” in the “Church of Aryanity” Telegram channel
Patriot Front
Patriot Front (PF) was founded in the aftermath of 2017’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The founder, Thomas Rousseau, seized assets of an earlier white power organization, Vanguard America, and rebranded his group as Patriot Front. While the organization uses red, white, and blue patriotic imagery, PF is unambiguously white nationalist, stating that “Nationhood cannot be bestowed upon those who are not of the founding [white] stock of our people”. The organization is also fascist – an early text was titled “American Fascist Manifesto” – and involves neo-Nazis within its ranks.
As well as holding flash rallies featuring masked participants, Patriot Front regularly spreads propaganda in the form of stickers, banners, and stencil graffiti. PF’s goal is often intimidation, for example when it targetssynagogues with propaganda for the racist group. Following 2020’s mass anti-racist protests and rebellion, Patriot Front has increasingly targeted Black Lives Matter and racial justice murals for defacement. PF does this both to threaten its perceived enemies and to build notoriety for the organization.
Patriot Front propaganda in Harvest, Alabama. Image shared to Telegram, August 2021.
Patriot Front propaganda has surfaced this year in Harvest, Alabama, which Ian Elliott lists as his home in recent bankruptcy filings. The organization’s materials also appeared in nearby Huntsville and Madison, Alabama, where Elliott visits regularly for work and training. Much of PF’s propaganda in northern Alabama was likely placed by Elliott, either alone or with other Alabama members.
Patriot Front members spar in Alabama, July 2021.
Patriot Front encourages its members to spar and train together. Since Elliott claims to spend much of his time training in martial arts with other white nationalists, this training almost certainly occurs within PF as well as other settings. Patriot Front has circulated images of members sparring in Alabama, albeit with blurred faces to hide their identities.
Identification
Image posted by “Norman GA” in Patriot Front discussion
In Patriot Front internal communications in late October, “Norman AL” posted a picture of a recent martial arts competition where he had won gold. Although he obscured his face in the photo shared to PF, he wore a Triad Martial Arts outfit on the award podium. Ian Elliott had just won first place in his weight class (no gi) at the Columbus BJJ Championships in Georgia. This competition took place on October 23, 2021, where Elliott represented Triad Martial Arts. The second and third place winners from this competition also match the photo shared to PF.
Competition results from Columbus BJJ Championships, October 23, 2021
Further, shortly before his martial arts competition, “Norman AL” shared pictures to PF of him wearing a rash guard for Devotion Jiu-Jitsu. Devotion is a martial arts studio in Lynchburg, Virginia, operated by Paul Waggener of the “Operation Werewolf” far-Right strength cult. Although he obscured his eyes in these photos, the person closely resembles Ian Elliott.
Pre-competition photos shared to Patriot Front by “Norman AL”
On Telegram messenger, a user named “Varangian” is a frequent commenter to the “Church of Aryanity”, a neo-Nazi channel. “Varangian” states that one of his jobs is as a combat instructor, matching Elliott’s role at Concealed Tactical. “Varangian” also wrote to “Church of Aryanity” in late November that he would soon attend a couple of large rallies, including one by “PF”.
“Varangian” tells “Church of Aryanity” that he will soon be attending “PF” rally
“Varangian”/Ian Elliott shared a photo of himself to “Church of Aryanity”, where he is pictured with others at the Triad Martial Arts studio in Huntsville. In this image, Elliott wears the same Devotion Jiu-Jitsu rash guard worn by “Norman AL” in images shared to Patriot Front.
Photo shared by “Varangian” to “Church of Aryanity”, showing Ian Elliott at Triad Martial Arts.
“Aryanity”
As evidenced by his comments as “Varangian” in the “Church of Aryanity” Telegram channel, Ian Elliott is active in this “church” as well as Patriot Front. Aryanity is an “organized religion for White Aryans only” led by Aaron Chapman, aka “Orion Starfire”. As well as being a Nazi cult leader, Chapman operates the Elite Tattoo Lounge in Madisonville, Kentucky and is a former member of the white supremacist Traditionalist Worker Party.
Aryanity propaganda
“Aryanity” tries to reconcile white supremacist versions of paganism and Christianity, claiming to be “both Pagan and Christian for it [Aryanity] reveals […] Christ as an Aryan Pagan archetype and Christianity as a Pagan Gnostic religion.” Adherents consider whites/“Western Aryans” to be the only race that “can truly be called ‘Human’”, with all other races portrayed as “Hybrids or sub-Humans.” According to the Aryanity website, “Western Aryans” are distantly related to a lost “Atlantean civilization” as well as to advanced “Hyperboreans” who inhabited the Hollow Earth. Jewish people are portrayed as an “accursed bloodline” and the “ancient enemies” of the Aryans. Hitler is called “the Great One […] possibly the greatest man to grace this earth with his presence since the last incarnation of the Christos.” The religion is apocalyptic, predicting a final war in which “the Pan-Aryan people” will slaughter their enemies, who “will beg for mercy and no quarter will be given”.
Elliott/“Varangian” posts about attending American Renaissance, where he promoted Aryanity.
Ian Elliott is a recent convert to Aryanity. By Elliott’s admission, he only grasps “the basics” of the apocalyptic neo-Nazi religion, but he nevertheless promotes it to others. In a voice message to the Church of Aryanity group on Telegram, Elliott/“Varangian” stated that he talked about Aryanity to attendees at this year’s racist American Renaissance conference in Burns, Tennessee.
Combat Training and Neo-Nazism
On the “About” page for the “Concealed Tactical” Krav Maga school in Madison, Alabama, Elliott is listed alongside the school’s instructors and described as “an Air Force veteran that has trained in multiple military and civilian defensive/weapons courses.” Elliott also trains in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at Triad Martial Arts in Huntsville, recently representing that school in his first BJJ competition.
Elliott had to explain his role as a Krav Maga instructor to his political associates, since many are suspicious of a fighting system that is closely associated with the Israeli Defense Forces. Ultimately, Elliott states that training in this system is just “one more tool in the toolbox” – in other words, another way for white supremacists to increase their capacity for violence.
Elliott as “Norman GA” discusses Krav Maga with Patriot Front
We are concerned by white nationalists training at martial arts schools for several reasons. First, when martial arts schools involve white nationalists, they increase those individuals’ ability to do violence on an individual interpersonal level. Second, they increase white supremacist violence on an organized group level: violence is central to white nationalist movements, since the goal of creating a white ethnostate cannot occur without mass violence. Third, martial artists who are Jewish, people of color, or LGBTQ+, should not be required to help white supremacists improve at violence, yet this is exactly what happens when martial arts schools welcome white supremacists. On the student end, white nationalist cliques at gyms and training centers serve to push away students who are Jewish, people of color, or LGBTQ+, making it much harder for them to learn the skills they may want to learn to defend themselves.
In “Church of Aryanity” chat, “Varangian”/Elliott agrees with genocide.
Martial arts schools often have significant involvement by current and former law enforcement, as well as military. For example, the main instructor of Concealed Tactical stresses his past in the Army, the National Guard, and as a police officer. Racist organizers often try to build contacts in these same sectors, which are considered particularly useful for their cause. When a white nationalist becomes integrated within a martial arts community, their influence with police, prison guards, and military often increases.
Finally, success in martial arts can help someone gain prestige or move up the ranks within racist organizations. The name of the school then becomes complicit in advancing white supremacist ambitions, a kind of stamp of approval.
We hope that with Elliott’s white supremacist activity now made public, martial arts studios will cease their involvement with him.
Other Activity
Elliott’s recent bankruptcy filings list him as working as a meat cutter at the Publix supermarket on Wall Triana Highway in Madison, Alabama. Elliott had earlier worked as a realtor. However, his license is currently marked as inactive in the Alabama Real Estate Commission system.
March 2021 arrest details from Madison County, Alabama Sheriff’s Office
In March of this year, Elliott was arrested as a fugitive from justice and spent almost four weeks in jail. At the time of writing, we have not discovered the underlying charge behind Elliott’s “fugitive from justice” arrest. This arrest and time in jail may have forced Elliott’s change of employment. (Update March 2022: We have learned that Elliot faced a charge of aggravated criminal damage and two counts of third-degree burglary in Arizona. Elliot accepted a plea for the criminal damage charge and authorities dropped the burglary ones. These charges stem from March 2017 vandalism against Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona.)
“Varangian”/Elliott mentions homestead project in Tennessee
While Elliott is listed as living in Harvest, Alabama, he has mentioned to “Church of Aryanity” that he is working on a homestead in Tennessee. We have not located this property, although it may be the same as an “Aryan Tribal Land” which Elliott/“Norman AL” mentioned helping. They may also be two separate projects. We welcome further information on this point – please get in touch if you can help.
“Norman AL” mentions helping “Aryan Tribal Land” in Patriot Front discussion
Conclusion
We have exposed Ian Michael Elliott as “Norman AL”, an active member of Patriot Front in Alabama. Elliott is an Air Force veteran who spends much of his time traveling, networking, and combat training with other white nationalists. He is also an adherent of “Aryanity”, a crackpot racist religion that is unambiguous in its love for Hitler and its hopes of genocide. We hope that by exposing Elliott within his community and the martial arts world, we make his race war organizing more difficult.
If you have further information on Elliott, his associates, and racist organizations such as Patriot Front, please reach out to Atlanta Antifascists.
