Why was Page not on FBI radar?
9 Aug 2012 7:25 AM IST
While private groups had been quietly monitoring the Wisconsin Gurdwara shooter and his racist leanings for years, Wade Michael Page was not on the radar of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
This became clear as at least two private groups, which monitors the activities of extremist and hate groups, said Page was on their monitoring list and came out with details on the alleged shooter, while the FBI – the national agencies entrusted with such a task – saying that the lone gunman was not on its radar.
‘Law enforcement is challenged every day to balance the civil liberties of US citizens against the need to investigate activities of possible criminal conduct. No matter how offensive to some, we are keenly aware that expressing views by itself is not a crime,’ FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said.
However, Anti-Defamation League and South Poverty Law Center was on their tracking radar for quite some time.
‘When we know that an extremist is talking about taking violent action, we will definitely share that information with the Justice Department but there was no reason to believe he was going to take this kind of action,’ Marilyn Mayo, co-director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, was quoted as saying by the Sacramento Bee.
Meanwhile, South Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said ‘right-wing extremism’ proponents have commended the actions of Page.
‘You don’t belong here in the country my ancestors fought to found, and deeded to me and mine, their posterity,’ wrote Alex Linder, the foul-mouthed neo-Nazi who operates the racist web site Vanguard News Network (VNN), on his forum, SPLC reported. SPLC, which monitors such web sites and hate groups, said that others on VNN made similar remarks stating that Page was not alone.
‘(T)here are thousands of other angry White men like Page out there, the vast majority of them unknown,’ a commenter named OTPTT wrote.
‘When will they, like Page, reach their breaking point, where they give up all hope for peaceful activism, and reach for their guns and start shooting at the first non-Whites they see?’ the commenter wrote.
Larry Loper, head of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Hammerskins, a violent skinhead group, paid tribute to his fallen ‘brother’ on Facebook.
‘I really don’t feel to disagree or agree what Wade did,’ Loper wrote.
‘All I feel is loss and sympathy for a brother that was overwhelmed by pain and frustration. I could care less though for those injured and wounded other than Wade,’ he wrote according to SLPC.
KILLER SHOT HIMSELF, SAYS FBI
The FBI now says the gunman in the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he was shot by police. FBI Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson told a Wednesday news conference that investigators also have not yet ‘clearly defined a motive’ for Sunday shooting.
GUNMAN’S TATTOO CARRIED RACIST CODES
The neo-Nazi gunman who killed six innocent people at a Wisconsin gurdwara had adorned his body with tattoos that hid secret racist codes.
Wade Michael Page, 41, the army veteran who was killed on Sunday after gunning down the six people at the gurdwara, left behind a startling trail of clues detailing his descent into hate in the tattoos that marked his body and in his music. Many of the tattoos covering his arms and torso, Marilyn Mayo, a co-director of the Centre on Extremism of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said contained specific racist codes and hidden symbols that showed his allegiance to white supremacist beliefs and to a specific skinhead group. The ADL maintains an online database of racist symbols.
'Symbols are an important part of this culture,' Mayo said. 'It allows others to know you're part of the skinhead movement and is used as a way of intimidation. Getting a tattoo is permanent, and it comes with a serious commitment. It means you're a member, you're part of this club and have been initiated,' he said.
Page had a tattoo on his right arm below his shoulder with the number '838', which Mayo said is a coded symbol indicating membership in the Hammerskins, a skinhead group whose members have been accused of multiple violent crimes, including murders, since the 1980s.
The number 838 corresponds to the letters H, C, H, an acronym for the group's motto 'Hail the Crossed Hammers', a reference to the group's logo.
'The tattoo is indicative of membership in the Hammerskins,' Mayo said. 'Only a member would have that tattoo,' she added. The ADL believes that he was a prospective member as recently as early 2011, but that his membership became official in late 2011.
A former soldier, Page, was demoted from sergeant to specialist before leaving the army in 1998. His body art would have been banned under the army policies outlawing extremist and racist tattoos. In the years following his discharge, Page posted dozens of photos of himself online that show the ink on his body.
On the back of his hands, he had tattooed the letters 'W' and 'P', which Mayo said is an acronym for White Power. On his left shoulder appeared a Celtic cross, a cross inscribed inside a circle. 'The Celtic cross is a symbol of white pride and is one of most popular symbols for neo-Nazis and White Supremacists,' Mayo said.
Within the circle on Page's arm was the number 14, which corresponds to the number of words in the supremacist motto: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'
This became clear as at least two private groups, which monitors the activities of extremist and hate groups, said Page was on their monitoring list and came out with details on the alleged shooter, while the FBI – the national agencies entrusted with such a task – saying that the lone gunman was not on its radar.
‘Law enforcement is challenged every day to balance the civil liberties of US citizens against the need to investigate activities of possible criminal conduct. No matter how offensive to some, we are keenly aware that expressing views by itself is not a crime,’ FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said.
However, Anti-Defamation League and South Poverty Law Center was on their tracking radar for quite some time.
‘When we know that an extremist is talking about taking violent action, we will definitely share that information with the Justice Department but there was no reason to believe he was going to take this kind of action,’ Marilyn Mayo, co-director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, was quoted as saying by the Sacramento Bee.
Meanwhile, South Poverty Law Center (SPLC) said ‘right-wing extremism’ proponents have commended the actions of Page.
‘You don’t belong here in the country my ancestors fought to found, and deeded to me and mine, their posterity,’ wrote Alex Linder, the foul-mouthed neo-Nazi who operates the racist web site Vanguard News Network (VNN), on his forum, SPLC reported. SPLC, which monitors such web sites and hate groups, said that others on VNN made similar remarks stating that Page was not alone.
‘(T)here are thousands of other angry White men like Page out there, the vast majority of them unknown,’ a commenter named OTPTT wrote.
‘When will they, like Page, reach their breaking point, where they give up all hope for peaceful activism, and reach for their guns and start shooting at the first non-Whites they see?’ the commenter wrote.
Larry Loper, head of the Pennsylvania chapter of the Hammerskins, a violent skinhead group, paid tribute to his fallen ‘brother’ on Facebook.
‘I really don’t feel to disagree or agree what Wade did,’ Loper wrote.
‘All I feel is loss and sympathy for a brother that was overwhelmed by pain and frustration. I could care less though for those injured and wounded other than Wade,’ he wrote according to SLPC.
KILLER SHOT HIMSELF, SAYS FBI
The FBI now says the gunman in the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he was shot by police. FBI Special Agent in Charge Teresa Carlson told a Wednesday news conference that investigators also have not yet ‘clearly defined a motive’ for Sunday shooting.
GUNMAN’S TATTOO CARRIED RACIST CODES
The neo-Nazi gunman who killed six innocent people at a Wisconsin gurdwara had adorned his body with tattoos that hid secret racist codes.
Wade Michael Page, 41, the army veteran who was killed on Sunday after gunning down the six people at the gurdwara, left behind a startling trail of clues detailing his descent into hate in the tattoos that marked his body and in his music. Many of the tattoos covering his arms and torso, Marilyn Mayo, a co-director of the Centre on Extremism of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), said contained specific racist codes and hidden symbols that showed his allegiance to white supremacist beliefs and to a specific skinhead group. The ADL maintains an online database of racist symbols.
'Symbols are an important part of this culture,' Mayo said. 'It allows others to know you're part of the skinhead movement and is used as a way of intimidation. Getting a tattoo is permanent, and it comes with a serious commitment. It means you're a member, you're part of this club and have been initiated,' he said.
Page had a tattoo on his right arm below his shoulder with the number '838', which Mayo said is a coded symbol indicating membership in the Hammerskins, a skinhead group whose members have been accused of multiple violent crimes, including murders, since the 1980s.
The number 838 corresponds to the letters H, C, H, an acronym for the group's motto 'Hail the Crossed Hammers', a reference to the group's logo.
'The tattoo is indicative of membership in the Hammerskins,' Mayo said. 'Only a member would have that tattoo,' she added. The ADL believes that he was a prospective member as recently as early 2011, but that his membership became official in late 2011.
A former soldier, Page, was demoted from sergeant to specialist before leaving the army in 1998. His body art would have been banned under the army policies outlawing extremist and racist tattoos. In the years following his discharge, Page posted dozens of photos of himself online that show the ink on his body.
On the back of his hands, he had tattooed the letters 'W' and 'P', which Mayo said is an acronym for White Power. On his left shoulder appeared a Celtic cross, a cross inscribed inside a circle. 'The Celtic cross is a symbol of white pride and is one of most popular symbols for neo-Nazis and White Supremacists,' Mayo said.
Within the circle on Page's arm was the number 14, which corresponds to the number of words in the supremacist motto: 'We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.'
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