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Old November 10th, 2009 #2
Alex Linder
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From "Hate: George Lincoln Rockwell & the American Nazi Party" (p. 226-227):

In 1964 the ANP came under the purview of the FBI's controversial COINTELPRO - Counterintelligence Program. The purpose of COINTELPRO was to "expose, disrupt and otherwise neutralize the activities of the various Klans and hate organizations, their leadership and adherents." The mandate stated:

The devious maneuvers and duplicity of these groups must be exposed to public scrutiny through the cooperation of reliable news media sources, both locally and at the Seat of Government. We must frustrate any effort of the groups to consolidate their forces or to recruit new or youthful adherents. In every instance, consideration should be given to disrupting the organized activity of these groups and no opportunity should be missed to capitalize upon organizational and personal conflicts of their leadership.

COINTELPRO would be used against the ANP on numerous occasions in the next four years.

The FBI's Richmond field office generated a COINTELPRO action against the party. Its target was National Secretary Matt Koehl. The field office proposed sending the following letter to Rockwell, signed by an anonymous sympathizer:

Dear Commander:

I am going to remain anonymous because this letter may get into the wrong hands.

I took part in the August 28th March on the niggers in Washington last year and was surprised when I first saw Matt Koehl. I thought I knew him then. When I was traveling in the Chicago area, I started to check around. I found that Matt Koehl, your second in command, is part Jewish. His mother's name was Birstein.

I'll bet that this was never told to you and I bet that if you watch Koehl closely you will find that he will meet with some member of the ADL at least once every two weeks.

Yours for future victory
Heil Hitler
A Friend


The Bureau rejected the Richmond field office request to target Koehl.

[p. 243]

About this time, the FBI COINTELPRO targeted the ANP Chicago unit with a two-pronged attack: ruin the Chicago unit financially and disrupt its leadership. The FBI Chicago field office wanted to expose the unit's building code violations to either the local ADL or the Jewish War Veterans of Chicago, in hopes that one of these organizations would badger the city to assess fines against the ANP. If neither organization would cooperate, the Bureau would itself make the information available to city officials. Exposing the building code violations would financially cripple the unit; repairs and fines would severely restrict its operations, because the bulk of its resources went for the $110 mortgage payment and basic maintenance of the dilapidated building at 1314 West Ohio Street. Any additional financial burden would limit literature creation and distribution, ruin morale, create dissatisfaction among the ranks, and discourage new recruits.

The second prong of the COINTELPRO attack was to disrupt the leadership of the local organization. False expressions of discontent would be directed at Rockwell by letters, either anonymous or signed with the name of a local Chicago member known to be dissatisfied. Such attacks would divide the loyalty of the organization and cause national headquarters to question the capability of the Chicago leadership. The Bureau also considered sabotage by an agent provocateur.

[Remember that the ANP was a fully legal organization. The FBI is using illegal means to destroy a legal operation. Contemplate that.]

A sympathetic ADL member was recruited in Chicago to act on behalf of the FBI to report the building code violations of the ANP Chicago unit, thus precluding direct contact by Bureau agents with city officials. The FBI also wanted to bait the Jewish War Veterans to action against the Chicago unit; JWV criticism of the ANP was almost non-existent. On February 26, 1965, the Bureau sent an anonymous letter to provoke them:

Jewish War Veterans of the United States
Chicago, Illinois

Gentlemen:

Recently my wife had occasion to ride in a Checker Cab in Chicago with a most outspoken young driver. Immediately after setting out for our home the driver engaged my wife in conversation denouncing the "dirty Jews and Niggers" in Chicago. He proceeded to blame every ill we face today on the Negro and Jew. When my wife cautioned him that he was then speaking with a Jew, he told her in so many words that he couldn't care less. He praised the Nazi Rockwell and mentioned what appeared to be his association with Rockwell's Nazi Party. He was even so bold as to mention their headquarters at 1314 West Ohio Street.

When my wife told me of this incident I took it upon myself to look over this stronghold of Nazism in Chicago. Gentlemen, this is an unimpressive building which could best be described as a firetrap. The thing that does impress me, however, is that the youth of today in this country could at all be taken with a philosophy you and I know should be dreaded. If this young man is typical of the attitude of Rockwell's followers then we must take action.

Though a Jew myself I am not a member of your organization. You have, however, in the past well represented the things that all Americans, no matter their creed or color, hold so dear. Now gentlemen, I fear I must chastize you. I konw that you have been vocal in your protests of the Nazis in Chicago in the past. An organization like yours can do little else but fight such a disease as this. Why then in recent months have we heard nothing from you in this regard?

Please, gentlemen, go see for yourselves this headquarters of the Nazis. Do what you can, and now, to put them out of business. Don't fail us now. All Americans need groups like yours, not only the Jew and the Negro. I am sorry, I lack the courage to identify myself. This is even further reason why you must, must speak for me.



As a direct result of COINTELPRO actions, the city of Chicago took action against the Nazis in the form of fines and of pressure to correct the building violations under threat of forced eviction. Chris Vidnjevich, the "officer in charge" of the Chicago Nazis, complained to the local FBI office that statutes were not being uniformly enforced and that his civil rights were being denied in that he was not being allowed to choose his residence and place of assembly. It was ironic that the Nazis had turned for help regarding their constitutional rights to the very organ of the federal government directing political persecution against them.


[p. 258-9]

The FBI's Richmond field office proposed yet another COINTELPRO operation against the party. This time the target was the deputy commander, Alan Welch. Since Welch was extremely active in the day-to-day operations of the party, the Bureau believed that if Rockwell lost faith in Welch during the critical campaign for governor, a severe disruption in ANP activities would result.

Unlike in the proposed COINTELPRO actions against Koehl, the Bureau authorized Richmond to send the following letter, complete with spelling errors, to the Dallas field office, where it was to be forwarded to Rockwell at the Arlington headquarters:

George Lincoln Rockwell
928 North Randolph Street
Arlington, VA

I have been a loyal follower of you for three years and I am in complete sympathy with all you are trying to accomplish, yours is the only voice in our society today which courageously speaks the truth. And I want you to know that I am supporting you in your cindiacy for Governor of the State of Virginia.

I know your berdens are heavy and that you must rely upon other persons to handle much of the day-to-day work of your organization. When you are at Headquarters, you can, and do, keep our operations running smoothly; however, while you are away there is a traitor carrying on the operations at home. This individual is not a traitor to the ideas of National Socialism in which we all believe but he is a physical traitor.

Alan Welch is a traitor to the Nazi Party. Not only is his mind warped but he is nothing but a damn queer. He interviews potential applicants to the Party and rejects those he believes are too manly. He attempted to engage an ANP member in an unnatural sex affair about three months ago. This is known to several of the Party members and we are sickened that a person of such low contemptible morals is in the Party, much less one of its high officers. . . . I hope you can find some way to replace this man who is doing so much to injure our great Party.

A hopeful member from
your best chapter


By postmarking the letter from Dallas the Bureau hoped to perplex Rockwell and add to what was perceived to be his general paranoia.

In late September, Rockwell received the letter from Dallas and immediately contacted the FBI, because he felt it had violated federal law. He told the special agent that the "vicious" letter had disrupted his organization and was a source of great worry to him "as it cast a spell on one of his most trusted workers." The Bureau, of course, did nothing about the letter; it was quite pleased by Rockwell's reaction to the COINTELPRO scheme. The agents circulated a memo congratulating themselves on the success of the endeavor, describing how Rockwell was "wracking his brain" to identify the "spy" in the ANP-Dallas.


[p 272]

The FBI COINTELPRO operatives seized the opportunity to attack the party. They produced a scheme to send a phony letter to the party's most ardent financial backers as well as rank-and-file members and sympathizers. The theme of the letter was "do not send money" to the ANP to help combat the IRS because their names would be exposed to the government. The letter read:

Dear Contributor:

As you know from the newspapers, the Jews in Washington have tried to finish their plot against us and have seized all worthwhile property belonging to the Party and our beloved Commander, George Lincoln Rockwell. We are fighting them as best we know how and can assure you that National Socialism will win out over the treachery placed upon us.

We are confident that our fight to regain our property will prevail; therefore, we request that you do not send any money to National Headquarters or to our Dallas, Los Angeles, or Chicago chapters. We are afraid that the federal government will obtain your name if you send money and they will harass you as they are harassing us. We do not want you to be compromised and would rather you remain in the background until the air clears.

We would be desirous of obtaining your well wishes but please, I repeat, do not send money for fear of reprisal.

If you have received our previous letters requesting that you help us financially, please disregard, because we believe the threat of reprisal is imminent and do not wish to bring harm to you.

American Nazi Party National Headquarters


The FBI skullduggery had little or no impact on the party. Matt Koehl later recalled that the hard-core support remained intact.


[p. 295-6]

The FBI continued to mount COINTELPRO operations against the ANP. It devised a plan to cause a rift between the ANP and the United Klans of America. In late August the Western Division-ANP held a rally in San Francisco. Nazi leader Alan Vincent invited William Fowler, chairman of the California United Klans of America, to speak from the Nazi rostrum. Fowler spoke at length about the "Negro problem" and was followed by a Ralph Forbes harangue concerning the Vietnam war. FBI COINTELPRO operatives requisitioned photographs of the event from the San Francisco Police Department, then sent a fabricated letter to Klan followers, Rockwell, and ANP leaders throughout the country in hopes of causing distrust and dissension among their ranks. The Bureau wanted to create a wide split not only between the ANP and the Klan but also between Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton of United Klans for America and William Fowler, the local California leader of the United Klans of America:

The pictures you see are of interest to all who swear allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan. Recently the American Nazi Party held a rally in Northern California. Now the Klan has no beef because the Nazi Party holds a rally, but what should concern the Klan is the fact that the man speaking at the microphone is William Fowler, Chairman of the California Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America....

The Klan stands for Christianity and decency, the Klan stands for this great country of ours, the Klan stands for the rights of the White Man...but never should we be accused of needing the Nazi storm troopers to get our message across to the American people.

And what of these uniformed storm troopers who stand alongside our "Klan representative" at this rally, wearing the swastika of the Nazi Party [?] Needless to say, fellow Klansmen, these are the followers of the crooked George Lincoln Rockwell, the psychopathic agnostic who laughs at the name of Christ. Rockwell is great when it comes to playing boyish tricks, but have you ever noticed that it is not Rockwell himself who performs these publicity seeking stunts[?] Oh no, it is always some poor lame-brained nut who performs for the "Commander" and who sites in jail while the "Commander" quietly counts his money and dreams of new worlds to conquer....

Be assured that our Imperial Wizard, Robert Shelton will not tolerate the actions of Fowler in California. Fowler does not speak for the United Klans of America.