James Nolan Mason was an extremist even as a teenager. He joined the American Nazi Party of George Lincoln Rockwell when he was just 14 and became involved in the National Socialist Liberation Front in the 1970s. He has served several prison terms, including one stint for attacking a group of black men together with an accomplice. On another occasion, he was charged with child abuse. During a search of his apartment, the police found naked photos of a 15-year-old girl along with swastika flags and photos of Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels.
In the 1980s, Mason decided to publish his fantasies of power and violence in book form, which he called "Siege." The tome - a collection of his bizarre newsletters, on which he collaborated with the sect leader Charles Manson - is full of Holocaust denials and ad hominem attacks on both homosexuals and Jews. Above all, however, it calls for the establishment of a network of decentralized terror cells and for taking up arms against the "system." Mason's goal has long been that of passing along his intolerant worldview to the next generations - and for a long time, he found no success. But that all changed in 2015.
That year, the Nazi group Atomwaffen Division ("Atomwaffen" is German for atomic weapon) was founded on the internet forum ..., a discussion platform for neo-Nazis from around the world. The extremists discovered James Mason and were excited about his crazed, radical ideas. "Siege" became a must-read and Mason their ideological doyen. But that isn't the only thing that makes them so dangerous, according to experts on right-wing extremism. Members are heavily armed and prepared to make use of their weapons. Indeed, they are getting ready for what they see as the coming "race war" in so-called "hate camps." Weapons training is conducted by members of the U.S. military, who are also among the group's members. According to one former member of Atomwaffen Division, newcomers must submit to waterboarding, in addition to other such trials. But who is behind Atomwaffen Division?