Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

484 • NEO-NAZISsuccess. The Hoffman Military Sports Group established a cooperativearrangement with al Fatah, sending Sports Group members totrain in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) camps.Another phenomenon closely tied to neo-Nazism has been theskinhead movement. Just as the original Nazis recruited many of theiroriginal storm troopers from the hoodlums and youth gangs of Berlinand other German cities, so too neo-Nazi groups in the United States,such as the White Aryan Resistance, have been targeting skinheads aspotential recruits. Similar phenomena have been witnessed in GreatBritain, where soccer club hooligans as well as skinheads wouldspontaneously join in National Front demonstrations or assaults onAsian or African immigrants, as well as in Germany where soccerclub hooligans also will join with neo-Nazis in assaulting minoritymembers, feminists, or homosexuals. Although the mainstream ofliberal democratic societies may regard Nazism, and Fascism in general,as discredited and anachronistic movements, the existence andapparent vitality of so many neo-Nazi groups throughout the Westernworld indicates the continuing appeal of this ideology.Neo-Nazi activities, including violence, have continued in recentyears. In February 1995 several pipe-bomb attacks against displacedGypsies occurred in Oberwart, Austria. Anti-Gypsy attacks and murdersalso began occurring in Serbia beginning in late 1997. Neo-Naziunderground cells in Austria have joined forces with German neo-Nazis through computer links and continue to be active even thoughtheir leader, Gottfried Küssel, was jailed in 1992 under Austrian anti-Nazi statutes. Ingo Hasselbach, the organizer of the first neo-Naziparty in the former East Germany in 1987–1991, has testified that thevarious neo-Nazi groups in Europe are reinforced through networkswith each other and with American neo-Nazis, who provide muchof their printed materials, which are legally produced in the UnitedStates although forbidden in Germany, Austria, and other nations.On 18 January 1997 Danish police foiled a conspiracy by sevenneo-Nazis to conduct a letter-bomb campaign against British leftistsand sports personalities married to blacks. The arrested leader of thegroup, Thomas Derry Nakaba, was known to be a member of theBritish Combat 18 neo-Nazi group, which had carried out bombingsof gay bars in London. Denmark’s liberal freedom of expression lawshave made it a center for German neo-Nazis, who send banned Nazimaterials to Germany from there.