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The hate preacher lives in a run-down rear building in the heart of Denver, on the second floor through the courtyard to the right. The TV is on. We knock, hoping to ask him a few questions about the new, globalized Nazi movement. After all, he’s one of the masterminds behind it.

The door opens. "Come on in," says James Mason.

His full beard is icy gray and he is wearing a white-and-blue pinstriped shirt and pleated trousers. On the bookshelf are numerous works with titles like "Blood & Honor" and, in German, "Der Gauleiter" and "Deutschland Erwache! (Germany Wake Up!)" A ticking cuckoo clock hangs on the wall, going off every half hour.

This aging gentleman of 68 years is a legend among neo-Nazis. Mason was just 14 when he joined the youth wing of the American Nazi Party, and he later went on to became one of the most important right-wing extremists in the United States. He romanticized Hitler just as he did serial killer Charles Manson, propagating violence and terror and spending some time in prison. In 1992, he published a book called "Siege."

It includes sentences like: "Let us give some thought to what the next logical step might be toward opening the way to full, revolutionary conflagration in the United States." Anything which contributes to "friction, chaos and anarchy" is helpful, he writes, from "random shootings" to "select and consecutive assassinations … in different parts of the country."

The classic fascist groups and parties of the 20th century were hierarchical, with a leader at the top, chains of command and military structures. In "Siege," though, James Mason presents a different concept: Ideally, people would organize in small cells. Or they would launch attacks completely on their own, because in some cases, two is one too many. "We must view and realize that all of White America is our army," Mason writes.

There is a photo from 2019 showing James Mason together with 12 men. Mason is sitting on a chair in the center wearing a brown shirt and a swastika armband. The men are kneeling or standing around him, all wearing camouflage and skull masks. They are members of the Atomwaffen Division, gathered for a meeting in Las Vegas, with Mason there as a kind of guest of honor. Atomwaffen Division, in German, is their real name. The English translation would be "Atomic Weapons Division." Founded in 2015, the neo-Nazi group is one of the most hardcore in the world, with AWD members in the U.S. suspected of having committed five murders. And it is heavily influenced by the idea of "leaderless resistance" propagated by James Mason.

"A wonderful, wonderful association," Mason says in his living room. "Bravehearts." The idea behind AWD, as the group is known for short, is to "take the fight to the enemy" – and not just in the U.S. AWD now has offshoots in a number of different countries, including Germany. "There was a lot of action in the Ukraine and … clear across Europe, and certainly here," Mason says. "That’s pretty impressive, I have to admit."

Almost a year ago, in spring 2020, Mason announced that the Atomwaffen Division was disbanding, but that was likely just a tactical move to alleviate the pressure of FBI investigations. "One name may be disbanded, it may be outlawed," Mason says. "You pick up another, like changing your underwear, and it means nothing."

You can tell he’s proud of his role as the movement’s intellectual leader. At the same time, though, he seems to choose his words with care to avoid saying anything that could be interpreted as an incitement to violence. Mason claims to no longer believe in the idea of right-wing terror. But, he adds, "so many just aren’t ready to give it up."

Unfortunately, it seems that Mason might be right.

In the U.S., there is a successor organization to the AWD called the National Socialist Order. It appears to be made up in part of the same men, just wearing different underwear. Many neo-Nazis who are not involved in the AWD also look to Mason for guidance. In one memo, the FBI mentions a "Siege network," which they describe as a global network of online channels and real-world groups that cooperate with each other in analog reality. 

Globally oriented right-wing extremists: It sounds like a contradiction. Wasn’t it the left-wing extremist terror groups – like the Red Army Faction in Germany – that dreamed of a "worldwide front"? The RAF allied itself with the IRA in Northern Ireland, the Palestinian PLO and the FNL in North Vietnam. Their members received military training in camps in the Middle East. Jihadism is also based on the idea of a global community that knows no national boundaries. But neo-Nazis? Don’t they chant things like "Germany for the Germans!" or "Les Français d’abord!" – "The French first!"? 

That used to be the case. But not anymore. 

In recent years, "a new, leaderless transnational, apocalyptic and violent XRW (extreme right wing) movement has emerged and continued to evolve between 2015 and 2020," write experts in a recent study conducted on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry.