Letter to Harold Covington from Ed Steele (2004)

This letter from Ed Steele was posted on a Yahoo group by Martin Lindstedt. It confirms the contention of this blog, that Harold Covington is a reckless purveyor of libels.

It also confirms Tom Metzger's statement that Pastor Richard Butler and other original supporters of the "Northwest Imperative" from the 1980s were not in sympathy with Covington's effort, which is presented as a continuation of what they were doing. Pastor Butler evidently did not appreciate Covington's use of his name.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Edgar J. Steele" <steele@...>
To: "Northwest Net" <nwnet@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 4:58 AM
Subject: RE: Disappointed?


Harold -

A long time ago, you asked me if, after knowing others had dissed you to me, I had decided to dislike you. Remember my response? "No, Harold, only you can get me to do that."

I remained friendly with you all this time. While so many others tried to get me to dump on you, I defended you to them. I told them not to make the mistake of forcing me to choose between themselves and you. I even sent you money, now and again.

Though you maliciously have attacked so many that I respect, I still maintained friendly relations with you.

I haven't tried to cross swords with you, at all, Harold. I doubt that even you think so. Problem is, I haven't fallen totally into your column and that, to you, is the unforgivable sin . . . that I don't hate the people you hate.

Bringing you in? What on earth are you talking about, Harold? I asked your input on the draft of a piece I knew would be controversial, that's all. You, alone out of the entire racialist community, then chose to take a bite out of me.

"Come out?" As in "out of the closet?" And I'd "like" the Wilde reference -- oh, I get it -- because I must be a faggot, of course. That is beneath even you, Harold.^[1]

The only thing that my friend Will Williams ever has taken me to task for was in defending you to him. That's it, pal. Just you. He told me to choose between the two of you and I told him to stuff it. Even so, we have remained on friendly terms.

I must be getting too old for this, because it was just a couple of weeks ago that I cautioned Walter Mueller about lying about something I had said, telling him that he was dangerously close to being the first in the Movement to get me to go after himm. Then he backed off and we established an uneasy truce.

Now it is you who misrepresents what I have said and maligns me for not attacking selected others alongside you, especially a man who has done so much for the Movement, including a just-finished term in jail.^[2]

Tell me, honestly, Harold - just what have you ever done for the Movement other than attempt to divide its members against themselves?

Even Pastor Butler, the one person you have yet to attack, tells me he doesn't know what to make of you because of this "Butler Plan" of yours, about which you never bothered to consult him.^[3] He and I and another had lunch about a month ago. He still has no problem with me. Odd that you now have.

Strangely, this comes just at a time that the Jews have gone nearly berserk about me, reaching a new height of hysteria, between the JDL and my last few essays. If I were of a more paranoid nature, I might suspect a connection with your decision to move off and fire a few salvos my way. Of course, you know that so many have accused you of being a movement plant and, amazingly, even of being Jewish yourself.

Oddly, I am about the only one in "the Movement" that has been getting along with virtually everybody else. Not to mention almost literally the only one in the Movement getting along with you. Until today.

Today, you crossed the line.

-ed

______________________________
1. Steele certainly should have known better than to say that making innuendoes of that sort was beneath Covington. The smears from Covington against Ben Klassen and Will Williams had been raging for 15 years.  

2. Covington made lying attacks on David Duke in a section of his Brief History that is addressed on this blog. That, however, represents only the tip an iceberg. Attacks on Duke that Covington posted on Yahoo groups while Duke was in prison go far beyond that.

3. Metzger wrote: "Boots on the ground White leaders then were Bob Miles, Richard Butler, Tom Metzger and a few others.[...] AWOL Racial right leaders -- made worse by the northern invasion of non-Whites and vast numbers of California social Marxists, plus their rich degenerate camp followers -- turned the Northwest Republic idea into nothing more than the fading hope of dreamers, or worse. That's when the three of us agreed: "It's too late for the Northwest idea!" -- working class young White people should hunker down in those areas they know best, maintaining their social and economic networks in place."

A Testimonial

Thomas de Aynesworth

Some people, who for whatever reason seem to resent criticism of Harold Covington's false statements, like to try to discourage this activity of setting the record straight by saying that it is a waste of time, that nobody cares, that it has no effect.

Thomas de Aynesworth is one of several known counterexamples to that claim. Aynesworth was actually the person who suggested to Harold Covington the theme-music that he has been using at the beginning of his Radio Free Northwest podcast for the past three years. 

An exchange from February 2010 between Harold Covington (using the sockpuppet-name Jack Torrance) and Thomas de Aynesworth. (See full-sized.)

When I recently referred to Aynesworth as a supporter of Covington's, using some harsh words, he found me in my IRC channel to issue a clarification, which happens to be also a testimonial to the value and effectiveness of this blog. While he says that he was never affiliated with Covington, it is evident that he was for a time positively disposed and had some "interactions" with Covington and some of his associates, which he terminated upon becoming better informed.

[22:50] Aynesworth: I am not, and never have been affiliated with Covington. When Covington first started his radio show, I was interested, ignorant of his past history. After getting the facts, I stopped interaction altogether.
[22:51] Aynesworth: Also, meeting with a member of the NWF, I realized that any further interaction was pointless.
[22:51] Aynesworth: He was messed up.
[22:51] Hadding: Well that was a good insight. Same thing that others have said.
[22:52] Hadding: You mind if I copy and paste that?
[22:52] Aynesworth: All I am asking, is that you understand that I am not with him, never have been. When I was in his contact I was totally oblivious to his past. Your own work has helped me realize that he is a dangerous and unstable character.

This text was copied and pasted with permission.

Evelyn Hill on Harold Covington's Fraudulent Use of Names

Evelyn Hill, erstwhile office-manager (1995-2000) for Dr. William Pierce, says that Harold Covington has a history of fraudulently using her name and the names of other members of the National Alliance:

"I did not make the comment attributed to me on Harold Covington's blog, nor am I a supporter of his. Covington pretended to be me when I worked for the National Alliance.  He also assumed the identity of other members. In addition to this he would create entirely fictitious identities in attempts to disrupt pro-White activism."

Click here to listen.

In fraudulently commenting on his own blog, Covington has used a number of names of former prominent members of the National Alliance, not just "Evelyn Hill." Two that have been demonstrated are Fred Streed and Ron Doggett.

An example of an "entirely fictitious identity" that Covington used to disrupt pro-White activism would be "Brad Davis" or "L. Bradford Davis," an exposed pseudonym under which Covington pretended to be a member of the National Alliance and wrote the scurrilous "Thirty Questions for Dr. Pierce" and "Why I Broke with William Pierce."

Update! See Covington's ridiculous response, as blatantly dishonest as can be. Yes, using Evelyn Hill's name again, even after he's been definitively caught. Showing infinite chutzpah, he did it again on 19 July 2012.

Harold Covington and Frank Collin

A documentary video from March 1977 shows Harold Covington as Frank Collin's right-hand man at a press-conference of the "National Socialist Party of America" in Chicago.*

Harold Covington (far right) as Frank Collin's chief defender, 1977

At 2:23 a reporter asks Collin, "What do you recommend for your father?"

Covington shoots back, "One more crack and you're out!"

Apparently the reporter was referring to the fact that Frank Collin's father was a Jew, Max Simon Collin, born Cohn, who had spent time in Dachau.

Since the press-conference was over, all the reporters and cameramen were about to be "out" anyway, but by butting in, Covington created a distraction that saved Collin from the awkwardness of either addressing or directly refusing to address the question about his father.

Frazier Glenn Miller, who was a member of Covington's North Carolina unit of the NSPA, says Collin once traveled on a motorcycle to visit the North Carolina unit. After Collin's departure, Miller said to Covington, "That guy looks like a Jew." In that instance too, Covington tried to obfuscate, insisting that Collin was "Black Irish."

A report on Collin's Jewish paternal ancestry was carried by UPI as early as April 1970. Harold Covington joined Collin's group in 1976. As part of the worldwide reaction to Collin's declared intention to stage a uniformed march of "nazis" through a largely Jewish suburb, Collin came under intensified scrutiny in 1977 and the story about his Jewish father was widely publicized. Covington definitely knew.

The explanation for Covington's willingness to stand by and defend Collin under the circumstances may lie in the fact that Covington himself is the grandson of one A.B. Glass, founder of the Dixie Bedding Company in Greensboro, North Carolina (Encyclopedia of White Power, ed. Jeffrey Kaplan, p. 76). It was from this grandfather that Covington inherited $90,000.

In spite of the attention to his Jewish ancestry, Collin lasted as head of the NSPA, with Covington as second-in-command, until late 1979, when he was arrested for committing unnatural acts with two 10-year-old boys at NSPA headquarters.

It was NSPA member Mike Whalen who found the evidence that led to Frank Collin's arrest. Covington sometimes implies (e.g. in "The Seabrook Theory") that he was responsible for Frank Collin's downfall, but he was not. After Whalen made the discovery, the cat was out of the bag and Covington could not save Collin if he was so inclined. Whether Covington had been turning a blind eye to Collin's sexual habits along with his ancestry until then is anybody's guess.

In Covington's "The Frank Collin Affair" (1 August 2005) on his own blog, and in the largely identical section about Frank Collin in Covington's Brief History, there is no mention whatsoever of any allegation about Frank Collin's Jewish paternal ancestry, even though it has long been known to the entire world. On 5 June 2012, somebody calling himself "The Old Man" (a nickname that Covington uses) even removed a reference to Collin's being half-Jewish from the Metapedia article about Covington.

Harold Covington suppresses the fact that Frank Collin is half-Jewish.

Apparently Covington would not like to explain why, when he knew that his fuehrer was half-Jewish, he chose for at least 2½ years -- and still chooses -- to overlook and even suppress the fact, while making completely spurious accusations of Jewish ancestry against men like Matt Koehl and Ben Klassen.

Covington's penchant for accusing various White racialist leaders of having some terrible, dark secret has every appearance of being a projection from his own life.
__________________________
* As of 28 June, after noting a flurry of visits to this blog and interest in this article from somebody in Port Orchard, Washington (where Harold Covington has a mail-drop in the UPS Store), I decided to check the video linked in the article, only to find that it had been removed by the user that posted it. Since the rest of hadroid's videos pertaining to the NSPA and Skokie are still on YouTube, I infer that somebody threw a fit to have that particular video removed. Fortunately I still have an image from that video to prove that it existed.

Harold Covington, Anti-Racist

White Supremacy is "disreputable and unsavory," wrote Covington in
1996, shown here at a 1989 gathering in Pulaski, Tennessee.

One of those that Harold Covington defamed incessantly in the 1990s, Will White Williams, responded by filing a libel suit against Covington in Wake County, North Carolina. The pattern of libel was so clear, extensive, and well documented that Covington really had no defense.

Instead of disputing the facts of the case, Covington tried to appeal to what he presumed to be the biases of the court.

In his formal response to Williams vs. Covington in 1996, Harold Covington referred to Williams, a member of the National Alliance, as a "White Supremacist" (which in this case was not to make a distinction from White Separatism, but simply a synonym for racist in Liberalese) and asserted that "White Supremacists" and their activities were inherently "disreputable and unsavory" and that therefore he, Covington, should not be held accountable for any libel against a "White Supremacist" like Will Williams:

18. Regarding the issue of defamation of character, it is the entirely serious contention of the defendant, and will constitute a substantial portion of the defense, that the plaintiff has no character to defame. For a number of years Mr. Williams has voluntarily adopted a style of life which has involved active membership and leadership roles in a number of white supremacist organizations. This subsequently resulted in his involvement in a series of transactions, incidents, and episodes of such disreputable and unsavory nature that the standards of injury and loss of reputation which would normally apply to a normal, law-abiding citizen cannot reasonably be said to apply to him. With addressing the moral issues involved, the court will be aware that modern American society has determined, in its collective wisdom, that white supremacy and activities related to promoting white supremacy are disreputable and unsavory ‘per se.’ It is the contention of the defense that by choosing his present mode of living, in the eyes of all reasonable people he has voluntarily renounced the values and standards of character which would entitle him to bring an action for libel, against the defendant or anyone else.

Find that on page 2 of "DEFENDANT'S ANSWER TO COMPLAINT" (File #96CV 11027 – Williams vs. Covington), filed at the Wake County Courthouse, North Carolina District Court on 20 November 1996.

Page 2 of Covington's Response to Williams vs. Covington.

Dr. William Pierce on the Death of Robert Jay Mathews (1984)

Response to a Lie

In a podcast of 9 June 2011, Harold Covington ridiculously claimed that Dr. William Pierce "did everything he could to distance himself from" and "publicly denounced" Robert Jay Mathews; Covington even accused Dr. Pierce of "denying he'd ever met" Mathews. He claimed that Dr. Pierce had tried to hide the fact that Mathews even gave the speech quoted on the first page of this National Alliance Bulletin. Covington most likely finds it hilarious to tell such outrageous lies and have people actually believe what he says. Click here to listen to the soundbite of Covington's outrageous lying. 

This Bulletin really makes the case by itself, but additional details can be read here.

Tom Metzger on Harold Covington's Personal Attacks

During 2010 Tom Metzger appeared on Jim Giles' Radio Free Mississippi podcast, where Giles asked Metzger his views of some prominent White racialists. When Giles asked about Harold Covington, the following was said (Click to listen):

Giles: I am just looking at the ADL list, and one other person that comes to mind that's not on the list is Harold Covington.

Metzger: Oh boy. That's like putting a cross up in front of a vampire to me. There's only one person I think I really hate in this struggle, and it's Harold Covington.

Giles: That's interesting. Why is that?

Metzger: Well, because he took it beyond politics during the trial and after the trial [in which Will Williams successfully sued Harold Covington for libel].

He got personal. He started putting things out about me, and I don't really understand why it ever got started. He said I was a drunk, and I did all this stuff, and everybody knew it wasn't true.  He said when my wife was dying, I had left her in a welfare ward in the hospital. It was all lies, and he was putting out all these lies. 

I think the reason for it is, I supported Ben Klassen, with the COTC. Ben and I had a stormy relationship, but I respected him highly. And Covington hated him, and he even started rumors about him killing a skinhead and all this kind of stuff, which was totally untrue. But because I supported Klassen, I think that's the reason he went after me, and he put out some terrible things.

Politically you can attack me and I can say, "Oh well," because other guys attack me and I don't get all bent out of shape. [...] But when he attacked my wife, and that I was a drunk, and all this kind of stuff, that's going beyond the line.