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Ron Paul campaign denies white supremacist ties alleged by Anonymous

Josh Peterson Tech Editor
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Political hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have found emails linking Texas Rep. Ron Paul to an American white supremacist group, a claim the Paul campaign says is completely untrue.

Las Vegas-based group American Third Party Position (AP3) — whose stated goal is “to reach out to Americans of European ancestry and particularly to disenfranchised White workers, farmers and students who have become victims of the discriminatory affirmative action policies” — was allegedly hacked by Anonymous Tuesday, and emails purportedly reveal close ties between Paul and members who are admitted white supremacists.

The alleged emails show that James Kelso, a former member of the John Birch Society, was just one of several members of the group that regularly met with Paul.

“In addition to finding the usual racist rants and interactions with other white power groups, we also found a disturbingly high amount of members who are also involved in campaigning for Ron Paul,” said Anonymous in a statement.

“According to these messages, Ron Paul has regularly met with many A3P members, even engaging in conference calls with their board of directors.”

When asked by The Daily Caller if the allegations were true, Ron Paul’s presidential campaign denied any ties to AP3.

“This stuff is completely false, and a waste of time,” said Paul spokesman Gary Howard.

A3P did not respond to TheDC’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Update February 14:

The American Third Position (A3P) political party told The Daily Caller Monday that allegations made by Anonymous are false.

“Many people like Ron Paul. Many A3P members like Ron Paul. However, Ron Paul is not a member of our party [nor] does he represent our party,” said A3P. “We have no regular meetings with Ron Paul. This is a complete fabrication and drama to smear Ron Paul.”

“Anonymous hacked SONY, the CIA, the DOJ, law enforcement agencies all over the country,” the group contended. “They stole a bank card number from our party and made a donation to the ADL.”

A screenshot was posted in a blog for a donation receipt to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which A3P called a “Jewish supremacist organization.”

“We have notified the FBI and the Secret Service,” the organization added.

Facebook comments on an A3P affiliate’s Facebook page finger Barrett Brown, a public member of Anonymous and founder of Project PM, as the culprit.

Brown told TheDC that someone working out of both Anonymous and Project PM did take down the A3P site, along with several other websites.

“I used contact info of subscribers to call some of them up, claim that I’m with a new secret white supremacist group called ‘The Order,’ and that I want to recruit them,” Brown said. “All five fell for it. Recorded it. Planning on using this as an experiment for blind cyber armies.”

A ‘blind cyber army,’ Brown told TheDC, is “a group of online activists who believe themselves to be working for one cause when they are actually being used for another.”

“This isn’t my idea; intelligence agencies have done this IRL [in real life] for years by their own acknowledgement,” said Brown.

A3P also told TheDC that it is not a “white supremacist” organization, as TheDC reported previously, but that A3P is an organization of “nationalists.”

The party’s mission statement states that it “believes that government policy in the United States discriminates against white Americans, the majority population, and that white Americans need their own political party to fight this discrimination.”

A3P also explains on its website that it stands to “protect White American interests, since no other political party has shown interest in doing so. This does not make us racist, but protective of our rights – which every other race or group is encouraged and praised for doing. Discriminatory ‘affirmative action’ programs and the invasion of illegal immigrants adversely affect the welfare of all Americans, but especially the White majority.”

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