A Virginia Tea Party activist, Doug Story, who was also active in white nationalist circles pleaded guilty to weapons charges. An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, also revealed a trail of racism and alleged threats against President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
On August 17, Douglas Howard Story, 48, of Manassas, Virginia, pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun in violation of the National Firearms Act. According to court documents, Story came to the attention of law enforcement through a confidential source who saw posts from Story on an Aryan Nations website. These posts indicated that Story was preparing to buy an AK-47 and have it modified to become fully automatic. According to an affidavit, “The conversations and posts were reported to the case agent and show the propensity for hatred and violence toward African Americans, Jewish Americans, other minorities and a number of political figures.” Story was arrested on May 30, 2012, by members of FBI Washington Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force after receiving the modified weapon from an undercover officer. During the plea, Story admitted providing a semi-automatic AK-47, along with $125, to an undercover law enforcement officer with the intent that it be modified to become fully automatic.
Tea Party Involvement
Doug Story was a member of at least two different Tea Party groups: the Patriot Action Network and the Tea Party Fund.
He joined the Patriot Action Network, then known as ResistNet, on August 23, 2009. His numerous online posts on the Patriot Action Network site highlight his involvement in the Tea Party movement, his racism, and his violent rhetoric.
Responding to a request to attend the big September 12, 2009 Tea Party protest in Washington DC, Story wrote, “Bruce, I will absolutely try to make it on 9/12 to the mall. Problem is, I’ll either have to take metro or rent a car, because my Pickup has the Confederate Battle Flag in the rear window, and you just know someone in DC won’t take kindly to anything having to do with the Confederate States, so they’ll vandalize my truck.”
He expressed a homicidal brand of Islamophobia when he called for the bombing of all mosques. In reply to an article posted by Patriot Action Network director Darla Dawald, “Muslim Enclaves U.S.A. Building the American Caliphate, One Enclave at a Time,” Story wrote, “JUST WHAT WE NEED, MORE TERRORIST TRAINING CAMPS (ALL MOSQUES NEED TO BE BOMBED!!!!!!!!), preferably on a Friday afternoon.” None of the more than 130 Tea Party commenters challenged Story’s call to violence.
Story also expressed birther sentiments, including an exhortation to execute President Obama, “Deport Oblammy’s corpse and send it back to his home country of Kenya. BUT ONLY AFTER HE’S BEEN ARRESTED, TRIED, CONVICTED, AND EXECUTED FOR TREASON, SEDITION, AND FOR FAILURE TO REGISTER WITH THE INS.”
Nativism was also part of Story’s online repertoire, “What needs to be done is: Bring ALL of our troops home and place them on rotating tours of the Mexican border” he wrote.
Patriot Action Network has had a long-standing problem of white nationalist involvement in the organization. As IREHR noted in Tea Party Nationalism, activists like Billy Roper of White Revolution and Roan Garcia-Quintana of the Council of Conservative Citizens have been members of the Tea Party faction. Roper was kicked out after being exposed in 2010. Garcia-Quintana is still listed as a member.
On December 27, 2011, Doug Story also joined the Tea Party Fund, a group targeting Tea Partiers in Story’s home state of Virginia. Based in Reno, Nevada, the Tea Party Fund is a new Tea Party Super PAC which launched on November 11, 2011. The Tea Party Fund was created by Richard Disney, a Tea Party activist who also serves as chief operating officer of the Restoring America Project PAC, the group which had to recently cancel its Celebrating Liberty Festival, planned for September 1 in New Mexico.
White Nationalist Activity
Doug Story made no attempts to hide his racism. On his Facebook page, Story described himself as: “100% WHITE MAN, 100% ARYAN, 100% PRO-LIFE (Children are innocent), 100% PRO DEATH PENALTY (Criminal Scum aren’t innocent). Over the past 28 years; I, like David Duke, have had an Awakening.”
He first garnered national attention with his pickup truck. In April 2010 the Washington Post ran a photo of his truck, which included a tailgate containing a full-color sticker depicting the Twin Towers in flames and the slogan, “Everything I ever needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/11,” a Confederate Battle Flag covered the back window, and the custom Virginia license plate, “14CV88.” The plate contained white nationalist code – “14” represents the slogan “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children” and the 88 stands for “H.H.,” or “Heil Hitler.”
Though his work at the Virginia Department of Transportation required him to assist stranded drivers, the Anti-Defamation League reported that in 2007 Story wrote on a white nationalist website that, “if I see an accident involving a negro or other kind of brown filth, I just drive on by. Screw ’em, let ’em die.”
In various online white nationalist forums, including Stormfront, New Saxon, and the Vanguard News Network, Story expressed hatred and support for violence toward a number of people of color, including President Obama and Attorney General Holder.
Under the name “Confederado,” Story posted on the white nationalist website Stormfront in November 2008 that his AK-47 was a potential “homeland defense rifle should I need to protect micelf [sic] and my wife from rioting neeegroes [sic].” The same month, he described the president as “brown-filth mulatto,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The affidavit also quotes Story as having written, “I think there’s one way Obummer would be proven as a mere mortal … if someone puts a 30.06 round into the base of his skill [sic], huh ya think?” In a post referring to the attorney general, Story predicted, “Holder will likely be removed when the administration changes in 2012. Although, personally, I’d prefer removing him from office with a 30.06.”
The informant told the FBI “that Story believed martial law would be declared under various scenarios to include President Obama being assassinated.” In a later E-mail, court documents say, Story also boasted “that he was planning on ambushing and murdering any law enforcement officer that stops him on the street if and when martial law is enacted in the United States.”
Despite the revelations regarding Story’s racism and his plea, his profile remains active on both Tea Party websites. When sentenced on November 2, Story faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
IREHR is still waiting to hear Tea Party leaders publicly denounced his white nationalist beliefs and his calls to violence.
