This is the very strange story of the time Dolph Lundgren starred in a piece of apartheid propaganda.

Sources:

Bellant, Russ. Old Nazis, the New Right, and the Republican Party. South End Press, 1991.

Abramoff, Jack. Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth about Washington Corruption from America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist. WND Books, 2011.

Easton, Nina. Gang of Five: Leaders at the Center of the Conservative Crusade. Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Ivon, David. “Touting for South Africa: International Freedom Foundation.” Covert Action Information Bulletin, 1989.

Blumenthal, Sidney (December 1983). "Let Lehrman Be Reagan". The New Republic.

Cachalia, Firoz and Mervyn Shear. WITS: A University in the Apartheid Era. Wits University Press, 2022.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-13-apartheid-stratcom-agents-trump-edwin-feulner/

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-11-13-atrocious-crimes-apartheid-hitmans-brutal-confessions-serve-as-a-warning-for-south-africans/

https://mg.co.za/article/2008-05-29-the-spy-who-lost-it/

https://mg.co.za/article/2001-03-23-the-height-of-hypocrisy/

https://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/SNSep83.pdf

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/SNNov83.pdf

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/SNOct80.pdf

https://staging.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files3/pam19870826.026.009.583.pdf

https://antifainfoblatt.de/aib24/suedafrika-machtkampf-krieg-auf-kleiner-flamme

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/48870988/volume-36-number-07-university-of-the-witwatersrand

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38832258/volume-36-number-13

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/06/293602.html?c=on

https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files2/pam19811200.026.009.580.pdf

https://harpers.org/archive/2008/08/the-wrecking-crew/

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/06/world/4-rebel-units-sign-anti-soviet-pact.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/10/world/reporter-s-notebook-angola-s-children-of-war.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20060128022735/

http://www.alternet.org/story/13134/

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/1996/3.pdf

https://www.georgeherald.com/News/Article/Local-News/robert-hall-pioneer-in-medical-equipment-dies-20170711

https://mg.co.za/article/1996-04-04-noseweek-case-takes-a-new-turn/

https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-content/uploads/npr/73gould.pdf

https://www.salon.com/2005/08/17/abramoff_2/

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/09/movies/south-africa-helps-us-film-makers-in-namibia-with-troops-and-trucks.html

https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/case-study/abramoff-lobbying-congress

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In the final days of apartheid, white extremists were getting desperate. That desperation contributed to one of the strangest political crises of the late 20th century:

Sources:
https://dcist.com/story/12/09/24/aryan-nations/

https://archive.idavox.com/index.php/2012/09/24/the-aryan-nations-show-of-farce-in-dc/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naRGivc7Ong

Guelke, Adrian. “Political Violence and the South African Transition.” Irish Studies in International Affairs, vol. 4, 1993, pp. 59–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30001810

https://antifainfoblatt.de/aib24/suedafrika-machtkampf-krieg-auf-kleiner-flamme

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/white-supremacist-arthur-kemp-steps-leader-neo-nazi-group-national-alliance/

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/26/world/white-separatists-storm-south-african-negotiations.html?fbclid=IwAR2oDpPTYh0q173RdYwv5cox59uhpyHBrQdGfC65L22gY7pZAcwbArH8BkI

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/how-the-volk-myth-died-it-took-just-a-few-minutes-to-change-the-course-of-south-african-history-john-carlin-reports-from-mafikeng-1428703.html

https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/amntrans/1998/98092123_mma_mmabath3.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20140503185912/

http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/newsticker/rechte-in-suedafrika-rekrutieren-internationale-soeldner---politikermord-lautet-ein-auftrag-die-killer-kamen-von-der-reeperbahn,10917074,8820188.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/13/world/a-homeland-s-agony.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

https://mg.co.za/article/1994-06-17-foreign-hooligans-embarrass-awb/

https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/media%5C1997%5C9708/s970821c.htm

https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/amntrans%5Cpta/2derby1.htm

Death of Apartheid: The Whites’ Last Stand. (1995, May 28). Brian Lapping Associates.

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In 1994, a second group of mercenaries arrived at the airport in Johannesburg... but no one was there to pick them up. Their host had been arrested days earlier, after the last group of mercenaries she'd hosted got into a deadly shootout with the South African police. But how did all these Germans end up in South Africa in the first place?

https://www.propublica.org/article/vasilios-pistolis-imprisoned-marine-hate-groups

Sources:
Simonelli, F. J. (1999). American Führer: George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party. University of Illinois Press.

Krott, R. (2008). Save the last bullet for yourself: A soldier of fortune in the Balkans and Somalia. Casemate.

Eisenberg, D. (1967). The Reemergence of Fascism. Barnes.

https://balkans.aljazeera.net/news/balkan/2017/11/29/slobodan-praljak-umro-u-bolnici

Bartholomäus Grill: German right-wing radicals shoot in South Africa: License plate D. In: Die Zeit . No. 13 , 25 March 1994

Antifaschistisches Autorenkollektiv: Drahtzieher im braunen Netz : Ein aktueller Überblick über den Neonazi-Untergrund in Deutschland und Österreich. Konkret Literatur Verlag, 1996,

https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/jm214q33q?locale=it

https://js.emory.edu/news/news-stories-container/Using%20South%20African%20Archives%20to%20Study%20PostWorld%20War%20Two%20Antisemitism%20and%20White%20Supremacist%20Networks.html

https://scholar.ufs.ac.za/server/api/core/bitstreams/c7f1b03d-343d-4abf-bcb3-e508f43dbc90/content

https://antifainfoblatt.de/aib99/dressed-kill

Searchlight Magazine, issues July, August, September 1996

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In 1989, four Afrikaner nationalists and one German mercenary killed a security guard at a United Nations outpost in Namibia. After escaping from custody, they fled home to South Africa. A possibly non-existent group called The White Wolves took credit for the wave of bombings that followed. 

Sources:

Du Preez, M. (2010). Pale native: Memories of a Renegade reporter. Zebra Press. 

Rotberg, Robert (1988). The Founder: Cecil Rhodes and the Enigma of Power. Oxford University Press. 

Falkof, Nicky. The End of Whiteness: Satanism and Family Murder in Late Apartheid South Africa. Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2016.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-09-09-bruce-and-leonard-a-sad-african-immigrant-tale-of-injustice/

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/19/world/outjo-journal-un-namibia-team-makes-some-unlikely-friends.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20010429091808/http://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/spec/aress14-1.htm 

https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/1999/72.html 

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/08/11/Gunmen-attacked-a-UN-peace-keeping-force-adminstrative-headquarters-and/6550618811200/ 

https://ctc.westpoint.edu/the-nexus-between-far-right-extremists-in-the-united-states-and-ukraine/

https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1043&context=ncitereportsresearch

https://web.archive.org/web/20181118212149/

https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/the-day-wit-wolf-turned-pretoria-red-with-blood-18125595 

https://www.jordanharbinger.com/bradley-steyn-undercover-with-mandelas-spies-part-one/ 

https://theafricancriminologyjournal.wordpress.com/2022/02/04/south-africa-the-strijdom-square-massacre/ 

https://www.iol.co.za/news/world/us-wit-wolf-slaughter-1873433 

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/what-became-of-the-big-wit-wolf-424408 

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In the last episode, we looked at a strange series of rallies held in cities across the United States in 2012 - American neo-nazis were rallying in support of white South African Farmers. But how did they get that idea in their heads? The rallies were put on by a group called The South Africa Project, run by a woman I'd never heard of. Digging into this mysterious South African, I found a lot more than I bargained for - bombings and mercenaries and an international network of fascist terror.

Sources:

https://www.24sata.hr/news/hsp-as-prisegnuli-na-vjernost-domovini-i-donaldu-trumpu-513281#google_vignette

https://balkaninsight.com/2017/02/27/us-condemns-zagreb-neo-nazi-march-for-trump-02-27-2017/

https://www.icty.org/x/cases/naletilic_martinovic/cis/en/cis_naletilic_martinovic_en.pdf

https://archive.idavox.com/index.php/2012/09/24/the-aryan-nations-show-of-farce-in-dc/

https://time.com/3927339/dylann-roof-charleston-shooting-flags/

https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,863800,00.html

https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/1981/0219/021960.html

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/anti-genocide-protests-around-nation-were-organized-neo-nazis/

Visser, Myda. 1999. University of Pretoria. DIE IDEOLOGIESE GRONDSLAE EN ONlWIKKELING VAN DIE BLANKE FASCISTIESE BEWEGINGS IN SUID-AFRIKA, 1945-1995

Hill, Ray, and Andrew Bell. The Other Face of Terror: Inside Europe’s Neo-Nazi Network. Grafton, 1988.
https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/volume%202.pdf

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/apartheid-early-1980s

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This is a rerun of the episode that originally ran on February 6, 2025 with a newly recorded introduction with new information about the traffic stop that led to Matthew Huttle's death.

Sources:

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2025/02/27/body-cam-footage-jan-6-defendants-traffic-stop-shooting-death-released-matthew-huttle-jasper-county/80731312007/

https://www.in.gov/sheriffs/jasper/files/Jasper-County-OIS-Final-Report.pdf

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In February of 2012, racist skinheads in California rallied at the capitol building in Sacramento. They were trying to raise awareness for an imaginary problem - an ongoing genocide against white South African farmers. In February of 2025, the President of the United States signed an executive order stripping foreign aid from South Africa as punishment for that same imaginary problem.

Sources:

Falkof, Nicky. (2022). Worrier state: Risk, anxiety and moral panic in South Africa. Manchester University Press.

Whiteness, Afrikaans, Afrikaners: Addressing Post-Apartheid Legacies, Privileges and Burdens. The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA), 2018.

Holmes, Carolyn. Victimhood for an Audience: Portrayals of Extra-Lethal Violence and their Utility for Self-Identified Victims
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b6672f43c3a5320c2bec900/t/5c98fd14a4222fc0ef950ccd/1553530134194/Victimhood+for+an+Audience+-+March+2019.pdf

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/23/white-farmers-trump-south-africa-tucker-carlson-far-right-influence

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/23/trump-orders-close-study-of-south-africa-farmer-killings

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-staff-usaid-met-group-called-apartheid-so-called-injustice_n_5af5dcb6e4b00d7e4c1a6571

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/anti-genocide-protests-around-nation-were-organized-neo-nazis/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/campus-group-weighs-south-african-violence-targeting-whites/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/dangerous-myth-white-genocide-south-africa/

https://africasacountry.com/2018/02/searching-for-white-genocide-in-south-africa/

https://unicornriot.ninja/2018/far-right-racists-push-fake-south-africa-white-genocide-narrative/

https://goodauthority.org/news/misinformation-south-africa-new-land-act-trump-musk/

https://www.jurist.org/features/2025/02/11/explainer-understanding-the-south-africa-land-reform-law-that-provoked-trumps-ire/

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-fearmongers-about-land-reform-south-africa

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/trumps-south-africa-tweet-tucker-carlson-has-turned-white-nationalist-narrative

https://africacheck.org/sites/default/files/Final-Report-Committee-of-Inquiry-Farm-Attacks-July-2003.pdf

https://africasacountry.com/2018/05/flight-of-the-boers

https://www.news24.com/News24/afriforums-own-farm-murder-stats-dont-support-their-claims-20180507

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-15/dutton-wants-australia-to-help-white-south-african-farmers/9550050

https://www.news24.com/news24/opinions/analysis/donald-trumps-sa-tweet-how-he-got-the-message-20180823

https://theconversation.com/peter-duttons-fast-track-for-white-south-african-farmers-is-a-throwback-to-a-long-racist-history-93476

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/22/south-africa-risks-food-shortages-if-white-farmers-go-to-australia-nationals-mp-says

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/27/dutton-should-prioritise-refugees-on-nauru-not-white-south-africans-unhcr-says

https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/ramaphosa-hits-back-at-donald-trump-on-land-tweet/

https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Acts/2024/Act_13_of_2024_Expropriation_Act_2024.pdf

https://www.enca.com/videos/exclusive-interview-frontrunner-become-us-ambassador-sa

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"They got what they wanted." Those were the words of Don Logan after a February 11, 2025 meeting of the Scottsdale, Arizona city council. Twenty-one years after Dennis Mahon tried to murder Logan with a package bomb, the city of Scottsdale finished what the klansman started: they closed the city's diversity office.

Sources: 

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/scottsdale-to-gut-diversity-office-trump-anti-dei-fervor-21197066

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/arizona-strip-club-owners-troubles-started-with-bad-loan-11311674

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/to-serve-and-humiliate-6422314 

https://www.scottsdale.org/city_news/new-council-whisperer-saddles-up-at-city-hall/article_06f75e0a-d12c-11ef-a528-b706d0d1dc9d.html

https://www.scottsdale.org/city_news/mayoral-candidates-face-final-exam/article_58c526d4-880e-11ef-a093-a77b3f945d6e.html 

https://www.scottsdale.org/city_news/protests-fly-as-scottsdale-defunds-dei/article_6a0be9a2-eb0d-11ef-8425-27ebca019701.html 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/us/politics/trump-fake-electors-emails.html 

https://www.newsweek.com/strip-club-sued-allegedly-drugging-patrons-stealing-credit-cards-1883758

https://www.azfamily.com/2025/02/12/scottsdale-city-council-votes-end-programs-involving-dei/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dougmelville/2025/01/29/costco-double-downed-on-dei-then-19-attorneys-general-warned-them-to-stop/

https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/IACIO/2025/01/27/file_attachments/3144563/FINAL%20Costco%20Lettet%20%281%29.pdf 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/costco-dei-policy-board-statement-shareholder-meeting-vote/ 

https://s201.q4cdn.com/287523651/files/doc_financials/2024/ar/FY24-Proxy-Statement.pdf 

https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2024/04/11/the-shareholder-activism-of-anti-discrimination-proponents/ 

https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0000320193/ebbd88bb-cc8f-4e1e-8d5e-a52f8f780b94.pdf 

https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/employment-law-compliance/what-dei-executive-orders-mean-employee-resource-groups

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/bremerton-shipyard-worker-affinity-groups-end-after-trump-dei-orders/ 

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2025/02/12/scottsdale-scraps-dei-programs/78427835007/ 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-protesters-mistake-busload-of-ymca-campers-for-immigrant-children/ 

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/9/28/dershowitz-appeals-sanction/ 

https://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/article_32b14df8-edf0-5e98-b6fa-8875b1101624.html

https://www.kawc.org/elections-2020/2021-08-25/attorney-for-arizona-election-audit-firm-defends-concealing-records 

https://www.democracydocket.com/cases/arizona-mohave-county-hand-count-challenge/ 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/06/dei-gop-segregation 

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4871827/united-states-v-mahon/

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In 2017, an anti-Muslim nonprofit crowd-sourced the organization of a nationwide series of rallies. Many of the people who stepped up to help turned out to be well known white supremacists.

Sources:

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2017/05/portland_suspect_in_2_slayings.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/27/portland-double-murder-white-supremacist-muslim-hate-speech

https://islamophobia.org/special-reports/the-hate-that-act-for-america-wrought/

https://islamophobia.org/islamophobic-organizations/act-for-america/

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/davidnoriega/meet-the-charming-terrifying-face-of-the-anti-islam-lobby

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/americas-most-anti-muslim-activist-is-welcome-at-the-white-house/520323/

https://politicalresearch.org/2018/03/01/profile-on-the-right-act-for-america

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/us/08gabriel.html?pagewanted=all

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/maher-season-premiere-inc_b_168972

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iobsessioni-stars-have-le_b_126693

https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/movie-to-marshal-support-for-college-israel-advocacy/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/ed-gillespie-declines-to-denounce-endorsement-from-anti-muslim-activist/2017/06/09/8a16a45c-4d28-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/03/gay-trumper-almost-got-hired-by-the-gop-but-it-got-called-off-what-happened/

https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-trimet-stabbing-trial-micah-fletcher-survivor-testifies/

https://www.opb.org/news/article/portland-prosecutors-max-stabbing-trial-call-eyewitnesses-killings/

https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/2017/taliesin-namkai-meche-2016.html

https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-target-of-a-hate-crime-she-was-labeled-as-a-witness/

Isabelle Canaan, In Bad Faith: Anti-Sharia Laws, the Constitution, and the Limits of Religious Freedom, 21 U. Md. L.J. Race Relig. Gender & Class 248 (2021). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/rrgc/vol21/iss2/3

https://bridge.georgetown.edu/research/is-act-for-america-really-a-grassroots-organization/

https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/letter_to_mrpetehegseth.pdf

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-capitol-brawl-white-nationalist-sentenced-20190703-story.html

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/nathan-damigo-punching-woman-berkeley-white-nationalism/

https://unicornriot.ninja/2017/neo-nazi-william-planer-arrested-vandalizing-synagogue/

https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/06/10/emotions-run-high-march-against-sharia/386607001/

https://accollective.noblogs.org/post/2021/11/10/allison-richard-jack-peirce-iv/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/family-research-councils-anti-splc-campaign-promoting-anti-semitic-publication/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/neo-nazi-billy-roper-organizing-act-americas-march-against-sharia-arkansas/

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hate-watch/following-trump-appointments-anti-muslim-act-america-may-see-growing-influence/

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Molly talks to Spencer Sunshine about his book, Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege. Sunshine's book explores the history of Siege, the book that is today's nazi terrorist's bible.

https://www.routledge.com/Neo-Nazi-Terrorism-and-Countercultural-Fascism-The-Origins-and-Afterlife-of-James-Masons-Siege/Sunshine/p/book/9780367190606

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