Next on the White Power Chopping Block: Christopher Paul Hasson

There really is a lot to unpack here.

When a 49-year-old active duty U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant named Christopher Paul Hasson was arrested amid concerns of him being a “domestic terrorist, bent on committing acts dangerous to human life that are intended to affect governmental conduct,” it continued a very odd legacy of a quiet, often gentile trend of White nationalism from Maryland and notably in the military.

Hasson is charged with illegal possession of a narcotic and the unusual crime of possession of a firearm by an addict of a controlled substance. The latter charge is the result of a lack of a standalone domestic terrorism law according to Huffington Post journalist Jessica Schulberg.

The charge — illegally possessing a firearm while using or addicted to a controlled substance — is really unusual. At a hearing for Clark in November, both his public defender and judge said they hadn’t seen prosecutors use it beforehttps://t.co/lJHNp3D2ee pic.twitter.com/CgvAT277Co

— Jessica Schulberg (@jessicaschulb) February 20, 2019

According to a motion for pretrial detention, these charges represent “the proverbial tip of the iceberg.” Hasson was nabbed with a hit list, 30 bottles of human growth hormone,  a stash of 15 firearms, and over 1000 rounds of ammo which the prosecution calls a conservative estimate. He’s also on the hook for having bought over 4200 pills of Tramadol from an underground source in Tijuana, Mexico.

As far as neo-Nazis go, Hasson is pretty unique in that he’s managed to keep up the act for over thirty years before finally going to jail. Starting as a bonehead, Hasson joined the military and has served in three branches: the Marine Corps, the Army National Guard, and the Coast Guard where he is currently assigned in Washington, DC.

According to the court filing, Hasson appears to be a survivalist and very committed to violence, as evidenced in a letter the Southern Poverty Law Center confirmed was written to Harold Covington, a longtime, well-known neo-Nazi who died last summer at 64.

I never saw a reason for mass protest or wearing uniforms marching around provoking people with swastikas etc. I was and am a man of action you cannot change minds protesting like that. However you can make change with a little focused violence.

Covington, in recent decades, was not seen favorably by many within White supremacist circles, but still managed to have an influence of sorts. White supremacist Richard Spencer noted in a Feb. 2 tweet that neo-fascist propagandist Jack Posobiec tried to impress him by telling him that he read Covington’s books. Posobiec, a Navy reservist and intelligence officer who promotes conspiracy theories that are often debunked and has had his security clearance suspended in the wake of the tragic “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, VA in August 2017, is a close associate of presidential advisor Roger Stone, who himself is facing federal wiretapping and obstruction charges related to the Robert Muller investigation. Posobiecwas in the courtroom with Stone as he had a gag order imposed against him in his case after posting a tweet that seemed to threaten Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson who is presiding over his case.

My correspondence with Jack Posobiec. Apparently, he’s a big fan of Harold Covington’s novels. pic.twitter.com/4ahx4SZsTy

— Richard ⛄️ Spencer (@RichardBSpencer) February 2, 2019

From his writings quoted in the motion, Hasson appears to be a fan not only of Covington, but also Norwegian neo-Nazi mass murderer Anders Breivik, whose manifesto provided the motivation for Hasson’s steroid regimen and choice of prospective targets. In addition, he appears to be a fan of anti-gay, anti-abortion, holocaust denying Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. He even suggests using Rudolph’s book, Between the Lines of Drift as recruiting material for political organizing.

Currently, Hasson is being held without bond at the prosecution’s request, however U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day gave the government 14 days to present more serious charges against Hasson or he would entertain a defense motion for release.