White Resistance Manual
{{Short description|White supremacist handbook}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| language = English
| author = Axl Hess (as Aquilifer)
| pages = 310
| publisher = Self-published online
| pub_date = Late 90s or early 2000s
}}
The White Resistance Manual is a white supremacist handbook written by Axl Hess under the pseudonym Aquilifer. It was published anonymously online in the late 90s or early 2000s. It is an instruction manual on how to perform activities such as weapon and poison-making, as well as guerrilla warfare, in addition to tips on how to avoid criminal investigation and ideological goals for the white supremacist movement.
Possession of the manual is illegal in the United Kingdom, and several individuals have been jailed for possessing it, in one case for 13 years. It has been found in the possession of jihadists, and was tied to a 2011 plot to kill police officers in the United States.
History and distribution
It was written by white supremacist Axl Hess, under the pseudonym Aquilifer.{{Cite book |last=Etter |first=Gregg W. |title=Terrorism: Research, Readings, and Realities |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-13-117373-6 |editor-last=Snowden |editor-first=Lynne L. |location=Upper Saddle River |pages=305–306, 315, 320, 323 |language=en |chapter=Security Threat Groups: The Threat Posed by White Supremacist Organizations |editor-last2=Whitsel |editor-first2=Bradley C.}} It was published online in the late 90s{{Cite journal |last=Sanders |first=Eike |date=2019 |title=Normen im Ausnahmezustand: Geschlechtlich konnotierte Identitätsangebote und Feindbilder im Rechtsterrorismus |journal=Wissen Schafft Demokratie |language=de |issue=6 |page=120 |issn=2512-9732}} or early 2000s.{{Cite report |url=https://www.ict.org.il/images/The%20Radical%20Right%20and%20Bioterrorism.pdf |title=The Radical Right and Bioterrorism |last=Karmon |first=Ely |author-link=Ely Karmon |date=June 2020 |publisher=International Institute for Counter-Terrorism |language=en |access-date=2025-03-08}} It was distributed online by Blood & Honour and Combat 18, as well as other far-right websites.{{Cite web |last=Lenz |first=Ryan |date=2011-01-25 |title=Investigators: White Power Guerrilla Manual Behind Attacks on Police |url=https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2011/01/25/investigators-white-power-guerrilla-manual-behind-attacks-police |access-date=2024-06-14 |website=Southern Poverty Law Center |language=en-US}} Possession of the manual is illegal in the United Kingdom, and several individuals have been jailed for possessing it, for up to 13 years in one case.{{Cite news |date=2019-07-05 |title=Exeter Synagogue arsonist Tristan Morgan kept in hospital |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-48882725 |access-date=2020-06-07 |work=BBC News |location=London}}{{Cite news |last=Vinter |first=Robyn |date=2023-08-31 |title=Ex-prison officer jailed for possessing white supremacist 'murder manual' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/31/ashley-podsiad-sharp-ex-prison-officer-jailed-white-supremacist-murder-manual |access-date=2025-03-07 |work=The Guardian |location=London |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Amy-Clare |date=2023-08-31 |title='Neo-Nazi' ex-prison officer jailed for possessing terrorist handbook |url=https://www.the-independent.com/news/uk/crime/ashley-podsiadsharp-prison-officer-farright-terror-b2402495.html |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Independent |location=London |language=en-GB |issn=1741-9743}} It has also been found in the possession of jihadists.{{Cite book |last=Neighbour |first=Sally |title=The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama Bin Laden's Death |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-231-16899-1 |editor-last=Hoffman |editor-first=Bruce |editor-link=Bruce Hoffman |series=Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare |location=New York |pages=176 |language=en |chapter=Operation Pendennis in Australia |editor-last2=Reinares |editor-first2=Fernando}}{{Cite magazine |last=Doornbos |first=Harald |last2=Moussa |first2=Jenan |date=2025-03-06 |title=Recipes From the Islamic State's Laptop of Doom |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/09/recipes-from-the-islamic-states-laptop-of-doom/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |magazine=Foreign Policy |location=Washington, D.C. |language=en-US |issn=0015-7228}} In 2019 it began resurfacing on far-right communities online. It was one of many far-right manuals or literature used for disseminating these concepts and tactical ideas.{{Cite book |last=Heitmeyer |first=Wilhelm |title=Authoritarian Temptations and Right-Wing Threat Alliance: The Crisis of Capitalistic Societies in an Uncertain Future |publisher=Springer Science+Business Media |year=2024 |isbn=978-3-031-52912-2 |location=Cham |language=en}} It was tied to a 2011 plot to kill police officers in the United States.
American anarchist activist Sherman Austin (who was then arrested for distributing information useful for committing a terrorist attack) said of the work: "There’s something on the Internet called the White Resistance Manual. It’s pretty much for white supremacists … to carry out a large-scale guerilla campaign through means of assassination, threats, obtaining funds through fraud, everything from firearms to explosives. I’ve seen, not surprisingly, no action taken against those people, but here I am, an anarchist website, not even close to what that is, not even close to what else you can find on the Internet."{{Cite magazine |last=Frank |first=Josh |date=April 2005 |title=Muzzled Activist in the Age of Terror |url=http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Apr2005/frank0405.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212095149/http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Apr2005/frank0405.html |archive-date=2007-02-12 |access-date=2007-01-06 |magazine=Z Magazine |language=en |volume=18 |issue=4}}
Hess later became the leader of Rocky Suhayda's American Nazi Party (not to be confused with the original American Nazi Party),{{Cite web |title=Who We Are |url=https://www.americannaziparty.com/who-we-are/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205060126/https://www.americannaziparty.com/who-we-are/ |archive-date=2022-02-05 |access-date=2025-04-07 |website=American Nazi Party |language=en-US}} after becoming its spokesman.{{Cite news |last=Conroy |first=Bill |date=2015-04-15 |title=Neo-Nazis Blitz Vigil for Victim of Cops |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/neo-nazis-blitz-vigils-for-immigrant-killed-by-cops/ |access-date=2025-04-07 |work=The Daily Beast |language=en-US}} He ran a neo-Nazi website called White Honor. Included on this website were speeches from Adolf Hitler, quotes from Oklahoma City bombing perpetrator Timothy McVeigh, and a proclamation that he had "created this website with the intent of providing White Racists with information on what we can do to effectively secure the existence of our people".{{Cite book |last=Simi |first=Pete |title=American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate |last2=Futrell |first2=Robert |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-4422-0210-8 |page=84 |language=en}}
Contents
The document is 310 pages long, 302 of which deal with tactical issues. It goes over the goals the movement should promote, and recommends certain targets (e.g. Jews, "anti-White" politicians, "race traitors", among others). The four goals of the movement as he expressed them were to 1) exacerbate racial conflict to the point of "open warfare", 2) "smash Jewish power" both nationally and worldwide, 3) "destroy the legitimacy of current government" and offer a replacement, 4) punish whites viewed as "treasonous" to their people.
It has instructions on how to perform activities such as bomb-making, poison-making, arson, in addition to violent guerrilla warfare against the government. Other topics include sabotage, particularly against power systems,{{Cite report |title=Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations |last=Parfomak |first=Paul W. |date=2015-07-02 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |page=9 |language=en-US}} other infrastructure targets, and non-violent methods of harassment of targets. It advocates what Hess calls "selective assassination" or targeted assassinations. It also advises on how to avoid criminal investigation.
It is similar to the Lone Mujahid Guide, a shorter manual on similar subject matter published by al-Qaeda. Terrorism researcher Ely Karmon described it as "a long and detailed document"; relative to other manuals of this kind, it was noted by the Southern Poverty Law Center as especially comprehensive, prompting alarm.