Hate Groups on the Rise in U.S.
COSTELLO: Exactly 15 minutes after the hour. Checking our top stories now. John Edwards' former aide Andrew Young will not face contempt charges. Young was accused of providing investigators sensitive secret material in Edwards' federal corruption investigation. Edwards' former mistress Rielle Hunter had filed a lawsuit trying to reclaim sensitive materials. To Syria's largest city, Aleppo, where opposition activists report fierce shelling and more bloodshed. This comes a day after Syria's prime minister defected. The opposition also says dozens of people have been killed across Syria today. In money news, American Airlines is offering to deliver your bags to your home, office or final destination. The charge, 30 to 50 bucks depending on the number of bags. The airline says it will deliver your bags in one to four hours if the destination is 40 miles or less. To sports now, where Yahoo! is reporting the perks of winning an Olympic gold medal. One of London's trendiest nightclubs is offering a free $3,000 cocktail. The drink contains 24-carat gold leaf champagne with a set of handmade 18-carat gold rings. You're going to run right out, I know. And in Japan, who wants a Wendy's baconator if you can buy a lobster burger. Wendy's, the fast food chain, is reportedly offering a bun stacked with lobster claws, mustardy mayonnaise and sprinkles of caviar, or you can get the lobster surf and turf burger. Each sells but only in Japan for about 17 bucks apiece. Let's get serious now and turn back to the gunman who opened fire at the Sikh Temple in suburban Milwaukee. One civil rights organization had been watching Wade Michael Page, the suspect, and tracking him for years. And the Southern Poverty Law Center says Page is just one of many right now. There are more than 1,000 hate groups in the United States. That number nearly doubled from the year 2000. The hate movement has been growing since Barack Obama was elected -- Barack Obama, rather, was elected president. Heidi Beirich leads the group's intelligence project and is an expert on various forms of extremism. She joins us via Skype from Montgomery. Welcome, Heidi.</s>HEIDI BEIRICH, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Thanks for having me.</s>COSTELLO: I want to center on Page's bands, the bands he played in. One was called Welcome to the South. This particular song that we're going to hear is called "Definite Hate." Let's listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What has happened to America that was once so white and free? Now our mission is overrun by</s>COSTELLO: Apparently I've read he had some sort of record label. Does this stuff get wide play?</s>BEIRICH: Yes, you'd actually be surprised at how much of this is and how many people listen to it. I mean it's a subculture certainly, the white supremacist movement, but there are many, many bands and many, many labels. Sometimes they put this out for free and distribute it at schools, if you can believe it. It's used as a recruiting tool for the movement.</s>COSTELLO: Wow. In an interview Page said he started another band, his band, called End Apathy, because it would be, quote, "The start towards moving forward." What did he mean by that, do you suppose?</s>BEIRICH: Well, I mean, it sounds particularly ominous now in the wake of the shootings. I mean, there are certain people in the movement who begin to feel like their leadership isn't really doing anything to bring on white revolution. And the band name End Apathy sounds like what Page was thinking is that it was about time to take action, to maybe become a lone wolf and do something to bring that revolution to fruition. And I just -- I think that's what the band name means, as we look at, you know, what happened the other day.</s>COSTELLO: Page attended a music festival called Hammer Fest. This festival is held all over the country. Like you say, these songs are used to recruit. Is this festival used to do that, too?</s>BEIRICH: Yes, I mean, they really are like lollapaloozas or Oz fests of hate. They bring bands from all over the country together to get -- and skinheads literally come from around the world to hammer fests to dance, to be in the mosh pits, to fight. I mean it's a really violent subculture, and it's the number one way skinheads get to know each other, get involved in the movement. And they're pretty regular. I mean they happen every few months across the United States.</s>COSTELLO: How many people attend these festivals?</s>BEIRICH: You know, it depends. It can be in the hundreds in some cases, a little more in others. They're really restricted events. I mean usually you have to know somebody in the movement who's willing to tell you where to go. It's not like these things are advertised in public. And then they give you the coordinates and you show up at these venues which tends to be on private land. But usually a few hundred people at each of the events.</s>COSTELLO: And, you know, they have First Amendment rights so I suppose cities can do nothing to keep them out, right?</s>BEIRICH: Yes, that's absolutely right. Everybody has the right in the United States to say the horrible things like the End Apathy band said, Page said. So there's nothing to be done about that. What happens, though, oftentimes at these events is the violence spills over. These people get so enraged, they, you know, drink a lot of alcohol and we've had hate crimes occur after hate music events. And that's a real problem for law enforcement and for all of us.</s>COSTELLO: Your organization kept an eye on Page for, what, 10 years? Did you ever inform authorities of his existence?</s>BEIRICH: No. I mean, look. We track literally thousands and thousands of extremists. We collect all this kind of data on them from Web sites and publications. And there are a lot of people in our files that are just like Wade Page with the tattoos, the connections to skinheads or other extremist groups. It's a relatively rare few who step over the line and perpetrate violence.</s>COSTELLO: So apparently this guy bought a gun legally. You kept an eye on him. Authorities were aware of him. So that kind of brings you to the question, what can you do to stop these kinds of shootings?</s>BEIRICH: Yes. You're right. This is a really difficult situation because of First Amendment protections which we're all proud that we have in this country. It's -- it really is nearly impossible for law enforcement other than to keep a wary eye on people involved in extremist movements to know when someone's going to step over the line from saying hateful things about other populations into doing something. It's a definitely tricky situation. And I know that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are constantly concerned about this. We do trainings with law enforcement to make them aware of the potential dangers. But to know when one individual is going to take action is just nearly impossible.</s>COSTELLO: Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, thank you so much for joining us this morning.</s>BEIRICH: Thanks for having me.</s>COSTELLO: Some believe the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin may have been inspired by anti-Muslim sentiment. So what can be done about Islamophobia in America? It's part of our "Talk Back" question today.