Books related to a Satanist Neo-Nazi group are being bought and distributed within the US by mainstream shops together with Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
At time of publication, Bellingcat discovered that literature related to the Order of the 9 Angles (O9A) and its US affiliate Tempel ov Blood (ToB) are being bought within the US in addition to a lot of worldwide retailers.
According to O9A ideology the books generally promote using vicious ways to subvert society similar to advocating for ritual homicide of civilians. A lot of the content material is offered in a mystical language and setting, however contains extra particular actual world Neo-Nazi references together with describing the Holocaust as a lie and praising Nazi Germany.
Retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors concerned within the provide and sale of those books might not be conscious of the graphic content material contained inside them, nor their hyperlinks to the O9A group. Nevertheless Bellingcat’s investigation uncovered how simple it was to entry books and symbols associated to the group through mainstream retailers and publishers.
What’s the O9A?
The Order of 9 Angles (O9A) is “intrinsically intertwined with Nazism,” in keeping with a 2019 report on the far-right by HOPE not Hate – the UK’s largest anti-racism and anti-extremism organisation. Variously described as a community, sect, or cult, the O9A follows an ideology that mixes Neo-Nazism, wiccan components and satanism.
The report outlines that disruption and subversion are key ways broadly inspired by O9A. Its followers consider that “civilisation should be undermined and destroyed from inside, so adherents are inspired to be as grubby and horrible as they like – committing crimes, random acts of violence, sexual assaults, and even the ‘culling’ of human victims.”
Based on HOPE not Hate the group emerged in Shropshire within the UK within the Nineteen Sixties from a group of occultist teams. Regardless of initially having small numbers, restricted attain and a decentralised construction, chapters started to emerge elsewhere partly because of the unfold of O9A concepts on-line as folks sought out the “edgiest” positions. Folks affiliated with the group have been convicted of great crimes together with Ethan Melzer, 24, of Louisville, Kentucky.
Melzer, a former US Military paratrooper, was sentenced to 45 years in jail in March 2023 for a lot of costs together with tried homicide of US service members and illegal transmission of nationwide defence info. Melzer had been interacting with O9A members from the “Rapewaffen Division” on Telegram. Earlier than his arrest he had shaped a subgroup “Op Hardrock,” the place prosecutors allege Melzer mentioned the deliberate assault. Melzer pleaded responsible to costs and instructed the court docket: “I remorse each single factor I did.”
Based on his defence legal professional, Melzer was “in thrall to a weird satanic cult with white supremacist and ‘accelerationist’ political opinions, the Order of the 9 Angles (“O9A”), that he had found in obscure corners of the web the yr earlier than.”
What are O9A-affiliated books?
Like O9A itself, the networks of books associated to the group are loosely outlined. Bellingcat outlined O9A-affiliated books as these which record ‘Order of 9 Angles’ or ‘O9A’ within the title or because the writer (these are usually self-published works), in addition to books that record ‘Tempel ov Blood’ because the writer or ‘Martinet Press’ because the writer of the books. Bellingcat is just not naming or linking to energetic sale hyperlinks to stop amplification.
Conventional O9A books generally describe the Holocaust as a lie, advocate for ritual homicide (which they confer with as ‘culling’) whereas Tempel ov Blood books have much more disturbing content material, for instance glorifying sexual exploitation of kids.
Patrik Hermansson, a senior researcher at HOPE not Hate who has revealed on O9A, instructed Bellingcat that O9A-affiliated books usually describe ritualistic ceremonies together with human sacrifice in imprecise phrases.
However in the direction of the top of the texts, the imprecise dialogue usually turns into extra concrete strategies of easy methods to improvise assaults utilizing trendy weapons.
“Then it’s again to only straight-up arguing terrorism, however it comes on the finish of this very unusual ceremony that makes it previous the censors first. So it’ll add this mythological layer over the whole lot.”
Hermansson outlines that O9A-affiliated books are utilized in ritualistic ceremonies and unfold O9A ideology finally giving adherents clout throughout the neighborhood.
“You don’t purchase a ebook simply to learn it, you purchase [a Tempel ov Blood book] to smear your personal blood over it and take footage with it.”
How do the Books Attain Extensive Attain?
Bellingcat discovered that mainstream retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors have been concerned within the provide and sale of those books together with shops similar to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
We contacted all retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors concerned within the provide and sale of those books recognized on this article together with Amazon, Ingram, Martinet Press, Indigo, and Bol.com. We supplied an in depth record of books we had recognized and requested a collection of questions on whether or not they broke any pointers.
Barnes & Noble instructed Bellingcat they weren’t conscious of O9A, nor their publications. They said that such titles mustn’t seem on their web site and they’re within the strategy of eradicating the titles. Each Indigo and Bol.com instructed Bellingcat that they weren’t conscious of the content material of O9A-affiliated books and that that they had tens of millions of books on their websites, a lot of that are robotically uploaded. Indigo instructed Bellingcat they’ve initiated critiques of the O9A-affiliated merchandise they promote, whereas Bol.com eliminated all O9A-affiliated merchandise from their web site. Moreover Bol.com instructed Bellingcat not one of the O9A-affiliated books we recognized had truly been bought. Amazon instructed Bellingcat they’ve “product and ebook content material pointers governing what might be listed on the market on Amazon and promptly examine any itemizing when a priority is raised.”
Ingram and Martinet Press had not responded at time of publication.
Martinet Press and Tempel ov Blood
Many of the O9A-related books Bellingcat discovered being bought by bookshops and retailers record the writer as Martinet Press, a number of of which record “Tempel ov Blood” because the writer.
Based on HOPE not Hate’s Hermansson: “Martinet Press is an outlet for Temple ov Blood and subsequently part of the O9A community. Its books are all in step with O9A/ToB’s concepts and mythology.”
The founder behind Martinet Press is reported to be Joshua Sutter—a member of a lot of White Supremacist teams together with Aryan Nations—who was revealed in 2021 to have been an FBI informant since a 2003 arrest. US District Court docket filings point out that he acquired greater than $140,000 for his work, which included testifying in opposition to an Atomwaffen Division chief.
Bellingcat discovered Martinet Press listed within the International Register of Publishers, registered to an deal with in Lexington, South Carolina. The contact particular person for the publishing home is listed as Joshua Sutter’s spouse. A search of marriage licences from Lexington County, South Carolina, present Joshua Sutter married her in 2008. As reported by The Empire By no means Ended podcast, we discovered the identical now-defunct e mail deal with angleton_imprints@yahoo.com registered to Martinet Press was connected to a submit in an e mail chain dialogue “[o9a] Is The ONA Faux?” as a part of an O9A Yahoo Group dialogue in Could 2013.
Screenshot from International Register of Publishers exhibiting registration info for Martinet Press (left). Screenshot from Lexington County, South Carolina marriage licence search (centre) we now have blurred the title of Joshua Sutter’s spouse and marriage date. Screenshot exhibiting matching e mail deal with from Martinet Press utilized in an O9A Yahoo Group (proper). Picture Credit score: Compilation of screenshots.
Martinet Press publishing home advertises a lot of its books by way of Amazon.com buy hyperlinks – we discovered 22 distinctive energetic hyperlinks to Amazon.com (Amazon’s US Web site) on the Martinet Press web site. With out the buying hyperlinks, the attain of Martinet Press books could have been restricted to those that accessed Martinet Press instantly, however the hyperlinks probably allow a wider viewers to entry and buy the books.
Bellingcat tried to contact Joshua Sutter and Martinet Press through three Martinet Press emails, two bounced again however one was delivered. Bellingcat had acquired no response to our questions at time of publication.
On-line Retailers and Publishers
Bellingcat discovered that Amazon.com—the world’s largest on-line retailer of shopper items—presently sells at the least 19 Martinet Press books. Along with the Martinet Press books, Amazon.com additionally sells at the least 5 different O9A-affiliated books from different publishers.
The O9A books additionally function in Amazon.com’s bundle strategies together with ‘Regularly Purchased Collectively’ and ‘Prospects who considered this merchandise additionally considered.’
A few of the books are listed underneath ‘Spirituality and Faith’ whereas others are included within the ‘Demonology & Satanism’ part.
Utilizing the web site camelcamelcamel which archives historic Amazon product value knowledge, we will see that O9A-affiliated books have been bought through Amazon.com since at the least December 2015.
Kindle Direct Publishing
Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) is one other route that enables O9A-affiliated books to succeed in a wider viewers by enabling the self-publishing of O9A books.
We discovered at the least 4 instances the place Amazon KDP was listed because the writer of O9A-affiliated books that have been being bought by mainstream bookshops. One in all these was Indigo Books and Music – one in every of Canada’s largest bookshops.
KDP is Amazon’s self-publishing system that enables anybody to enroll and publish an e book, paperback or hardcover.
The KDP system guarantees authors they will get their work “to market quick” and provides two royalty choices of 35% or 70% on gross sales, with situations. The royalties are usually greater than conventional publishers.
It seems Amazon KDP is presently enabling the self-publishing of O9A books.
This isn’t the primary time the KDP system has been used on this manner; a 2020 ProPublica investigation discovered proof the KDP system had been utilized by white nationalist teams to self-publish.
The O9A-affiliated books that we discovered have been revealed by way of Amazon KDP additionally seem to violate Amazon KDP’s personal offensive content material pointers which outlines that Amazon won’t promote “content material that we decide is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation of kids, accommodates pornography, glorifies rape or pedophilia, advocates terrorism, or different materials we deem inappropriate or offensive.”
Bellingcat additionally discovered a number of O9A-affiliated books bought on Amazon.com that listed their writer as “CreateSpace Impartial Publishing Platform,” an organization that was purchased by Amazon and merged with KDP.
An Amazon spokesperson shared a hyperlink to Amazon’s strategy to controversial merchandise and content material and instructed Bellingcat: “Now we have product and ebook content material pointers governing what might be listed on the market on Amazon and promptly examine any itemizing when a priority is raised.”
An Indigo spokesperson instructed Bellingcat that they have been “unfamiliar with the content material of the precise books in query.” Given their 13 million titles on their web site it was not doable to personally overview each title and so they relied on their publishing companions to guage the content material of the supplies they publish. In distinction books which are stocked in-store are hand-picked by workers. Indigo instructed Bellingcat they’ve initiated critiques of the O9A-affiliated merchandise they promote.
Bodily Bookshops
Barnes & Noble—the biggest retail bookstore within the US—sells each Martinet Press revealed books, in addition to ebooks that record the writer as “Order of 9 Angles.” And we discovered a bodily copy in a bookstore in Texas.
The Barnes & Noble web site listed one O9A-affiliated ebook which was on the beneficial studying record for Atomwaffen Division members as being in-stock at a Dallas, Texas, retail store- which Bellingcat confirmed in-person.
A number of passages of this ebook explicitly violate Barnes & Noble’s content material coverage which applies to all publishers promoting content material and prohibits “content material that graphically portrays the sexual exploitation of kids.”
Barnes & Noble instructed Bellingcat they weren’t conscious of O9A, nor their publications. They instructed Bellingcat that such titles mustn’t seem on their web site and they’re within the strategy of eradicating the titles from their web site. They outlined that this can be very uncommon that they’ve ever bought objectionable books of this kind and the one ebook stocked of their Lincoln Park retailer has now been eliminated.
They went on to elucidate {that a} ebook of this kind could have discovered its manner right into a retailer if a buyer ordered the ebook for assortment within the retailer however by no means collected it or returned it as undesirable. Booksellers are anticipated to look at the ebook and customarily any title from exterior the shop’s inventory is just not truly shelved within the retailer, however saved within the again to be returned to the writer.
“We depend on bookseller vigilance to exclude unacceptable titles however recognise typically that this won’t be apparent and remoted errors could also be made.”
They reiterated that they’re within the strategy of eradicating all titles from the web site and have eliminated the ebook from the shop.
Distribution
Ingram Content material Group is without doubt one of the largest ebook wholesalers on the planet, and in addition has a self-publishing arm. It has 25 bodily areas the world over and so they make their catalogue of 17 million titles accessible to 40,000 retailers. Among the many books Ingram Content material Group shares look like the O9A-affiliated Martinet Press books.
Though Ingram Content material Group seems to limit entry to detailed ebook stock info, Bellingcat was ready to make use of Ingram’s Inventory Test app to establish that Ingram listed—on the time of publishing—greater than a dozen O9A-affiliated books as “In Inventory”.
The objects we checked gave the impression to be in inventory of their Tennessee distribution centre.
Though it’s unclear who prints the bodily books, we discovered a lot of examples the place Ingram’s inventory was supplied to different bodily bookstores within the US for instance, one college bookstore promoting the ebook included the disclaimer “Notice: This website lists what’s accessible for particular order from Ingram Content material Group.”
Ingram had not responded at time of publication.
O9A Symbols and Merchandise
The lore of the O9A accommodates a complicated assortment of symbols, most of that are—for these unfamiliar with O9A—tough to tell apart from extra mainstream satanic or black steel imagery. We reviewed symbols mentioned in a lot of O9A books, however haven’t linked to the books right here.
A logo seen on the duvet of at the least one O9A ebook and in addition seems in different O9A-affiliated literature is the O9A “sigil”, an elongated seven-pointed star inscribed in a circle. It’s displayed on many O9A paperwork and publications, in addition to on a distinguished O9A affiliated web site.
Bellingcat recognized a number of on-line shops—together with Amazon.com—that promote merchandise with the O9A sigil on them–mostly patches and necklaces, but in addition clothes like t-shirts. Nevertheless a lot of these have been faraway from Amazon.com within the week previous to publication.
Along with Amazon.com, we discovered a unique on-line retailer that bought child garments with the image.
A Community of Retailers, Bookshops, Publishers and Distributors
Bellingcat initially examined the extra apparent sources of O9A-affiliated books being revealed and bought. Nevertheless, as we continued to research we discovered that O9A-affiliated books have been being revealed, distributed and bought by way of a wide range of strategies and in addition showing in worldwide markets. The way in which these books made their method to different websites was not all the time easy, however hinged on a lot of publishers and distributors.
A few of the different publishers and distributors of O9A-affiliated books have been tougher to trace down. Bellingcat recognized a number of worldwide retailers distributing O9A-affiliated books. As an example on-line retailer Bol.com in The Netherlands bought three O9A-affiliated ebooks which record the writer as O9A and writer as “Mulberry Color.” Bellingcat discovered few references to Mulberry Color on-line and it’s not registered within the International Register of Publishers. Nevertheless we discovered one reference to Mulberry Color on a Russian-language VKontakte web page that recurrently posts O9A-related content material. We tried to contact the proprietor of the web page to seek out out extra about Mulberry Color, however at time of publication had acquired no response.
Bol.com instructed Bellingcat that they weren’t conscious of the content material of O9A-affiliated books, and had taken the three ebooks offline. They said that none of these books had truly been bought. They went on to element their overview course of for books and content material that includes an automated scanning system, the place they attempt to actively find hateful and discriminatory books. Additionally they retroactively overview books.
It ought to be famous once more, that retailers, bookshops, publishers and distributors concerned within the provide and sale of those books might not be conscious of the graphic content material contained inside them, nor their hyperlinks to the O9A group. Three organisations that responded to our request confirmed they have been unaware of the content material of O9A-affiliated books.
After we contacted them, a lot of organisations instructed us that they had eliminated the books or have been reviewing them.
Python scripts that have been developed for—and helpful in—the analysis of this text can be found in a GitHub repository.
Correction: This text was up to date on 3 July 2023 to notice that Barnes & Noble contacted us earlier than the deadline we outlined to them. Now we have now up to date the copy to incorporate their response.
We want to thank Ali Winston for his contributions to this report.
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