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Kremlin Critic Debugs Office. Tweets About It.

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

Video taken by Aleksei Navalny's colleague showing the wiretap device

On Monday, Aleksei Navalny, a blogger and anticorruption crusader who is perhaps Russia's most influential Kremlin critic, arrived at work and with the help of a wiretap detector provided by a colleague discovered that his office was bugged.

It was a scene out of the cloak and dagger days of the Soviet Union, except that Mr. Navalny proceeded to describe the entire affair in real time to his 274,271 followers on Twitter and then post a video about the discovery on his blog.

“Experts, what is this?” Mr. Navalny asked, posting a photograph of a device hidden behind the baseboard in his office.

Not content with his online experts, Mr. Navalny apparently summoned the authorities. Twelve police officers arrived along with wiretap experts who, Mr. Navalny reported, determined that the device was in fact equipped with a microphone. They also discovered a hidden video camera.

The police dusted for prints and wrote up a report.

Russian officials did not respond to the revelation, and the reaction among Mr. Navalny's supporters was hardly one of surprise.

“Shocker! Navalny's being listened to? I'd never have thought,” Ksenia Sobchak, a pop celebrit y turned government opponent, said in an apparently sarcastic remark on Twitter.

Last week, Mr. Navalny was charged with embezzlement and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Such an outcome, as my colleague Ellen Barry reported, would signal a sharp escalation in President Vladimir V. Putin's efforts to defang Russia's opposition. Mr. Navalny was previously the target of an investigation into the same embezzlement case, but investigators dropped it in the spring saying they had found no evidence of wrongdoing.

So far, Mr. Navalny has tended to make light of his situation, taking frequent jabs at the authorities in the domain where he is strongest: social media.

Video of the police inspecting Mr. Naval ny's office

In a video later posted to his blog, Mr. Navalny said he and his colleagues, whom he described as “paranoid,” decided to check for bugs in his office “for the fun of it.”

“Honestly, I thought they'd hide them better,” he said.



After Shooting, Searching for Clues in the Music of Hate

By JENNIFER PRESTON and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

As a teenager, Wade M. Page, the 40-year-old gunman who killed six people and wounded three others at the Wisconsin Sikh Temple on Sunday, developed a passion for music. His stepmother, Laura Page, 67, recalled that he worshiped the guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan.

It was his music, as our colleagues, James Dao and Serge F. Kovaleski report, that investigators turned to for clues to help understand why Mr. Page opened fire on Sunday before he was shot and killed by police.

Photos posted online on Myspace pages and BandMix show him performing in practice spaces with banners, flags and other Nazi paraphernalia.

In his own words on a Myspace page that has since been taken down, Mr. Page explained why he founded a white power band he called End Apathy in 2005.

“The music is a sad commentary on our sick society and the problems that prevent true progress,” he wrote.

On Bandmix, Mr. Page described his influences as “everything from AC/DC, COC, RKL, BFG, all RAC, DRI, Slayer, Sabbath, Maiden, GWAR, Dio, etc.”

A guitarist and singer, Mr. Page also performed with at least two other bands called 13 Knots and Definite Hate that appeal to members of the white supremacist movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“This guy was in the thick of the white supremacist music scene and, in fact, played with some of the best known racist bands in the country,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center.

Among the titles of songs uploaded to the 13 Knots Myspace page are “Runnin from the Law,” “Buckshot” and “13 Knots.”

In “Buckshot,” the sound of gunshots is part of the music, and the lyrics include, “Buckshot, just for you. Buckshot, what are you going to do. Bang. Bang.” Other phrases include, “finger on the trigger” and “going to kill.”

The song “13 Knots” talks about murder and execution and notes that “only God can forgive.”

On Definite Hate's Myspace page, an album titled “Welcome to the South,” features an image of a Confederate flag and a noose. In one song uploaded to the site, the United States is then described as “overrun” by minorities, who are depicted using racist and ethnic slurs.

“What has happened to America, that was once so white and free?” asks the singer. The song culminates in a call for “all Aryans” to unite. It is unclear if Mr. Page contributed to the song.

On another Definite Hate album called “Violent Victory, the cover shows a drawing of a tattooed white fist punching a black man, who spits blood. The fist appears to have tattoos on its fingers with the letters “HFFH,” which may refer to a logo for the Hammerskins, a major white-supremacist organization: “Hammerskins Forever, Forever Hammerskins.”

“The Hammerskins dom inate much of the white power music scene in the United States, in terms of holding concerts, having Hammerskins-associated bands and associated record labels,” said Mark Pitcavage, director of research for the Anti-Defamation League.

He said Mr. Page became a “prospective member” of the Hammerskins in 2011, meaning he was in a probationary period of six months to a year. By the end of 2011, he had become a “fully patched member,” and gotten the Hammerskins tattoo on his right arm, Mr. Pitcavage said.

Mr. Page talked about attending his first Hammerskins gathering and described his musical development in an online interview with Label 56, a record label that earned a spot on the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list for distributing “racist hate music.”

The label also released one of Mr. Page's albums. The interview has since been removed from Label.56.com, but a screenshot is on the law center's Web site.

Mr. Page does not discuss vio lence in the interview. He talks about why he started End Apathy and how he got involved in the white supremacist music scene.

End Apathy began in 2005 and the concept was based on trying to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back. A lot of what I realized at the time is if we could figure out how to end peoples apathetic ways it would be the start towards moving forward. Of course, after that it requires discipline, strict discipline to stay the course in our sick society. So, in a sense, it was a view of psychology and sociology. But I didn't want to just point the finger at what other people should do. But also I was willing to point out some of my faults on how I was holding myself back. And that is how I wrote the song, ‘Self Destruct.'

In that song, he wrote: “You betray your dignity for this miserable life.

He also describes how he got involved in the white supremacist music scene a few years after he left the Army in 1998.

I am originally from Colorado and had always been independent, but back in 2000 I set out to get involved and wanted to basically start over. So, I sold everything I owned except for my motorcycle and what I could fit into a backpack and went on cross country trip visiting friends and attending festivals and shows.

Since the shooting, Label 56 has deleted the interview and released a statement condemning the bloodshed:

Label 56 is very sorry to hear about the tragedy in Wisconsin and our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who are affected. We have worked hard over the years to promote a positive image and have posted many articles encouraging people to take a positive path in life, to abstain from drugs, alcohol, and just general behavior that can affect ones life negatively. Likewise we have never sought attention by using “sh ock value”/ symbols and ideology that are generally labeled as such. With that being said, all images and products related to End Apathy have been removed from our site. We do not wish to profit from this tragedy financially or with publicity.

In closing please do not take what Wade did as honorable or respectable and please do not think we are all like that.

Thank you, Label 56

It now appears that investigators are turning to some of Mr. Page's former bandmates for information. An NBC affiliate in North Carolina reported on Tuesday that FBI agents searched the home of Edward Brent Rackley, whom Mr. Page identifies as a member of his three bands in the Label 56 interview. According to the NBC report, Mr. Rackley launched into a racist tirade when two black deputies entered his property.

“I am a racist,” he said according to police reports cited by the station. At one point he seems to have threatened violence.

Reached by telep hone, Mr. Rackley declined to speak with a reporter. “I'm not interested. This is him. I don't care to be bothered anymore,” he said.

The NBC affiliate reached Mr. Rackley's answering machine, which said: “We favor a free, strong, proud, white America.”

In a telephone interview, Mona Rackley said that her son lived with Mr. Page for about six months last year at a relative's property in Nashville, N.C., and that Mr. Page seemed like a respectful man.

“We had meals with him and he was decent at the time,” Ms. Rackley said in an interview, noting that the family had rented a room to Mr. Page in a house on her daughter's property. “And then he just moved out. He didn't seem anything like the person who would do this. It makes me sick.”

The white power music business is a major source of revenue for American neo-Nazi groups, often outstripping other kinds of fund-raising, said Brian Levin, a criminal justice professor at California State University at San Bernardino who is an expert on hate groups. William Pierce, one of the founding fathers of the white supremacist movement in the United States and whose book, “The Turner Diaries,” was an inspiration to Timothy McVeigh, purchased a white supremacist label called Resistance Records in 2000, to further his message. Mr. Pierce, the founder of a white supremacist group called the National Alliance, was making more than $1 million a year from the label when he died in 2002. His movement and record label are still active.

But bands like End Apathy and Intimidation One, with which Mr. Page played, are also a powerful tool for persuading young people to join these groups at a time when they have had trouble recruiting new members through more traditional means. Not only does the music appeal to angry teenagers but it also provides a sense of community and a mission: to randomly assault members of various minorities in the name of self defense. “It g ives them a simple folklore,” Mr. Levin said. “It's a validation for young people who feel threatened, frustrated and isolated. This gives them a family, a sense of community and a belief system.”

Mr. Page was regarded in the world of hate music as an accomplished bassist who had wider musical tastes beyond neo-Nazi bands than many of the other players he worked with, Mr. Levin said. Known to be a drinker, Mr. Page also did not have a reputation for violence among people who closely monitor white supremacist bands; he was seen as someone who was more comfortable in the role of a musical recruiter than a storm-trooper, Mr. Levin said. “He wasn't a chest-thumper,” Mr. Levin said.

Aaron Flanagan, a research analyst at the Center for New Community in Chicago, who tracks white supremacist movements in the United States, said such music is an important propaganda tool within white supremacist movements. William Pierce, one of the founding fathers of the wh ite supremacist movement in the United States and whose book, “The Turner Diaries,” was an inspiration to Timothy McVeigh, purchased a white supremacist label called Resistance Records in 2000, to further his message. Mr. Pierce died in 2002, but his movement and record label are still active.

“White power skinhead music is by and large the main entrance point of people into this movement,” Mr. Flanagan said in an interview. “It gives the sound track, it gives the outlet for the aggression.”

Serge F. Kovaleski, Jack Begg, Ben Sisario and Jim McKinley contributed reporting



Filipinos Turn to Twitter as a Lifeline After Severe Flooding

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

The worst flooding since 2009 has swamped major streets in Manila and nine provincial areas around the city, as rescue workers used rafts and boats to try to rescue people trapped on rooftops or in buildings. As my colleague Floyd Whaley writes, more than 50 people have been killed and at least 250,000 have been evacuated in the last week in the flooding, which was set off by a series of storms and monsoon rains.

An aerial view of the Manila flood on Tuesday in a video posted by Mikey Bustos, a singer, appealing for donations.

As the deluge paralyzed urban areas, shutting down transportation and making it difficult for services to be distributed, residents turned to social media to call out for help and to pinpoint with names and addresses the locations of those trapped. Residents considered most at need were highlighted, like pregnant women, children and the elderly. Ho spitals were in need of supplies as power dwindled.

The flooding was the worst to strike the Philippines since 2009, which Filipinos called their Hurricane Katrina, a reference to the flooding in New Orleans after the storm in 2005. Hurricane Katrina rescuers were directed to pleas for help daubed on the walls and shouted from rooftops at boats or low-flying helicopters.

Typhoons Ketsana and Parma struck Manila within a one-week period in 2009.

The Philippine government documented rescue requests through Google to help w ith its efforts in this flooding, which officials are concerned could get worse.

As Mr. Whaley notes in his story, Manila, which is home to more than 10 million people, is particularly vulnerable because it is cradled in a low-lying area between a large lake and the ocean.

That has meant that La Mesa Dam, north of the city, has crested in recent days, forcing officials to open gates that released additional water. This, combined with high tides, has left urban areas swelling with water from the southern lake, the ocean to the west and an overflowing river down the center.

Photographs online show people clinging to wreckage or pulling themselves along rope to apparent safety. Some inched along sagging power lines like tightrope walkers.

The Philippines Red Cross said it was monitoring the water level of La Mesa Dam, which has reached an “alert” level. The organization said it has rescued 250 people in at least three areas, using rubber boats and ve hicles. It said it was working around the clock, with 63 evacuation centers serving about 8,000 people so far.

Follow Christine Hauser on Twitter @christinenyt.



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