American Independent Party is a United States American political party. The party was established in 1968 by Alabama governor George Wallace. The party was opposed to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and opposed to federal government welfare programs. In 1972, the party nominated former Congressman John G. Schmitz of California for president. John G. Scmtitz, like many other members of the American Independent Party, were members of the John Birch Society. The John Birch Society (JBS) is an ultra-conservative organization that was founded in 1958. Some Birch members also helped organized the "Minutemen," a paramilitary group training to lead guerrilla warfare in case of a "Communist" take over. (The current Minutemen project is an off shot of the John Birch Society's version).

The National Alliance

The group was founded in 1974 by William Pierce, a former physics professor and author of the book, The Turner Diaries: (under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald) a novel about "white revolution" in America. The National Alliance was reorganized from an earlier group: the National Youth Alliance (NYA). The NYA was formed out of the remains of Gov. George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign organization Youth for Wallace. The NYA broke into factions as a result of infighting. Pierce gained control of the largest remnant in 1970 and continued the organization under that name until its reorganization in 1974.

Pierce previously had been an associate of the assassinated leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell.

Pierce died of cancer July 23, 2002, and was succeeded as National Chairman by Erich Gliebe. In April of 2005 following his termination as editor of National Vanguard Magazine, Kevin Alfred Strom and a small faction of the unit coordinators and members of the Executive Committee issued a declaration calling for Gliebe to step down. Gliebe refused, claiming that the National Alliance operates under a so-called "Leadership Principle" and that he would not yield to any coup. Strom then formed a new group called National Vanguard. Shortly thereafter, Gliebe resigned as National Chairman of the Alliance stating that he needed more time to spend with his family. Gliebe appointed Shaun Walker as his successor.

The National Alliance is strongly anti-Semitic. The group claims that Jews exert a negative influence at nearly every level of American society. The National Alliance has long claimed that Jews control both the news and entertainment media in America.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the National Alliance claimed that these attacks were caused by the U.S.'s support of Israel. The National Alliance also claims that Israel's Mossad launched the 2001 anthrax attacks in order to set up the US invasion of Iraq: a longtime enemy of Israel. In the article "The Anthrax Mystery: Solved" [1]which appeared in the March-April 2004 issue of the National Vanguard, it suggests Israel's Mossad--using the cover of Israeli Art Students--learned of the September 11 plot in advance and did little or nothing to inform the American authorities. Also prior to the September 11 attack, the article describes a series of anthrax hoax scares claimed to have been perpetrated by Mossad agents in order to implicate Dr. Steven Hatfill, and set him up as the "fall guy" for a future anthrax attack. The article further claims the Mossad issued a warning via instant message service (Odigo warning) to Jews near the World Trade Center hours before the attack.