Members of the National Socialist Movement pose in Orlando. Ohio NSM leader Mark Martin stands in back row, far left; FBI informant David Gletty kneels in front row, third from left.

David Gletty, the lead organizer of a neo-Nazi march through a historically black neighborhood in Orlando, Florida has been named as an FBI informant by the Orlando Sentinel. Shocked Orlando community leaders have demanded an investigation. Alzo Reddick, a former Florida state legislator, asked, "Was the FBI informant an activist or participant? Was he an agent provocateur from the get-go?"

A parade permit issued for the march names the National Socialist Movement (NSM) as the permittee and lists David Gletty as the "on scene event manager." Gletty has also bragged on the internet that the idea for the march was his own.

The NSM is called "the nation's leading neo-Nazi group" by the hate-group experts at the Southern Poverty Law Center. NSM members wear mock Nazi uniforms with swastika armbands.

Three hundred law enforcement officers policed the February 2005 march in Orlando where 500 counter-demonstrators faced off with several dozen neo-Nazis. There were 17 arrests.

FBI denies sponsoring neo-Nazi rally

Despite paying Gletty at least $20,000 over two years, the FBI Orlando office declined to take responsibility for the actions of its informant, saying in an official statement, "In no way did the FBI initiate, organize, or sponsor the NSM rally." Apparently not satisfied with the FBI's demurral, an Orlando Sentinel editorial questioned "whether the rally was Mr. Gletty's idea or if his FBI handlers put him up to it, perhaps to burnish his racist credentials. Beyond the $300,000 security costs [to police the march], the FBI owes residents an explanation, like how terrorizing a neighborhood helps the fight against terrorism."

The Orlando event was so heavily policed, in part, because several months earlier the NSM triggered a riot in Toledo when it attempted to march through a predominantly African-American neighborhood there.

Ohio NSM members joined in Orlando neo-Nazi march

The Ohio-based NSM members who organized the October 2005 march that resulted in a riot also traveled to Orlando for the NSM march through the African-American neighborhood of Parramore.

A photograph of Ohio NSM leader Mark Martin in Orlando shows him with the informant David Gletty and other racists raising their arms in a "Sieg Heil" salute.

Mark Martin did not merely participate; according to a website run by Bill White, a former NSM spokesperson, he played a leading role in the Orlando rally.

Confirming Martin's special role, the FBI's informant Gletty gives kudos to Ohio's "SS Mann Martin" for "supervising the overall mission" during the Orlando rally. Gletty wrote that he, Martin and another NSM'er, Sgt. Drake, took a consensus decision to end the rally at a certain point because "If we had stayed things would have went bad for the police and that would have hurt the good name we are building with police forces around the country."

FBI informant participated in Toledo neo-Nazi rally

During the period in which the FBI was paying him, Gletty traveled to a neo-Nazi rally in downtown Toledo which took place on the heels of the October riot. In his own account of these events, Gletty says that after he drove 1200 miles to take part in the December 2005 rally in Toledo, Ohio NSM members traveled to Orlando to join the NSM march there in a spirit of reciprocity.

Intriguingly, Toledo Police Chief Mike Navarre acknowledged to the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the day after the rally that the FBI had "assisted with intelligence gathering" for the rally.

Before Gletty's role in providing information to the FBI was revealed publicly, Mark Martin described the companionable time he spent on the day of the Toledo rally with the FBI informant and other Florida NSM'ers. On a now-defunct NSM website, Martin wrote, "Tampa Florida Unit Leader, Derek [Reis], and two of his members" all "[got] to know each other better over getting tattooed," and remarked how "Dave" (Gletty) had never seen snow.

One other prominent NSM member who was a major player in the Toledo march and rally and the Orlando march, Bill White, has been "widely accused by fellow neo-Nazis of being an informant" according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. White has since been expelled from the NSM and has set up a new Nazi group.

Heavy-handed policing and intelligence collection

Claims of heavy-handed policing and over-the-top surveillance by law enforcement agencies followed the NSM events in Toledo and Orlando. Counter-protesters and news media representatives who attended the December 2005 NSM rally in Toledo were forced to go through metal detectors and were videotaped in what police described as "intelligence-gathering for future investigations."

Why would the police bother to collect so much detailed information about people who oppose Nazis? That information would almost certainly be turned over to the FBI. The FBI is particularly interested in tracking the activities of anarchists. Since some of the most dedicated anti-racist groups are in that camp, the neo-Nazi events offer an excellent opportunity for federal authorities to do surveillance on anarchists.

Many questions remain. Before 2005, NSM public gatherings were typically stationary rallies which took place on government property like state capitols. Did the FBI influence Gletty's decision to stage an NSM march through an African-American neighborhood in Orlando? Did the FBI influence, through Gletty or through any other NSM member it might control, the NSM's decision to march through a predominantly African-American neighborhood in north Toledo?

Community residents in Toledo and Orlando have accused the police of protecting the neo-Nazis at the expense of the rights of neighborhood residents, counter-protesters and the general public. In turn, politicians and police officials say that these tactics are necessary and that their willingness to protect even the most controversial public gatherings shows the strength of their commitment to protecting freedom of speech.

However, if it should turn out that a neo-Nazi demonstration was, in effect, a staged, government-sponsored event organized by a professional agent provocateur, the justification for the forceful policing and extraordinary surveillance measures would fall apart.

It seems like the citizens of both Orlando and Toledo are owed more answers from the FBI on that account.