Observer-Reporter: Neo-Nazis, opponents rally at Valley Forge National Park

About 100 neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan supporters shouted white supremacist slogans from an amphitheater stage at Valley Forge National Historical Park on Saturday, while twice as many counter-demonstrators heckled back from a nearby hillside. Jeff Schoep, 30, of Minneapolis, commander of the National Socialist Movement, launched the rally with an attack on Jews, who he said planned "the destruction of all races through the evils of race mixing." Speaker after speaker repeated the theme, with many attacking the war in Iraq as "Israel's war." "For 40 years, Israel has sought to get American forces on the ground in the Middle East," said Clifford Herrington, a former NSM chairman. The speeches were punctuated with shouts of "White power!" and "Sieg heil!" from the mostly male participants, many of whom wore brown shirts and swastikas. Counter-demonstrators, in a cordoned-off area several hundred feet away, returned shouts of "Bull!" and waved placards with slogans such as, "Get out of our melting pot." siehe auch: Peace activists gather to counter Nazis, protest war, U.S. neo-Nazis mark Yom Kippur with rally at Valley Forge, Nazis rally at park