and a clue to the man's connection to hate groups. plus a new attack ad by an obama super pac linking mitt romney to someone's death. and an investigation into the safety of american soldiers. why is an interior tool to detect ieds still being used right now? good evening, everyone, i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the rise of hate in america. the massacre at this sikh temple in oak creek, wisconsin has raised so many questions and tonight we have new details about the shooter, wade michael page. page was living in wisconsinor about a year, and as our ted rowlands found out, in the months and weeks before he killed six people, page was a recluse and making arrangements to carry out his attack. ted is live in oak creek tonight. ted, what have you been learning tonight about page's past? >> reporter: well, erin, clearly, this is someone who was shutting down, taking himself out of the day-to-day of society, taking himself away from friends and family. we're also learning about his past, going back almost ten years where he was gravitating towards white supremacy. in the days and weeks before the temple shooting, wade page began to withdraw from the world, starting, according to neighbors, by moving out of the upstairs apartment behind this house he shared with his girlfriend and her son. neighbors say he left with a few boxes, but didn't seem upset. >> i never did see a big break-up or anything. i rarely saw him around. >> reporter: two weeks before the shooting, page stopped showing up for his job as a machine operator at this manufacturing facility. then on july 28th, a week before the shooting, he walked into this gun store and bought a 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun like this one. >> the purchase was done legally. the -- he filled out the state and federal paperwork, he passed the background check. >> reporter: six days later, authorities say he used that gun to shoot nine people, six of whom died. what still isn't clear to investigators is why. page's girlfriend was questioned the day of the shootings, but investigators say she offered no insight into page's motive. neighbors say she told them she hadn't talked to page since he moved out and he had even shut down his e-mail account. there were people inside, but no answer when we went to page's girlfriend's apartment. we're learning more about page's past and his apparent association with white supremacists. the owner of this harley-davidson shop in fayetteville, north carolina said he found an application belonging to page to join the ku klux clan after he fired page in 2004 for yelling at female employees. he also says page became angry when he came back later to get the application and was told it was destroyed. >> we escorted him to the car on his final day, and i guess there was some paperwork he thought he had left on his desk, and he did. it was an application for the kkk. and i got that application and destroyed it. >> reporter: page grew up and went to high school in littleton, colorado. his grandmother and stepmother still live in denver. >> what has changed him, i have no idea. and obviously, we're never going to know. >> ted, pretty tragic there, but also that shocking revelation about his application for the ku klux klan. have investigators found more information from page, notes he may have left or anything like that? >> reporter: well, no big ah-ha discovery, according to investigators. there was no note left, no -- nothing on a computer. and that's really what is perplexing here. in fact, the police chief here this evening told me that this is one of those situations where they may never know his true motive. >> one thing i know you found a lot more about, ough, ted, his military record. and a lot of people are talking about that having been a crucial part of his life, perhaps, where he may have found out about some of these groups he then joined. what have you found out about his military record? >> reporter: well, he was discharged for misconduct, basically, over an incident where he was drunk on active duty, and he went awol. and when he came to his discharge, he was told that he would not be eligible to re-enlist in the army. they told him they had had enough of him and sent him on his way. >> ted rowlands, thank you very much, reporting there oak creek tonight. there are hard numbers on the rise of hate in america and we want to share them with you. according to the southern poverty law center, hate groups have increased 69% since the year 2000. when we use the word hate, it means a group or movement that practices hate or hostility or violence, explicitly, towards another race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. take a look at this map. as you can see, there are hate groups in almost every state in this country, 84 in california alone. 65 in georgia, florida, new jersey and texas rounds out the top five states with hate groups. the numbers are stunning when you look at it. looking at it this particular way. the question is what is fueling this hate? jan berger has been tracking these groups, is a contributor to foreign policy magazine. buy rick is back with us, the director of the intelligence project at the southern poverty law center. good to see both of you. i appreciate you taking the time. jan, i want to start with you wade page, one of things we know about him and as ted has been reporting, a leader of a hard core white supremacist rock band called end apathy, hammer skins, and i wanted to read something for our viewers. and the mantra the group lives by, according to its website, this is available for all of us to see, is, quote, we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. how well-known was wade page among the white power movement? >> well, the band was pretty well traveled. they did gigs in baltimore, north carolina and in florida. the florida engagement was a particularly interesting one, because they performed at an event that was -- hammerskin event connected to the american front organization, that was a racial paramilitary group planning to start a race war. there were a number of arrests in may. and at the event, there was at least one informant law enforcement source attending the event and there may have been undercover fbi agents and local law enforcement, as well. >> so what are you saying? you're saying an event as recently as this may where wade page was, there could have been an informant to local law enforcement, to the fbi, to whom? to someone who would have seen him there? >> the event was in 2011. the arrests of the american front people were in may of 2012. and an informant reported seeing the man there, and in a redacted report. i wasn't able to read everything in the report. but he was definitely in a room with law enforcement source and there may have been other records that came out of that. hammerskins were involved with this american front group. so while we're talking about this guy, you know, as somebody who may have acted alone, he was also connected to a pretty wide variety of groups that are considered to be very dangerous. >> yes. and heidi, i guess no shows either the difficulty of connecting a person to a potential act or it could have been a failure. obviously, the fbi has said to cnn today they didn't start a formal investigation, whether they had seen wade page at any of these events or not, and heidi you said you had been tracking wade page for more than a decade. i'm curious how many people in general are you tracking. how many people do you track for these extended periods of time? >> well, there's a shocking number, actually, of individuals with connections to the hate movement we have captured information on. more than 20,000 by now. and wade page wasn't so rare. there's probably hundreds, several hundred skinheads that look like him or are tattooed up like him and have connections to groups like this. it may be in the thousands. so although he looks very, very scary to the average american, within this world, he's one of many. >> wow. so you're saying there are thousands of people sending the red flags that wade page has been sending to you. i know about a dozen years you tracked him. >> yeah, we have been following him since 2000, which is when he started hanging out with neo-nazis and ended up on the music scene. he attended a thing called hammer fest put on by this hammerskin nation in 2000 and then went on to form his own band, play in other bands and make connections with a whole host of groups. the hammer skins, the american front, as your other guest said. so he was very active in the skinhead movement for a long time. >> jan, we used to hear -- i guess maybe this is anecdotal, but it feels like we used to hear more about these white supremacist groups, about big rallies and it doesn't feel like we hear that anymore. but the statistics shows that the number of groups has been rising. why does it appear there's so much more under the radar now? >> the movement has become very splintered. in the '90s when this was really a very big deal, there was not only more larger organizations, some of which have been put out of business by the law center, there were bigger organizations. they had larger meetings. and what we have seen now are a host of smaller organizations when they get together, it's usually including 30 or 40. it's much more splintered movement. and they have also disconnected from some other anti-government extremists they used to be more closely aligned with. for instance, the patriot movement has really taken steps toward renouncing racism. it's not a totally clean break, but a lot of patriot groups which are anti-government oriented used to be friendly with these organized racist groups and not so much anymore. >> heidi and jan, thank you very much. still "outfront," there is a new super pac attack ad and this is an attack ad like we have never seen before. it links mitt romney to a woman's death. this is a new low? plus, a british bank tells the u.s. to go blank itself over iran. and the man accused of shooting gabby giffords makes a plea deal. are all the victims satisfied? this is new york state. we built the first railway, the first trade route to the west, the greatest empires. then, some said, we lost our edge. well today, there's a new new york state. one that's working to attract businesses and create jobs. a place where invation meets determination... and businesses lead the world. the new new york works for business. find out how it can work for yours at thenewny.com. i'll give you money for gas. 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[ male announcer ] the all new 37 mpg highway chevy malibu eco. from conserving fuel, to the technology that makes it happen. chevy runs deep. to the technology that makes it happen. it's something you're born with. and inspires the things you choose to do. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. our second story "outfront," nasty. the political attack ads keep coming and coming, and they are nasty. this time an ad from a super pac supporting president obama blaming mitt romney for a woman dying of cancer. >> when mitt romney closed the plan, i lost my health care. and my family lost their health care. and a short time after that, my wife became ill. >> and she passed away in 2006. five years after the plant closed. 13 years after being acquired the plant and as cnn has learned during a time when her primary insurer was her employer, not her husband's. so does this ad cross the line? michael walden is a former speech writer for bill clinton. david frum is for george w. bush and john avalon is here. great to have you. first of all, the facts don't seem to indicate this is true. at the same time, a horrific allegation. obviously, we left the -- let's lay out for people here the time line. bain capital buys this company, gst steel in 1993. it goes bankrupt in 2001. in 2006, she passes away from cancer. again, when her employer was her health care provider, not her husband's. what's your reaction to this ad? >> well, it's horrible. and it would be horrible, even if it were not so factually wrong. because in a capitalist economy, plants close all of the time. some bad -- some people go on to discover new meaning in their lives and acquire tremendous success and the people who laid them off don't deserve the credit for the fact they discovered new meaning in their lives. and you're not responsible for every unforseeable consequence for every business decision you make. and it is so brutal, it makes you wonder what the obama people will be doing in october if this is what they're doing in august. let me add one more thought, and this is in no way to excuse what the people did, which is outrageous. >> the ones who did the ad. the name of the super pac. >> let's not forget, mitt romney is the first governor in america to introduce a universal health coverage program. that is what -- that is his best answer to this. which he is the person to put in place conditions where this wouldn't happen anymore when people lose their jobs. why won't he talk about it? >> all right, i see that point, but to get there, you have to get through a really, really nasty ad that is -- >> yeah. and -- >> -- impossible to justify, right? >> look, i think it's important to point out, this ad doesn't accuse mitt romney of giving the woman cancer, obviously. but there is -- they're trying to make a linkage. is it way outside the line? absolutely. is it ugly? absolutely. and this is what super pacs do. a long time ago, we talked about how there was going to be a tsunami of sleaze on the airwaves, because of these super pacs. >> this super pac, though -- this super pac is run by bill burton, deputy press secretary under barack obama, and they don't talk about things which would be illegal and bill burton knows barack obama really well and i don't know if he would do this if he thought barack obama thought it would be vile. it's part of the legal fiction we've seen. it's got to be separate always a wink and a nod. but they say we can go further than the campaign can, we can be more aggressive. but that aggressiveness is always code for ugly. and this is the overwhelming ugliness of super pac ads. they're never positive. they're always negative. and this ad, in addition to being incredibly ugly doesn't add up. >> bill burton, who is the senior strategist, the man who used to be the deputy press secretary for the president said in response, quote, we're illustrating how long it took for communities to recovery. from the closing of these businesses. mitt romney has had an enduring impact on the lives of men and women and that has been devastating. a lot of people have lost their jobs while barack obama has been president, people who work in government. i guess you could blame him for their problems. >> well, i think, look, the facts that you just said raise important questions. and this was a very tough ad, a ratcheting up or down, as you want to look at it. and john is exactly right. if you don't like this, get used to it. this is the world of campaign finance, that the supreme court has given us with the citizens united decision and other cases. this is the world where super pacs run these ads, and 86% of the ads run in this campaign by super pacs supposedly independent, are negative. it is the most visible manifestation of a very disparate and depressing campaign where neither side -- has really told the country what it wants to do in the next four years with policy. >> because you put that stat out there, 86% of super pac ads. but if you look at the past week, 94% of the ads run have been negative. sponsored by anybody. 5% positive. is that the worst it's perhaps ever been? >> without a doubt. and part of it is that we think of the campaign as starting -- after labor day as some people have said, the campaign started a long time ago. we're near the home stretch. but this is a race where people use the negative ads, the public say they don't like it, but they actually work. but it's very unfortunate, it can't help public confidence in government and you've got to do some of it, but i would like to hear in a positive way from the candidates what they want to do. >> quick and final word from john, they do work. highly negative ratings for both candidates go up. >> this is a race to the bottom above campaigns, especially the obama camp wants to make mitt romney an unacceptable alternative. it does alienate some independent voters, you see some independents disgusted. what's the positive alternative? the answer is there isn't one in this campaign. >> time for a third party. thanks to all three. you can always have hope. next, this quote. "you bleeping americans, who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, what to do?" who said it and why is next. and be careful what you like on facebook. someone just got fired for that. you tell us what you want to pay, and we give you a range of coverages to choose from. who is she? that's flobot. she's this new robot we're trying out, mostly for, like, small stuff. wow! look at her go! she's pretty good. she's pretty good. hey, flobot, great job. oops. [ powers down ] uh-oh, flobot is broken. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. call or click today. it's something you're born with. and inspires the things you choose to do. you do what you do... because it matters. at hp we don't just believe in the power of technology. we believe in the power of people when technology works for you. to dream. to create. to work. if you're going to do something. make it matter. ♪ lord, you got no reason ♪ you got no right ♪ ♪ i find myself at the wrong place ♪ [ male announcer ] the ram 1500 express. ♪ it says a lot about you. ♪ in a deep, hemi-rumble sort of way. guts. glory. ram. our third story "outfront," you bleeping americans, who are you to tell us the rest of the world that we're not going to deal with iranians? those are the words of an executive from british bank standard chartered, quoted in a report by the new york state department of financial services. the state accuses the bank of using its new york branch to hide transactions from regulators, saying that it skeemd with iran to funnel at least $250 billion over a decade to the iranian government. the bank denies the allegations, but these are serious, serious charges. the fbi and the treasury department are investigating. "outfront" tonight, foreign affairs reporter elise labott. this is a quote out there. obviously we're in the midst of the toughest sanctions the u.s. has put on iran, but it needs the rest of the world to get on board. how does this undermine the sanctions effort? >> reporter: erin, it really undermines this. this is one of the most effective sanctions campaign in years. the u.s. has really squeezed iran's access to financial transactions, really bringing it to its knees, almost shutting down the iranian central bank. in recent months, it's instituted having iran -- countries that are using iran's oil to reduce their exports or they would face u.n. sanctions. they have been working with the eu on oil embargo. and so there are already these natural loopholes in sanctions for legitimate transactions like food and medicine. but what the u.s. really wants to do is close up these illegal loopholes. just last week, the u.s. slapped sanctions on a chinese bank for doing these