Far-Right Influences on the Militia Movement Aryan Nations Headquartered near Hayden Lake, Idaho, Aryan Nations is a paramilitary hate group founded in the mid-1970s by Rev. Richard Girnt Butler, now 77 years old. It was formed around Butler's Church of Jesus Christ Christian, one of the several hundred churches affiliated with "Identity," a pseudo-theological hate movement. Identity doctrine maintains that Anglo-Saxons, not Jews, are the Biblical "chosen people," that non-whites are "mud people" on the level of animals, and that Jews are "children of Satan."
 Aryan Nations militantly advocates anti-Semitism and the establishment of a white racist state. Although primarily an Identity group, Butler's Aryan Nations reflects a Nazi-like philosophy; Butler himself has praised Hitler. During the 1980s, several of Butler's followers joined members of the neo-Nazi National Alliance and some KKK splinter groups to form a secret organization known as The Order, which planned to overthrow the U.S. government. To raise money for their planned revolution, The Order engaged in a crime spree involving murder, counterfeiting, bank robberies and armored car hold-ups. The group's activities ended with the death of its founder and leader, Robert J. Mathews, in a shootout with Federal agents in December 1984, and the incarceration of many of its members. 

As noted, anti-Semitism is a basic tenet of the Aryan Nations ideology. For example, Dennis Hilligoss, the group's state coordinator in Oregon, recently said that "The Jew is like a destroying virus that attacks our racial body to destroy our Aryan culture and purity of our race." 

To aid in recruitment efforts, Aryan Nations hosts many racist activits during its summer festivals of hate at Hayden Lake, called the "World Congress of Aryan Nations." At these conferences, Butler's organization has offered courses in urban terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Numerous extremists have addressed Aryan Nations gatherings. John Trochmann, a featured speaker at the 1990 congress, later became a founder and leader of the Militia of Montana. 

Since 1979, Aryan Nations has been engaged in prison outreach. This is an important aspect of the Aryan Nations' agenda, given that so many members of The Order and Aryan Nations are now serving long prison sentences. Aryan Nations corresponds on an ongoing basis with prison inmates through letters and the forwarding of its periodicals. In 1987, Aryan Nations began publishing a "prison outreach newsletter" called The Way, which has facilitated recruitment and connections between Aryan Nations and its offspring, Aryan Brotherhood, a network of prison gang members. 

Butler has called Hayden Lake - an otherwise peaceful community - the "international headquarters of the White race." Recently, though, Butler's organization has suffered from internal difficulties, with several of its members leaving to form new groups. Carl Franklin, chief of staff for Aryan Nations, resigned in July of 1993 as a result of disagreements with Butler, who had previously named him his successor. Wayne Jones was security chief at the Aryan compound since the late 1980s and departed along with Franklin. They and two other members moved to Western Montana to form their own white supremacist group called the "Church of Jesus Christ Christian of Montana." Following these departures, two more key members, Charles and Betty Tate, left to join Kirk Lyons, their son-in-law, a North Carolina-based lawyer who has defended right-wing extremists and has called himself an "active sympathizer" with their causes. In addition, a one-time Aryan Nations official named Floyd Cochran has quit the group and renounced anti-Semitism and racism. 

Despite the recent defections, Aryan Nations seems to be showing signs of rejuvenation. Several new "state offices," often consisting of a mail drop, have opened in the last year. Additionally, Staff Director Tim Bishop, the former Kansas state leader for Thom Robb's Arkansas-based KKK and a member of the Aryan Nations since 1984, manages the day-to-day operations with enthusiasm. 

Aryan Nations has been mentioned prominently in connection with one of the incidents that militia groups cite as evidence of a govt conspiracy against the citizenry - the 1992 Randy Weaver confrontation in northern Idaho. Weaver, a white supremacist who had reportedly visited the Aryan Nations compound in the past, resisted an effort by Federal agents to arrest him at his remote cabin for alleged weapons violations. Weaver's wife and son were killed during the stand-off, along with a deputy U.S. marshall. During the seige, groups of Aryan Nations supporters, in addition to Skinheads and other neo-Nazis, rallied in support of Weaver near his cabin. 

The post of successor to Butler remains vacant. It is believed, however, that Louis Beam, who has been touted in the past as Butler's heir apparent, may step in to fill that void. Beam, who was David Duke's Texas KKK Grand Dragon in the 1970s, has served as the Aryan Nations Ambassador-at-Large. He recently purchased property in the northern Idaho panhandle not far from the Aryan Nations headquarters at Hayden Lake. He recently attended a gun rights rally whose sponsoring group, reports the Spokane Spokesman-Review, includes militia members and sympathizers, and was at the most recent Aryan Nations congress. Further, he has lately written in support of "leaderless resistance" - strategy that calls for the formation of autonomous cells organized around ideology, not leaders, so as to be better able to carry out actions against their enemies with reduced risk of infiltration.  (Anti-Defamation League, 9/10) 

Aryan Nations: The Nazis March Again by David Lethbridge On Saturday, July 18, the neo-Nazi, Christian Identity forces of the Aryan Nations marched through the downtown streets of Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. This was the first time in the twenty-five year history of the fascist organization that Aryan Nations had staged such a public event, and the first time that they had called for like-minded neo-Nazis from across North America and Europe to join them. 

Billed as the "hundred flag march," leader Richard Butler intended the parade to be a "witness to the world of Aryan Unity." Early reports indicated that the Aryan contingent included men and women, about half being youth. Some of the neo-Nazis wore Klan robes, and each of the marchers carried either US, European, Confederate, or swastika flags. There were no Canadian flags since Aryan Nations members consider both the US and Canada to represent the nation of Manasseh, one of the tribes of ancient Israel. 

Butler rode in a jeep-like vehicle escorted by a police cruiser. Dozens of police, wearing riot gear, protected the Aryan Nations throughout the march and arrested 23 of the hundreds of anti-racist protestors for such infractions as "inciting to riot." The demonstrators chanted and jeered, frequently drowning out Butler. Police protection of neo-Nazis and the Klan in conjunction with arrests and harassment of protestors is, of course, standard practice in the 1990s. Also quickly becoming typical is Coeur D'Alene mayor Steven Judy's call for townspeople to disappear, hide, and stay off the streets; a policy that reeks of defeatism and appeasement. 

Significantly, the aging Butler named Neuman Britton to be his replacement as Aryan Nations leader after his death. Britton is a former member of the American Nazi Party, has intimate connections with the widespread and violent Posse Comitatus, and has been chaplain of Aryan Nations for many years. Britton, who is wealthy, has a dangerous talent never possessed by Butler - he is a brilliant and fiery speaker who is known to criss-cross the US inspiring the membership. 

The impact in Canada of the Aryan Nations march is difficult to assess. Former Canadian leaders of the neo-Nazi organization - Dan Wray, Lester Morris, Terry Long, and Charles Scott - have all faded from prominence, due in part to strong anti-racist organizing. 

In 1997, Aryan Nations went underground in Canada. It's new leader, known only as Brother John, decided to eliminate any public phone numbers or postal addresses. Brother John, who may well have been the former associate of Charles Scott known as "Mr. X," is described as in his early thirties, and possibly operates a tow truck in the Vancouver area. Brother John first came to light in 1996 following an alleged cross-burning near Merritt, BC, involving Klan and Aryan Nations members from both Canada and Washington State. 

According to an audiotape obtained by this writer, Brother John has established "my command, my control, my communications. I got my intelligence net set up. I got my administration, my action groups, my security. I have been teaching people how to operate basically small cell groups, and how to keep themselves out of the media, out of the limelight." Brother John refuses to reveal the number of Aryan Nations members, but claims, "thousands of supporters and subscribers." While this figure may be inflated, Brother John insists that "southeastern BC and southwestern Alberta" should become part of a whites-only nation. 

The Canadian division of Aryan Nations can only be contacted officially through Aryan Nations headquarters in Idaho. According to Gerry Gruidl, communications director at HQ, Aryan Nations is "recruiting in New Brunswick, in Ontario, in Alberta, and in Saskatchewan." He further claims that they are getting a good response to the organizing drive, and that the Internet has enabled them to make "terrific inroads" because "they get to know what we say, not what some Jewish anti-Christ says we said." Jesse Warfield, state leader of Aryan Nations in Idaho, contacted by this writer after the hundred flag march, revealed that the neo-Nazi organization intends to "form a political party in the near future and down play the religious angle." Aryan Nations believes that they now "have the backing" to "unify the white race" in a single political party. He also said that only 4 or 5 Canadians participated in the march, but refused to comment on the Canadian leadership. Surprisingly, he stated that Aryan Nations intends to "throw their adversaries off-guard" by immediately asking for a parade permit to march in Sandpoint, Idaho, near the Canadian border. Warfield expects a "stronger Canadian contingent" at this second rally. August 1998 

----------------------------------------- Aryan Nations Property Given Up. COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho Sep 22, 2000 In a blow to hate groups that have made the Northwest their clubhouse, the founder of the Aryan Nations has agreed to give up his Idaho compound to satisfy a $6.3 million verdict against the white supremacist organization. Richard Butler wanted to avoid the spectacle of sheriff's vans showing up to seize the 20-acre property, lawyers said Friday. He has agreed to hand over the property no later than Oct. 25. 

Under the agreement reached Thursday, Butler must give up the property and all its contents -- Nazi and Confederate flags, Third Reich posters, a silver bust of Adolf Hitler, stained glass swastikas and contents of a print shop. Butler, 82, will leave with only his clothing and personal effects. A planned Oct. 28 parade in downtown Coeur d'Alene could be the final public hurrah for the sect: Butler also must give up the Aryan Nations name, though it was not immediately clear when he must stop using it.

``I would say this is a significant victory for the people of Idaho and that I hope that this is the end of the story,'' Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said from Boise. ``One clear image that should emerge is that Idahoans do not condone these activities of malcontents that would promote hatred and bigotry.'' Richard Cohen, a lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., said Butler is not precluded from continuing his church, the Church of Jesus Christ Christian-Aryan Nations, which operates on the property. Butler will deed the property near Hayden Lake to Victoria and Jason Keenan, who won the jury award earlier this month after they were attacked outside the sect's compound in 1998. 

``The Keenans will be able to do with the property what they want,'' Cohen said Friday. Edgar Steele, who represented Butler during the trial, said the deal will go through only if a judge refuses to grant a new trial. The compound containing the sect's church, barracks and Butler's home were scheduled for seizure next Friday. Under the agreement, Butler will remain on the property until one week after the expected ruling on a request for a new trial, or Oct. 25, whichever comes first.

Butler moved to northern Idaho from California in 1973 to found his sect, which called for a whites-only homeland in the Northwest. He began holding an annual event called the Aryan Nations Congress in 1981, attracting racist and anti-government groups from across the country. A recent report by the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity identified 11 white supremacist groups in Idaho, 10 of them in the Panhandle, a region of beautiful lakes and forested mountains that draws thousands of tourists and retirees.

 Northern Idaho has gotten an undeserved reputation as a haven for white supremacists because of the Aryans' presence, said Jonathan Coe, the executive director of the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce. ``This development is yet another positive outcome of the trial,'' Coe said. ``If it means Richard Butler is unable to continue the Aryan Nations and the message of hatred, we think it's a real success.'' Earlier this month, a Kootenai County jury found Butler, a co-defendant and the Aryan Nations grossly negligent in hiring and training the security guards who shot at and assaulted the Keenans.

The Southern Poverty Law Center represented the mother and son, who were awarded $330,000 in compensatory damages and $6 million in punitive damages. Morris Dees, the co-founder of the law center, had said he intended to take everything the Aryan Nations owns. In 1987, Dees won a $7 million verdict against a Ku Klux Klan organization over the slaying of a 19-year-old black man in Mobile, Ala., forcing the group to turn over its headquarters building.

In 1990, he won $9 million in Portland, Ore., against the White Aryan Resistance in the beating death of a black man by neo-Nazi skinheads. It was not known where Butler will live; no one answered the telephone Friday at the Aryan Nations. He could move his church elsewhere or he could concentrate his activities on the Internet, where Aryan Nations already has a home page.

 ``I don't know Pastor Butler's plans, but he has said he intends to stay in north Idaho and continue to be pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ-Christian,'' Steele said. Steele said he counseled Butler ``not to provide any type of haven for these oddballs, criminals and wingnuts. They're the ones that got him in trouble.'' 
  --------------------------------------------

  Jeff T. Green for The New York Times 
  Mayor Steve Judy of Coeur d'Alene hailed the Aryan Nations verdict. 
 COEUR d'ALENE, Idaho
 STEVE JUDY was all of 28 years old, and less than a month into 
 his job as mayor of Coeur d'Alene, when he had his first 
 official brush with the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group 
 that he and countless other people in this northern Idaho city 
 describe as an awful thorn in the side of the community. The 
 group wanted a permit for a parade down the town's main street. 
 "I'm 31 now, though some days I feel 70," Mr. Judy said. "It's 
 going to be a great book someday, I keep telling people. `So You 
 Want to Be a Mayor?' That's going to be the title." 
 If he ever does write a book, Mr. Judy says, then Sept. 7, 2000, 
 will mark a jubilant chapter: the day a local jury delivered a 
 $6.3 million verdict against the Aryan Nations, a damage award 
 that lawyers for two victims of a 1998 attack by members of the 
 group hope will bankrupt the organization and drive it out of 
 the area.

 Jurors made clear in interviews yesterday that the question in 
 their 10 hours of deliberations was never really whether to 
 punish Richard G. Butler, the self-styled pastor of the group, 
 and his deputy, but rather by how much to punish them; for a 
 while, some jurors held out for a judgment of as much as $100 
 million. In any event, the mayor said yesterday, the community 
 sent a message with the award. 

 "It's the message we've always tried to give out: This is a 
 place that cares about human rights," he said. "Maybe now we'll 
 be known as the place that got the verdict against the Aryan 
 Nations." 

 People in Coeur d'Alene seem palpably frustrated that northern 
 Idaho has acquired a reputation as a haven for neo-Nazis and 
 other extremists like the 82-year-old Mr. Butler, a retired 
 aeronautics engineer who moved to his compound 20 miles north of 
 here in the 1970's to escape what he once called the "alien 
 scum" in Southern California. He has described the compound as 
 the "international headquarters of the white race." 

 Mr. Judy says he contends with the region's image wherever he 
 goes. "It's up there with the floating green"  a signature hole 
 on a golf course in this resort town  "and the beauty of the 
 place as a whole," he said. "Tons of people know how beautiful 
 Coeur d'Alene is. But you also hear, `Oh, is that where those 
 skinheads or the Aryans are from?' " 

 What is less reported by the national media, he says, is the 
 community's response to the fringe groups. First of all, there 
 is the revulsion that most people feel for them. There is also 
 the human-rights education fund set up with local donations, 
 establishing a curriculum to teach schoolchildren, the mayor 
 said, about "dignity, tolerance and respect." There are also the 
 various honors given the town, including the Raoul Wallenberg 
 Award, usually given to an individual but presented to the 
 entire community in 1987 for its efforts to counteract the Aryan 
 Nations' message. 

 Although some 80 skinheads and other young men gathered here in 
 July 1998 for a march sponsored by the group, Mr. Judy feels 
 some frustration that the community's response, a quaintly named 
 "Lemons to Lemonade" campaign, was less well reported. Thousands 
 of people attended a counter-rally, and some devised a pledge 
 program for human rights that raised more than $1,000 a minute 
 for every one of the 32 minutes the extremists marched. 
 MR. JUDY, citing the loss of merchant business and the added 
 security costs created by such hubbub and tension, says the Aryan Nations has committed "economic terrorism" against his city. (Police security for the 1998 march, which ended without violence, cost more than $100,000.) 

"I'm a big believer in the Constitution," the mayor said,

 sitting in his office at City Hall, which has a magnificent view 
 of Lake Coeur d'Alene. "I studied constitutional law" at Gonzaga 
 University, and "the community's rights are really second place 
 to any organization's right to free speech." But "it just seems 
 to fly in the face of this Republic we have that those folks can 
 come and portray a message here that hurts people, that hurts 
 our community, that hurts a lot of people economically. What are 
 the community's rights in this? It just doesn't seem fair."
 As for the reputation that extremists have bestowed on the area, 
 Mr. Judy said: "We can't compete with the free media that they 
 receive that's negative. We all want the headline to read, 
 `Coeur d'Alene, the city known for human rights, has this 
 problem,' and the problem's two column inches and the rest of it 
 is all about Coeur d'Alene and how great it is and how we 
 respond. That's what we want. We deserve it."

 But whether the jury's award will help change perceptions is an 
 open question. A leader of the Jewish Defense League from Los 
 Angeles recently criticized Coeur d'Alene for what he called its 
 "placid" response to the Aryan Nations over the years. And even 
 if the group's members leave, northern Idaho will remain one of 
 the least ethnically diverse places in the nation: the black 
 population is 0.2 percent, according to census figures, and the 
 Hispanic population about 2.5 percent. 
 Mr. Judy is up for re-election next year but says he has not yet 
 decided whether to run. He certainly seems politically inclined 
  he worked for five years as a Senate aide in Washington  but 
 he has a family with three young boys to support. At $1,000 a 
 month, his salary is far from lavish, and he and his wife are 
 hoping to establish a business soon. 
 Still, he said, Coeur d'Alene sent a powerful message with the 
 verdict on Thursday, and he is proud to be a public official 
 here.

"I think we've struggled against hate and against the Aryans for so long here," he said, "a victory like this is a big deal to all of us." 
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