INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
Recipe for disasterBy Leah
Samuel Are militias linked to the white supremacist movement?
|
In a recruitment video, the Rev. Norman Olson, commander of the Michigan Militia Corps, encourages fledgling militia groups to recruit blacks and other people of varied races and religions so that militias could not be accused of racism. But the long history of the extreme right's ties to the white supremacist movement fly in the face of Olson's efforts. "I see militia members sympathetic with white supremacist groups, and I see a lot of white supremacists at militia meetings," says Danny Welch, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Klanwatch project, which researches white supremacist and racialist organizations. While militias and white supremacist organizations are not synonymous, Welch says there are significant areas of overlap when it comes to the philosophy and membership of the groups. A key example is how both groups view the federal government. "The common thread is an extreme hatred of the federal government," says Welch. Militias advocate preserving gun rights and other individual freedoms, and armed resistance to what they see as government infringement upon those rights. In particular, laws such as the Brady Bill and income taxes are viewed as illegal. Similarly, white supremacists are committed to preserving jobs and economic power for white people, and fighting what they see as government's attempts to strip them of their birthright. In particular, they perceive affirmative action and welfare programs as benefiting blacks and other ethnic groups to the detriment of whites. The demographics for both groups are also markedly similar. Each has a wide spectrum of sympathizers and supporters, but both tend to attract working class whites disenchanted as a result of mounting economic hardship. Ties and ongoing communication between members of the Michigan Militia and white supremacists have been convincingly documented. Mike Reynolds, editor of Klanwatch's Intelligence Report, says the group uncovered links between Michigan Militia co-founder Ray Southwell and former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Norton. In 1981, Norton, and two others were connected by local authorities to a plot to bomb a synagogue. The men were charged in Tennessee with conspiracy and transporting stolen explosives across state lines. Norton was sentenced to five years in prison. Reynolds says that last December, Southwell visited Norton, who is now the southeast regional director of Aryan Nations, at his Tennessee home. Southwell has denied this, saying that Klanwatch and the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith "are becoming hate groups" by attempting to discredit militias. Klanwatch also links Southwell to John Trochmann, who heads the Militia of Montana and who was an Aryan Nations member. Trochmann's activities in recent years spawned Klanwatch's militia task force. "We started seeing a surge in militias," Welch says. "Then we found out about Trochmann. We're thinking, 'Here's a white supremacist, and now he's leading a band of armed citizens.'" But the similarities between the groups don't end with issues of race. They extend into political philosophy around the establishment of a "new confederacy." Olson recently used the Internet to outline militia political strategy, and may have revealed his own racist leanings. "My thought is to marshall (sic) the forces of America around the National and state identity and sovereign issues," he wrote. "The support of a new confederacy (emphasis his) approach to nationalism may be workable." Adherents to the new confederacy ideal advocate converting to a theocratic government and eliminating or separating from the federal government, which gives too much recognition to blacks and others as having equality with whites. The Christian Identity movement, which is based on a brand of racist theology, is a primary purveyor of this doctrine and is connected with both militias and white supremacist groups. Pete Peters, a Christian Identity pastor, ministers to the White Patriot Movement and the Aryan Nations in Colorado, according to Klanwatch. Peters also wrote "A Scriptural Understanding of the Race Issue," in which he offers "the Bible truth" concerning "the Caucasian people that settled America and formed the U.S.A. (and) are the covenant people of the Bible." Morris Dees, executive chairman of the Southern Poverty Law Center, wrote to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno last October, warning her of armed militia groups and their "racialist" connections. "We have substantial evidence that white supremacists are infiltrating the leadership of these organizations," Dees wrote. "In our view, this mixture of armed groups and people who hate is a recipe for disaster." |