Page 166 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Fort Smith, Arkansas, Trial———141

Force 17 officially ceased to exist. It was merged striking a major blow to government efforts to root out
into the Presidential Security force, called al-Amn domestic terrorism of the far right.
al-Ri’asah. The terms of the Israeli-Palestinian peace More than two dozen white supremacists were
agreement permitted the development of a Palestinian named in two separate indictments returned by
police force, and many Force 17 members returned to grand juries in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in April 1987.
the Gaza Strip after more than a decade of exile in Five men, including CSA member Richard Wayne
Tunisia. Al-Amn al-Ri’asah, commanded by Faisal Snell, were indicted for conspiring to murder a fed-
Abu Sharah, is responsible for protecting Arafat and eral judge and an FBI agent. Ten others, including
other prominent Palestinians, collecting intelligence the chief of the Aryan Nations, Richard Girnt Butler,
information, and carrying out counterterrorism opera- and two top Aryan Nations leaders, Louis Ray
tions. The group’s counterterrorism targets are mainly Beam, Jr., and Robert E. Miles, were indicted for
opposition activists and suspected collaborators with conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. government by
Israel. Palestinians have accused the squad of police force.
brutality. According to press reports, force members The government maintained that the various
earn about $310 a month, wear camouflage uniforms, conspiracies sprang from a July 1983 meeting of the
and are largely armed with Kalashnikov machine guns. Aryan Nations World Congress in Hayden Lake,
According to the Israeli Army, Force 17 members Idaho. There, Butler, Beam, Miles, and the late Robert
carried out multiple attacks and drive-by shootings Jay Mathews, founder of the Order, allegedly dis-
against Israelis during the intifada that began in 2000. cussed plans to create a separate white nation in the
The Israeli Army has in turn bombed many police Pacific Northwest. Some of the 119 acts said to be
stations and other buildings used by the squad, which part of the conspiracy include the firebombing of a
has denied all charges of recent terrorist activity. On Jewish community center in Bloomington, Indiana,
February 13, 2001, Israeli Army helicopters tracked the purchase of firearms and explosives in Missouri
long-time senior officer Masoud Ayad as he drove his and Oklahoma, and the theft of more than $4 million
white Honda Civic along the main road in the Jabaliya from banks and armored cars in Washington State.
refugee camp near Gaza City. They opened fire and The money was intended to fund the establishment of
killed him. Ayad had been accused of being involved an Aryan nation; the bombings, murder, and sabotage
in mortar attacks against the Israeli settlements and were intended to disrupt society, with hopes of incit-
Army positions. ing a race war that would eventually topple the U.S.
government.
See also AL FATAH; YASIR ARAFAT; PALESTINE LIBERATION
The defense cast the case as a First Amendment
ORGANIZATION
issue, asserting that the defendants had rights of free
Further Reading speech and free association, and claiming that they
were being persecuted by a Jewish-controlled gov-
Philps, Alan. “The Highly Trained Elite That Officially ernment. In turn, the prosecution attempted to prove
Doesn’t Even Exist.” Daily Telegraph, March 30, that Butler, Beam, Miles, Mathews, and others agreed
2001, 18. to, and then engaged in, the conspiracies. The prose-
Whitaker, Brian. “Middle East Crisis: Outlawed: Enemies cution relied heavily on the testimony of James
of Israel—Two More Groups Denounced: Bodies
Linked to Arafat Join ‘Terror’ List.” The Guardian Ellison, founder of the CSA, who turned government
(London), December 5, 2001, 5. witness to lessen his existing prison term, as well as
Kerry Wayne Noble, second-in-command of the
CSA.
FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS, TRIAL Ellison testified that he was present at two meetings
in which the conspiracies were originated and dis-
cussed. He also claimed that, in December 1983,
In 1987, several prominent white supremacists, he participated in the plan to murder federal judge
including key members of the Order, the Ku Klux H. Franklin Waters and FBI agent Jack D. Knox.
Klan, Aryan Nations, and the Covenant, the Sword, Waters and Knox were both involved in cases related to
and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), were indicted on Gordon Kahl, a tax protestor who was known to several
conspiracy charges. A year later, all were acquitted, of the defendants and who had been killed by federal