Page 77 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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50———Aryan Nations

New Jersey as a dockworker in Union City. A fervent and arrested on July 22, 1983, Arocena was tried in
anti-Communist, Arocena soon became involved New York for murder and attempted murder; in addi-
in the movement to overthrow Fidel Castro, Cuba’s tion, he was twice tried in Miami for charges relating
Communist dictator. In the early 1970s, Arocena came to the hundreds of pounds of weapons and explosives
to feel that the existing anti-Castro groups were doing seized from his Florida apartment. Found guilty in
too little to actively attack the Castro regime. With the all three of his trials, he is currently serving a life
support of the larger organizations, he began to recruit sentence in federal prison.
a small elite force to carry out assassinations and
See also OMEGA 7
bombings against those deemed to be pro-Castro.
Founded on September 11, 1974, Arocena’s group
became known as Omega 7, after the original number Further Reading
of members. The organization seems to have had no Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dossier on the Omega
more than 20 members at any time. Omega 7 received 7 Group. http://cuban-exile.com/menu1/!group.html,
funds from Cuban businessmen and from conducting October 29, 1993.
surveillance and other activities for a wealthy Cuban Lubasch, Arnold H. “Cuban Exile Group Reportedly
marijuana trafficker (Omega 7 did not aid in the actual Planned to Kill Castro on His ’79 U.N. Trip.” New York
selling or transport of drugs). The FBI found the group Times, September 22, 1983, B1.
Treaster, Joseph B. “Suspected Head of Omega 7 Terrorist
extremely difficult to penetrate—for several years, the
Group Seized.” New York Times, July 23, 1983, 1.
FBI thought “Omega 7” was merely a cover name for
Treaster, Joseph B. “Weapons Seized in Apartment of
the larger Cuban Nationalist Movement (CNM), an
Omega 7 Suspect.” New York Times, July 24, 1983,1.
impression that the CNM actively fostered.
Omega 7 carried out its first attacks on February 1,
1975, bombing the Venezuelan consulate in New York
City. Over the next seven years, its targets included ARYAN NATIONS
Soviet businesses and ships, Latin American embassies,
aka Church of Jesus Christ Christian
and pro-Castro Cuban exiles and businesses in New
York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Florida. In
the more than 30 attacks attributed to Omega 7, two Aryan Nations (AN) was one of the most promi-
people were killed and a few injured, though property nent Christian Identity-based hate groups active in the
damage was extensive. Its most devastating attacks 1980s. During that time, AN developed a strong net-
were against the Cuban Mission to the United Nations. work with neo-Nazi, skinhead, Ku Klux Klan (KKK),
On March 25, 1980, the group attached a radio- white supremacist, and militia groups, many of which
controlled bomb to the car of Dr. Raul Roa Kouri, the congregated and networked at the former AN com-
Cuban ambassador to the United Nations. In parking, pound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.
the device was jostled loose from the undercarriage and The roots of the AN date back to the 1940s and the
Arocena decided not to detonate it. On September 11, increased popularity of the Christian Identity movement
1980, however, an Omega 7 gunman killed a Cuban in the United States. Christian Identity adherents believe
attaché, Felix Garcia Rodriguez. that white Aryans are the “chosen people,” that blacks
FBI agents investigating the attacks on the are subhuman, that Jews are descendents of the devil,
consulate approached Arocena, asking for information and that the world is moving toward a race war. In 1970,
about the group’s activities. Apparently convinced Richard Girnt Butler, newly ordained by the American
that his comrades were informing on him in an Institute of Theology (AIT), which reflects Christian
attempt to oust him from the leadership, Arocena sub- Identity beliefs, took over a large Christian Identity con-
mitted to an interview by the FBI in which he admit- gregation in Lancaster, California, after its leader,
ted to being “Omar,” his nom de guerre as Omega 7’s Wesley Swift, died. In 1973, Butler moved the congre-
leader, and implicated himself and several colleagues gation to a compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho, and cre-
in the murder of Rodriguez and the attempted murder ated the Church of Jesus Christ Christian. In 1978,
of Dr. Kouri. Butler founded the church’s political arm, the AN.
After five days, Arocena fled New York for Miami, In the years since, Butler has called Hayden Lake
where he resumed his anti-Castro activities. Found the “international headquarters of the White race.” In