Page 78 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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Aryan Nations———51

1979, Butler began holding annual conferences that and supervision of the security guards and ordered AN
attracted members of various white supremacist to pay $6.3 million in damages to the Keenans. After
groups, especially neo-Nazis and the KKK. AN even Butler declared bankruptcy, the 20-acre compound at
offered courses in guerrilla warfare and urban terror- Hayden Lake, as well as AN’s intellectual property—
ism. By 1989, Butler added Aryan Youth festivals as including the names “Aryan Nations” and “Church
well, held on the weekend nearest to Hitler’s April 20 of Jesus Christ Christian”—were awarded to the
birthday. Keenans. In March 2000, the Keenans sold the prop-
The AN gained significant public attention in the erty for $250,000 to the Carr Foundation, a human
1980s because of the actions of a splinter group called rights group; Carr planned to build a human rights
the Order (comprising several members of AN, center in nearby Coeur d’Alene to counter the legacy
including the Order’s leader, Robert Jay Mathews, as of the AN compound and of white supremacist move-
well as members of the neo-Nazi National Alliance ments in northern Idaho.
and some KKK groups). In a series of dramatic bank In July 2000, Neuman Britton, of Escondido,
robberies, the Order stole more than $4 million to California, was appointed the new AN leader at the
fund the overthrow of the U.S. government and a race Aryan Nations National Congress held in Hayden Lake.
war, borrowing ideas from William Pierce’s 1978 Britton died of cancer in August 2001, leaving AN lead-
novel The Turner Diaries. The Order collapsed in erless once again. In October of that year, Harold Ray
1985, when 25 of its members were sent to prison. Redfaeirn, of the Ohio AN chapter, was appointed
With many of its former members in jail, in 1987 the new leader. Redfaeirn appointed August “Chip”
AN began to publish a prison newsletter called B. Kreiss III as the group’s minister of information.
“The Way.” The newsletter was used to spread Together, Redfaeirn and Kreiss have escalated the
Christian Identity beliefs and to connect the AN with its rhetoric of violence and hatred associated with the AN.
prison faction, a prison gang known as the Aryan In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
Brotherhood. It was also used to recruit new members, which the AN Web site lauded as retribution for U.S.
a growing concern for the organization because AN support of Israel, Kreiss wrote, “If this beast system [the
membership had begun to decline. federal government] looks to us to plunder, arrest, and
In the early 1990s, several key members left AN. fill their detention camps . . . , then by all means fight
After clashing with Butler in 1993, Carl Franklin, then force with force and leave not a man standing.”
chief of staff and seen as the next leader of the group, Under Redfaeirn’s leadership, the AN has also
left and took the security chief, Wayne Jones, with tried to find a new home. By 2002, AN had fewer
him. Others, such as Charles and Betty Tate, left to than 100 active members and possibly a few hundred
join groups elsewhere. At that time, AN had only three more supporters worldwide. Through its Web site,
chapters in the United States. Despite infighting, AN the AN has actively recruited fellow Christian
began to actively recruit neo-Nazis and skinheads in Identity followers and white supremacists to move to
an effort to increase membership. By 1994, AN had Potter County, Pennsylvania, because 98 percent of
chapters in 15 states; by 1996, the organization was in that county’s population is white. The decision to
27 states throughout the country. move to Pennsylvania followed the organization’s
AN activity surged in the late 1990s. In 1997, AN split with Butler in January 2002, in which Redfaeirn
members held rallies in several Ohio cities and dis- expelled Butler from the organization. Redfaeirn
tributed antiblack and anti-Semitic fliers throughout then announced his own resignation, effective on
northern Kentucky and southwestern Ohio. On July 1, March 30, 2002. A three-member High Council will
1998, security guards at Hayden Lake viciously then take over the governance of the AN.
attacked Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, when
See also THE ORDER; PATRIOT MOVEMENT; POSSE COMITATUS;
they stopped briefly in front of the compound. Two of
THE TURNER DIARIES
the guards, John Yeager and security chief Jesse
Warfield, served time for their roles in the attack; the
ensuing civil suit destroyed the AN and its aging Further Reading
leader Butler. Bushart, Howard L., John R. Craig, and Myra Barnes.
On September 7, 2000, a jury found AN and Butler Soldiers of God: White Supremacists and Their Holy
negligent in connection with the selection, training, War for America. New York: Kensington, 1998.