Vision Circle

Yesterday, the Aryan Nations made local headlines here in KC. It seems they were intent on making Kansas City Kansas their new National Headquarters. It's the allure of the Kansas gun shows which along with Mississipi shows account for the majority of guns sold that are used in crimes in the U.S., and, are a major recruitment funnel for white terrorists.

As a methamphetamine, transportation (air/rail/trucking)hub, and, rural poor white disaffected youth hub, the location is perfect. I'll give em credit for logistical smarts too. Coupled with the new NASCAR track and mega-Cabelas in KCK - there's the demographic fluctuation cover of big American tourism that'll screen their comings and goings and provide additional feeder flux like they were never able to obtain in rural Pennsylvania or Idaho.

This is bad on many many levels. The good news is that the backlash from an ad hoc coalition of folks yesterday - amongst whom GOP representation was conspicuously absent - turned this overt attempt at infestation back for the time being. Read the whole sordid pimple popping adventure below, but bear in mind the big picture of the domestic arms trade, its disparate effect on our communties, white terrorism in general, and the GOP's conspicuous lack of testicular fortitude when it comes to keeping its knuckledragging elements in check.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/11036787.htm

Neo-Nazis setting up base in KCK
Aryan Nations has a violent, racist history
By JUDY L. THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

The Aryan Nations — one of the most notorious neo-Nazi groups in
the United States — is moving its national headquarters to Kansas
City, Kan., causing alarm among civil rights groups.

The group's members, who believe that Jews are "the children of
Satan" and African-Americans are "beasts of the field," chose Kansas
City, Kan., because of its central location, said "High Counsel"
August B. Kreis III.

Kreis, who lives in Florida, said Wednesday that the Aryan Nations
national director, Charles Juba, recently relocated to the
metropolitan area from Pennsylvania with the aim of enlisting new
members.

It was unclear how significant the move is, because the group has
never revealed how many members it has and it is in the process of
rebuilding after its leader was bankrupted as the result of a
lawsuit in 2000.

A spokesman for the FBI in Kansas City could not be reached for
comment. But those who watch the radical right said area residents
should be concerned about such groups.

"I can say without equivocation that the (Aryan Nations) is the
most violent wing of the white supremacist movement," said Leonard
Zeskind, president of the Kansas City-based Institute for Research
and Education on Human Rights, and a board member of the Jewish
Community Relations Bureau. "He (Juba) has vowed to rebuild the
organization …"

Devin Burghart, of the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based
group that monitors the right-wing movement, said he found the move
to Kansas City unsettling.

"The presence of groups like this is always something to be
concerned about, especially given the Aryan Nations' track record of
violence," Burghart said.

Juba could not be reached for comment. Kreis, however, didn't
dispute that members of his group have been connected to violent
incidents.

"But it's the same thing with any organization," Kreis
said. "There's going to be good and bad people in all
organizations."

White supremacist groups again are in the national spotlight
following the murders this week of the husband and mother of a
federal judge in Chicago.

Authorities were investigating whether Monday's shooting deaths were
carried out by hate groups linked to white supremacist Matt Hale.
Hale, leader of World Church of the Creator, is facing up to 40
years in prison for trying to arrange the murder of the judge, Joan
Humphrey Lefkow, who presided over a case involving the group.

When asked about the murders, Kreis said his group wasn't involved,
but added: "We love it!"

Among the incidents involving people with ties to the Aryan Nations:

• Buford O'Neal Furrow Jr. shot a mail carrier to death in 1999
after wounding five persons at a Jewish community center in Granada
Hills, Calif. He was a former security guard at the Aryan Nations
headquarters in Idaho.

• Aryan Nations chaplain James Wickstrom is a Christian Identity
minister from Michigan and a leader of the anti-government group,
Posse Comitatus. Wickstrom spent time in prison for counterfeiting.

• Robert Mathews, who died in a 1984 shootout with federal agents
in
Washington, recruited Aryan Nations members for his group called The
Order. Order members killed Jewish radio host Alan Berg in Denver in
1984, and Missouri Highway Patrol trooper Jimmy Linegar in 1985.

• Aryan Nations members were sued in 1999 by a mother and her son
who alleged they were shot at by the group's security guards. As a
result, the group lost a $6.3 million judgment in 2000, forcing the
group to close its Idaho compound.

In a letter to followers dated January 2005 and posted on its Web
site, Juba announced the group's move and directed supporters to
send mail to a Kansas City, Kan., post office box.

"This move is intended to further advance our goals of an Aryan
Homeland in the North American Continent," Juba wrote. "Three years
ago with the assistance of our High Council, we centralized
authority on an organization level, eliminating the need for public
display of officers at a state-by-state, country-by-country level.
With this move, we have completed this format by centralizing the
physical authority, thus making our membership more accessible in
all points of travel."

Juba said the goal was to open up either a storefront or an office
in the Midwest before the end of 2005.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Juba started out in
the white supremacist movement as a teenager, when he joined the
Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. At age 21, the center
said, Juba became grand dragon of the International Keystone Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan in Pennsylvania.

In early 2002, after the Aryan Nations lost its compound in Idaho as
the result of the lawsuit, Juba joined with Kreis and another man to
replace leader Richard Butler, who was ailing. The group splintered,
and, after Butler's death in 2004, Kreis took over the group he
called the "true Aryan Nations."

Another faction calling itself the real Aryan Nations moved to
Alabama last year.

An Aug. 8, 2002, article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review mentioned
Juba's plans to build a new headquarters on a 10-acre farm in
northern Pennsylvania. The article quoted a man who said he had
infiltrated the group and that members held meetings with members of
the World Church of the Creator.

Kreis acknowledged that the Aryan Nations "will work with any pro-
white group," but wouldn't discuss how many people belong to his
group.

"But I'll tell you what," he said. "We're doing very well. I'm not talking about financially. But if you're talking about bringing the message to the people, we're doing a good job of it."

Predictably, Phil Kline and the other kooky Kansas southern
strategists including local AM talk-radio show hosts Jerry Agar and
Russ Johnson were either totally silent, or sticking up for the free
expression rights of this terrorist filth. Russ Johnson crapped his
lardtail pants when a series of brothers called in and called
the Aryan Nation what they are *TERRORISTS*

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/11045696.htm

Neo-Nazis dump plans for KCK headquarters

By JUDY L. THOMAS and DAWN BORMANN The Kansas City Star
The national director of the Aryan Nations, who just relocated the
white supremacist group's headquarters to Kansas City, Kan.,
resigned late Thursday.

The action came after The Kansas City Star reported Thursday morning
that Charles Juba had moved to the metropolitan area from
Pennsylvania with plans to rebuild one of the nation's most
notorious neo-Nazi organizations.

"He stepped down late this afternoon," said August B. Kreis III, who
calls himself the group's high counsel. "It's for family reasons.
Things just got too hot."

Kreis said Juba asked him to remove his name and picture from the
organization's Web site.

"Maybe he thinks if he steps a few steps back, the pressure won't
be so bad," Kreis said late Thursday from his Florida home. "I
don't know of anything like this ever happening."

Kreis said he didn't know yet what would happen to the Kansas City
headquarters, but added he wasn't concerned about Juba stepping down.

"We had a contingency plan in place," he said. "This won't shake
anything up as far as I'm concerned. We're going to move forward. We
have enough good people."

Kreis, who will take over as national director, said Juba would
remain in the organization. Kreis did not know, however, whether
Juba would stay in Kansas City. Juba could not be reached for
comment.

"He's not leaving the movement," Kreis said. "He's just no longer the national director."

Throughout the day Thursday – prior to Juba's stepping down --
reaction to the news that the Aryan Nations was moving its
headquarters to Kansas City, Kan., ranged from community outrage to
promises from law enforcement agencies to monitor the group.

Thursday night, the Unified Board of Commissioners of Wyandotte
County and Kansas City, Kan., unanimously reaffirmed a 1998
resolution condemning racism and hatred. It pledged that any group
furthering those beliefs would not be tolerated.

"This community will continue to use all lawful means at our
disposal in cooperation with the state and the federal governments
to eradicate such behavior in our community," said Mayor Carol
Marinovich.

Dozens of readers called and sent e-mails to The Star in response to
the story, expressing concern because the group's members believe
that Jews are Satanic and the root of all the world's problems, and
that nonwhites are "pre-Adamic," a species inferior to the white
race.

The significance of the move to Kansas City remained unclear,
because the Aryan Nations has never revealed its membership and is
in the process of rebuilding after splintering into factions and
being forced into bankruptcy following a lawsuit in 2000.

Law enforcement agencies said they would monitor the situation but
would not trample the white supremacist group's constitutional
rights.

"We always try to be aware of potential threats to the community,
but of course, we're not going to take any action against any person
or group until we have something specific," said Bob Herndon,
special agent for the FBI.

"Everyone has protected First Amendment constitutional rights, and
even though their political viewpoints, or social viewpoints or
ideological viewpoints or religious viewpoints may differ from other
people's, no one is under investigation for something like that,"
Herndon said.

He also cautioned that the community should be careful not to
overreact. "But certainly if somebody has something specific, call
the police or the FBI," he said.

Don Denney, spokesman for the Unified Government, acknowledged that
authorities could not stop the Aryan Nations from setting up shop in
the area.

"We don't discriminate against anybody," Denney said. "However, we
expect everybody to be model citizens and contributors to our
society and not detractors."

Meanwhile, community leaders from across the metropolitan area met
privately Thursday with law enforcement officials, the Justice
Department and an expert on neo-Nazi groups.

They were briefed on the history of Aryan Nations and agreed the
public should hear the same information. The groups will sponsor a
community forum at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Jack Reardon Civic Center
in Kansas City, Kan.

Residents will be briefed on the Aryan Nations and have a chance to
ask questions. Local leaders expect hundreds to attend.

"Come to be informed," said the Rev. Ellis Robinson, president of
the NAACP branch in Kansas City, Kan. "So many of us act without
correct information, and our purpose on Tuesday night is to inform
the community."

Robinson and many others are concerned that local residents will
panic. "We don't want people taking up arms and going into the
street," he said.

But Robinson does think that people should be concerned. "We live in
a day and age where anything can happen," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League for Missouri and
Southern Illinois said that even if the white supremacist group is
small, there is cause for concern.

"It's a problem," said Karen Aroesty, the league's regional
director. "They're basically looking to do what has been happening
here in St. Louis County with the National Alliance, which is to do
leafleting and use tools like billboards in order to get publicity
and sell the product."

Lawmakers were paying close attention as well.

State Sen. David Haley of Kansas City, Kan., said news of the Aryan
Nations' move prompted him to introduce hate-crimes legislation at
the statehouse on Thursday.

The proposal - which calls for stiffer penalties for crimes
motivated by race, sexual orientation, religion or creed - hasn't
made out of the Legislature since Haley began pushing it about eight
years ago.

"I know they have certain constitutionally protected rights of
speech and assembly," Haley said of the Aryan Nations. "I just hope
they go somewhere else to exercise them."

Ed Chasteen, the president of HateBusters, who has spent years
fighting racism in the region and throughout the country, said he
went ballistic when he heard the news.

"I couldn't believe it. Right here in our town. No way," Chasteen
said. "I don't know what it is about us that made them think they'd
be welcome. ... Whatever it is, we want to correct it."

The Star's Mark Wiebe contributed to this report

First glance

• News that the Aryan Nations is relocating its headquarters to
Kansas City, Kan., evoked a swift response from community leaders.

• A community forum on the issue is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the
Jack Reardon Civic Center.

Posted by at March 4, 2005 10:01 AM | TrackBack