Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 21:42:13 -0500
From: Paul Kneisel <tallpaul-AT-nyct.net>
Subject: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Fri, 15 March 2002 -- 6:23 (#659)
__________________________________________________________________________
The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 15 March 2002
Vol. 6, Number 23 (#659)
__________________________________________________________________________
Bush Government Prepares For Crimes Against Humanity
01) Robert Scheer (L.A. Times), "The Fallout of Desperation," 12 Mar 02
02) Duncan Campbell ([London] Guardian), "U.S. sends suspects to face
torture," 12 Mar 02
03) Pravda, "U.S. Threatens Russia With Nuclear Attack," 9 Mar 02
Decline In Some Far Right Strength
04) ADL, "White Supremacist Groups Join Forces, Then Break Off," 1 Mar
02
05) Nicholas K. Geranios (AP), "Northwest Hate Groups Lose Prominence,"
12 Mar 02 Web Sites of Interest:
Book/Movie/TV Reviews:
06) David Germain (AP), "Jewish-Skinhead Tale On Showtime," 11 Mar 02
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BUSH GOVERNMENT PREPARES FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY
01) The Fallout of Desperation
Robert Scheer (L.A. Times)
12 Mar 02
When in doubt, nuke 'em.
The news that the Pentagon had secret contingency plans to fight terrorism
with nuclear weapons has the marks not of considered military doctrine but
rather of an infantile tantrum born of the Bush administraton's
frustration in making good on its overblown promise to end the terrorist
scourge.
There is desperation in the air; the giant that is America feels humbled by
the terrorists who have not been brought fully to account. There still is
not a clear line of command connecting the hijackers with Al Queda and
Taliban leaders whom the president has yet to capture, "dead or alive".
Neither has there been progress on the source of the anthrax that killed
five people and crippled the U.S. Postal Service, except the disconcerting
evidence that this particular evil seems to be homegrown.
Nuclear weapons also are a made-in-the-U.S.A. product, and given that we
are the only nation to have used them, one would expect that we would have
a special responsibility to eschew their future use.
Instead, the administration's plan not only targets the three "axis of
evil" nations - Iran, Iraq and North Korea - but Syria, Libya, Russia and
China as well.
Consider the abusurdity: We risk escalating a worldwide nuclear arms race
to nuke a shadow terrorist enemy whose most effective military action to
date was begun with box cutters. Clearly, that threat could have been met
best by taking the modest steps of maintaining armed air marshals on
civilian planes and employing better-trained airport security guards.
Nuking our own or anyone else's airports would not have saved the World
Trade Center and the human beings who were there Sept. 11. The hijackers
succeeded because our $30-billion-a-year intelligence apparatus failed to
perform and we consistently coddled Sauidi Arabia's backers of religious
hate even after their minions blew up our embassies.
Having squandered the Clinton-led Israel-Palestine peace initiatives,
President Bush watched from the sidelines as the Mideast caldron, the
source of most of the world's terrorist threats, boiled to overflowing.
The enduring terrorist threat has little to do with the caves of
Afghanistan and everything to do with the failure to secure the Mideast
peace promised by Bush's father's Gulf War.
Clearly, Arab-Israeli peace should be the highest order in a war on
terrorism. This administration, however - whether to gain poll approval or
because of its allegiance to military contractors - has raised the military
options above any diplomatic efforts. So why not also throw some nuclear
weapons into the mix?
Because it is ludicrous. Does anyone really believe that nuclear weapons
might save the lives of Israelis and Palestinians, when it assuredly would
incinerate them? Or that targeting Russia and China for potential nuclear
attacks would lead those nations to embrace further moves toward nuclear
stability and arms control? Or cause them to be less threatened by our
announced plan to scrap the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and build a
missile defense?
In fact, Chinese or Russian military planners would be attacked by their
own hard-liners if they failed to respond to this report by placing even
greater emphasis on making their own nuclear forces more robust,
survivable and again on hair-trigger alert in anticipation of an American
first strike. To encourage heightened fears of U.S. nuclear intentions at
a time when the Russians and Chinese are our allies in the war against
terrorism is dizzyingly counterpoductive.
We need to encourage those countries and other nuclear powers to think of
nuclear weapons as dangerous junk that at best will boomerang and destroy
all that they care about. As the anthrax example demonstrates, our own
investment in weapons of mass destruction can easily turn into our own
undoing.
What madness to even entertain the thought that nuclear weapons are
anything other than the means to the world's destruction. What we need
instead is a U.S.-led world-wide campaign to shun nuclear weapons as
inherently genocidal, to effectively end proliferation of nuclear weapons
technology and material and to treat those nations that dally in the
business of nuclear arms as barbarians in need of restraint.
It is we who have defined rogue nations as those bent on developing
weapons of mass destruction. How then can we so cavalierly entertain the
idea of again leading the world down the path to nuclear Armageddon? -
- - - - -
02) U.S. sends suspects to face torture
Duncan Campbell ([London] Guardian)
12 Mar 02
The US has been secretly sending prisoners suspected of al-Qaida
connections to countries where torture during interrogation is legal,
according to US diplomatic and intelligence sources. Prisoners moved to
such countries as Egypt and Jordan can be subjected to torture and threats
to their families to extract information sought by the US in the wake of
the September 11 attacks.
The normal extradition procedures have been bypassed in the transportation
of dozens of prisoners suspected of terrorist connections, according to a
report in the Washington Post. The suspects have been taken to countries
where the CIA has close ties with the local intelligence services and where
torture is permitted.
According to the report, US intelligence agents have been involved in a
number of interrogations. A CIA spokesman yesterday said the agency had no
comment on the allegations. A state department spokesman said the US had
been "working very closely with other countries - It's a global fight
against terrorism".
"After September 11, these sorts of movements have been occurring all the
time," a US diplomat told the Washington Post. "It allows us to get
information from terrorists in a way we can't do on US soil."
The seizing of suspects and taking them to a third country without due
process of law is known as "rendition". The reason for sending a suspect to
a third country rather than to the US, according to the diplomats, is an
attempt to avoid highly publicised cases that could lead to a further
backlash from Islamist extremists.
One of the prisoners transported in this way, Muhammad Saad Iqbal Madni, is
allegedly linked to Richard Reid, the Briton accused of the attempted "shoe
bomb" attack on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in
December. He was taken from Indonesia to Egypt on a US-registered
Gulfstream jet without a court hearing after his name appeared on al-Qaida
documents. He remains in custody in Egypt and has been subjected to
interrogation by intelligence agents.
An Indonesian government official said disclosing the Americans' role would
have exposed President Megawati Sukarnoputri to criticism from Muslim
political parties. "We can't be seen to be cooperating too closely with
the United States," the official said.
A Yemeni microbiology student has also been taken in this way, being flown
from Pakistan to Jordan on a US-registered jet. US forces also seized five
Algerians and a Yemeni in Bosnia on January 19 and flew them to Guantanamo
Bay after the men were released by the Bosnian supreme court for lack of
evidence, and despite an injunction from the Bosnian human rights chamber
that four of them be allowed to remain in the country pending further
proceedings.
The US has been criticised by some of its European allies over the
detention of prisoners at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After the
Pentagon released pictures of blindfolded prisoners kneeling on the
ground, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was forced to defend the
conditions in which they were being held.
Unsuccessful attempts have been made by civil rights lawyers based in Los
Angeles to have the Camp X-Ray prisoners either charged in US courts or
treated as prisoners of war. The US administration has resisted such moves,
arguing that those detained, both Taliban fighters and members of al-Qaida,
were not entitled to be regarded as prisoners of war because they were
terrorists rather than soldiers and were not part of a
recognised, uniformed army.
- - - - -
03) U.S. Threatens Russia With Nuclear Attack
Pravda
9 Mar 02
The local war in Afghanistan continues this can be seen with the naked
eye. Operation Anaconda has stifled itself in its own embrace. The
American blitzkrieg Washington of spoke with such enthusiasm has not
worked in Afghanistan. The Americans and their allies have suffered
serious losses, while militants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have being
annihilated in the hundreds, and, according to the Pentagon, do not intend
to stop their resistance and even continue to advance. However, what is
very strange is that the rusty Kalashnikov rifle is more effective than US
vacuum bombs.
The military campaign in the Afghan mountains has become one of the most
difficult ordeals for the US Army since the war in Vietnam, BBC observer
Johnatan Marcus stated. According to him, for the Pentagon, it is a
serious test for the new information systems capacity to carry out
military activities under very disadvantageous conditions. In previous
military operations, the Gulf War and the war against Yugoslavia, the US
preferred to rely on its aircraft.
However, battles in the Afghan mountains are another thing. The Rangers and
America's mountain divisions take part in them. This signifies America's
attempt to transform its Armed Forces from a not very mobile military
machine fit mainly for the Cold War into a more mobile army using the most
state-of-the-art, modern technologies. However, America's activities in the
mountains are complicated due to many troubles. It is difficult for
helicopters to fly in the mountain air. While Al Qaeda has large reserves
of grenade launchers.
The Taliban and Al Qaeda militants seem to be more experienced in carrying
out battles under such conditions: mountains and bad weather. That is why
the battles are so violent.
Americans are irritated with the militants resistance, and they are even
ready to use nuclear weapons to finish such battles as soon as possible.
The Americans wanted to use low-powered nuclear bombs, which were already
used their war in Vietnam and, later, in Iraq. Therefore, why not no use
them now, in another country?
The United States is transferring nuclear weapons from storage to its
battle arsenal and plans to use nuclear weapons against other countries.
According to the Los Angeles Times, possessing a secret report of the
Pentagon, there are seven countries among the potential targets of nuclear
attacks: Russia, China, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.
American military supposes that small nuclear weapons could be potentially
used against these countries. Nuclear weapons could be used in the
following cases: against objects that are able to withstand a nuclear
attack; as a reciprocal measure to use of nuclear, chemical, and
bacteriological weapons; and in the case of an unexpected development in a
military situation, the newspaper writes. Moreover, the newspaper reports
that Washington plans to start the development of low-powered nuclear
weapons. The Pentagon speaks of possible situations when the US might use
nuclear weapons: war between China and Taiwan, North Korea attacking South
Korea, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It should stated that the report appeared just at the moment when the Bush
administration declared a reduction of America's nuclear arsenal, while, as
a matter of fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, it is looking for
reasons to use it.
This is a dynamite, one of expert named Bolton said to the journalists. I
can only guess what these seven countries representatives would say at
Council of Europe. According to Bolton, Washington is not looking for a
reason to use its nuclear arsenal against anybody. However, he stressed, we
will do our best to protect the population of America.
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DECLINE IN SOME FAR-RIGHT STRENGTH
04) White Supremacist Groups Join Forces, Then Break Off
ADL
1 Mar 02
Over the last year the two most extreme and virulently racist and anti-
Semitic groups in the United States have demonstrated unprecedented
cooperation with each other, particularly after the September 11 terrorist
attacks, but of late have pulled apart after one of the groups upstaged the
other at a recent rally.
A York, Pennsylvania, rally, held in January 2002, was just one of a series
of events in which the neo-Nazi National Alliance (NA) and the white
supremacist World Church of the Creator (WCOTC) joined forces. However,
fallout from the York rally has resulted in discord between the two groups.
The York rally was the brainchild of Matt Hale, head of the WCOTC, who has
exploited racial trouble spots for publicity and attention. York was chosen
because of the arrest last year of Mayor Charlie Robertson, a former police
officer, and eight other white men charged with murdering a black woman
during the city's 1969 race riots. Two black men have been charged with
murdering a white policeman during the same time period.
Yet this rally was different from others promoted by Hale because it was
not billed solely as a WCOTC event. On the contrary, Hale and the neo-Nazi
National Alliance (NA) jointly publicized the event. He and NA
representative Billy Roper issued enthusiastic statements encouraging their
respective members to attend, hailing the upcoming rally as "an historic
occasion that you don't want to miss," and asserting that it would unite
pro-white groups for the "salvation of White people of America."
Overlapping constituencies
Cooperation between the NA and the WCOTC was not preordained. Both
originated in the 1970s and shared similar ideologies, but they attracted
different adherents. Whereas the original Church of the Creator appealed to
young neo-Nazi skinheads, the National Alliance was more interested in
recruiting a broader base of middle-class, educated followers.
As time passed, however, the NA and WCOTC memberships became less
strikingly different. A number of factors contributed to this change. In
1993, the Creators suffered a major blow when founder Ben Klassen committed
suicide. The group floundered until Hale became the leader in 1996. It
continued to attract young racists, but Hale himself--intelligent and well
educated, with a law degree from Southern Illinois University--represented
exactly the sort of person the NA hoped to attract. Meanwhile, in 1999,
William Pierce moved into the skinhead arena when he purchased Resistance
Records, a white power music company. Most of the customers of the company
and its related magazine, Resistance, are young neo-Nazi skinheads.
Beginnings of cooperation between NA and WCOTC
Although the constituencies of the NA and the WCOTC have overlapped in
recent years, there are still key differences between the two groups. The
NA remains a highly centralized organization that requires approval for
actions and literature distribution, while the WCOTC operates under a much
looser structure. Pierce requires potential leaders to attend leadership
conferences twice a year whereas WCOTC leaders need to meet minimal
requirements. Yet despite the differences between the groups, individual
followers often move easily from one to the other, depending on the kind of
structure and leadership they are seeking.
Perhaps aware that his clientele of racist skinheads might find the looser
structure of the WCOTC more appealing than the NA, Pierce has reached out
to Hale in the last two years. In the Winter 2000 issue of Resistance, Hale
was interviewed about his efforts to get the Illinois Supreme Court to
reverse the decision of the committee that denied him a law license. In
December 2000, WCOTC member Eric Owens created the "Ben Smith Scholarship"
(in honor of a WCOTC member who committed suicide after killing two and
wounding nine in a 1999 shooting spree), whose recipient was to be
confirmed jointly by WCOTC and Resistance Magazine. Additionally, Hale
wrote an article in the Winter 2001 issue of Resistance, in which he spoke
of the "urgent need" for individuals "to work within the legal system for
our 'Cause,' to become lawyers and wage our struggle in the courts."
Consequently, since the spring of 2001, the "institutional" cooperation
between the WCOTC and the NA steadily increased.
One event that may have catalyzed the two groups to increase their ties was
a March 10, 2001, speech that Hale gave at public library in Wallingford,
Connecticut, at which a number of NA members showed up to demonstrate
support for Hale. He chose Wallingford because of the controversy there the
previous year over its mayor's refusal to give city workers a paid holiday
for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Giving speeches about race issues in
community-based venues such as a library is a relatively new strategy for
Hale and has resulted in a great deal of publicity for his group. The
speech and accompanying rally in Wallingford attracted a number of counter-
demonstrators and a violent altercation broke out between the two sides.
Hale succeeded in garnering media attention, and the NA was also pleased
with the publicity and the confrontation with anti-racist forces.
Mutual appreciation between key players
One of the keys to the growing relationship between the two racist groups
may be the rise within the National Alliance of Billy Roper, the group's
Deputy Membership Coordinator. After the Wallingford rally, Roper told an
NA follower that Hale appreciated the support from NA members. Roper also
pointed out his similarities with Hale: "He and I are about the same age
and have quite a few friends in common, and we're both dedicated to the
cause." Roper could connect with Hale in a way that the older Pierce could
not. Nor did Roper, who headed no organization of his own, represent a
threat to Hale in the way that Pierce did.
At the end of March, the Lumpkin County (Georgia) unit of the NA invited
Georgia WCOTC members to join them in an anti-immigration rally. A few days
after that rally, Roper touted Hale as "an extremely intelligent,
charismatic and courageous pro-White leader, whom I respect personally." By
mid-April, Roper announced that Hale had "specifically invited" NA members
to attend another public meeting in Pontiac, Illinois. NA members joined
Hale and the WCOTC at yet another public meeting in Illinois in early June.
In July, Roper invited WCOTC members to join the NA at a rally at the
German embassy in Washington, D.C., to protest the "lack of free speech in
Germany."
These "formal" invitations to attend each other's rallies marked a new turn
in the relationship between the two groups, signaling ties considerably
closer than the loose connections and occasional collaborations of the
past. Nor was joint attendance at rallies the only sign of cooperation.
Increasingly, literature from the NA and WCOTC turned up in the same
neighborhoods. NA leaders also began recommending WCOTC literature to
members and an article on recruitment, written by David Pringle, the head
of the NA unit in Anchorage, Alaska, appeared on the WCOTC web site. In the
article, Pringle addressed his recommendations to both NA and WCOTC
members. He asked if they had read Klassen and Pierce's main tracts and
admonished them to remember what Pierce or Hale has told them.
Post-September 11
The growing collaboration between the NA and the WCOTC was strengthened
further by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon. Both Hale and Pierce saw the attacks as
opportunities to fuel the flames of anti-Semitism, and both made statements
blaming Jews and U.S. support for Israel for the attacks. The two groups
also blamed Israel for the attacks in flyers that were identical except for
the name and address of the groups.
In November 2001, the NA invited WCOTC members to attend an "Americans
Against Terrorism" rally at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., to
protest the U.S. government's support of Israel. Members from both groups
showed up for that rally and for a similar one held at the Israeli embassy
in December. Additionally, in December, Hale asked his followers to
participate in a raffle being held by the NA to help an NA member get out
of jail.
One factor that helped to bring members of the NA and WCOTC together was
that they were able to see themselves as brothers-in-arms against common
foes. Both anticipated violent reactions from counter-demonstrators at
their events. Before the November rally at the Israeli embassy, Roper
bragged, "The last time the National Alliance held a demonstration in D.C.
a few months ago [in July] there was violence and fighting in the streets
and bloodshed." The earlier rallies set the stage for the violence that
broke out at the rally in York. In addition to the NA, the WCOTC, and the
Eastern Hammerskins, members of Aryan Nations and the National Socialist
Movement came to the rally to show their support. There was a large turnout
for both the white supremacists and their anti-racist opposition.
Approximately 200 white supremacists were met by about 350 counter-
demonstrators. Hundreds of police tried to keep the two groups apart but
their efforts were not successful. A number of violent confrontations took
place and once again the media focused significant attention on the event.
After the York rally, NA and WCOTC members posted numerous reports on the
event to the Internet. These posts indicated a growing unity and respect
between NA and WCOTC members, along with significant support from other
white supremacist groups. A member of WAR (White Aryan Resistance) who
attended the rally mentioned that Tom Metzger, head of WAR, sent "best
wishes" and hoped Hale would "give 'em hell!" A number of the attendees at
the rally praised both Hale and Roper and the event seemed to inspire them
to collaborate further. August Kreis, a leader in Aryan Nations, stated, "I
left York a changed man no longer caring for ANYTHING non-white^Å. If our
race does not wake up and fight back as a whole there will be no future for
the White Race in this country or anywhere!"
Even before the York event took place, the leader of the Lumpkin County
(Georgia) unit of the NA was planning a "Nationalist Rendezvous 2002," to
which he invited every major leader of the white supremacist movement in
the United States, including William Pierce, Billy Roper, Matt Hale, David
Duke, and Tom Metzger.
NA/WCOTC cooperation: Implications and obstacles
Although the NA and the WCOTC have moved towards each other, the groups
still have a different membership and agenda. The racist skinheads in and
out of prison who belong to the WCOTC have taken up the battle cry,
"RAHOWA" (signifying Racial Holy War). They lack the discipline and
respectful appearance that the NA demands from its members. While Pierce
has been reaching out to hardcore skinheads through Resistance Records, he
nonetheless expects those who appear publicly to maintain a conservative
demeanor. Pierce disdains the use of blatant Nazi symbols and
paraphernalia. While the NA requires appropriate dress and a "professional"
appearance at rallies, WCOTC members (including Hale) often wear Nazi
insignia or give Nazi salutes. The NA's dress code has caused some
dissension among WCOTC members. A WCOTC member responded angrily to an NA
leader's statement that all those attending an NA-sponsored anti-
immigration rally wear a "shirt and tie; and look serious and
professional." He wrote, "This 'professional image' crap will put off and
run off the very people who have the courage to get out into the street and
unabashedly stand up for our White Race."
In a January 2002 broadcast on RAHOWA Radio, Hale praised the solidarity
between the WCOTC and NA at the York rally and made the unlikely claim that
many NA members are also adherents of "Creativity." However, his speech
also pointed to possible discord between the two groups. Hale said that
"white skin" should be the only prerequisite "uniform" of the rank and file
at these rallies, a possible reference to the dress code that NA imposes on
members and others attending its events.
The willingness of NA and WCOTC members to cooperate has caused other major
tensions, as well. Despite the fact that Pierce, who tightly controls the
NA, has allowed the two groups to join forces, he has made it clear that he
does not want NA members to belong to any other group. In the January 2002
National Alliance Bulletin, he reiterated the point, stating that the NA
"certainly will not become stronger by 'uniting' with weak or defective
organizations-and that includes virtually every 'movement' group." Pierce
also said that the NA is the only organization that has the goals,
ideology, and tactics for carrying out a white-power revolution in the U.S.
He suggested that if NA members want to belong to an organization that is
interested in being part of the "movement" they should resign from the NA.
He laid down the policy of the NA with regard to other groups: the NA "will
act independently of other organizations" and "will not engage in joint
activities with other organizations." However, Pierce--and this may have
been one of the reasons he accepted cooperation with the WCOTC for a time--
did not discourage recruiting individual members of other organizations
into the NA. Word of his new guidelines has already alienated others in the
white power movement, however, and may make it harder for the NA to reach
out to members of other groups.
Pierce points to "egoism" as the only reason that anyone would want to form
another organization rather than join the NA. And it was probably the fact
that the NA was upstaged by the WCOTC in York that made Pierce insist on
new guidelines for his members. Although Billy Roper was scheduled to speak
along with Hale in the York library, Roper never made it inside.
Pierce is a long-established leader on the far right who enjoys worldwide
recognition among extremists; his novel, The Turner Diaries, is considered
a blueprint for armed revolution among white supremacists both in the
United States and Europe. He is clearly not willing to relinquish his role
as the leader on the racist right. At the same time, it is hard to imagine
that Hale would give up his own leadership position. If these two groups
were truly to link together, neither Pierce nor Hale would be willing to
take a back seat.
However, for a short time, Pierce and Hale seemed to have decided that they
needed each other to help build the white power movement and take advantage
of publicity. Both leaders seek to build a reputation for their groups as
dedicated white supremacist cadres. However, it seems that Hale had more to
benefit from his liaison with Pierce's organization than the other way
around. Hale may have believed that his group's alliance with the NA, as
well as Pierce's increasing age, would enable him to inherit the mantle
from Pierce. In his radio broadcast, Hale also told listeners that groups
joining to fight a common enemy was "glorious" and that "power attracts
people."
Yet it appears that Pierce was only willing to allow this alliance of
convenience until he felt that there was no longer an advantage to be
gained. Whether Pierce's stated guidelines permanently affect the
cooperation between the NA and the WCOTC remains to be seen, but for now
the recent upstaging by Hale's group has pushed Pierce into asserting the
NA's hegemony in the white supremacist world.
- - - - -
05) Northwest Hate Groups Lose Prominence
Nicholas K. Geranios (AP)
12 Mar 02
HAYDEN LAKE, Idaho -- For more than 20 years, this scenic corner of
northern Idaho was synonymous with hate groups, and the Northwest in
general was considered a haven for assorted extremists.
Names like Theodore Kaczynski, Randy Weaver, the Aryan Nations, the Phineas
Priesthood and the 11th Hour Remnant Messenger dominated the national image
of the region from Spokane, Wash., to Lincoln, Mont.
But many of those people are gone ^× to jail or to other states ^× and the
number of militia and hate groups in the region is static even as it grows
nationally.
That has area human-rights activists breathing a cautious sigh of relief.
"We can't assume they are all gone," said Mary Lou Reed of the Human Rights
Education Foundation in nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. "Certainly the vast
majority of people are relieved and happy to see the scenario changed."
While hard statistics are difficult to obtain, a new Southern Poverty Law
Center report indicates that hate groups have plateaued in the Northwest.
In 2000, Montana had four identified hate groups, Idaho had nine and
Washington 12, the center found. Those numbers were identical in 2001, the
human rights group said. Nationally, the number of hate groups grew 12
percent in the year.
Still, anti-government feelings die hard in the Northwest.
In late February, officials in Montana broke up a militia group that
authorities said was planning to assassinate judges, prosecutors and police
officers. The group, which called itself "Project Seven," hoped to kill
enough officials to force the state to call in the National Guard,
triggering what they hoped would be open warfare.
Racist, anti-Semitic and technophobic extremists began appearing in the
region in the 1970s, drawn by the overwhelmingly white population and a
general to-each-his-own attitude that brought minimal opposition to the
groups.
The ascendancy of the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho began when Richard
Butler moved here in the early 1970s, looking to establish a white
homeland. Eventually, the group began staging neo-Nazi gatherings and
exporting violence from its compound about 10 miles north of Hayden Lake.
Over time, the region was tainted by hate groups.
The 1992 shootout at Ruby Ridge that killed a deputy U.S. marshal and the
wife and son of Weaver, a white separatist, focused national attention on
members of the radical fringe living in the Northwest.
The 1996 arrest of Kaczynski near Lincoln, Mont., for the Unabomber attacks
helped cement the image.
Drawing a somewhat lower national profile were a series of bombings and
bank robberies in 1996 by members of the Phineas Priesthood, a shadowy sect
that holds religious beliefs against banking, abortion and a strong central
government. The four men, all from the Sandpoint, Idaho, area, bombed a
newspaper office and Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) clinic and
robbed two banks in the Spokane area before they were captured and sent to
prison.
The 11th Hour Remnant Messenger, founded by two wealthy Californians after
they moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, for a time sent unsolicited mass mailings
of anti-Semitic and racist brochures and videos to every home in Bonner
County, and to others around the nation.
Both men ^× R. Vincent Bertollini and Carl E. Story ^× have reportedly left
the Northwest.
Bertollini, 62, has not been seen since disappearing last summer after
being charged with drunken driving and resisting arrest. Story's house is
up for sale, and the 68-year-old businessman has reportedly moved back to
California.
The most high-profile group, Aryan Nations, went bankrupt in 2000 by a
civil rights lawsuit argued by the Southern Poverty Law Center. That forced
Butler to sell his 20-acre compound, and new leaders subsequently deposed
Butler and moved the group's headquarters to Pennsylvania. Butler remains
in Idaho, but keeps a low profile.
Although many of the hate groups are gone, the image persists.
A few years ago on the television show "Chicago Hope," a black doctor
accused a white colleague of prejudice and told her: "Maybe you should move
to Idaho."
On a recent episode of "ER," a character said she was from Idaho: "Not the
white supremacist part, the potato part."
Business and government leaders have fought back, declaring Idaho "the
human rights state" and casting hate group members as misfits from other
regions.
Last year, the Hayden Lake Chamber of Commerce (news - web sites)
complained to television host Geraldo Rivera after he said there was
"racism and fascism" and a "kind of perverse militarism run rampant" in
Hayden Lake.
"I think the sad reality is the Northwest still struggles as some kind of
supremacist enclave. It's unfair," said Mark Potok, spokesman for the
Montgomery, Ala., law center.
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BOOK/MOVIE/TV REVIEWS
06) Jewish-Skinhead Tale On Showtime
David Germain (AP)
11 Mar 02
LOS ANGELES - Henry Bean's directing debut finally is graduating from the
film school of hard knocks.
"The Believer" premieres at 8 p.m. EST Sunday on Showtime, more than a year
after the disturbing portrait of a Jewish neo-Nazi skinhead won the top
dramatic prize at the Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites), beating
contenders that included "In the Bedroom," a best-picture nominee for this
month's Academy Awards (news - web sites).
Since Sundance, "The Believer" has been heaped with praise from critics and
film-festival audiences. Yet it was shunned by film distributors that found
it too hot to handle, prompting Bean to sign with the premium-cable
channel. And its television debut was pushed back six months after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks because of the film's ending, centering on a
bomb planted at a Jewish house of worship.
That's a lot of baggage for a film that writer-director Bean initially
viewed as something of a dark comedy examining the love-hate relationship
Jews have with their faith.
Raised as a Jew and married to the daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, Bean knew
his story might discomfort the faithful. But he thought Jewish leaders
would "see the honorable intentions behind it and see that it's really a
good Jewish film," Bean said.
"It always felt to me that this was my love poem to Judaism. It really was
about how much I liked it," Bean said. "To me, one of the great things
about that religion is how self-critical it is and how much the religion
itself is in love with contradiction and multiple points of view."
"The Believer" stars Ryan Gosling as Danny Balint, a bright young man so
conflicted about his Jewish heritage that he denies his faith, spouts pro-
Nazi sentiments and plots violence against Jews. The character was inspired
by a real-life anti-Semite who killed himself after it was revealed he was
Jewish.
Even as he rails against Jews and what he perceives as their passivity
during the Holocaust, Danny reveals deep-seated reverence for the religion,
meticulously teaching a new girlfriend how to read Hebrew and salvaging a
desecrated Torah from a skinhead attack.
Danny fantasizes about playing both ends of the Holocaust, imagining
himself as a Nazi thug impaling a 3-year-old Jewish boy on a bayonet and as
the child's father fighting back in rage.
Gosling and Bean would have preferred to see "The Believer" debut
commercially in theaters rather than on television. For one thing, Gosling
said, moviegoers who have paid the ticket price would be more inclined than
TV viewers to stick with the difficult film.
"Can people really watch this on TV? Are you going to turn this on and keep
watching when you see a kid stalking a Jewish student on the subway, beat
the hell out of him, then walk away?" Gosling said. "Will you change the
channel and watch `Sex in the City' instead? My gut feeling is you'll
probably change the channel. You're in the comfort of your own living room,
and this movie is a lot to bring into it."
After Sundance, Bean had requests from Jewish groups wanting to see "The
Believer." He was quick to make video copies available, hoping endorsements
from those groups would help win over film distributors hesitant to take on
"The Believer."
The opposite happened. Negative reaction from the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
a Jewish human rights group, helped solidify misgivings about "The
Believer" among potential distributors.
Studio interest "disintegrated fairly quickly after the Wiesenthal Center
spokesman came out against the picture," said Daniel Diamond, president of
Fireworks Pictures, which produced "The Believer" and whose distribution
arm will handle a limited theatrical release in May.
Wiesenthal Center officials in turn are miffed with the filmmakers, saying
Bean and the producers depicted the center as campaigning against "The
Believer."
Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center said his group did not
"invest an e-mail, a postage stamp, didn't even make a single phone call"
about the film.
Cooper said he expressed his opinion about "The Believer" only when asked ^×
once by a studio that wanted his reaction and in a number of interviews
requested by reporters.
"I didn't think the film worked," Cooper said. Unlike "American History X,"
a tale of a skinhead who renounces his fascist ways by film's end, "The
Believer" leaves viewers with few clues about the source of the character's
hatred.
"You never really know much about him by the end of the film," Cooper said.
"You want some meaning. You want to know why, what motivated him. Was it
because his teacher rapped his knuckles back in the second grade?"
Cooper also objected to a scene in which Danny and his cronies desecrate a
synagogue, saying the "detailed nature" of the sequence was unnecessary.
While larger film companies shied away from "The Believer," Bean said some
small distributors still were interested. But Showtime offered a better
financial deal and had no reservations about the film's subject matter, he
said.
"Places like Showtime and HBO, they want controversy. They want to stand
out," Bean said. "They have the showmanship impulses that studios used to
have and really don't anymore."
"The Believer" potentially will be seen by millions of viewers on Showtime,
a far bigger audience than it was likely to find in art-house movie
theaters. Showtime was eager to add "The Believer" to its list of
premieres, which have included such thorny films as "Bastard Out of
Carolina" and the remake of "Lolita."
"Honestly, I don't think we had any hesitation when we saw the film. Our
tagline is `no limits,' within the bounds of good taste," said Jerry
Offsay, Showtime president of programming. "It's provocative, interesting,
smart, edgy. Why wouldn't we want to put it on the air?"
* * * * *
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__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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