Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 22:11:22 -0500
From: Paul Kneisel <tallpaul-AT-nyct.net>
Subject: The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tue, 26 March 2002 -- 6:26 (#662)



__________________________________________________________________________

            The Internet Anti-Fascist: Tuesday, 26 March 2002
                         Vol. 6, Number 26 (#662)
__________________________________________________________________________

Announcement
    01) Latest News On Dispute With RoadRunner
Web Sites of Interest:
    02) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, "Wanted: Charles N.
        Puckett"
    03) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms,  "National Church [Bombing
        and] Arson Task Force: History and Overview"
Problems With U.S. Propaganda Efforts
    04) Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway (Washington Post), "From U.S., the
        ABC's of Jihad: Violent Soviet-Era Textbooks Complicate Afghan
        Education Efforts," 23 Mar 02
    05) Alternative Press Review, "Domestic Terrorism: Criminal Art," Spring
        02
Fascist Crime In the News:
    06) Terry Horne (Indianapolis Star), "Militia member sentenced on gun
        charges: Authorities had arrested Dallas Fultz and another man last
        summer, fearing their role in a murder plot," 23 Mar 02
    07) AP, "Moses Lake man arrested in cross burning," 23 Mar 03
    08) David Heinzmann (Black Voices), "Whites charged with torching Black
        church," 19 Mar 02

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ANNOUNCEMENT:

01) Latest News On Dispute With RoadRunner

On Saturday, 16 March, I formally filed an appeal with the New York State
authorities against Time Warner Cable and RoadRunner (TWC/RR) because of
their illegal interruption of my internet service.

On Thursday, 21 March, I received a telephone call from TWC/RR's Customer
Support department telling me that their records now showed that everything
on my account was fine.

I immediately checked my system and again confirmed that TWC/RR's service
was still not working as it had not worked since 15 October of last year.

I thereupon called TWC/RR's Customer Service department to inform them.
They connected me to the Technical Support division.

Suddenly, TWC/RR discovered that indeed my service had been disrupted ...
in software ... at their end ... without the corporation being informed of
the disruption.

In short, the company confirmed what I had told them for almost six months!

After close to six months of no service, TWC/RR discovered that somehow my
account had multiple "S.I.D." entries. According to the company, the SID is
a unique identifier for each customer used to initialize the account.
Because I had multiple entries the company could not locate a *unique*
number for me and thus I had no service. The company was unable to state
why or even how multiple "S.I.D."'s could be entered.

I now have my service that TWC/RR disconnected around 15 October.

I wish I could say that this solved all the problems with the corporations
but I can't.

Working in the computer field, for some time I've heard that companies will
have the customer perform some inconsequential act after they've reported
problems. Then when the company finally fixes the problem they deny that
their actions produced the problem; they claim that the customer's fix
could have done it. "Gee, Mr. Jones, we're sorry you haven't gotten email
since our mail server blew up. While I connect you to our new server I want
you to go put on your hat. What ... You have service now. That's good. No,
it doesn't prove that our mail server blowing up was the problem; it could
be that you didn't have your hat on."

I suspected the tale was true when low-level TWC/RR techs, reading from a
script, told me to "clear the history" on my web browser. Such things have
nothing to do with the issue at hand, but they do provide a hat not on.

The highest level tech asked me if I was running anti-virus or firewall
software, which was a reasonable question. I told him "no" but he insisted
that I remove McAfee's security software from my system, even though the
program was not loaded.

Before 15 October my system worked fine with McAfee loaded. When I crashed
and had to reinstall my system, I tried TWC/RR before McAfee was
reinstalled. TWC/RR didn't work. Now my system runs with or without McAfee;
the problem was at TWC/RR's end and McAfee is utterly blameless.

Given TWC/RR's past dishonesties I made sure I had a witness to my
conversations with them and that ample notes were made.

I'm glad I did.

Today I had occasion to recontact TWC/RR. Their computer record of
yesterday's communication now states that a customer installed new anti-
virus software, had a one-day problem with TWC/RR's service, and solved the
problem by uninstalling the software.

It will be interesting to see how the companies handle this discrepancy in
hearings before the various New York State commissions.

In a second sidebar: TWC/RR has a quaint and curious but self-serving
private dictionary. Or perhaps they just use capital letters differently
from the rest of us.

RR has no Customer Complaint department but they do have a customer
complaint department. The customer complaint department is called the
Research Department. Thus TWC/RR claims they did nothing improper when I
asked to speak to somebody in their Customer Complaint department back in
October because they have no Customer Complaint department whereas had I
told them I wanted their customer complaint department they would gladly
have connected me to their Research Department.

Dorothy Parker where are you when we need you!

RR also advertises that you will get Customer Support 24 hours a day and
seven days a week if you, the customer, have a problem and need support.

What they do not tell you is that Customer Support is often not authorized
to provide customer support. If you are a customer who needs unauthorized
support you will not get it 24/7 from TWC/RR; you may not get it 8/7 or
even 8/5 from TWC/RR. In my case the corporation saw nothing wrong with
their 0/7 policy since they had authorized exactly one person to provide me
with support and that person was out of town for a week.

Increasingly it appears that one or more employees in TWC/RR's security
department(s) have been doing various things that both TWC/RR's declared
policy and federal law say they should not be doing.

More latter.

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WEB SITES OF INTEREST:

02) Charles N. Puckett
     Wanted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

<http://www.atf.treas.gov/wanted/pages/19puckett.htm>

$5,000 Reward

- - - - -

03) National Church [Bombing and] Arson Task Force: History and Overview
     Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

<http://www.atf.treas.gov/churcharson/index.htm>

"During the past five years, arson and bombing attacks on houses of worship
have been in the forefront of law enforcement and public attention.
Although church fires are not a new phenomenon, they were not a high
priority for federal efforts and resources until 1996 with the formation of
the National Church Arson Task Force.

"In 1996, there was a sharp rise in church arsons, especially among
African-American churches in the South. Prior to 1996, ATF had investigated
approximately 200 fires and bombings at houses of worship. However, due to
limited federal jurisdiction, these incidents were not usually investigated
or prosecuted by the federal government."

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PROBLEMS WITH U.S. GOVERNMENT PROPAGANDA EFFORTS

04) From U.S., the ABC's of Jihad: Violent Soviet-Era Textbooks Complicate
        Afghan Education Efforts
     Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway (Washington Post)
     23 Mar 02

In the twilight of the Cold War, the United States spent millions of
dollars to supply Afghan schoolchildren with textbooks filled with violent
images and militant Islamic teachings, part of covert attempts to spur
resistance to the Soviet occupation.

The primers, which were filled with talk of jihad and featured drawings of
guns, bullets, soldiers and mines, have served since then as the Afghan
school system's core curriculum. Even the Taliban used the American-
produced books, though the radical movement scratched out human faces in
keeping with its strict fundamentalist code.

As Afghan schools reopen today, the United States is back in the business
of providing schoolbooks. But now it is wrestling with the unintended
consequences of its successful strategy of stirring Islamic fervor to fight
communism. What seemed like a good idea in the context of the Cold War is
being criticized by humanitarian workers as a crude tool that steeped a
generation in violence.

Last month, a U.S. foreign aid official said, workers launched a
"scrubbing" operation in neighboring Pakistan to purge from the books all
references to rifles and killing. Many of the 4 million texts being trucked
into Afghanistan, and millions more on the way, still feature Koranic
verses and teach Muslim tenets.

The White House defends the religious content, saying that Islamic
principles permeate Afghan culture and that the books "are fully in
compliance with U.S. law and policy." Legal experts, however, question
whether the books violate a constitutional ban on using tax dollars to
promote religion.

Organizations accepting funding from the U.S. Agency for International
Development must certify that tax dollars will not be used to advance
religion. The certification states that AID "will finance only programs
that have a secular purpose. . . . AID-financed activities cannot result in
religious indoctrination of the ultimate beneficiaries."

The issue of textbook content reflects growing concern among U.S.
policymakers about school teachings in some Muslim countries in which
Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism are on the rise. A number of
government agencies are discussing what can be done to counter these
trends.

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush have repeatedly spotlighted the
Afghan textbooks in recent weeks. Last Saturday, Bush announced during his
weekly radio address that the 10 million U.S.-supplied books being trucked
to Afghan schools would teach "respect for human dignity, instead of
indoctrinating students with fanaticism and bigotry."

The first lady stood alongside Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai on Jan.
29 to announce that AID would give the University of Nebraska at Omaha $6.5
million to provide textbooks and teacher training kits.

AID officials said in interviews that they left the Islamic materials
intact because they feared Afghan educators would reject books lacking a
strong dose of Muslim thought. The agency removed its logo and any mention
of the U.S. government from the religious texts, AID spokeswoman Kathryn
Stratos said.

"It's not AID's policy to support religious instruction," Stratos said.
"But we went ahead with this project because the primary purpose . . . is
to educate children, which is predominantly a secular activity."

Some legal experts disagreed. A 1991 federal appeals court ruling against
AID's former director established that taxpayers' funds may not pay for
religious instruction overseas, said Herman Schwartz, a constitutional law
expert at American University, who litigated the case for the American
Civil Liberties Union.

Ayesha Khan, legal director of the nonprofit Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, said the White House has "not a legal leg
to stand on" in distributing the books.

"Taxpayer dollars cannot be used to supply materials that are religious,"
she said.

Published in the dominant Afghan languages of Dari and Pashtu, the
textbooks were developed in the early 1980s under an AID grant to the
University of Nebraska-Omaha and its Center for Afghanistan Studies. The
agency spent $51 million on the university's education programs in
Afghanistan from 1984 to 1994.

During that time of Soviet occupation, regional military leaders in
Afghanistan helped the U.S. smuggle books into the country. They demanded
that the primers contain anti-Soviet passages. Children were taught to
count with illustrations showing tanks, missiles and land mines, agency
officials said. They acknowledged that at the time it also suited U.S.
interests to stoke hatred of foreign invaders.

"I think we were perfectly happy to see these books trashing the Soviet
Union," said Chris Brown, head of book revision for AID's Central Asia Task
Force.

AID dropped funding of Afghan programs in 1994. But the textbooks continued
to circulate in various versions, even after the Taliban seized power in
1996.

Officials said private humanitarian groups paid for continued reprintings
during the Taliban years. Today, the books remain widely available in
schools and shops, to the chagrin of international aid workers.

"The pictures [in] the texts are horrendous to school students, but the
texts are even much worse," said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, an Afghan educator who
is a program coordinator for Cooperation for Peace and Unity, a Pakistan-
based nonprofit.

An aid worker in the region reviewed an unrevised 100-page book and counted
43 pages containing violent images or passages.

The military content was included to "stimulate resistance against
invasion," explained Yaquib Roshan of Nebraska's Afghanistan center. "Even
in January, the books were absolutely the same . . . pictures of bullets
and Kalashnikovs and you name it."

During the Taliban era, censors purged human images from the books. One
page from the texts of that period shows a resistance fighter with a
bandolier and a Kalashnikov slung from his shoulder. The soldier's head is
missing.

Above the soldier is a verse from the Koran. Below is a Pashtu tribute to
the mujaheddin, who are described as obedient to Allah. Such men will
sacrifice their wealth and life itself to impose Islamic law on the
government, the text says.

"We were quite shocked," said Doug Pritchard, who reviewed the primers in
December while visiting Pakistan on behalf of a Canada-based Christian
nonprofit group. "The constant image of Afghans being natural warriors is
wrong. Warriors are created. If you want a different kind of society, you
have to create it."

After the United States launched a military campaign last year, the United
Nations' education agency, UNICEF, began preparing to reopen Afghanistan's
schools, using new books developed with 70 Afghan educators and 24 private
aid groups. In early January, UNICEF began printing new texts for many
subjects but arranged to supply copies of the old, unrevised U.S. books for
other subjects, including Islamic instruction.

Within days, the Afghan interim government announced that it would use the
old AID-produced texts for its core school curriculum. UNICEF's new texts
could be used only as supplements.

Earlier this year, the United States tapped into its $296 million aid
package for rebuilding Afghanistan to reprint the old books, but decided to
purge the violent references.

About 18 of the 200 titles the United States is republishing are primarily
Islamic instructional books, which agency officials refer to as "civics"
courses. Some books teach how to live according to the Koran, Brown said,
and "how to be a good Muslim."

UNICEF is left with 500,000 copies of the old "militarized" books, a
$200,000 investment that it has decided to destroy, according to U.N.
officials.

On Feb. 4, Brown arrived in Peshawar, the Pakistani border town in which
the textbooks were to be printed, to oversee hasty revisions to the
printing plates. Ten Afghan educators labored night and day, scrambling to
replace rough drawings of weapons with sketches of pomegranates and
oranges, Brown said.

"We turned it from a wartime curriculum to a peacetime curriculum," he
said.

- - - - -

05) Domestic Terrorism: Criminal Art
     Alternative Press Review
     Spring 02

In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, the governments of
Canada and the United States have passed sweeping anti-terrorism bills that
effectively lay the ground work for the criminalization of ideas. One
consequence has been the renewal of an old tradition in Western
governance--the policing of freedom of expression. In Canada, a post-
September 11th exhibit of contemporary Arab-Canadian art at the National
Museum in Ottawa was abruptly cancelled by the organizers to allow the
curators to "reconsider" the political works on display: the exhibition did
go ahead as scheduled, but only after a determined public campaign
challenging the museum’s actions.  In the United States events have taken a
more sinister turn.  FBI and Secret Service agents have begun investigating
"un-American" art on the supposition that it aids and abets terrorism.  The
intentions are two-fold.  Firstly, the investigations intimidate the
artists, the owners of the art, and the institutions where the art is
exhibited.  Secondly, they assert the right of the state to police
political expression. The following interview was conducted with James
Harithas and Tex Kersten of the Artcar Museum in Houston, Texas, where one
such "investigation" was conducted in early November, 2001.

   --  Allan Antliff

Allan Antliff: Tell me about the Artcar Museum, its community mandate and
past (politically radical) art exhibits.

ARTCAR: The Art Car Museum is a private institution dedicated to
contemporary art. It is an exhibition forum for local, national, and
international artists. Its emphasis is on art cars, other fine arts, and
artists that are rarely, if ever acknowledged by other cultural
institutions. The museum’s goal is to encourage the public’s awareness of
the cultural, political, economic, and personal dimensions of art.

The museum was founded in early 1998.  Below is a list of some of our
previous exhibits that could be construed as politically radical.

"Secret Wars" is the exhibition the FBI and Secret Service investigated.
September 2001 - February 2002

Richard Mock, "Hits and Kisses" featured Richard Mock’s political linocut
prints. May through September 2001

"Civil Society" was an exhibition of contemporary political posters from
groups such as PETA, Refuse and Resist, the Coalition to Ban Landmines, and
many others. November - December 2000

Ron Hoover, "Mr WTO" featured sinister portraits of the men behind UNOCAL,
MAXXAM, and a host of corporate and military autocrats. May - December 2000

Antonio Turok, "Quien Es Marcos?" was a survey of his portraits of the
Zapatistas. March - September 2000

Frank Fajardo, "Politics of Space," featured conceptual art from the 1970s
and 1980s dealing with border issues, Chicano identity, and liberation
theology. February - June 1999

"Bicycles to Bosnia" featured the photographic documentation of a relief
expedition to Mostar Bosnia that distributed bicycles to Bosnian children
from both opposing camps and brought them together in a cross-city parade.
November 1998 - February 1999

When did the FBI show up? Why did they state they were there? What did they
do at that time?

An agent from the FBI and an agent from the Secret Service, working
together, (presumably in connection to the joint terrorism task force which
was convening for a conference in Houston this same day,) visited the
museum on Wednesday November 7, 2001 at 10:30 in the morning. The museum
opens at 11 a.m. They flashed their badges and told Donna Huanca, the
museum docent who was opening the museum, that they had received anonymous
complaints of Anti-American activity that they had come to investigate.

Ms Huanca gave them a guided tour of the show, and attempted to explain the
works on view and answering their various questions. Some of the questions
were general—they asked about the Museum’s funding, its administrative
infrastructure, its methods of advertising, and its average attendance.
Others, however, were less relevant. They asked Ms Huanca personal
questions such as "Do your parents know you work here?" and "What do you
study in school?" Then, as abruptly as they had entered, they left.

What was the show on display? What specific content was deemed worthy of
investigation by the FBI? On what grounds were they investigating it?

The show they were looking at was Secret Wars. The theme of this exhibition
is artistic dissent to secret wars, a very open subject, and each of the 18
artists in the show responded very differently to the theme. There is work
on race relations, stalking, vegetarianism, environmental policy, AIDS, and
family histories. The show was organized in June 2001.

The majority of works in the show had already been selected by August, but
after the events of September 11th a few of the artists created new works
expressing their reactions to the events. Among these was Eric Avery’s
wall-size mural of the WTC in the moment after it had been struck by the
first plane, above which an Arabic woman cowers in apprehension of a
retaliatory US airstrike, and also a mural of the WTC collapsing painted in
the fashion of Guernica by Warren Cullar. Interestingly enough, these works
hardly registered with the agents.

The agents claimed they were responding to a complaint about a work that
threatened the president. It turned out they were referring to a wall
sculpture called the Empty Trellis Revisited by Houston artist Tim Glover.
This piece consisted of a sculptural trellis, fashioned in the form of an
exfoliated globe with intercrossing leafless vines, behind which he had
drawn President Bush in charcoal. The piece bears an environmental message,
obviously, but the agents wanted to know what the President was doing
behind barbwire.

Other works that warranted their attention were Tim Glover’s Flag, a floor
mounted sculpture of the US flag in which the stars have been replaced by
jet fighters and the stripes are alternately filled with oil and sand, a
Gulf War diorama by Forrest Prince, which contains the alters a biblical
text to read "Its Easier To Get a Camel Through the Eye of a Needle Than to
Get an American Into Heaven," and a large painting by Lynn Randolph of an
apocalyptic Houston skyline complete with George Bush Sr’s head in the
belly of a rampaging beast. Curiously, all of these works were completed
during the first Gulf War.

How was the issue resolved?  Or was it?

How they resolved it remains to be seen. We do not know whether they are
continuing their investigation. What we have resolved to do is continue our
work. We are adding work to the exhibition and extending it through
February 2002. As the story has been circulating on the Internet we have
received an enormous response from people across the country. People of all
stripes have written us to describe their concern and occasionally outrage
that the government is engaged in activities tantamount to thought control.
The suppression of artists is an attack on free speech and
unconstitutional.

For now, our position on this issue is as follows:

With the anthrax in the mailrooms and the blood in the air comes the death
of ordinary time and the eclipse of freedom. As bombs fall, blood spills,
and the coffers drain, a crosshair looms over our inalienable civil rights.
Even our language has become a crime scene, with the FBI, Secret Service,
and other police forces hurrying to monitor public discourse and shunt
dissent. Memory, compassion, and clear thinking suffer. Under these
conditions, artists become heroes. Their work alone can hold out against
the choreographed emotions of wartime.

Your position on freedom of expression reminds me of a statement by the
American anarchist Carl Zigrosser written during World War 1. I cite this
statement in my book, Anarchist Modernism: Art, Politics, and the First
American Avant-Garde.  Let me quote it for you in full:

"I am opposed to all state-waged wars—all warfare organized and conducted
by national governments.  Such warfare is merely violence on a large scale
instituted and made efficient by the state. It is legalized murder, the
shifting of responsibility from an individual to an abstract and therefore
souless corporation. . . . I am unwilling to give up in any crisis my
privilege of free speech and intelligent criticism. It is only by the most
relentless vigilance and examination that elements of civilization are
refined and progress is ensured. And it is only be an absolute stand
against the war that the path for abolishing it can be cleared. There are
some things about which there can be no compromise."

Zigrosser regarded freedom of expression as inherently revolutionary. Can
you elaborate on the social role of the Art Car Museum in this regard—as a
forum for freedom of expression?

The government’s attempts to force various thoughts, words, into the
category of the unutterable, affirms our belief in the power of expression.
Over the past several months our government and its hagiographers, has
displayed a preference for a system of total control that is as close to
Josef Stalin as it is to Joseph McCarthy. What they have tried to construct
is a climate where they can imply treason, threaten artists, revoke grants,
and bring their weight down against dissenters in all public forums. Real
art begins with the potential for infinite expression and therefore
threatens their control.  That’s the kind of art we’re looking for.

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FASCIST CRIME IN THE NEWS

06) Militia member sentenced on gun charges: Authorities had arrested
        Dallas Fultz and another man last summer, fearing their role in a
        murder plot
     Terry Horne (Indianapolis Star)
     23 Mar 02

A Cloverdale man who was a member of a militia group that planned to
disrupt a college play last summer was sentenced Friday to 37 months on
federal weapons charges.

Dallas Fultz, 66, was arrested in August after undercover officers became
worried that one of the group's leaders, Fred Keuthan, was plotting another
militia member's death.

Fultz, known as Capt. Smitty, and Keuthan were members of the self-styled
14th Regiment of the Indiana State Militia, which is not connected with any
state agency.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donna Eide said authorities began investigating the
group months ago after learning of its plans to stop federal marshals from
seizing the Indianapolis Baptist Temple. The Southside Indianapolis church
had become a celebrated cause among some radical right groups because of
its refusal to withhold Social Security and income taxes on its employees.

The militia group's plans to intervene never materialized. At various times
during a three-month holdout, church leaders asked militia groups to stay
away, and the church was seized without incident on Feb. 13, 2001.

Authorities said that when Fultz and Keuthan were arrested, militia members
had been planning to protest the play Corpus Christi, which features a
Christ-like character who is homosexual. The play was being staged at
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. However, militia members
mistakenly believed the play was being staged at Indiana University's
Bloomington campus.

Investigators said the protest apparently was conceived as an alibi for the
planned killing of a militia member suspected of being an informant.

Keuthan is awaiting trial on state charges stemming from the murder plot in
Owen County.

Fultz pleaded guilty to selling a sawed-off shotgun and being a felon in
possession of a firearm.

At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney recommended that
Fultz, who has a history of mental illness, be assigned to a prison where
he can receive treatment.

- - - - -

07) Moses Lake man arrested in cross burning
     AP
     23 Mar 03

MOSES LAKE, Or. -- Grant County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 37-year-old
Moses Lake man today for investigation of malicious harassment in a cross-
burning episode.

Accompanied by FBI agents, the deputies executed a search warrant at the
home of Leonard Knigge, who then confessed to burning a cross on the lawn
of a local mixed-race family March 3, said Chief Deputy Mark Mann.

Lisa Holman, who is white, was cooking chicken when she saw the 4-tall
cross, soaked in lighter fluid, burning in the back yard. She and her
husband, Charlie Holman, who is black, ran outside to extinguish the
flames.

About an hour later, a brick came hurtling through their window, nearly
striking one of their two boys. They found an obscenity written on the
windowpane.

A neighbor chased a man in a white hooded sweatshirt down the street until
the man hopped into a white, older-model, two-door car and sped away.

Mann said interviews with witnesses led authorities to Knigge.

He is being held in the Grant County Jail for investigation of two counts
of malicious harassment and could face federal hate crime charges as well.

"The FBI went through the door with us this morning, and we're hoping the
FBI will follow up on some sort of civil rights violation, but it's up to
them," Mann said.

Mann said he expected Knigge's first court appearance to be on Monday. It
was not known whether he has a lawyer.

The Holmans were pleased to hear of the arrest.

"They're very happy," Mann said.

Moses Lake is a central Washington town of 15,000 residents.

- - - - -

08) Whites charged with torching Black church
     David Heinzmann (Black Voices)
     19 Mar 02

A Joliet man and two juveniles, alleged to be White supremacists, have been
charged with arson and a hate crime in connection with the torching of a
garage and two vehicles belonging to a predominantly Black church in
Joliet.

The three were neighbors of the Greater Bible Way Apostolic Temple, 1214
Brown Ave., on the eastern edge of Joliet. Charged Monday with arson and
criminal damage to property with a hate crime were Mark Austin, 20, of the
200 block of Krakar Avenue in Joliet, and two juvenile boys, said Paul
Kaupas, chief of investigations for the Will County sheriff. Both boys were
16 at the time of the arsons, but one of them has since turned 17.

The church's garage was burned Jan. 23 with what investigators said was an
accelerant, and painted with a swastika and a threatening racial epithet.

In the first week of March, arsonists struck again, burning the church's
bus and van, which were parked across Brown Avenue in the church's parking
lot, and painting racist graffiti.

Police began to focus on the three after patrol officers were called to
Austin's home in the middle of last week for an unrelated complaint. Inside
officers said they found Nazi and White supremacist graffiti and posters on
the walls.

Austin's home is just a couple of blocks from the church. Sheriff's police
would not release addresses for the juveniles but said they also lived in
the neighborhood.

Austin was being held on $75,000 bond. The two juveniles are being held
without bond, a spokeswoman for Will County State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak
said.

The fact that Austin and the others lived just a few blocks from the church
was no surprise to members, said church pastor Bishop Samuel Allen Sr.

"I don't even know who they are, but we suspected they were White
supremacists. We knew there were people like that in the area," he said.

The Ridgewood neighborhood is mostly White but a pocket of the area,
including where the church is located, has had a growing Black population
for several years. Some of the White areas of the neighborhood have a
reputation of being inhospitable to Blacks, said one county official, who
asked not to be identified.

"It's an area that Blacks avoid," said the official, who is Black.

In the wake of the attacks, members of the church have volunteered as
watchmen for nighttime activities, such as choir practice, in an effort to
beef up security, Allen said. Members were fearful that the arsonists would
return and destroy their church when no one was there.

"There are too many of us for them to try something when the church is
full," he said.

Police said they are still investigating to determine whether others may
have been involved in the arsons. Investigators said the three people
charged did not appear to be part of a larger White supremacist
organization.

Although nobody was hurt in the fires, the damage has left the church in
need. The congregation is not wealthy and Allen said he doubts that he'll
be able to replace the bus and van that were totaled in the March 1 fire.

"It might be difficult. We only had liability insurance on them," he said.

                               * * * * *

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.

__________________________________________________________________________

                                FASCISM:
    We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
       (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)

                                - - - - -

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