Arrest of Suspects Linked to Aryan Nations
Business Wire - February 19, 1998 19:43
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SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 19, 1998--The two men arrested by the FBI in Nevada for having bacterial agents in their possession are linked to the white supremacist group, Aryan Nations. One of the men arrested, Larry Wayne Harris has been a lieutenant of the Ohio chapter of Aryan Nations. In 1995, it was reported that Harris had acquired three pure strains of bubonic plague by mail order. Two years later, Harris, who has published a 131 page manual on the acquisition and handling of biological agents, pled guilty to illegally obtaining several vials of bubonic plague germs. Harris' case prompted ADL to contact key sponsors of the then-pending antiterrorism legislation to urge that the statute include a prohibition on purchase and possession of biological weapons. The legislation now includes such a provision. "The Aryan Nations has long been associated with virulent anti-Semitism and racism," said Barbara H. Bergen, Director of ADL's Central Pacific Region. The gro!
up is a paramilitary hate group founded in the mid-1970s by Rev. Richard Girnt Butler around Butler's Church of Jesus Christ Christian, one of several churches affiliated with "Identity", a pseudo-theological hate movement. Identity doctrine maintains that Anglo-Saxons are the Biblical "chosen people," that non-whites are "mud people" on the level of animals and that Jews are "children of Satan". During the 1980's, several members of Aryan Nations joined with the National Alliance and Ku Klux Klan splinter groups to form The Silent Brotherhood, also known as The Order which planned to overthrow the United States government. "Based on the history and philosophy of the group the current suspects are associated with, we can do nothing less than take this threat seriously," said Bergen. The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
CONTACT: The Anti-Defamation League
Barbara H. Bergen, 415/981-3500
or 800/600-1133
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