Newspaper Page Text
Authorities arrest Idaho man
on charge of racist bombings
by Susan Birnbaum
NEW YORK (JTA)—A 22-
year-old man known to have fre
quented the neo-Nazi, white su
premacist Aryan Nations compound
near Hayden Lake, Idaho, was
arrested Monday and charged in
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on three
counts of bombing and one count
of attempted bombing.
The man, Robert Fires, is the
only person charged in connection
with the Sept. 15 bombing of the
home of Father Bill Wassmuth, a
Roman Catholic priest, and the
Sept. 29 bombings of a luggage
store and the Federal Buildings in
Coeur D’Alene, a resort town about
seven miles from the headquarters
of the Aryan Nations. Another
bomb on the roof of the Armed
Forces Recruiting Offices was
found before it went off. A Koote
nai County judge in Coeur d’Alene
set bail at $500,000.
Pires had been in FBI custody
several days prior to his arrest after
voluntarily offering to testify to the
bombings in exchange for their
protection. In addition, three oth
ers associated with the group have
been arrested on charges of coun
terfeiting: Olive and Ed Hawley, a
couple in their 20s, and David
Dorr, also in his 20s, who was
security chief for the Aryan Nations.
The three were arrested by U.S.
Secret Service agents. The Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
reportedly found weapons in Dorr’s
home. Dorr’s wife Debbie is spokes
person for the Aryan Nations.
The 20-acre Aryan Nations com
pound is owned by the Rev. Richard
Butler, a man in his 70s who is a
leader of the Aryan Nations and its
religious arm, the Church of Jesus
Christ Christian, which ascribes to
the Christian Identity ideology that
Anglo-Saxon whites are the true
“chosen people” of Israel and that
“Jews are imposters who are the
offspring of Satan through the line
of Cain.”
Christian Identity adherents re
cently picketed an exhibit of Ausch
witz artifacts on display at the Uni
ted Jewish Federation of Tidewater,
Va., which received bomb threats
as well. Federal officials are also
investigating that incident.
The latest series of bombings
was described by JTA’s sources in
Coeur d’Alene as a “second phase”
of The Order, the violently racist,
anti-Semitic group that arose from
the Aryan Nations and whose “first
phase” supposedly ended last win
ter with the sentencing in February
of 10 of its members to prison
terms from 40-100 years for a long
series of crimes that culminated in
the murder of Jewish talk-show
hose Alan Berg in Denver in June
1984.
Accordingto JTA sources in the
area, The Order has vowed to
make the Pacific Northwest into
an all-white bastion.
Coeur d’Alene, with an approx
imate population of 20,000, is a
resort town that has been described
as “one of the finest on earth,” “a
perfect town”—very physically
beautiful, dependent on tourism,
silver mining and lumber. JTA
sources said a hotel there that was
purchased and developed for a
very large sum got its developer on
the Aryan Nations’ “Hit list” as
“one of the 10 worst Jews in town.”
He isn’t Jewish. Father Wassmuth
reportedly also has been described
as a Jew, a “rabbi in disguise.”
There are very few Jews in Coeur
d’Alene, most of them married to
non-Jews, and there are no Jewish
community buildings or synagogues.
The nearest Jewish community is
in Spokane, about 35 miles to the
west. There are also very few blacks
in the area. The region has been an
attraction to these white suprema
cist, violently anti-Semitic groups.
Local folk and businessmen in
Coeur d’Alene are angered by the
racist threats that threaten the peace
of their otherwise placid town,
described as “a cancer that is eating
up the area.” Their hatred of racism
and attachment to the area spurred
them to organize an anti-racist
group, the Kootenai County Task
Force on Human Relations, headed
by Father Wassmuth. Wassmuth’s
house was bombed with a strong
pipe bomb placed inside his front
door that did not damage the one
room in which he was at the time,
talking on the telephone.
u
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PAGE 17 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE October 10,1986