{"article":{"id":12479,"heading":"The Observer (UK): Anthrax Attacks' 'Work of Neo-Nazis'","author":"Ed Vulliamy \/ The Observer (UK)","created":"2001-10-29 17:20:49","modified":"2005-08-15 00:42:25","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:42:25","article":"

Anthrax attacks' 'work of neo-Nazis'

War on Terrorism: Observer special

Ed Vulliamy in New York

Sunday October 28, 2001

The Observer

Neo-Nazi extremists within the US are behind the deadly wave of anthrax attacks against America, according to latest briefings from the security services and Justice Department.

Experts on 'survivalist' groups and extreme-right 'Aryan' militants have been drafted into the investigation as the focus shifts away from possible links with the 11 September terrorists or even possible state backers such as Iraq.

'We've been zeroing in on a number of hate groups, especially one on the West Coast,' a source at the Justice Department told The Observer yesterday. 'We've certainly not discounted the possibility that they may be involved.'

The anthrax crisis, which grew last week, had by Friday night spread to mailrooms at CIA headquarters, the Supreme Court and a hospital, and yesterday three traces were found in an office building serving the US Capitol.

'There are a number of strong leads, and some people we know well that we are looking at,' the Justice Department said. 'These are groups organised into militia and \"survivalist\" movements - which pull out of society and take to the hills to make war on the government, and who will support anyone else making war on the government.'

Investigators are examining threatening letters sent to media organisations - some dated before the 11 September attacks - which did not contain anthrax but contained similar messages and handwriting style as those which later did. The theory is that the anthrax attacks were planned - and the killer germ was obtained and treated - long before the carnage of 11 September.

Speaking to The Observer yesterday, the Justice Department official said: 'We have to see the right wing as much better coordinated than its apparent disorganisation suggests. And we have to presume that their opposition to government is just as virulent as that of the Islamic terrorists, if not as accomplished.

'But that is, in its way, one of the most compelling possible leads in the anthrax trail - that it is not really al-Qaeda's style, but rather that of others who sympathise with its war against the American government and media.'

The official said the investigation had, in the past week, drafted in special teams from the Civil Rights division of the department to reinforce the international terrorism teams. The American neo-Nazi Right is motivated above all by its loathing of the federal government, which it believes is selling out the homeland to a 'New World Order' run by masons and Jews.

Its insane politics have propelled numerous attacks and armed stand-offs over the past eight years, culminating in the carnage at Oklahoma. Now the anthrax investigation is zooming in on possible connections between these neo-Nazis and Arab extremists, united by their mutual anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel. Such alliances have been common among neo-Nazis in Europe, but have played a lesser role in the US. However, monitoring of the hate groups shows they are now embracing al-Qaeda's terrorism as commendable attacks on the federal government.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal centre in Los Angeles said that at a meeting in Lebanon this year, US neo-Nazis were represented alongside Islamic militants. 'There's a great solidarity with the point of view of the bin Ladens of the world,' said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors the far right. 'These people wouldn't let their daughters near an Arab, but they are certainly making common cause on an ideological level. They see the same enemy: American culture and multiculturalism.'

Neo-Nazi websites, including the largest umbrella organisation, the National Alliance, show support for al-Qaeda. Billy Roper, the alliance's membership coordinator posted a message within hours of the 11 September attacks, reading: 'Anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill Jews is all right by me. I wish our members had half as much testicular fortitude.' Another group, Aryan Action, praised the attacks of 11 September, saying: 'Either you're fighting with the Jews against al-Qaeda or you support al-Qaeda fighting against the Jews.' Others outwardly support the anthrax mailing.

One message, entitled 'No Sympathy for the Devil', was posted in several chat rooms by right-winger Grant Bruer, whose racist writings are circulated among supremacist groups. It reads: 'Is there not a single person who has received these anthrax letters that isn't an avowed enemy of the white race? Tom Brokaw, Tom Daschle and the gossip rag offices have all been 100 per cent legitimate targets. Who among us has the slightest bit of sympathy for these pukes?'

Right-wing groups have had an interest in anthrax and other biological agents. A member of the Aryan Nation group once bragged he had a stash of anthrax from digging up a field where cows had died of the disease in the 1950s. Larry Wayne Harris was arrested after trying to obtain three vials of bubonic plague from a mail-order science company.

The trail leading investigators to groups from the domestic ultra-right - rather than the al-Qaeda terror network - comes as a dramatic twist in the confused crisis. Last week, parallel evidence appeared to be linking the now rampant anthrax attacks to another trail: leading from Iraq and through the Czech Republic, with al-Qaeda militants as the likely couriers.

The shift in the investigation echoes that which followed America's other infamous terrorist attack: the destruction of the federal government building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The bombing was initially thought to be the work of Arab extremists, but turned out to be the work of the Aryan supremacists.

<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.observer.co.uk\/waronterrorism\/story\/0,1373,582231,00.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Neo-Nazi extremists within the US are behind the deadly wave of anthrax attacks against America, according to latest briefings from the security services and Justice Department, who have recruited experts on 'survivalist' groups and extreme-right 'Aryan' militants into the investigation. The theory is that the anthrax attacks were planned - and the killer germ was obtained and treated - long before the carnage of 11 September, which these groups have openly applauded on their websites.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/10\/the_observ.txt","filesize":"5.8 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/10\/12479.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":12480,"heading":"Interesting Insight, but","article":"Interesting insight, but we should remember that most of these groups have already\r\nbeen infiltrated by the federal government (as revealed in the Oklahoma bombing,\r\nwhereas the FBI knew that such an atrocity was to take place), and their politics,\r\nwhile to the far right, have perculiarities which parallel some of the ideas of the \r\ncurrent administration (Xenophobia). If Nazi groups are indeed meeting with \r\nMuslim fundamentalists, it is a case of \"keep your friends close and keep your \r\nenemies closer.\" Interesting that the Aryan Nations and others point to masons and\r\nJews as trying to promote a new world order, when they themselves are a part of \r\nthat ideology and such groups. Also, a distinction needs to be made between \r\nsurvivalists and Nazi groups, which in their upper echelons do have connections \r\nto the KKK, Scotish Rite, and the Freemasons once again (remember Albert Pike's\r\nrole in all of this). There is a connection in that black Shriners, and the NOI do\r\nhave some connection to this in their organizational structure, part of the reason\r\nwhy David Duke and Farrakahn were able to see eye to eye in the past. So basically,\r\ndon't believe the hype. If Nazis were able to deliever Anthrax by the mail, we should\r\nask:\r\n1. Is it really such a coincidence that this happened after Sept. 11th, whereas federal\r\nagencies were aware that a terrorist attack was possible?\r\n2, What is the connection between federal agencies, the CIA, the Masons, etc. and\r\neverybody these far right \"radicals\" (a misnomer to be sure) claim to be against?\r\nHitler instituted the idea of a new order, and from what I know, the upper echelons\r\nof these groups are actually slobbering over themselves with Bush's continuation of the\r\nnotion as the \"new world order.\" The current administration is actually what has \r\nallowed these groups to resurface again and flourish (see Orange County, CA).\r\n3. What is the Observer trying put out by publishing this?\r\nJust some questions before we allow the already skewed social\/ political terrain\r\nof the US to get more confused.\r\nRemember, \"the demon will mix the truth with lies.\"\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"reason","parent_id":12479,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-10-29 18:15:59","modified":"2001-10-29 18:32:23","fileurl":""},{"id":12498,"heading":"Like You Said...","article":"\"Reason\" writes, \"Remember, 'the demon will mix the truth with lies.'\"\r\n\r\nThat's a perfect self-commentary on the confused post it's part of. \r\n\r\nThat's the nice interpretation.\r\n\r\nThe not-so-nice interpretation is that \"Reason\" is a Nazi apologist--or worse.\r\n\r\nBut I'm feeling nice today.\r\n\r\nWhen he writes, \"If Nazi groups are indeed meeting with Muslim fundamentalists, it is a case of 'keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer,'\" he's just showing how ill-informed or deliberately deceptive he's being. As Martin Lee shows conclusively in *The Beast Reawakens,* Nazi connections to Islam go way back. Nazis basically will adopt any \"ideology,\" and form any alliance that suits their purposes, since their only real concern is naked power. They've even developed their brand of multi-culturalism.\r\n","author":"Paul H. Rosenberg","parent_id":12479,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-10-30 00:35:45","modified":"2001-10-30 01:00:19","fileurl":""},{"id":12515,"heading":"Paul, Give me a break","article":"How did my thoughts get interpreted as a Nazi apology? I have no \r\nsympathy for the devil, but your remarks betray your subjective\r\nbias toward Israel. That's your issue...\r\nAnd please, don't use your not so clouded suggestion that I am \r\nanti-semetic as a means of trying to divert from what I was really \r\ntrying to get at....Yes, the nazi's, masons, islamic groups may all \r\nhave ties to each other, but lets not lose sight of who or what is \r\nmanipulating all this--and I'm not saying its the Jews, paul. Please...\r\nI'm pointing to other clandestine organizations behind the scenes \r\nwith connections to the federal government that orchestrate or\r\nuse operatives within their membership. \r\nDo you have something to hide or protect, oh great\r\nwhite liberal?","author":"reason","parent_id":12479,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-10-30 18:31:27","modified":"2001-10-30 19:00:09","fileurl":""}]}