In this morning's Louisville Courier-Journal the top headline was "Ohio man linked to hate group arrested." Kale Todd Kelly, 38, was arrested on a weapons charge as part of a hate group investigation. He stated that he believed the federal government would use the controversy over Year 2000 computer problems as "a reason to institute martial law," according to an affidavit attached to his arrest warrant. "Time is getting short. I don't believe in this Y2K crap," Kelly said to an associate. "Now is the time to make something happen, and it will have a domino effect."

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), April 17, 1999

Answers

Hi Pearlie,

FYI - the f-a-r f-a-r right (as in the John Birch Society and folks to the right of them) have been saying all along that y2k is a hoax...in fact the JBS did a lead article in their magazine last summer claiming that the whole thing was a fraud...

It's really kinda funny, 'cause y2k kid, norm, and so on would fit in very well with the JBS interpretation of y2k related events.

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 17, 1999.

"DR." Homer:

Nice to hear from you again. I see some of your friends on this forum have been arrested - who do you think will be absent from posting based on this arrest?.

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.

DRAT, Pearlie and Arlin, but I guess it was only a matter of time. Here's a cold link to the article:

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/1999/9904/17/990417klan.html

Ohio man linked to hate group arrested Agents' search included home of Kentuckian

By JAMES MALONE, The Courier-Journal

"An Ohio man with ties to 'an anti-government, white-supremacist group' was arrested at his home Wednesday on a weapons charge as part of a federal investigation that included a search of the Western Kentucky home of a Ku Klux Klan leader, according to court records.

Kale Todd Kelly, 38, twice recently visited the Muhlenberg County home of Klan leader Ron Edwards, 38, according to a federal affidavit attached to Kelly's arrest warrant."

The affidavit accompanying the wearrant indicates that Kelly is a felon and is reported to have stated to a witness that "he and Edwards said they would not 'be taken alive' if approached by law officers.

"Kelly said he believed the federal government would use the controversy over Year 2000 computer problems as 'a reason to institute martial law,' the affidavit said. The Warren County, Ohio, bricklayer is a member of the Aryan Nations white separatist group, the affidavit said.

'Time is getting short, I don't believe in this Y2K crap,' Kelly said to an associate, according to the affidavit. 'Now is the time to make something happen, and it will have a domino effect.'

. . . Edwards told The Courier-Journal Wednesday that he is imperial wizard of Imperial Klans of America, with more than 50 members in several states.

Edwards told the newspaper that agents questioned him extensively about an Ohio man who had visited him and asked him whether the man 'was like Timothy McVeigh' -- the man who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, Okla. In an interview Thursday, Edwards would not name the man, and in an interview yesterday he would not say whether it was Kelly.

Edwards said they asked him about a plot to either blow up a building or murder a state or local government official. He said in an interview with the newspaper that he told the agents that his group did not violate the law and that he was unaware of any plans to commit a crime.

. . . Kelly, who operated a Patriot missile battery during the Persian Gulf war, was court-martialed and discharged from the Army in 1994 after a drug conviction. He was convicted in Ohio in 1997 of carrying a concealed revolver and sentenced to prison.

At the same time federal agents were searching the home of Edwards and another location in Dawson Springs, Ky., FBI and ATF agents searched Kelly's residence and found several weapons and a computer, the affidavit said.

Mark Potok, an analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which tracks hate groups, said it's disturbing to see the links between the Klan and Aryan Nations.

"The Aryan Nations for 25 years have been . . . leading domestic terrorists," Potok said.

Kelly began attending the Church of Jesus Christ Christian -- which the affidavit said is a chapter of the Aryan Nations -- in February 1997. Clinton County sheriff's officers observed him on the building's roof during Sunday services armed with a handgun and peering through binoculars, the affidavit said.

Edwards said agents seized his Klan membership records, his computer hard drive and phone records and literature.

The informant, who accompanied Kelly to the Edwards home in March, said Kelly earlier this spring wanted to start buying and stockpiling weapons, the affidavit said. . . .

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), April 17, 1999.

Oh goody!! now the wackos will hold this as evidence that y2k is part of the taking over of Amerika!! Thats all we need, especially during trying times, is more hate in the world. We just can't seem to get enuff of all that good old fashioned hate. Just think of its advantages....if you hate enuff, it will keep you going for a long time even without food. And if you hate enuff, you don't have to worry about feeling guilty when you wipe out that family of 4 and take possession of their property. And hate begats hate....and when I read stuff like this crap it "begats" hate in me. I want to line them all up and shoot them. They are worth nothing and are just parasites on humanity. They aren't for a better more humane world or even a more equitable, efficient, for the people, by the people government. They are for their own ego gratification because thats all they have. They are misfits and have no worth to offer and they know it!

-- Taz (Tassie@aol.com), April 17, 1999.

Be careful, Taz. Andy has thin skin.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), April 17, 1999.

It is very obvious to all that Y2K Pro is an ARROGANT BASTARD!!!!

-- 12345 (12345@6789.com), April 17, 1999.

Shocking! There was a computer! found in his house. Hard evidence of willy-nilly anarchy and lunatic proclivities.

Isn't the statistic @ 60% of all American households now have a computer?

Indulging in any kind of hatred or prejudice is counter-productive, to put it mildly. Notice the man did NOT believe Y2K -- NOT "panic" -- just base primitive opportunism.

Imagine the utter surprise and shock of all the lunatic fringe evildoers when the lights go out tock New Year's.

All dressed up and loaded with the wrong issues to fight.

I hope the government has it together enough to STOP all the terrorists who will try to take advantage of Y2K problems. We cityzzzzn weeples will have enough to cope with without the instrusion of nasty insane chip-on-shoulders.

I think most Americans reading that article have more sense than to lump Y2K opportunists with those truly concerned and preparing to weather the "3-day storm." [ No need to publicize how long your interpretation of "day" is. ]

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 17, 1999.

It is interesting to me that when I interviewed our local power rep on y2k readiness, one of the company's big concerns was sabotage - either from those wishing to exacerbate the problem or those wanting to isolate from it.

We live in an area with a series of large hydroelectric dams. I guess some of the locals are of the impression that they could "island" the area from the grid by force if it goes down big time and continue to have their own power. According to the rep, the dams don't generate enough for that and we would be hard pressed without energy from the rest of the system.

A lot of angry people out there with various agendas and an excess of energy. I wish they would focus on restoring strong local participatory self-government in small community units (a la' town meetings of the NE or miner's meetings. For instance, the frontier government of Oregon began as "wolf meetings" to handle a problem in common to the settlers.)

This is our heritage and how pioneers of the past determined their direction for action. Strong local self-government processes would create the systems for handling issues and problems faced by the community as a whole whatever they might be. Chaos comes when everyone relies on help and decisions to be made from higher levels of government. IMHO, we have abdicated so much control over decisions about what happens to us and our families that the fear factor of the unknown becomes the problem. We have become as children of the patriarch state.

Historically, our government has been one eminating from a bottom up representative (republican) democracy, not the current command and control bureaucracy. IMHO, it is one of the basic problems that confronts our government in addressing y2k. The federal government is not supposed to solve the problem from the top down. Those who look to the feds for the solution are looking in the wrong place. I believe Senator Bennett knows this. All they can do is open up the problem and hope that industry, states and local communities arise to the challenge of leadership.

The models and structures are there, we just need to step forward and fill the empty council chambers, town halls, granges, etc. with our voices, opinions and energies. It doesn't take violence to do that, just takes the effort to overcome inertia and rise from the computer or television viewing chair and show up at local government or community meetings.

Can you do that? Sure you can.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), April 17, 1999.

Yep, we've been doing that since July. Hadn't previously. A real eye-opener. Problem is, these committees are addressing Y2K via the same slow pondering relegating methods they have gotten used to, and there's not enough time left for biz/gov as usual.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), April 17, 1999.

O.G. - thanks for the article, I stand corrected: y2k kid and company would fit in well with the klan, not the JBS...come to think of it they do show a similar level of unreasoning hatred and anger...

Taz - hate groups at both ends of the spectrum concoct giant conspiracy theories to cover every contingency...and as any mature adult knows, in the end hatred simply leads an individual to self- destruction. The blessing here in the U.S. is that even the largest of the hate groups are but a tiny percentage of the general population. It seems to me if we can learn to deal with the lies coming from the federal government we can also learn to deal with the lies coming from those who live on hate, no?

Arlin

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), April 17, 1999.

"Dr." Homer

Well played claptrap, unfortunately, I have seen more hate on this forum then one would expect at a Mississippi Klan meeting. Hatred by so called "GIs" towards anyone with a divergent opinion. So please, stuff the sanctimonious lecture up your bazoo.

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.

AND KISSS MY ASS !!

-- Y2K Pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.

Y2KProathatred, go back and read your post, and the ones you are responding to. Yours is the one filled with venom and hatred.Without your hate filled posts, the hate filled % of posts goes down 90%.Along with that hate, you also have splinters in the windmill of your mind. You are a clown, Bozo, and you keep me and others motivated to continue with our preps, especially concerning weapons and ammo. I expect to see a lot of your ilk knocking on my door.

-- Mike (boxman9186@aol.com), April 17, 1999.

I live in Kentucky and have been following this story. I'm not ready to make a judgement yet , really seems like alot of out of state folks coming in and making trouble. I am waiting for Morris Dees and the "Southern Poverty Law Center" to come out and declare y2k discussion groups such as this to be inflamatory,racial motivated, hate mongers, then I will really feel like the y2k spin control out of the White House is back and doing a fine job. Wait there's a knock at the door ATF,FBI,ACLU gotta go P S You don't need a rooster to have eggs, and after a couple days of no bath and no deo- chickens actually smell good!

-- R A (R A@ wildcats.com), April 17, 1999.

Hate is kind of a relative thing. I remember the very first post I read on this forum made me feel very unwelcome, although it was just one post, and I had never posted anything. I don't remember who wrote it, or what the whole thing said, but I do remember the person said something to the effect that they would prefer not to associate with non-Christians and Liberals, if they had a choice. That has a way of making you feel hated without the person saying a word to you. To me that's how it all begins. Then I view that person as an intolerant bigot, and if I say that, which I have done before, the war is on.

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), April 17, 1999.

I swear Morris Dees, I don't hate you or anyone else. I just think you are a low life skunk for going on Meet the Press and saying "Dr. Yardeni would LIKE to see disruptions". Totally uncalled for, unless it fits YOUR agenda.

-- KoFE (Your@town.USA), April 17, 1999.

... the real Y2K Pro would never be that obvious, nor would he type all in caps...

-- Y2K pro (2@641.com), April 17, 1999.