Supremacist ties to al Qaeda suspected

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Supremacist ties to al Qaeda suspected Southern Poverty Law Center sees potential for alliance

Cox News Service

ATLANTA _ American extremist groups have established ties with radical Muslim organizations including al Qaeda, a new study says.

White supremacist and Arab militant groups have "very real" connections, says the study by the Southern Poverty Law Center, although researchers found no evidence the groups are conducting joint operations.

"We have not uncovered a plot, but there is a very real potential for an alliance between American extremists and Muslim extremists that has some real potential for future trouble," said Mark Potok, editor of the center's Intelligence Report.

The three-month study to be released Tuesday documents contacts between supremacist and Muslim groups since World War II, including meetings in Atlanta, Potok said.

Contacts between European and Middle East extremist groups are more sophisticated, but Potok said communication between American and Muslim radical groups steadily increased in the 1990s.

Cooperation between American and foreign radical groups is a concern, Potok said, because domestic terrorists might evade law enforcement efforts targeted at Middle Eastern nationals. Well-funded Arab groups could begin funding domestic terrorists to sidestep security, he said.

"They could provide the answer to one of the great problems of the American radical right, that of funding," Potok said.

"A good example of that is that (convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy) McVeigh spent the better part of a year putting together a mere $10,000 to build his bomb. If he had been connected to well-funded Muslim extremists, you can imagine he could have produced even more havoc."

Federal officials say they have evidence that neo-Nazis, white supremacists and Black Muslim factions have reached out to foreign terrorists whose similar hatred for both Israel and the U.S. government might make them natural allies.

Leaders of white and non-white extremist groups have had ongoing contact for more than 40 years, Potok said.

In 1961, Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad met with Ku Klux Klan leaders at Magnolia Hall in Atlanta. The leaders agreed to cooperate in support of common beliefs that blacks and whites should stay separate.

The next year, Muhammad invited American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell to address 5,000 Nation members at a convention in Chicago. More recently, neo-Nazi and American supremacists have supported Muslim terrorism.

"The neo-Nazi and American radical reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was one of applause," Potok said. "The two sets of extremists view themselves as opposing the same enemy, and the reaction gives us a window into the mind-set of the American far right. America is the enemy, the Jewish-led United States."

Neighborhood papered with white-supremacy literature

Boise _ Some residents woke up to find white-supremacy literature on their driveways and lawns last week.

"It bothers me they assume they can dump that stuff here. If we just ignore it, it is almost like we are saying it's OK, and it's not OK," said Jan, a southeast Boise resident who did not want his last name used for fear of being targeted by those passing out the fliers.

Police officials said they get calls about the fliers about every four months. What is different about the latest batch of fliers is that they portray the Utah-based National Alliance as a "family values" organization.

"This does sound like a new twist to what they do," Leslie Goddard, executive director of the Idaho Human Rights Commission, said. "I have never heard them try to portray themselves as a family values organization, which is certainly not the case. These are antisemitic, racist fliers."

Police said little can be done to stop distribution of the pamphlets because of constitutionally protected free speech.

"I tell people who call the best thing they can do is throw it away," Charlene Miller of the Boise Police Department crime prevention unit, said.



-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

Answers

What is different about the latest batch of fliers is that they portray the Utah-based National Alliance as a "family values" organization.

Oh geez! Glad they aren't leaving those around my neighborhood.

"This is not a good thing, Martha."

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002


Anyone who hates beacause of race is not my brother or sister. Blessings, David

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

Right after the September 11 attacks I remember reading reports of white supremacist sites that praised the terrorists.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

OG, they are trying to sugarcoat it now. The racists call it kinism instead of racism. Blessings, David

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

Sugarcoat? sounds more like bloodcoat to me. still a bad thing.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002


Barefoot, you hit the nail on the head. Blessings, David

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

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