AJC Applauds Indictment Of White Supremacist Bank Robbers

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 31 January 1997

The American Jewish Committee congratulates the Department of Justice for its indictment yesterday of five men charged with a series of Midwest bank robberies. Much like the notorious group "The Order" in the 1980's, this group, the "Aryan Republican Army," sought to finance its anti-Semitic, racist and anti-government agenda through criminal activity.

While law enforcement is to be commended for its strong action against far-right criminal activity in the last months -- including the recent arrest of the Phineas Priesthood bombers and bank robbers in Spokane, the conviction of members of the Viper Militia of Arizona, the arrest of a West Virginia militia intent on blowing up a federal facility, and the ongoing prosecution of another Washington State group that discussed blowing up a train full of people -- Congress has yet to hold hearings on the militia movement and the far-right.

"What is it going to take,?" said Kenneth Stern, AJC's specialist on anti-Semitism and author of A Force Upon The Plain: The American Militia Movement and the Politics of Hate. "Here you have two groups - one in Spokane, another in the Midwest - financing the far-right through bank robberies, you have plots to blow up buildings and kill people coming to light every few weeks, and, in the last two years, at least three such cases have involved possession of biological or chemical weapons. Is it going to take another Oklahoma City bombing, or worse, to get Congress' attention?"

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org