photo: fbreakingnews
If anyone thought that the biggest threat to security was foreign, the events of the past two weeks have pointed to a new domestic threat that must be taken seriously.
Two prominent prosecutors and a jail warden were killed in what seems like a systematic campaign by the Aryan brotherhood and other white supremacists groups in both Texas and Colorado.
As of yesterday, a prosecutor has removed himself from case involving the Aryan brotherhood gang in Texas. The case, which involves many members of the gang is a Rico Statute case, promises to deal another heavy blow to the Brotherhood if the defendants are convicted.
In fact the Brotherhood is allegedly striking at law enforcement to try to avoid a complete crackdown of the once mighty power they exercised both in and out of prison walls. The case that did deal a great blow to the gang already was in fact prosecuted by the now deceased Mc Clelland, the DA in Texas killed with his wife just last week, and his assistant DA who was killed in January.
In the current case, 34 members of the Brotherhood have been indicted. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Mark Potok, has described the Aryan Brotherhood as the most violent white supremacist gang in the United States.
Initially formed as a form of self defence in the prison environment during the early 1980s, the gang has now morphed in an all out criminal enterprise that operates both in and outside the prison environment.
The Aryan Brotherhood is believed to have about 4,000 members many of which are military veterans with combat experience or expertise. Many of them consider their mission to be 'kill anyone who dishonors the Brotherhood'.
When the Assistant US Atty, Jay Hileman excused himself from the pending Texas case, the defence attorney for one of the 34 defendants immediately seized the occasion to cast doubts on the strengh of the prosecution's case.
But there are darker shadows than that. In fact, just last December, the Texas Dpt of Public Safety put out a warning that the Brotherhood was planning some sort of wide ranging retaliation against law enforcement officers who had been instrumental in securing the indictments.
Among the charges in the case are murder and drug dealing. Some defendants have also decided to testify on the prosecutor's behalf against their fellow members.
This case, and that of McClellan, seem to merge with the other case of murder of the State Prison Warden in Colorado, were another white supremacist gang member killed the warden and a pizza delivery man in an suicidial mission of revenge for his gang. The reason why the Warden was believed to have been killed was his harder stance against the white supremacist groups that had been wreaking havoc in his prison system, a stance that Clemens had started to act upon nearly two years ago. As it were, the killer of Warden Clemens was let out by mistake four years before he was due to be released due to a clerical error.
Authorities however, are seeing this trend as particularly worrisome. Although law enforcement officials and prosecutors have been targeted before, this wide sweeping wave of terror could signal a new direction for the white supremacist-survivalist gangs. It is thought that they have renewed their alliance with survivalists groups such as the one that planned and executed the Murrah building bombing of 1995.
It is a change that could bring the horrific pattern of violence and retaliation experienced in the prison environment out into the open and into society at large.
Source: Cristian Science Monitor 4.3.13
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