The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord

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The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord ( CSA ) (English for: the federal government, the sword and the arm of the Lord ) was a radical American organization from the Christian Identity movement.

history

The organization was founded in 1971 in the small community of Elijah in southern Missouri . The founder was the polygamist James Ellison . This was imprisoned in a federal prison together with his later "high priest" Kerry Edlen. Robert G. Millar , founder of the radical Christian private community of Elohim City in eastern Oklahoma, became one of Ellison's ministers. Ellison was further influenced by Richard Girnt Butler of the Aryan Nations and Robert Miles, founder of The Mountain Church in Cohoctah, Michigan . The two right-wing extremists practiced the theology of Christian identity, a religion that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lists as an "extremist religion". Ellison had close ties with the Ku Klux Klan and the North Idaho section of the Aryan Nations, in Hayden Lake, Idaho . This group was led by Richard Butler, who described himself as "the glue of the Aryan Nations movement". The Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force was watching him. Miles had been running a very active prison chaplaincy and newsletter in the prison. Above all, he was in close contact with violent, racist groups, especially the Aryan Brotherhood . After Ellison was released from prison, he moved to Elohim City, where he married Millar's granddaughter.

Ellison, Noble, and the entire council of elders at the CSA were heavily influenced by outside sources. It was this council, made up of new men, that determined the spiritual and political direction of CSA activities.

Worldview

The group firmly believed in the ideology of white supremacy . She was strongly anti-Semitic . Like other prominent anti-Semitic conspiracy groups, they referred to the United States government as the ZOG ( Zionist Occupied Government ). The CSA believed the end of the world was imminent.

Operations

The 224 acre site in Elijah became the center of life for the members of the CSA. There the members were trained in paramilitary operations. The military leader, who used the name Randall Rader while at the CSA, left the group in a falling out with Ellison and joined the newly emerging group The Order in Idaho. The CSA stated that the United States government would perish from its own corruption while The Order advocated the revolution.

The CSA trained house warfare and the murder of potential enemies on the premises. One of the members had a special license to buy certain weapons. Most of the weapons arsenal, however, was stolen.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) later reported that, in addition to 155 Krugerrand, an anti-tank missile, significant quantities of C4 explosives, and a number of automatic firearms and shotguns had been found.

In 1983 CSA members William Thomas, Richard Wayne Snell and Steven Scott wanted to blow up a gas pipeline, but without success. The members mostly traveled around in stolen vehicles, as was later learned. He was arrested after alleged member Richard Wayne Snell murdered an African American police officer. It turned out that he had murdered a shopkeeper as part of a robbery in 1981. Kent Yates was also found, who had manufactured and modified weapons for the CSA himself. The FBI now observed the CSA more closely and placed an insider in the organization.

The siege on April 19, 1985

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives entered Elijah with 300 officers disguised as anglers. They surrounded Elohim City and asked the residents to surrender, which they did.

Convictions

The leaders were sentenced to several years in prison. In return for statements made against members of the Aryan Brotherhood, some deals were concluded. Richard Wayne Snell was sentenced to death for dual fashions. The sentence was carried out by lethal injection on April 19, 1995.

In culture

  • Jessica Stern wrote about Kerry Noble in her book Terror in the Name of God .
  • Jim Ellison made the documentary The Jupiter Menace in 1984 .
  • The feature film Betrayed (1988) describes the infiltration of a rural right-wing radical group by an FBI agent.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Associated Press in Los Angeles Times / Aug. 28, 1985
  2. ↑ Kerry Noble: Tabernacle of Hate: Seduction into Right-Wing Extremism , 2nd. Edition, Syracuse University Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-8156-3248-1 .
  3. ↑ FOIA release of FBI documents on CSAL dated 7 Oct 1987 ( Memento from October 16, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Wiecha, Joe (Director). (2004). The FBI Files: Brotherhood of Hate  [television documentary]. New Dominion Pictures.