New Intelligence Report Focuses on Possible Border Vigilante Killings
Are U.S.-born vigilantes murdering Latino immigrants near the U.S.-Arizona border?
The Southern Poverty Law Center today released its , and the magazine鈥檚 sifts through some of the evidence suggesting that undocumented immigrants may have been killed by nativist extremists in Arizona.
While the story is not conclusive, it cites internal law enforcement documents focusing on the murders of four people in two 2007 incidents near Eloy, Ariz., that say that 鈥淸i]t appears that the same group of individuals is working in concert to intentionally kill IAs [illegal aliens].鈥 The story also examines the remarkably similar murders of two people this April in the same remote area of the state.
鈥淚n Arizona, we might not have Hammerskins聽 or Volksfront or the Klan,鈥 one retired Arizona detective, referencing several well-known white supremacist groups, told the Report. 鈥淲hat we do have is a lot of angry, militant white men on the border sitting like hunters waiting for these people to come across.鈥
Other stories in the newly released Intelligence Report include:
- A probing WorldNetDaily, a conspiracy theory factory posing as a 鈥渘ews鈥 source for conservatives. The organization run by one-time news executive Joseph Farah is filled with absurd claims and end-of-the-world predictions, but the one that best characterizes its foolishness is its breathless claim, made in a multi-part series, that soybeans cause homosexuality.
- A of the personal price paid by a police officer who spent seven years successfully infiltrating racist gangs in Florida.
- A at two Greensboro, N.C., detectives鈥 path-breaking efforts to protect their county against the 鈥減aper terrorism鈥 practiced by local 鈥渟overeign citizens,鈥 people who do not believe they have to obey most federal tax and criminal laws. (Earlier this month, two police officers were allegedly , bringing to eight the number of law enforcement officials slain by members of the movement since 2000.)
- An investigative examining the National Alliance, once America鈥檚 leading neo-Nazi organization, 10 years after the death of its founder. As one racist laments, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a shame watching yet another organization collapse.鈥
- A about Paul Pantone, an eccentric in Oklahoma who claims he鈥檚 invented a motor that will run on almost any liquid 鈥 and who had drawn the interest of radical rightists, his neighbors and local law enforcement.
- A at a cult-like Catholic-bashing group near Shawano, Wis., whose members fear that a Vatican conspiracy aims to silence their founder.