Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ARYAN RESISTANCE ARMY • 53In January 2002 Butler’s newly appointed successor, Ray Redfeairnof Dayton, Ohio, moved the Aryan Nations headquarters to Ulysses,Pennsylvania, where day-to-day operations were maintained by itswebmaster, August Kreis. In May 2002, following a quarrel, Redfeairnfired Kreis and moved the group’s headquarters back to Idaho,reinstating Butler as nominal leader of the group. Following Butler’sbankruptcy, one of his supporters bought him a home in Hayden Lake.In June 2003 Butler hosted the last of the Aryan Nations congresses,which drew around 75 to 100 people. In October 2003 he declared hisintention to run for mayor of Hayden Lake but was defeated in the 4November 2003 election. On 8 September 2004 Butler died of congestiveheart failure at his home. Following his death, two factions ofthe Aryan Nations emerged, one headquartered in Lincoln, Alabama,headed by August Kreis, and the other headquartered in Lexington,South Carolina, headed by Jonathan Williams. According to theSouthern Poverty Law Center, these remnants of the Aryan Nationsare essentially moribund, as many of Butler’s former followers havejoined other right-wing extremist organizations.ARYAN RESISTANCE ARMY. Also known as the Aryan RepublicanArmy, the Aryan Resistance Army was an antistate white supremacistand neo-Nazi group that included some Aryan Nations members aswell as adherents of Identity Christianity. Six men, whom law enforcementofficers in Ohio had labeled the “Midwestern bank bandits”for their 22 bank robberies committed before their capture in January1996, had formed a right-wing underground cell, which they calledthe Aryan Resistance Army. They had intended to use their robberies’proceeds to fund the violent overthrow of the U.S. government and tokill all Jews. The group had prepared a two-hour training video called“The Aryan Resistance Army Presents: The Armed Struggle Underground”in which they tried to model themselves on The Order, ledby Robert J. Mathews, who was killed in a shoot-out with agents of theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in December 1984. A search oftheir hideout in Columbus revealed 13 pipe bombs, seven homemadegrenades, assault weapons, bomb-making materials, and FBI and DrugEnforcement Agency (DEA) T-shirts and hats, as well as the trainingvideo. The group was formed by Mark Thomas, a member of theAryan Nations who himself took no direct part in the robberies of thegroup. Cell member Richard Lee Guthrie, who was arrested in January