Archive/File: orgs/american/idaho kamiah.001 people/g/gritz.bo almost.heaven 
              fascism/usa/idaho kamiah.001

Last-Modified: 1994/06/20 - typos mine. knm.

   Reprinted with permission from "The Dignity Report," a publication
   of the Coalition for Human Dignity Research Department, February
   15, 1994.

                              Almost Heaven?
                              --------------

   "In what may be the most significant development in the white
   supremacy movement in the Northwest in recent years far-right
   leader James 'Bo' Gritz is moving forward with plans to establish a
   community of his followers in central Idaho. Gritz and ex-Arizona
   police officer Gerald 'Jack' McLamb have acquired property
   overlooking the Clearwater River near the town of Kamiah, Idaho
   just inside the Nez Perce Indian Reservation. There, on a parcel of
   land they have named 'Almost Heaven,' they plan to establish what
   they call a 'Christian Covenant Community,' a base of operations
   for Christian patriot tax protestors and anti-Semitic fanatics.

   Gritz and McLamb, through a myriad of trusts set-up by Gritz's
   financial wizard Michael Bloomquist, are now taking the necessary
   steps to actually establish the sort of Christian patriot refuge
   they have talked about for more than a year. Gritz and his agents
   reportedly travelled extensively in eastern Washington and in Idaho
   in search of land that could serve as a base for the 'Covenant
   People,'; a place that could serve both as a refuge for true
   believers and as a base of operations for intervening in conflicts
   between Christian patriots and law enforcement, civil rights
   activists, minority communities, the IRS, and other political
   enemies.

   It would, however, be a mistake to consider the Almost Heaven
   community as representing a case of 'separatism.' The communtity is
   intended as a retreat, a last refuge for patriots in case the
   apocalypse they anticipate overtakes them, but it is also intended
   as a regional base of power. In fact the Sheriff of Idaho County
   has already been put on notice by area 'constitutionalists' (the
   Idaho euphemism for Christian patriots) that he had better start
   looking for a job. The reason? Their own candidate was on his way
   from Arizona. Both Gritz and McLamb presently operate from Arizona.

                             SPIKE

   The formation of Christian Covenant Communities is in part a result
   of Gritz's failed 1992 presidential campaign as the candidtate of
   the racist Populist Party. The base of support and leadership of
   Gritz's campaign rooted him deeply in the white supremacist
   movement. In 1992 Gritz's campaign leaders and contacts in the
   Northwest read like a who's who of Pacific Northwest supremacists -
   Christian Identity leader Chris Temple and hard-core anti-Semite
   Red Beckman in Montana, neo-Nazi Harry Schmidt, Klan leader Kim
   Badynski and Christian patriot John Prukop in Washington, and
   Christian patriot Richard Flowers in Oregon.

   In February 1993 Gritz began the first in a series of SPIKE
   (Specially Prepared Individuals for Key Events) seminars,
   capitalizing on the climate created by the Weaver stand-ff and on
   the notoriety he gained by negotiating an end to it. The SPIKE
   trainings seem to promise to prepare his Christian patriot
   followers for future stand-offs between far rightists and law
   enforcement.

   A number of people involved in the SPIKE trainings and the
   formation of the Covenant Communities played top leadership roles
   in Gritz's 1992 campaign. Prominent among them is former Arizona
   State Senator Jerry Gillespie who served as Gritz's 1992 campaign
   manager. He is in on the Idaho land deal in addition to being
   executive director of the Center for Action, the organization that
   sponsors the SPIKE trainings.

   Gritz's Oregon campaign organizer Richard Flowers, head of the
   Boring, Oregon-based Christian Patriot Association (CPA) was listed
   as a SPIKE instructor in Phase III and promotes the mail forwarding
   service which Gritz's Almost Heaven Properties Trust lists as its
   address.

   From the beginning in Gebruary 1993 the SPIKE sessions have had the
   appearance of paramilitary trainings, a characteristic that has
   only increased as the cycle has progressed. Instructors in Phase I
   included former Navy Seal Scott David Weekly, former Army Ranger
   Gary Goldman and former Los Angeles Police Instructor Dick Clark.
   Phase II added Bob Spear, an author of books such as 'Hapkido-The
   Integrated Fighting Art' and 'Military Knife Fighting.'

   With the beginning of Phase III in September 1993 the sessions have
   included weapons training. Gritz claims to have furnished the
   weapons and has offered to make available Class II and IIA body
   armor which will reportedly stand up to  .357 and .44 magnum fire.
   In the August edition of the 'Center for Action' newsletter, Gritz
   advertises: 'Our classes will include instinctive, combat, and
   special purpose marksmanship. All weapons and ammunition will be
   furnished.' Adding that,

      Bob Spear remains as your SPIKE WEAPONS DEFENSE INSTRUCTOR...
      You will learn what weapon and ammunition type is best in times
      of grave peril; how to carry, draw, hold and effectively engage
      multiple targets with a handgun. You will fire the latest Ruger
      semi-automatic pistols equipped with laser and red dot sights.
      Both street confrontation and deliberate shooting will be taught
      along with instinctive 'Quick Kill' skills. All guns and ammo
      will be furnished. ('Center for Action,' September 1993, p.4)

   The close relationship between the SPIKE trainings and the
   formation of Christian Covenant Communities is exemplified through
   Mike Bloomquist, Gritz's specialist on 'common law trusts.' Besides
   being a SPIKE trainer, Bloomquist doubles as 'First Trust Agent'
   for the Almost Heaven Properties Trust, the entity established to
   procure and hold the property for Gritz and the other (un-named)
   Board of Directors. Bloomquist also runs Crown Enterprises based in
   Phoenix, Arizona.

   Lastly, Phase IV of the SPIKE training is apparently designed to
   facilitate the formation of Regional SPIKE Teams. 'When time runs
   out for awareness and training, proper areas will be available for
   those desiring to relocate,' writes Gritz in the September 1993
   'Center for Action' newsletter.

                      Income Tax or Armageddon?

   The 'Center for Action' newsletter has become increasingly
   strident, and the role Gritz sees the covenant communities playing
   in a potential confrontation has become clearer with each new
   publication. In the July issue Gritz writes:

      I believe that through a system of Christian covenant
      communities we ... will be sealed up against both the dragon and
      the Wrath of God poured out against His enemies....

      THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THERE ARE NO BATTLES WAITING TO BE
      FOUGHT. The way we will band ourselves together in mutual
      strength is through alignment, organization and engagements
      short of violent combat (Center for Action, July 1993, p.3).

   Although Gritz continues to deny his affiliations with racists, his
   own writings and SPIKE Team members betray him. One need look no
   further than the material promoted by Gritz's 'sovereignty' expert
   Doug Olsen who promotes the State Citizen Service Center in Orange
   County, California. Olsen distributes material from the Christian
   Patriot computer bulletin board of California leader Richard
   McDonald. According to Olsen's legal theories there are two
   varieties of citizens in the United States - white people who he
   terms 'State Citizens' or 'de Jure citizens' and people of color,
   termed '14th. Amendment citizens.'

   Besides using bogus legal arguments to justify white supremacy,
   Christian Patriots often adopt biblical arguments to support their
   prejudices. In the January issue of his Center for Action
   newsletter Gritz brazenly promotes the core tenets of the racist
   pseudo-theology of Christian Identity.

      Cain was the SEED OF THE DEVIL. Able was OF ADAM (Au-dawm,
      meaning blusing face). Even before they were born GOD MADE THEM
      ENEMIES (enmity)....

   Identify believers routinely use this reference as a 'proof' that
   white people (who can 'blush red in the face') are the genetic
   descendents of Adam, 'the first man.' This, they claim, places them
   in the line of biblical Israel and Jesus Christ and subsequently as
   racial heris to the seat of a white Christian government on earth.
   To win this government, Identity followers view themselves engaged
   in a struggle against Jews, whom they see as a Satanic force
   presently controlling the government bureaucracy and people of
   color.

   Gritz has written that he believes that the Federal Reserve Bank is
   dominated by 'eight Jewish families' ('Called to Serve,' 1991, p.
   609). And he has scapegoated Jews for all that Christian patriots
   consider evil and corrupting in the world.

      Who in the world is promoting abortion, pornography, pedophilia,
      Godless laws, adultery, New Age international banking,
      entertainment industry and world publishing. Wherever you find
      the worshippers of BAal with their roots still deep in
      Babylonian mysticism...

      Yes, there is a star war going on today between the five-points
      of righteousness and the six-points of Satan (Center for Action,
      January 1994, p. 8).

   Finally, as if in an effort to confirm his own sense of
   self-importance, Gritz proclaims 'I have been annointed with
   consecrated oil, and men of God have laid hands upon my head with
   blessings that I be a Gideon for the righteous in this time of
   trouble.' (Center for Action, January 1994, p.2).

                              Conclusion

   The Pacific Northwest has suffered its share of bigoted violence
   over the past decade. The neo-Nazi terrorist organization known as
   'The Order' culled many of its members from the ranks of the
   Northwest's most notorious hate group, the Church of Jesus Christ
   Christian - Aryan Nations, located in Hayden Lake, Idaho.

   The the aging patriarch of the church, 'pastor' Richard Girnt
   Butler has lost much of his luster, and his dream of turning the
   Northwest into a 'Mountain Republic' for white supremacists has
   fallen on tough times, leaving the movement leaderless. The SPIKE
   trainings and the move to central Idaho indicate that Gritz is
   positioning himself to fill the leadership role.

   Editor's Note: This report is adapted from a more comprehensive
   topical report titled 'Almost Heaven? Bo Gritz, Spike and the
   Christian Covenent Communities,' issued by the Coalition for Human
   Dignity in February 1994. To obtain a copy of this report write to
   us at P.O. Box 40344, Portland, Oregon, 40344 or call us at (503)
   281-5823. This report costs $2.00 pre-paid including postange and
   handling. ..."

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