ADL Report Shows Kkk Active in Six States; Calls on Civiletti to Undertake Regular Fbi Surveillance

The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has made public a report of Ku Klux Klan paramilitary activities in six states and urged the U.S. Attorney General to undertake regular FBI surveillance of the KKK “to protect American citizens from further terrorism and violence.”

The findings of the ADL report and a letter the ADL sent to Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti on Tuesday were revealed by Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the ADL, at a session of the agency’s four-day National Executive Committee meeting here at the Dallas Hilton.

FBI monitoring of the KKK was sharply curtailed in 1976 by guidelines — issued in response to charges of FBI abuse of its powers — which required evidence of actual or imminent violence before probing the actions of domestic groups.

The ADL was commissioned this month by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to prepare an analysis of the Klan and other extremist groups. Perlmutter said the report on the paramilitary activities, which is being forwarded to Civiletti, will be part of that analysis.

Describing the KKK as consisting of “armed racists, pathological haters of Blocks, Jews and other minority groups, ” Perlmutter warned that KKK camps and clandestine training sites in various parts of the country present “a clear danger of new Klan violence more serious than even before.”

STATE-BY-STATE RUNDOWN

The ADL report showed the following:

Alabama: Bill Wilkinson’s “Invisible Empire, Knights of the KKK, ” the most violent of ?cay’s KKK groupings, operates a campsite near Cullman, Ala., which has been dubbed “My Lai” and where training includes target practice with M-16 semiautomatic rifles, obstacle course proficiency, study of guerrilla tactics and practicing search and destroy missions. While the exact site of the “My Lai” camp is unknown, there is a possibility that it is on me 47 acre property in north Jefferson County owned by Alabama Orend Dragon Roger Handley.

Connecticut: The Grand Dragon of the tentatively new branch of the “Invisible Empire” Klan, Gary Piscottano, a 27-year-old security guard from Southington, admits that practice shooting and paramilitary training are being conducted at secret “guerrilla camps.” His KKK unit drew 1,000 persons to rallies held this year in Scotland, Conn.

Illinois: Although its members do not don hoods and robes, many of the members of the Louisville-based Christian Patriot Defense League (CPDL) are members or former members of the KKK and share the KKK’s belief that “white Christians” should arm themselves for an impending racial war –with the “enemy” Blocks, Cubans, Mexicans, Haitians, Southeast Asians “and other immigrants and racially impure Americans.”

CPDL leader John Harrell regularly sponsors gatherings on his estate, and this year his self-described “defense” arm — the Citizens Emergency Defense System –conducted so-called “survival” training for the 400 to 500 persons in attendance. Included were courses on weapons combat medics; marksmanship; guard dog training; assault teams; knife fighting; archery, crossbow and block powder guns, and street action.

North Carolina: Prospective members of the KKK Security Guard are trained in guerrilla war-fare at a paramilitary camp in Johnstown County, owned by Glenn Miller, a former Green Beret sergeant and county leader of the neo-Nazi Notional Socialist Party of America (NSPA). The training, in army fatigues, includes brandishing of semi automatic weapons and handguns.

In addition to the Klan, members of the NSPA and the Notional States Rights Party (NSRP) also train at the camp. The three hate groups — the KKK, NSPA and NSRP — formed an alliance, “The United Racist Front,” in September, 1979, two months before the Greensboro shooting episode in which five people were killed. Some of the members of the groups which train at the comp were arrested in connection with the Greensboro shootings.

Texas: A KKK paramilitary unit calling itself the Texas Emergency Reserve (TER) conducts training activities two weekends each month at various sites in rural East Texas, including one in the vicinity of Anhuoc, which has been temporarily shut down. The TER has an estimated membership of from 200 to 500, many veterans of various branches of the Armed Forces, including some members of the Army stationed at Fort Hood.

California: While there is no evidence that the KKK here is itself conducting paramilitary training, it encourages and promotes such activities. The White Point Publishing Company of Fallbrook, which is the KKK’s book service, carries works on paramilitary subjects for do-it-yourself terrorists. Among them are U.S. Army manuals on making bombs, grenades, mines, chemical explosives, fuses and detonators.