A fugitive member of the violent Posse Comitatus, an American anti-Semitic, white supremacist group, faces extradition from Canada after being arrested in a suburb of Vancouver, where he was a passenger in a speeding car apprehended by police.
The Rev. Al Waddell, who was a pastor of the Hope Independent Church in Tucson, Ariz., is wanted by the state of Arizona, where he escaped from authorities in 1985 before being sentenced for firearms convictions.
Waddell, who is a native Canadian from London, Ontario, faces up to 65 years in prison for making and selling silencers, for having an unregistered machine gun and for giving false information at his trial. He also faces a maximum of five years for his escape.
While a fugitive, Waddell would sometimes preach at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Surrey, a Vancouver suburb.
According to The Vancouver Sun, the church’s pastor at the time, the Rev. Gord Hagen, knew Waddell was a wanted man and knowingly sheltered him.
Hagen and Waddell were students together at the fundamentalist Bob Jones University Bible School in South Carolina, according to U.S. Marshal Lois Engstrand in Tucson.
Engstrand believes Waddell was also given sanctuary by members of the racist Aryan Nations group, which operates largely from Idaho and the province of Alberta. Posse Comitatus is tied to that and other white supremacist groups and, within that fold, the wildly anti-Semitic pseudo-religion called Christian Identity.
Engstrand said Waddell was arrested in 1988 trying to enter the United States from British Columbia, but U.S. authorities refused him entry because he did not have proper papers.
The Canadian authorities did not extradite him because he had changed his name from Gordon Edward Allen Waddell to Al Waddell, in 1967, when he became a U.S. citizen.
AN EXTREMELY VIOLENT GROUP
The same man was with Waddell each time he was arrested. Both in 1988 and this time, he was accompanied by Anton Blok, owner of MONEY-GARD Security Systems International in Burnaby, British Columbia, and described by Engstrand as “some sort of follower.” Blok was driving the car that was speeding when Waddell was arrested this time.
Waddell lived with Blok and did computer and advertising work for him.
The Posse Comitatus, which is Latin for “power of the county,” is an extremely violent, heavily armed organization particularly known for its tax protesters, who have engaged in shootouts to the death with U.S. law-enforcement officials.
Posse members claim that the federal government has no authority to levy taxes. It was formed in Portland, Ore., in 1969 by a man who during the 1930s was a member of the pro-Nazi Silver Shirts.
The Posse says the local sheriff is the supreme government. Members have plotted to assassinate government officials.
Posse followers have sheltered fugitives in armed, fortified bunkers throughout the United States.
In another development related to white supremacists, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, has finished its investigation of Canadian Liberty Net, a Vancouver-based telephone line that spreads anti-Semitic, white supremacist messages.
The report is being forwarded to senior commissioners in Ottawa, who will decide whether to hold a hearing on the matter.
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