Militia of Montana Comes Out of the Closet as Racists
After years of denying their ties to racists, the Militia of Montana (MOM) has apparently decided it's too much trouble to carry on the double life. On his new American Patriot Internet Classified (A.P.I.C.) Service, Randy Trochmann, co-founder of MOM provides easy access to Ku Klux Klan membership and memorabilia, Aryan Nations events, and information on the racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Christian Church of the Creator.Since the founding of MOM in 1994, the Trochmanns have denied claims by the Human Rights Network and other critics that they have close ties to white supremacists. The Network published a joint report with the Coalition for Human Dignity, Racist to the Roots, in 1995 outlining the Trochmanns' ties to racists.
The denial seemed to be over with the onset of the new A.P.I.C. Service. "They could not have been any clearer about their racists ties; They laid it out there for the world to see," said Christine Kaufmann, research director for the Network.
"Support a patriot-- buy from a patriot" urges Randy Trochmann on the pages of A.P.I.C. "Browse through America's most interesting classifieds," reads the heading above a series of selections that used to include the Ku Klux Klan. When you clicked on the Klan button, you received instructions on how to join the KKK, how to purchase Klan robes and "collectibles," and how to subscribe to their hate-filled monthly tabloid, The Kourier. The Church of the Creator declared on its page that "what is good for the White Race is the highest virtue, and what is bad for the White Race is the ultimate sin."
Soon after the Spokane Spokesman Review reported on the classified service on October 12th, the KKK and the Church of the Creator links were removed. Hitler mugs are still available under a miscellaneous category. "This will probably be the same old denial story," said Kaufmann. "In a few months they'll say they don't know how the KKK got on their service, or they'll claim it never happened at all."
Another selection on the web page provides access to the Patriot calendar of events, a state-by-state listing of upcoming meetings and seminars presumably of interest to so-called patriots. In October, Trochmann advertised an Identity meeting held at the Aryan Nations compound at Hayden Lake, ID. For more information, you are advised to call Richard Butler at the Church of Jesus Christ Christian, Aryan Nations.
Identity is warped Christian theology declaring that white northern Europeans are God's chosen people-- the true Israelites, that Jews are the seed of Satan, and that people of color are sub-human "mud-people." The guest speaker for the October meeting was James Wickstrom, a leader in the violent, anti-Semitic Posse Comatitus whose best-known member was Gordon Kahl. Kahl murdered two federal marshals in North Dakota before being killed in a shootout with authorities in Arkansas. The gathering was held in memory of Wesley Swift, a former Klan organizer and early Christian Identity leader and William Potter Gale, founder of the Posse Comatitus and Identity minister.
Until recently, the only meetings advertized on A.P.I.C in Montana were the monthly gatherings of Matt Brainard's Citizens to Preserve the Second Amendment at the Elks Club in Missoula. Matt Brainard is a Republican Representative from Missoula who founded the group.
The A.P.I.C. is found on an internet service known as logoplex. Logoplex is a service of the Liberty Lobby, an influential anti-Semitic propaganda outfit that publishes the Spotlight, a weekly tabloid spouting wild conspiracy theories alongside articles that deny that the holocaust happened. The Institute of First Amendment Studies describes logoplex as an "electronic meeting place of Christian Identity, Aryan Nations, White Supremacists, gun owners, and Christian Patriots."
They might have added the religious political extremists to their list. On logoplex, the anti-gay rhetoric of Don Wildmon and the American Family Association has appeared side by side with the text of the old anti-Semetic hoax The Protocals of the Elders of Zion, and the sermons of Identity minister Pete Peters, who advocates death for gay men and lesbians.
Randy Trochmann announced the new A.P.I.C Service in the July edition of Taking Aim, MOM's monthly newsletter.