The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of The Lord (CSA)
The founder of the CSA was a polygamist, James Ellison, who was jailed for a period of time, along with his 'high priest' Kerry Noble in federal prison. Robert G. Millar became one of his spiritual advisers, who was the founder of Elohim City. He was also mentored by Richard Butler of the Aryan Nations and Robert Miles, founder of The Mountain Church in Cohoctah, Michigan. Both extreme right leaders taught and practiced the sect of Christian Identity, a religion the FBI yet has on it's watch list as an 'extremist religion'. Ellison had very close ties to the KKK and the Northern Idaho group, Aryan Nations, in Hayden, Idaho, led by Richard Butler *. Miles had a very active prison ministry and newsletter, relating mostly to the violent white Aryan groups, of which there are many, most notably, the Aryan Brotherhood and the 'Skinhead' movement that originated in Britain in the 1960s and came to prominence in the 70's, and from which came the 'punk rock' aspect of music. Originally, in Britain, they were 'The Rude Boys'. The image here is punk rock neo-Nazi racists. After Ellison was released from prison, he moved to Elohim City, where he married Millar's granddaughter.
An important note here is that Ellison, Noble, and the entire Council of Elders at CSA were very much influenced and mentored by many outside sources. It was this nine man council that deliberated on the spiritual meaning and direction of CSA activities.
- Butler died in September of 2004.
"He was the glue of the Aryan Nations movement in the Northwest, if not the country," said FBI agent Norm Brown, (Of Richard Butler) supervisor of the Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The CSA was an organization that believed doomsday was imminent, and the 250-acre compound that was set up in Elijah became a community for its members. There they trained their members in paramilitary operations. The group strongly believed in white supremacy, and held a particularly strong sense of anti-Semitism. Like the other prominent extreme right groups, they referred to the United States Government as ZOG, for Zionist Occupied Government. Contrary to the ambitions of The Order, they professed that the United States government would dissolve from it's own corruption. The military leader of the group, who used the name Randall Rader during his stay at CSA, left the group in a rift with Ellison and joined a newly forming group in Idaho called "The Order". It was The Order that declared war on the United States government in a 21 page declaration. Virtually all of the members of that group have been imprisoned on felony charges ranging from robbery to murder. It's founder, Robert Matthews, died in a firey shoot-out on Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound off the coast of Seattle. Matthews signature poem was:
"Lay down your bibles and pick up a gun
It's time to deal in lead.
We are the armies of the damned
The soldiers of the already dead!"
After it was set up, the CSA began targeting local and federal agents, including the sheriff who participated in the later siege on the organization's compound and the U.S. Attorney, Asa Hutchinson, who would negotiate a peaceful conclusion to the siege and later prosecute CSA members. CSA assassins would monitor the homes of their targets and actually practice mock assassinations of the targets with scoped rifles and practiced attacks in a mock "Combat City". The perimeter of the CSA compound had 100, 200, and 300 yard indicator plates nailed to trees to allow the defenders to adjust their sights accordingly to engage attackers. The central rallying point in the event of attack was a concrete bunk house that housed the communications radios next to the 95 foot tower, which itself, was constructed for defense. The perimeter of the compound had built-in bunkers for one to three men and each was numbered as a post and assigned to individuals as an 'area of responsibility'. A lot of thoughtful planning went into the construction of the compound's defense system.
The many weapons obtained for their training were purchased through a member's federal license (FFL). The line infantryman carried a Ruger Mini-14 .223 rifle. Many of these were illegally modified to fire selectively. As in the early days of the Marine Corps, the squads were set up in four man fire teams. One man carried a Heckler and Koch Model 91 rifle in .308 Winchester (7.62 NATO) that was modified via a technique the organization sold to 'brother groups' that converted the rifle to a select fire weapon (machinegun). The Elite "A" Team had black SWAT clothing and some fairly sophistocated weapons such as, the .22 caliber Ruger target pistol fitted with integral silencer, and several of the MAC-10 submachineguns in both 9MM and .45 Auto, also with attached suppressors. These men trained in the covert aspects of military action, and were to be the core of the defense innitiative. No doubt, this training lent itself to assassination.
By the end of their operations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) obtained 155 Krugerrands, one live light antitank rocket (LAAW), 94 long guns, 30 handguns, 35 sawed-off shotguns and machine guns, one heavy machine gun (a Japanese copy of the WWI Lewis, in .303 caliber), and a quantity of C-4 explosives. Much of this arsenal was stolen. In 1983, CSA member William Thomas accompanying Richard Wayne Snell and Steven Scott attempted to dynamite a natural gas pipeline, without success.
The CSA also had links with other radical organizations, including the Aryan Brotherhood, The Mountain Church, and The Order, all of which were dangerous white supremacist organizations, advocating the violent overthrow of the United States Government. Many of their members were seen traveling in and out of the compound, and after a search of the compound, several stolen vehicles including one belonging to The Order were recovered.
Things began to go downhill for the organization after the alleged member, Richard Wayne Snell, was arrested for killing an African-American police officer. Snell was later tied to the killing of a gun store owner in 1981, obtaining and using the very same gun, the serial number of which had been removed by the CSA armorer, Kent Yates, who himself was arrested on Friday the 13th of July in 1984, on an outstanding warrant out of New Mexico for firearms violations in Farmington. He was later also charged and convicted of weapons manufacture and modification for the CSA. He wrote a few books on survival, weapons modification and silencers that are out of print. After the incident with Snell the FBI began hunting for ways to infiltrate the CSA compound and stop the organization which they deemed dangerous. They finally obtained warrants under Arkansas state law to arrest Ellison, the leader of the CSA, for multiple firearms violations. (The FBI later claimed that at all times they had an 'inside man' at CSA.)
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