CDR: White Supremacist raided
George at Orwellian.Org
George at Orwellian.Org
Fri Nov 17 05:11:01 PST 2000
- Feds raid David Dukes house, cart off files -
Feds Raid Home of Ex-Klansman
By Cain Burdeau
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MANDEVILLE, La. Federal agents raided the home of former Ku
Klux Klan leader David Duke on Thursday, carting off boxes of
documents and a rifle during a search that lasted more than seven
hours. FBI agent Sheila Thorne refused to disclose the nature
of the investigation.
But Roy Armstrong, who identified himself as Duke's bodyguard
and a caretaker at the house, said agents told him they were
looking into whether Duke was illegally using money raised for
his new white-rights organization for his personal use.
"It's a fishing expedition," Armstrong said. Duke's associates
said that the 50-year-old former KKK leader and one-time state
legislator was in Russia, promoting a new book, and that they
had not been able to reach him.
His new organization is the National Organization For European
American Rights, or NOFEAR. He launched it in January, declaring
that whites in the United States face "massive discrimination"
at the hands of minorities. Agents from the FBI, Internal Revenue
Service and the Postal Inspection Service took part in the search
of Duke's home in a suburb outside New Orleans. Agents carried
out about a dozen boxes.
Armstrong showed reporters a copy of the search warrant, which
sought a variety of financial and personal records, including
gambling and travel records and direct mailings.
As for the rifle, Armstrong said agents told him they believed
it was stolen. Armstrong said that he had never seen the gun
before and that he did not know whether it belonged to Duke.
Duke appeared before a federal grand jury in New Orleans in 1999
as news broke that Gov. Mike Foster had paid him more than
$150,000 for a list of his supporters, supposedly for use during
the 1995 governor's race. Duke had considered entering that race
but ultimately stayed out of it. The grand jury reportedly was
seeking information on whether Duke paid taxes on the money.
It was not known if the raid on Duke's home had anything to do
with that matter.
Foster "hasn't spoken to the FBI," said the governor's
spokeswoman, Marsanne Golsby. "He doesn't know anything about
it." Foster, a Republican, paid a $20,000 fine to the state Board
of Ethics in connection with the list of supporters.
Duke spent years on the political fringe, first as a Klan leader
with neo-Nazi sympathies, then as founder of the National
Association for the Advancement of White People, which decried
integration.
He got elected to the state House in 1989 as a Republican and
ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1990, pulling 44 percent
of the vote against Democratic Sen. J. Bennett Johnston.
In the 1991 governor's race, he shocked the political
establishment by making it into a runoff with former Gov. Edwin
Edwards, who was trying for a comeback. Edwards won in a
landslide.
Duke made a run for the presidency in Southern primaries in 1992
but was soundly defeated. He finished third in the 1999 race
to replace Rep. Bob Livingston in Congress.
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