Judge, Investigators in American Front Case Receive Threats
The racist right has responded to a crackdown on the white supremacist American Front with vicious threats and demands for the immediate release of more than a dozen members picked up last month in Florida.
The threats, all of which have been anonymous, have so far targeted Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar and members of his family, Circuit Judge Walter Komanski and Kelly Boaz, an agent assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. They were posted on the websites of the Anti-Defamation League, the website Virtual Jerusalem, white supremacist blogs and in the comments section of at least one Yahoo news article.
"We are at your houses, we are at your kids [sic] houses we are your grandkids [sic] houses and we are sitting outside their schools," one threat that included what appeared to be unlisted addresses said. "Don't believe me? Here you are pigs. … [W]e are going to CUT THEIR ... HEADS OFF and leave them in A COOLER OUTSIDE YOUR OFFICE.”
The FBI says it is taking the threats seriously. "There is an active federal investigation," spokesman Dave Couvertier last week told the Orlando Sentinel.
Members of American Front – a well-armed, militia-style white supremacist faction – were planning acts of violence and preparing for “an inevitable race war” when the arrests began, according to court documents. Investigators also said that American Front members received paramilitary training at a compound near St. Cloud, Fla., from a group member who was a U.S. military reservist.
The arrests of American Front members began on May 4 after a two-year undercover investigation into allegations of antigovernment paramilitary training in a remote area of eastern Osceola County. According to court documents, the group’s plan was to turn 10 acres that belonged to group leader Marcus Faella, 39, into an “Aryan compound where all the AF members could live when the United States Government fails.”
The group’s activities in Florida date back to the 1980s when its late founder, David Lynch, lived in the state. Lynch, who moved to California and led a major resurgence of the group about five years ago, was murdered in his Sacramento home in March 2011. His murder remains unsolved.
