The U.S Justice Department is investigating the notorious World Church of the Creator, linked to numerous anti-Semitic hate crimes, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
And reports indicate the government agency may be casting an even wider net.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno “is helping launch an investigation into the group,” said Jessica Ravitz, associate director of the ADL Central Pacific region.
Speaking Tuesday from her San Francisco office, Ravitz added that the investigation also includes other groups. “Our impression is that they are looking at these groups very closely. They can’t say anything more because a formal investigation is going on.”
The World Church of the Creator soared to national recognition after the June 18 arson attack on three Sacramento-area synagogues, when police revealed that World Church literature was found at two of the three sites.
The ADL requested the probe after a July Fourth weekend shooting spree by World Church devotee Benjamin Smith that wounded nine people and left two dead. Those targeted included Orthodox Jews, blacks and Asians.
“I felt like we were listened to,” said Neil Herman, the New York-based director of fact-finding for the ADL and a 27-year veteran of the FBI, on Wednesday. “They are, based on our own investigation, looking at some of these extremist groups.”
Herman said the probe may include Aryan Nations, which claims as a member Buford O. Furrow Jr., the alleged shooter in last week’s Los Angeles-area Jewish community center shootings.
“As a matter of practice, they won’t announce how many groups they are looking at. [But] it is my understanding that they are [also looking into the activities of Aryan Nations],” Herman said.
Myron Marlin, a press aide at Reno’s Washington office, would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation is taking place. Reno’s official comment on the matter was, “One should not assume that we are not pursuing investigations in this area.”
At the time of the ADL’s formal request on July 6, Reno declined to say whether she would investigate the World Church of the Creator. However, she said she would be “reviewing all the issues that have been brought to our attention to see whether there is any basis for proceeding.”
At a press conference Thursday of last week, Reno said that “eliminating hate crimes and eliminating bigotry and bitterness are among this nation’s most important and most enduring challenges.”
The World Church’s Web site, “Stormfront,” describes the group’s anti-Semitic, racist perspective, which includes the belief that Jews “concocted” Christianity to confuse and control whites of European descent.
“Our battle cry is RaHoWa,” an acronym for “racial holy war,” it claims.
Although the World Church’s director, Matt Hale, said that Smith was no longer a member, an investigator said telephone records showed the two had talked extensively the day before Smith’s bloody rampage.