State Demos get smeared on Web site

A letter posted on the Aryan Nations Web site Friday listed the names of 10 prominent Washington state Democrats, accusing them of being aligned with a “domestic terrorism task force” to eliminate the leadership of the North Idaho white supremacy group.

Senior law enforcement officials discounted the letter as being bogus, but there was concern because the list of names included home addresses for at least four of the prominent Democrats.

Names on the list include state Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, Jim Kainber, former executive director of the Washington state Democratic Party, and Gayatri Eassey, president of the state’s Young Democrats.

Eassey is involved in the Democratic gubernatorial campaign of Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

A spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party said Eassey was aware of the posting “and was declining to talk about it with the press.”

Also on the list was Marco Lowe, a former aide to Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and currently involved in the 8th Congressional District campaign of Democrat Dave Ross. Lowe and McDermott couldn’t be reached for comment.

“Anyone who sees their name on an Aryan Nations Web site should be a little startled,” said Javier Valdez, a member of the state Democratic Party executive board whose name and home address also were on the list.

“I have nothing in common at all with the Aryan Nations, and I am a little distraught that I see my name listed here,” Valdez said when contacted in Seattle.

Valdez and others on the list were contacted by agents assigned to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, sources said. Those on the list were informed their names were on the Aryan Nations site and told they should consider taking personal safety measures, sources said.

The FBI has terrorism task forces based in Seattle and Spokane, tracking international and domestic terrorist groups, including the Aryan Nations.

The “confidential memorandum” posted on the Aryan Nations site said it was from an “anonymous law enforcement recruitment office.”

“The sooner the extremists are dead, the better it is for the United States,” the memo said, suggesting the Democratic leaders were aligned with an unidentified law enforcement agency.

“The timeline is set, and our plan is in place,” it said. “We have covertly provided the following recruits with guns and training.”

“We have set the deadline of Sept. 1, 2004, for the complete elimination of the leadership of the Aryan Nations,” it said.

“In the event that some of the leadership of the Aryan Nations survives after Sept. 1, we have set an additional deadline of Oct. 1 to ensure their complete elimination,” it continued.

The memo then listed the names of the 10 Washington state Democrats, claiming they were “recruits” for the unidentified law enforcement agency.

Experts who track the Aryan Nations and other extremist groups believe the apparently fabricated memo was an attempt to suggest possible targets of liberal Democrats viewed as “race-mixing enemies” by the white supremacy group.

The founder of the Aryan Nations, Richard Butler, couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday. No one answered the telephone at his Hayden Lake, Idaho, home, which now serves as the headquarters for his “Church of Jesus Christ Christian,” which preaches the superiority of the white race.